Roundup Tracker: Create Issues by Email

There is one thing about bugs.python.org and other Roundup issue tracker instances that is not widely known. It is the fact that you can create new issues and update old ones directly from your email client, without visiting web interface at all.

As much as I hate Debian's email-only tracker, I must admit that having email control feature in addition to web interface can save some time, especially if you constantly forget passwords for different trackers like me.

So, to create new issue, just send email to the address that tracker uses to send mail to you. Well-known addresses of Python trackers:

• report@bugs.python.org - for filling bugs in Python with b.p.o tracker
• metatracker@psf.upfronthosting.co.za - for reporting problems with b.p.o tracker itself

Note that your email needs to be present in tracker database for it to accept your request, so you might need to create your account first.

You can also update existing issues by adding suffixes like [status=closed;resolution=invalid] to the subject field of your replies. I just closed issue19825 to test this method. You can try it too next time you feel uncomfortable about escaping from your mailbox.

This stuff is actually documented in official Roundup docs, but who reads the docs, anyway.

Command to generate SSH key on Linux

Because ssh-keygen has human unfriendly command line interface without --help option, here is a quick reminder how to generate very secure SSH key valid for one year (52 weeks) with "13.04" comment for its public part:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -V +52w -C 13.04

This key can be used to avoid typing password when pushing your Python code to sites like Bitbucket or GitHub (Google Code is not there yet) or to securely upload your packages to PyPI.