From d8caf6045d10344c431918128e3803ca497565f3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "gerv%gerv.net" <> Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 05:00:17 +0000 Subject: Merging new docs from 2.16 branch. --- docs/html/faq.html | 2006 +++++++++++----------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 431 insertions(+), 1575 deletions(-) (limited to 'docs/html/faq.html') diff --git a/docs/html/faq.html b/docs/html/faq.html index 50bccc40b..0b0dfcca5 100644 --- a/docs/html/faq.html +++ b/docs/html/faq.html @@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ REL="HOME" TITLE="The Bugzilla Guide" HREF="index.html">PrevNext

Appendix A. The Bugzilla FAQ

This FAQ includes questions not covered elsewhere in the Guide. +

A.1.1. Where can I find information about Bugzilla?
A.1.2. What license is Bugzilla distributed under?
A.1.3. How do I get commercial support for Bugzilla?
A.1.4. What major companies or projects are currently using Bugzilla for bug-tracking?
A.1.5. Who maintains Bugzilla?
A.1.6. How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking databases?
A.1.7. How do I change my user name in Bugzilla? -
A.1.8. Why doesn't Bugzilla offer this or that feature or compatability with this other tracking software?
A.1.9. A.1.8. Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on - Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL? + Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL.
A.1.10. A.1.9. Why do the scripts say "/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl" instead of "/usr/bin/perl" or something else?
2. Red Hat Bugzilla
A.2.1. What about Red Hat Bugzilla? -
A.2.2. What are the primary benefits of Red Hat Bugzilla? -
A.2.3. What's the current status of Red Hat Bugzilla? -
3. Loki Bugzilla (AKA Fenris)
A.3.1. What is Loki Bugzilla (Fenris)? +>A.1.10. Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name?
4. 2. Pointy-Haired-Boss QuestionsManagerial Questions
A.4.1. Is Bugzilla web-based or do you have to have specific software or - specific operating system on your machine? +>A.2.1. Is Bugzilla web-based, or do you have to have specific software or + a specific operating system on your machine?
A.4.2. Has anyone you know of already done any Bugzilla integration with +>A.2.2. Can Bugzilla integrate with Perforce (SCM software)?
A.4.3. A.2.3. Does Bugzilla allow the user to track multiple projects?
A.4.4. A.2.4. If I am on many projects, and search for all bugs assigned to me, will Bugzilla list them for me and allow me to sort by project, severity etc?
A.4.5. Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, urls etc)? If yes, +>A.2.5. Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, URLs etc)? If yes, are there any that are NOT allowed?
A.4.6. A.2.6. Does Bugzilla allow us to define our own priorities and levels? Do we have complete freedom to change the labels of fields and format of them, and the choice of acceptable values?
A.4.7. The index.html page doesn't show the footer. It's really annoying to have - to go to the querypage just to check my "my bugs" link. How do I get a footer - on static HTML pages? -
A.4.8. A.2.7. Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics, graphs, etc? You know, the type of stuff that management likes to see. :)
A.4.9. A.2.8. Is there email notification and if so, what do you see when you get an - email? Do you see bug number and title or is it only the number? + email?
A.4.10. A.2.9. Can email notification be set up to send to multiple people, some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc?
A.4.11. If there is email notification, do users have to have any particular +>A.2.10. Do users have to have any particular type of email application?
A.4.12. If I just wanted to track certain bugs, as they go through life, can I - set it up to alert me via email whenever that bug changes, whether it be - owner, status or description etc.? -
A.4.13. A.2.11. Does Bugzilla allow data to be imported and exported? If I had outsiders write up a bug report using a MS Word bug template, could that template be imported into "matching" fields? If I wanted to take the results of a query @@ -290,68 +235,49 @@ HREF="faq.html#AEN1902"
A.4.14. A.2.12. Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used in other countries? Is it localizable?
A.4.15. A.2.13. Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in Word format? Excel format?
A.4.16. Can a user re-run a report with a new project, same query? -
A.4.17. Can a user modify an existing report and then save it into another name? -
A.4.18. A.2.14. Does Bugzilla have the ability to search by word, phrase, compound search?
A.4.19. Can the admin person establish separate group and individual user - privileges? -
A.4.20. A.2.15. Does Bugzilla provide record locking when there is simultaneous access to the same bug? Does the second person get a notice that the bug is in use or how are they notified?
