When a ticket on WordPress Core Trac is tagged with needs-testing, testers are responsible for evaluating the ticket and deciding on the next step. This guide covers the four keywords testers manage day-to-day, the workflow for deciding which to use, and ready-to-use comment templates for common situations.
Note: This guide focuses on the tester’s view of triage. There are other TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. keywords handled by different roles (committers, developers, etc.) that are out of scope here.
The Four Keywords
| Keyword | When to Use | Action |
|---|---|---|
needs-testing |
Code review is complete and a patch is ready for testers | Added by committers or developers to signal testers can start |
needs-test-info |
Testing instructions are unclear or missing | Remove needs-testing, add needs-test-info |
dev-feedback |
Technical details are needed to understand the issue or patch | Remove needs-testing, add dev-feedback |
needs-refresh |
The patch has merge conflicts and won’t apply cleanly | Remove needs-testing, add needs-refresh |
Trac vs GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/: Unlike GitHub, Trac does not automatically flag merge conflicts. When a patch no longer applies cleanly, testers must manually switch from
needs-testing to needs-refresh so developers know the patch needs to be updated.
Workflow
When you see a ticket tagged needs-testing, follow this decision tree:
1. Does the ticket have a patch?
- No → This ticket may need bug reproduction rather than patch testing. Check whether the issue can be confirmed before proceeding. Bug reproduction is a separate process outside the scope of this keyword guide.
- Yes → Continue to step 2.
2. Has this been reviewed by someone with commit access?
- No → Remove
needs-testing, adddev-feedback. The patch still needs a committer review before testing. - Yes → Continue to step 3.
3. Do I have enough information to test?
- No — testing steps are missing or unclear → Remove
needs-testing, addneeds-test-info. Ask for clear reproduction steps or environment details. - No — I need technical clarification about the code or approach → Remove
needs-testing, adddev-feedback. - Yes → Continue to step 4.
4. Does the patch apply cleanly?
- No → Remove
needs-testing, addneeds-refresh. Leave a comment describing the conflict (see templates below). - Yes → Test it!
Comment Templates
Use these templates as a starting point when leaving a comment alongside a keyword change.
Patch fails to apply
I've tried applying the patch ([PATCH_URL]) against the latest `trunk` ([TRUNK_VERSION]), but it fails to apply with the following message:
[PASTE_FAILED_HUNKS_MESSAGE_HERE]
Since the patch cannot be applied cleanly, I'm removing `needs-testing` and adding `needs-refresh`.
Missing or unclear testing instructions
I've tried to reproduce the issue described in this ticket, but the steps aren't clear enough to proceed. Could you please:
- Describe the exact steps to reproduce the bug or test the enhancement.
- Provide any relevant code snippets, sample data, or a test plugin if applicable.
I'm removing `needs-testing` and adding `needs-test-info` until more information is available.