upstream bugs should not be polled on duplicate bug entries

Agreed. That's actually pretty easy to fix. Here's what needs to happen (in case someone wants to take a crack at it before one of the Bugs team gets time):

In lib/lp/bugs/scripts/checkwatches.py the conditions on lines 780 and 782 should be updated to include the clause `and bug_watch.bug.duplicateof is None`. This will stop the importing and, more importantly, the pushing of comments from or to remote bugs where the Launchpad bug is a duplicate of another Launchpad bug.

The tests in lib/lp/bugs/doc/checkwatches.txt should be updated to include tests to cover this change.

Marking this as high; we need to fix this before we enable comment pushing for bugzilla.mozilla.org.

I had a few minutes today, so I decided to try to figure out how lp does branches and stuff, so I created a personal branch with the fix gmb mentioned in comment #1. However, I don't really understand the format of lib/lp/bugs/doc/checkwatches.txt, so not sure what I'm exactly supposed to add there. I was expecting an actual automated test, but it seems as it's just notes on some random stuff that bugwatches.py handles.

2009/11/18 Reed Loden <email address hidden>:
> I had a few minutes today, so I decided to try to figure out how lp does
> branches and stuff, so I created a personal branch with the fix gmb
> mentioned in comment #1. However, I don't really understand the format
> of lib/lp/bugs/doc/checkwatches.txt, so not sure what I'm exactly
> supposed to add there. I was expecting an actual automated test, but it
> seems as it's just notes on some random stuff that bugwatches.py
> handles.

It's actually a doctest, which means that it's testable documentation [1].

However, rather than go over the whole thing with you now I'll take a
look at the branch myself; it shouldn't take long to write the
requisite test and I've got some spare time before my EOD.

Thanks for providing the fix!

 [1] http://docs.python.org/library/doctest.html

Fixed in devel r9916 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~launchpad-pqm/launchpad/devel/revision/9916>

Also these imported comments create confusion because they link to local bug numbers instead of upstream duplicates.
Example: Bug #263435
" In Mozilla Bugzilla #78414, Bugzilla-iwaruna (bugzilla-iwaruna) wrote on 2001-11-27: #13

*** Bug 112299 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** "

The above quoted comment is about Mozilla bug 112299, but the text "bug 112299" links to the same bug number in Launchpad.

2010/1/10 Przemysław Kulczycki <email address hidden>:
> Also these imported comments create confusion because they link to local bug numbers instead of upstream duplicates.

This is a separate bug. Please help us out by filing it at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+filebug

2010/1/10 Graham Binns <email address hidden>:
> 2010/1/10 Przemysław Kulczycki <email address hidden>:
>> Also these imported comments create confusion because they link to local bug numbers instead of upstream duplicates.
>
> This is a separate bug. Please help us out by filing it at
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+filebug

Ok.
Bug #505760 filed.

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2010/1/11 Przemysław Kulczycki <email address hidden>:
>> This is a separate bug. Please help us out by filing it at
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+filebug
>
> Ok.
> Bug #505760 filed.

Excellent, thank you.