A.4.21. A.2.16. Are there any backup features provided?
A.4.22. A.2.17. Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress?
A.4.23. A.2.18. What type of human resources are needed to be on staff to install and maintain Bugzilla? Specifically, what type of skills does the person need to have? I need to find out if we were to go with Bugzilla, what types of @@ -360,8 +286,8 @@ HREF="faq.html#AEN1956"
A.4.24. A.2.19. What time frame are we looking at if we decide to hire people to install and maintain the Bugzilla? Is this something that takes hours or weeks to install and a couple of hours per week to maintain and customize or is this @@ -370,8 +296,8 @@ HREF="faq.html#AEN1963"
A.4.25. A.2.20. Is there any licensing fee or other fees for using Bugzilla? Any out-of-pocket cost other than the bodies needed as identified above?
5. Bugzilla Installation
A.5.1. How do I download and install Bugzilla? -
A.5.2. How do I install Bugzilla on Windows NT? -
A.5.3. Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name? -
6. 3. Bugzilla Security
A.6.1. A.3.1. How do I completely disable MySQL security if it's giving me problems - (I've followed the instructions in the installation section of this guide!)? + (I've followed the instructions in the installation section of this guide)?
A.6.2. A.3.2. Are there any security problems with Bugzilla?
A.6.3. A.3.3. I've implemented the security fixes mentioned in Chris Yeh's security advisory of 5/10/2000 advising not to run MySQL as root, and am running into problems with MySQL no longer working correctly. @@ -436,164 +335,138 @@ HREF="faq.html#AEN2004" >
7. 4. Bugzilla Email
A.7.1. A.4.1. I have a user who doesn't want to receive any more email from Bugzilla. How do I stop it entirely for this user?
A.7.2. A.4.2. I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send email to anyone but me. How do I do it?
A.7.3. A.4.3. I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something more, or other than, only new bugs. How do I do it?
A.7.4. A.4.4. I don't like/want to use Procmail to hand mail off to bug_email.pl. What alternatives do I have?
A.7.5. A.4.5. How do I set up the email interface to submit/change bugs via email?
A.7.6. Email takes FOREVER to reach me from bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. +>A.4.6. Email takes FOREVER to reach me from Bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. What gives?
A.7.7. How come email never reaches me from bugzilla changes? +>A.4.7. How come email from Bugzilla changes never reaches me?
8. 5. Bugzilla Database
A.8.1. A.5.1. I've heard Bugzilla can be used with Oracle?
A.8.2. Bugs are missing from queries, but exist in the database (and I can pull - them up by specifying the bug ID). What's wrong? -
A.8.3. A.5.2. I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid entries. What do I do?
A.8.4. A.5.3. I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How?
A.8.5. A.5.4. I try to add myself as a user, but Bugzilla always tells me my password is wrong.
A.8.6. I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but bugzilla still can't +>A.5.5. I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but Bugzilla still can't connect.
A.8.7. A.5.6. How do I synchronize bug information among multiple different Bugzilla databases?
A.8.8. Why do I get bizarre errors when trying to submit data, particularly problems - with "groupset"? -
A.8.9. How come even after I delete bugs, the long descriptions show up? -
9. 6. Bugzilla and Win32
A.9.1. A.6.1. What is the easiest way to run Bugzilla on Win32 (Win98+/NT/2K)?
A.9.2. A.6.2. Is there a "Bundle::Bugzilla" equivalent for Win32?
A.9.3. A.6.3. CGI's are failing with a "something.cgi is not a valid Windows NT application" error. Why?
A.9.4. Can I have some general instructions on how to make Bugzilla on Win32 work? -
A.9.5. A.6.4. I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being able to talk to to the database.
10. 7. Bugzilla Usage
A.10.1. A.7.1. How do I change my user name (email address) in Bugzilla? +
A.7.2. The query page is very confusing. Isn't there a simpler way to query?
A.10.2. A.7.3. I'm confused by the behavior of the "accept" button in the Show Bug form. Why doesn't it assign the bug to me when I accept it?
A.10.3. A.7.4. I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create Attachment" link. What am I doing wrong?
A.10.4. A.7.5. Email submissions to Bugzilla that have attachments end up asking me to save it as a "cgi" file.
A.10.5. A.7.6. How do I change a keyword in Bugzilla, once some bugs are using it?
11. 8. Bugzilla Hacking
A.11.1. A.8.1. What bugs are in Bugzilla right now?
A.11.2. A.8.2. How can I change the default priority to a null value? For instance, have the default priority be "---" instead of "P2"?
A.11.3. A.8.3. What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines should I follow?

