Should patches which cause regression issues be accepted?

Question

This question comes from the perspective of a business analyst at the project site who identifies/tests issues which are fixed by a remote group.

Say we receive a patch for issue A which resolves issue A yet causes issue B (which was previously working functionality). It seems like we have two options (or suggest something else) which are either accept the patch and create a new issue B, or reject the patch since it introduced the regression issue. Assuming that both issues are of equal severity, is there reason to prefer one of the options?

How are issues related to the economics of your arrangement with remote group and the customer? — Mark Phillips, May 24 '12 at 16:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered May 24 '12 at 17:23

5

Typically you'll reject the patch, since the issues are of equal severity. You have a known issue already, but patch A gives you issue B, which could have other side effects (devil you know vs the devil you don't).

Hope that helps, let me know if there are questions.

answered May 24 '12 at 17:23

MaddHacker

171
4

+1 for the idiom! "Devil you know vs the devil you don't". – jmort253 May 26 '12 at 00:24

Should patches which cause regression issues be accepted?

1 Answers1