On April 20, five months after the launch of Drupal 8.0.0, we released Drupal 8.1.0, the first scheduled minor update. Drupal 8.1.0 comes with both new features and bug fixes that were not eligible for monthly patch releases. Now is a great time to try Drupal 8 if you haven't yet!
Drupal 8.1.0 is production-ready, but (like most software) still has known bugs that can cause issues for some modules or sites. Although we fixed hundreds of critical bugs during Drupal 8's development, and although only a handful of critical issues have been discovered since Drupal 8.0.0, there are still hundreds of less severe bug reports marked with "major" priority.
500 major bugs
500 major bugs sounds like a lot, right? Many of these bug reports are still relevant and important to fix for Drupal 8 to be more robust. However, many other reports are outdated; they might already have been resolved, they might no longer be relevant, or they might be misfiled. As many Drupal contributors know, it can be hard to find the right issues.
Find the issues that matter
Finding (and fixing) the bugs that are most important is a group effort. We use a two-phase process:
- Contributors verify the current status of the major issues, make sure they are up to date, and close issues that are no longer relevant.
- Core committers and subsystem maintainers collaborate to assess the verified issues.
We call this process "issue triage". And phase 1 is where you come in! Help us sort through these major bug reports at DrupalCon New Orleans. This flowchart illustrates the workflow we will use at the major issue triage sprint:
Once the current state of these bug reports is verified, Drupal 8 core committers and subsystem maintainers will prioritize them, deciding which are indeed major, which are just normal bugs, and even which ones are critical issues in disguise.
Reasons to come to the major triage sprint
- Help squash bugs faster, so that Drupal 8 is even better for your next Drupal site.
- Become more familiar with Drupal 8 (and the kinds of bugs that still need fixing).
- Improve your git skills and learn git techniques that will help you in your own projects.
- Learn about how issues get solved in Drupal core and how to contribute effectively.
- Get to know a particular subsystem of Drupal 8 in more depth.
- Get credit on your Drupal.org profile when the issues you verify are eventually fixed.
- Collaborate with the amazing maintainers who've brought you Drupal 8.0.0, Drupal 8.1.0, and each bugfix release.
Sign me up!
Sounds awesome, right? You can sign up on the DrupalCon New Orleans sprint sheet under "Bugs-- // Drupal 8 criticals and majors". Longtime core mentors cilefen and valthebald will be helping lead the major triage. (New to Drupal contribution? Join the First-Time Sprinter Workshop.)