A.1.1. Where can I find information about Bugzilla?

You can stay up-to-date with the latest Bugzilla information at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/ http://www.bugzilla.org/

A.1.2. What license is Bugzilla distributed under? @@ -735,7 +614,7 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.1.3. How do I get commercial support for Bugzilla? @@ -759,7 +638,7 @@ TARGET="_top" >

There are several experienced Bugzilla hackers on the mailing list/newsgroup who are willing - to whore themselves out for generous compensation. + to make themselves available for generous compensation. Try sending a message to the mailing list asking for a volunteer.

A.1.4. What major companies or projects are currently using Bugzilla @@ -802,15 +681,15 @@ BORDER="0" >AtHome CorporationNASARed Hat SoftwareAtHome CorporationLoki Entertainment SoftwareRed Hat SoftwareThe Eazel ProjectAbiSourceXimianLinux-Mandrake

A.1.5. Who maintains Bugzilla? @@ -890,12 +769,13 @@ CLASS="answer" > - Bugzilla maintenance has been in a state of flux recently. - Please check the Bugzilla Project Page for the latest details. +>core team, + led by Dave Miller (justdave@syndicomm.com).

A.1.6. How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking databases? @@ -917,11 +797,9 @@ CLASS="answer" > - A year has gone by, and I still can't - find any head-to-head comparisons of Bugzilla against - other defect-tracking software. However, from my personal + We can't find any head-to-head comparisons of Bugzilla against + other defect-tracking software. If you know of one, please + get in touch. However, from the author's personal experience with other bug-trackers, Bugzilla offers superior performance on commodity hardware, better price (free!), more developer- friendly features (such as stored @@ -931,10 +809,9 @@ CLASS="answer"

If you happen to be a commercial bug-tracker vendor, please - step forward with a rebuttal so I can include it in the - FAQ. We're not in pursuit of Bugzilla ueber alles; we - simply love having a powerful, open-source tool to get our - jobs done. + step forward with a list of advantages your product has over + Bugzilla. We'd be happy to include it in the "Competitors" + section.

A.1.7. - How do I change my user name in Bugzilla? -

- You can't. However, the administrative account can, by simply opening - your user account in editusers.cgi and changing the login name. -

A.1.8. Why doesn't Bugzilla offer this or that feature or compatability with this other tracking software? @@ -992,7 +846,7 @@ CLASS="answer" that supports the functionality you require, or else submitting a "Request for Enhancement" (RFE) using the bug submission interface at bugzilla.mozilla.org. @@ -1005,11 +859,11 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.1.9. A.1.8. Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on - Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL? + Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL.

Terry Weissman answers, -

You're not the only one. But I am not very interested. I'm not - a real SQL or database person. I just wanted to make a useful tool, - and build it on top of free software. So, I picked MySQL, and - learned SQL by staring at the MySQL manual and some code lying - around here, and - wrote Bugzilla. I didn't know that Enum's were non-standard SQL. - I'm not sure if I would have cared, but I didn't even know. So, to - me, things are "portable" because it uses MySQL, and MySQL is - portable enough. I fully understand (now) that people want to be - portable to other databases, but that's never been a real concern - of mine. -

+ There is DB-independence work afoot. PostgreSQL support is planned + for 2.18, and full DB-independence can't be far further on.

