Code block bug in R's Bugzilla instance

[aitap]

Every now and then, Bugzilla misrenders the code blocks in the bug comments, which affects all following comments containing code blocks. This is due to an unfortunate interaction between MultiMarkdown metadata blocks and Bugzilla's extensions to Markdown syntax. The latest example of this problem can be found at https://bugs.r-project.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18802.

A set of recommendations for how to avoid the problem when posting on buggy Bugzilla versions can be found here.

Ideally, this bug in Bugzilla should be fixed, but the whole 5.1/5.3 branch seems to be abandoned.

Is this worth noting in the Guide?

[llrs]

I think there were some users complaining that even the bugzilla preview didn't report the weird symbols but then on posting they would appear (I don't have a link to it at hand).
I think Simon Urbanek handles Bugzilla (he created a database dump for me some time ago), perhaps sending him a reminder would be move things.

I hope bugzilla.r-project can be updated to the latest branch. For the record see this post about some support and names of bugzilla branches. Copying the relevant sections here for future readers:

5.3.3 – In order to avoid confusion with 5.2 above, the 5.1 branch has been retroactively renumbered to 5.3. It is also basically dead, as we’ve put all of our resources into finishing off the Harmony release (see 5.9.1 below). We’re going to encourage people on 5.1.x/5.3.x to move to Harmony, but you’ll want to be mindful of the release blockers first before you make the jump. There are some features in 5.1.x/5.3.x that were implemented differently in Harmony, and the code to migrate the related data may or may not work yet (if the feature in question is listed on the release blockers and you use it, you’ll want to wait for now). Even though this branch is dead, we’re put out this release with the current batch of security fixes so you aren’t left high and dry before Harmony is ready for you.

5.9.1 – This is the first official release off the Harmony branch, and is classified as a developer preview release, not for production use. This is what will eventually be Bugzilla 6. The code is mostly good enough to use right now, but there are still showstoppers to be able to fully release it as a production release. There are also a few gotchas when upgrading from older versions of Bugzilla. If you’re interested in helping make Bugzilla 6 happen, that list of showstoppers is here. We are hoping to have Bugzilla 6 in release candidate stage (or at least in beta) within the next few months.

[llrs]

It seems that only documentation and the upgrade script from 5.1/5.3 to 5.9 are the only stoppers. Perhaps it can wait a bit more so that these are added (specially the upgrading script) and R can move to Bugzilla 5.9 directly.

[aitap]

I think there were some users complaining that even the bugzilla preview didn't report the weird symbols but then on posting they would appear

Unfortunately, this is to be expected in bug reports where a previous code block has already been swallowed. The global Bugzilla->markdown object is empty on preview but will contain code chunks from the previous comments after the comment is posted.

I can try contacting Simon Urbanek again some time later.