Comment 1 for bug 426613

The candidate revision for Checkbox includes a new feature which would require a Feature Freeze Exception in order to be accepted in Karmic. As per the process described on the Ubuntu wiki, here is some information to justify the benefit for this feature:

* A description of the proposed changes, with sufficient detail to estimate their potential impact on the distribution

The change consists of adding support for the concept of Apport symptoms into Checkbox for reporting bugs into Launchpad. Before, Checkbox essentially called the ubuntu-bug command. Now, Checkbox calls upon the user interface API of Apport in order to make an informed decision on reporting a bug either against a package or against a symptom.

The integration with the user interface API consists of only 70 lines of code and the decision making process of 50 more lines. This feature is completely scoped within a single plugin module, called apport_prompt.py, which minimizes impact on the overall codebase.

* A rationale for the exception, explaining the benefit of the change

The motivation for this new feature is to improve the quality of bugs reported in Launchpad by Checkbox when tests fail. This is especially relevant during the development cycle when the distribution would benefit from receiving relevant bug reports as early as possible. One way is to specifically leverage the work done by Martin Pitt by leveraging the concept of symptoms in Apport.

Thanks for taking the time to review this Feature Freeze Exception, I hope to see the distribution benefit from this change as early as possible.