Things aren't quite that grim these days, however. Terry pretty much - sums up much of the thinking many of us have for Bugzilla, but there - is light on the horizon for database-independence! Here are some options: -

Red Hat Bugzilla: - Runs a modified Bugzilla 2.8 atop an Oracle database. -
Interzilla: - A project to run Bugzilla on Interbase. No code released yet, however. -
Bugzilla 3.0: One of the primary stated goals - is multiple database support. -

A.1.10. A.1.9. Why do the scripts say "/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl" instead of "/usr/bin/perl" or something else? @@ -1106,410 +896,37 @@ CLASS="answer" > - Mozilla.org uses /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl. The prime rule in making - submissions is "don't break bugzilla.mozilla.org". If it breaks it, your - patch will be reverted faster than you can do a diff. -

Here's Terry Weissman's comment, for some historical context: -

We always recommend that, if possible, you keep the path + as /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl, and simply add symlink. + This will make upgrading + your Bugzilla much easier in the future. +

[This was] purely my own convention. I wanted a place to put a version of - Perl and other tools that was strictly under my control for the - various webtools, and not subject to anyone else. Edit it to point - to whatever you like. -

A.1.10. + Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name? +

We always recommend that, if possible, you keep the path - as /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl, and simply add a /usr/bonsaitools - and /usr/bonsaitools/bin directory, then symlink your version - of perl to /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl. This will make upgrading - your Bugzilla much easier in the future. -

Obviously, if you do not have root access to your Bugzilla - box, our suggestion is irrelevant. -

-

2. Red Hat Bugzilla

This section is no longer up-to-date. - Please see the section on "Red Hat Bugzilla" under "Variants" in The Bugzilla Guide. -

-

- Red Hat Bugzilla is arguably more user-friendly, customizable, and scalable - than stock Bugzilla. Check it out at - http://bugzilla.redhat.com and the sources at ftp://people.redhat.com/dkl/. - They've set their Bugzilla up to work with Oracle out of the box. - Note that Redhat Bugzilla is based upon the 2.8 Bugzilla tree; - Bugzilla has made some tremendous advances since the 2.8 release. - Why not download both Bugzillas to check out the differences for - yourself? -

Dave Lawrence, the original Red Hat Bugzilla maintainer, mentions: -

Somebody needs to take the ball and run with it. I'm the only - maintainer and am very pressed for time. -

- If you, or someone you know, has the time and expertise to do the integration - work so main-tree Bugzilla 2.12 and higher integrates the Red - Hat Bugzilla Oracle modifications, please donate your - time to supporting the Bugzilla project. -

- Dave Lawrence: -

For the record, we are not using any template type implementation for - the cosmetic changes maded to Bugzilla. It is just alot of html changes - in the code itself. I admit I may have gotten a little carried away with it - but the corporate types asked for a more standardized interface to match up - with other projects relating to Red Hat web sites. A lot of other web based - internal tools I am working on also look like Bugzilla. -

I do want to land the changes that I have made to Bugzilla but I may - have to back out a good deal and make a different version of Red Hat's - Bugzilla for checking in to CVS. Especially the cosmetic changes because it - seems they may not fit the general public. I will do that as soon as I can. - I also still do my regular QA responsibilities along with Bugzilla so time - is difficult sometimes to come by. -

There are also a good deal of other changes that were requested by - management for things like support contracts and different permission - groups for making bugs private. Here is a short list of the major - changes that have been made: -

  1. No enum types. All old enum types are now separate smaller tables. -

  2. No bit wise operations. Not all databases support this so they were - changed to a more generic way of doing this task -

  3. Bug reports can only be altered by the reporter, assignee, or a - privileged bugzilla user. The rest of the world can see the bug but in - a non-changeable format (unless the bug has been marked private). They - can however add comments, add and remove themselves from the CC list -

  4. Different group scheme. Each group has an id number related to it. - There is a user_group table which contains userid to groupid mappings - to determine which groups each user belongs to. Additionally there is - a bug_group table that has bugid to groupid mappings to show which - groups can see a particular bug. If there are no entries for a bug in - this table then the bug is public. -

