Bug importances
Ubuntu uses the following guidelines for assigning importance. These are used when first encountering a bug during triaging, described in ["Bugs/HowToTriage"]. After a developer takes responsibility for fixing this bug, she may assign it whatever importance is most convenient. It would be improper to change the importance while this developer is still responsible.
Undecided: the default importance for new bugs, this means that sufficient information to determine its importance and cause. When both these things are determined and documented in the bug, it can be assigned an appropriate importance.
Wishlist: a request to add a new feature to one of the programs in Ubuntu
- These aren't really bugs, but ideas for new features which do not yet exist
If it is non-trivial to implement, it should rather be written as a feature specification, see FeatureSpecifications
Low: Bugs which affect functionality, but to a lesser extent than most bugs, for example:
- Can be easily worked around
- Only affects unusual configurations
Medium: A functionality bug of the standard variety. Most bugs are of "Normal" severity, for example:
- Has moderate impact on a core application
- Has a severe impact on a non-core application
- A problem with a non-essential hardware component (network card, camera, webcam, music player, sound card, power management feature, printer, etc.)
High: A bug which fulfills one of the following criteria:
- Has a severe impact on a small portion of Ubuntu users (estimated)
- Makes a default Ubuntu installation generally unusable for some users
- For example, if the system fails to boot, or X fails to start, on a certain make/model of computer
- A problem with an essential hardware component (disk controller, video card, keyboard, mouse)
- Has a moderate impact on a large portion of Ubuntu users (estimated)
Critical: A bug which has a severe impact on a large portion of Ubuntu users