  5. Product groups. product_table created to only allow certain products to - be visible for certain groups in both bug entry and query. This was - particulary helpful for support contracts. -

  6. Of course many (too many) changes to Bugzilla code itself to allow use - with Oracle and still allow operation with Mysql if so desired. - Currently if you use Mysql it is set to use Mysql's old permission - scheme to keep breakage to a minimum. Hopefully one day this will - standardize on one style which may of course be something completely - different. -

  7. Uses Text::Template perl module for rendering of the dynamic HTML pages - such as enter_bug.cgi, query.cgi, bug_form.pl, and for the header and - footer parts of the page. This allows the html to be separate from the - perl code for customizing the look and feel of the page to one's - preference. -

  8. There are many other smaller changes. There is also a port to Oracle - that I have been working on as time permits but is not completely - finished but somewhat usable. I will merge it into our standard code - base when it becomes production quality. Unfortunately there will have - to be some conditionals in the code to make it work with other than - Oracle due to some differences between Oracle and Mysql. -

Both the Mysql and Oracle versions of our current code base are - available from ftp://people.redhat.com/dkl. If Terry/Tara wants I can submit - patch files for all of the changes I have made and he can determine what is - suitable for addition to the main bugzilla cade base. But for me to commit - changes to the actual CVS I will need to back out alot of things that are - not suitable for the rest of the Bugzilla community. I am open to - suggestions. -

-

-

This information is somewhat dated; I last updated it - 7 June 2000. Please see the "Variants" section of "The Bugzilla Guide" - for more up-to-date information regarding Red Hat Bugzilla. -

- Dave Lawrence: -

I suppose the current thread warrants an update on the status of - Oracle and bugzilla ;) We have now been running Bugzilla 2.8 on - Oracle for the last two days in our production environment. I - tried to do as much testing as possible with it before going live - which is some of the reason for the long delay. I did not get - enough feedback as I would have liked from internal developers to - help weed out any bugs still left so I said "Fine, i will take it - live and then I will get the feedback I want :)" So it is now - starting to stabilize and it running quite well after working - feverishly the last two days fixing problems as soon as they came - in from the outside world. The current branch in cvs is up2date if - anyone would like to grab it and try it out. The oracle _setup.pl - is broken right now due to some last minute changes but I will - update that soon. Therefore you would probably need to create the - database tables the old fashioned way using the supplied sql - creation scripts located in the ./oracle directory. We have heavy - optimizations in the database it self thanks to the in-house DBA - here at Red Hat so it is running quite fast. The database itself - is located on a dual PII450 with 1GB ram and 14 high voltage - differential raided scsi drives. The tables and indexes are - partitioned in 4 chuncks across the raided drive which is nice - because when ever you need to do a full table scan, it is actually - starting in 4 different locations on 4 different drives - simultaneously. And the indexes of course are on separate drives - from the data so that speeds things up tremendously. When I can - find the time I will document all that we have done to get this - thing going to help others that may need it. -

As Matt has mentioned it is still using out-dated code and with a - little help I would like to bring everything up to date for - eventual incorporation with the main cvs tree. Due to other - duties I have with the company any help with this wiould be - appreciated. What we are using now is what I call a best first - effort. It definitely can be improved on and may even need - complete rewrites in a lot of areas. A lot of changes may have to - be made in the way Bugzilla does things currently to make this - transition to a more generic database interface. Fortunately when - making the Oracle changes I made sure I didn't do anything that I - would consider Oracle specific and could not be easily done with - other databases. Alot of the sql statements need to be broken up - into smaller utilities that themselves would need to make - decisions on what database they are using but the majority of the - code can be made database neutral. -

-

3. Loki Bugzilla (AKA Fenris)

A.3.1. - What is Loki Bugzilla (Fenris)? -

- Loki Games has a customized version of Bugzilla available at - http://fenris.lokigames.com. There are some advantages to using Fenris, chief being separation of comments based upon user privacy level, data hiding, forced login for any data retrieval, and some additional fields. Loki has mainted their code, originally a fork from the Bugzilla 2.8 code base, and it is quite a bit different than stock Bugzilla at this point. I recommend you stick with official Bugzilla version 2.16 rather than using a fork, but it's up to you. + At present, no.

4. Pointy-Haired-Boss Questions

2. Managerial Questions

A.4.3. A.2.3. Does Bugzilla allow the user to track multiple projects?

- Absolutely! You can track up to a "soft-limit" of around - 64 individual "Products", that can each be composed of as - many "Components" as you want. Check the Administration - section of the Bugzilla Guide for more information regarding - setting up Products and Components. + Absolutely! You can track any number of Products (although you + are limited to about 55 or so if + you are using Product-Based Groups), that can each be composed of any + number of Components.

A.4.4. A.2.4. If I am on many projects, and search for all bugs assigned to me, will Bugzilla list them for me and allow me to sort by project, severity etc? @@ -1653,10 +1068,10 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.4.5. A.2.5. - Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, urls etc)? If yes, + Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, URLs etc)? If yes, are there any that are NOT allowed?

- Yes. There are many specific MIME-types that are pre-defined by Bugzilla, + Yes - any sort of attachment is allowed, although administrators can + configure a maximum size. + There are many specific MIME-types that are pre-defined by Bugzilla, but you may specify any arbitrary MIME-type you need when you - upload the file. Since all attachments are stored in the database, - however, I recommend storing large binary attachments elsewhere - in the web server's file system and providing a hyperlink - as a comment, or in the provided "URL" field in the bug report. + upload the file.

A.4.6. A.2.6. Does Bugzilla allow us to define our own priorities and levels? Do we have complete freedom to change the labels of fields and format of them, and @@ -1716,193 +1130,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.4.7. - The index.html page doesn't show the footer. It's really annoying to have - to go to the querypage just to check my "my bugs" link. How do I get a footer - on static HTML pages? -

- It's possible to get the footer on the static index page using - Server Side Includes (SSI). The trick to doing this is making - sure that your web server is set up to allow SSI and specifically, - the #exec directive. You should also rename index.html - to index.shtml. -

After you've done all that, you can add the following line to - index.shtml: -

-<!--#exec cmd="/usr/bin/perl -e &quot;require 'CGI.pl'; PutFooter();&quot;" -->
-
-
-

This line will be replaced with the actual HTML for the footer - when the page is requested, so you should put this line where you - want the footer to appear. -

Because this method depends on being able to use a #exec directive, - and most ISP's will not allow that, there is an alternative method. - You could have a small script (such as api.cgi) - that basically looks like: -

-#!/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl -w
-
-require 'globals.pl';
-
-if ($::FORM{sub} eq 'PutFooter') {
-    PutFooter();
-} else {
-    die 'api.cgi was incorrectly called';
-}
-
-
- and then put this line in index.shtml. -

-<!--#include virtual="api.cgi?sub=PutFooter"-->
-
-
-

This still requires being able to use Server Side Includes, if - this simply will not work for you, see bug 80183 - for a third option. -

A.4.8. A.2.7. Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics, graphs, etc? You know, the type of stuff that management likes to see. :) @@ -1919,7 +1148,7 @@ HREF="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/reports.cgi" TARGET="_top" > http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/reports.cgi for basic reporting - facilities. + and graphing facilities.

For more advanced reporting, I recommend hooking up a professional @@ -1929,9 +1158,6 @@ TARGET="_top" better accomplished through third-party utilities that can interface with the database directly.

Advanced Reporting is a Bugzilla 3.X proposed feature. -

A.4.10. A.2.9. Can email notification be set up to send to multiple people, some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc? @@ -1988,10 +1214,10 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.4.11. A.2.10. - If there is email notification, do users have to have any particular + Do users have to have any particular type of email application?

-

A.4.16. A.2.11. - Can a user re-run a report with a new project, same query? + Does Bugzilla allow data to be imported and exported? If I had outsiders + write up a bug report using a MS Word bug template, could that template be + imported into "matching" fields? If I wanted to take the results of a query + and export that data to MS Excel, could I do that?

A.4.17. A.2.12. - Can a user modify an existing report and then save it into another name? + Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used in other + countries? Is it localizable?

A.4.18. A.2.13. - Does Bugzilla have the ability to search by word, phrase, compound - search? + Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in Word format? + Excel format?

A.4.19. A.2.14. - Can the admin person establish separate group and individual user - privileges? + Does Bugzilla have the ability to search by word, phrase, compound + search?

A.4.20. A.2.15. Does Bugzilla provide record locking when there is simultaneous access to the same bug? Does the second person get a notice that the bug is in use @@ -2283,8 +1414,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.4.21. A.2.16. Are there any backup features provided?

A.4.22. A.2.17. Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress?

A.4.23. A.2.18. What type of human resources are needed to be on staff to install and maintain Bugzilla? Specifically, what type of skills does the person need to @@ -2351,20 +1482,14 @@ CLASS="answer" > - If Bugzilla is set up correctly from the start, continuing maintenance needs - are minimal and can be completed by unskilled labor. Things like rotate - backup tapes and check log files for the word "error". + If Bugzilla is set up correctly from the start, continuing maintenance + needs are minimal and can be done easily using the web interface.

Commercial Bug-tracking software typically costs somewhere upwards of $20,000 or more for 5-10 floating licenses. Bugzilla consultation - is available from skilled members of the newsgroup. -

As an example, as of this writing I typically charge - $115 for the first hour, and $89 each hour thereafter - for consulting work. It takes me three to five hours to make Bugzilla - happy on a Development installation of Linux-Mandrake. + is available from skilled members of the newsgroup. Simple questions + are answered there and then.

A.4.24. A.2.19. What time frame are we looking at if we decide to hire people to install and maintain the Bugzilla? Is this something that takes hours or weeks to @@ -2405,8 +1530,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.4.25. A.2.20. Is there any licensing fee or other fees for using Bugzilla? Any out-of-pocket cost other than the bodies needed as identified above? @@ -2428,96 +1553,18 @@ CLASS="answer" CLASS="qandadiv" >

5. Bugzilla Installation

- Check http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/ for details. - Once you download it, untar it, read the Bugzilla Guide. -

6. Bugzilla Security

3. Bugzilla Security

A.6.2. A.3.2. Are there any security problems with Bugzilla?

- The Bugzilla code has not undergone a complete security audit. - It is recommended that you closely examine permissions on your Bugzilla + The Bugzilla code has undergone a reasonably complete security audit, + and user-facing CGIs run under Perl's taint mode. However, + it is recommended that you closely examine permissions on your Bugzilla installation, and follow the recommended security guidelines found in The Bugzilla Guide.

A.6.3. A.3.3. I've implemented the security fixes mentioned in Chris Yeh's security advisory of 5/10/2000 advising not to run MySQL as root, and am running into @@ -2591,15 +1638,15 @@ CLASS="answer" CLASS="qandadiv" >

7. Bugzilla Email

4. Bugzilla Email

A.7.2. A.4.2. I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send email to anyone but me. How do I do it? @@ -2635,8 +1682,8 @@ CLASS="answer" > - Edit the param for the mail text. Replace "To:" with "X-Real-To:", - replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a "To: (myemailaddress)". + Edit the "changedmail" Param. Replace "To:" with "X-Real-To:", + replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a "To: <youremailaddress>".

A.7.3. A.4.3. I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something more, or other than, only new bugs. How do I do it? @@ -2676,8 +1723,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.7.4. A.4.4. I don't like/want to use Procmail to hand mail off to bug_email.pl. What alternatives do I have? @@ -2692,7 +1739,7 @@ CLASS="answer" You can call bug_email.pl directly from your aliases file, with an entry like this:

bugzilla-daemon: "|/usr/local/bin/bugzilla/contrib/bug_email.pl" @@ -2711,8 +1758,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.7.5. A.4.5. How do I set up the email interface to submit/change bugs via email?

A.7.6. A.4.6. - Email takes FOREVER to reach me from bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. + Email takes FOREVER to reach me from Bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. What gives?

If you are using an alternate Mail Transport Agent (MTA other than - sendmail), make sure the options given in the "processmail" script for all + sendmail), make sure the options given in the "processmail" and other + scripts for all instances of "sendmail" are correct for your MTA.

A.7.7. A.4.7. - How come email never reaches me from bugzilla changes? + How come email from Bugzilla changes never reaches me?

8. Bugzilla Database

5. Bugzilla Database

- You've almost certainly enabled the "shadow database", but for some - reason it hasn't been updated for all your bugs. This is the database - against which queries are run, so that really complex or slow queries won't - lock up portions of the database for other users. You can turn off the - shadow database in editparams.cgi. If you wish to continue using the shadow - database, then as your "bugs" user run "./syncshadowdb -syncall" from the - command line in the bugzilla installation directory to recreate your shadow - database. After it finishes, be sure to check the params and make sure that - "queryagainstshadowdb" is still turned on. The syncshadowdb program turns it - off if it was on, and is supposed to turn it back on when completed; that - way, if it crashes in the middle of recreating the database, it will stay - off forever until someone turns it back on by hand. Apparently, it doesn't - always do that yet. + Bugzilla 2.14 and 2.16 if you go with the 2.8-based Redhat version.

A.8.3. A.5.2. I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid entries. What do I do? @@ -2907,8 +1920,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.8.4. A.5.3. I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How?

A.8.5. A.5.4. I try to add myself as a user, but Bugzilla always tells me my password is wrong.

A.8.6. A.5.5. - I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but bugzilla still can't + I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but Bugzilla still can't connect.

A.8.7. A.5.6. How do I synchronize bug information among multiple different Bugzilla databases? @@ -3015,82 +2028,20 @@ CLASS="answer"

9. Bugzilla and Win32

6. Bugzilla and Win32

- The following couple entries are deprecated in favor of the Windows installation - instructions available in the "Administration" portion of "The Bugzilla Guide". - However, they are provided here for historical interest and insight. -


-  1. #!C:/perl/bin/perl had to be added to every perl file.
-  2. Converted to Net::SMTP to handle mail messages instead of
-     /usr/bin/sendmail.
-  3. The crypt function isn't available on Windows NT (at least none that I
-     am aware), so I made encrypted passwords = plaintext passwords.
-  4. The system call to diff had to be changed to the Cygwin diff.
-  5. This was just to get a demo running under NT, it seems to be working
-     good, and I have inserted almost 100 bugs from another bug tracking
-     system. Since this work was done just to get an in-house demo, I am NOT
-     planning on making a patch for submission to Bugzilla. If you would
-     like a zip file, let me know.
-
-Q: Hmm, couldn't figure it out from the general instructions above.  How
-about step-by-step?
-A: Sure! Here ya go!
-
-  1. Install IIS 4.0 from the NT Option Pack #4.
-  2. Download and install Active Perl.
-  3. Install the Windows GNU tools from Cygwin. Make sure to add the bin
-     directory to your system path. (Everyone should have these, whether
-     they decide to use Bugzilla or not. :-) )
-  4. Download relevant packages from ActiveState at
-     http://www.activestate.com/packages/zips/. + DBD-Mysql.zip
-  5. Extract each zip file with WinZip, and install each ppd file using the
-     notation: ppm install <module>.ppd
-  6. Install Mysql.  *Note: If you move the default install from c:\mysql,
-     you must add the appropriate startup parameters to the NT service. (ex.
-     -b e:\\programs\\mysql)
-  7. Download any Mysql client. http://www.mysql.com/download_win.html
-  8. Setup MySql. (These are the commands that I used.)
-
-          I. Cleanup default database settings.
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root mysql
-           mysql> DELETE FROM user WHERE Host='localhost' AND User='';
-           mysql> quit
-          C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin reload
-
-          II. Set password for root.
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root mysql
-           mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new_password')
-           WHERE user='root';
-           mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
-           mysql> quit
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload
-
-          III. Create bugs user.
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p
-           mysql> insert into user (host,user,password)
-          values('localhost','bugs','');
-           mysql> quit
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload
-
-          IV. Create the bugs database.
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p
-           mysql> create database bugs;
-
-          V. Give the bugs user access to the bugs database.
-           mysql> insert into db
-          (host,db,user,select_priv,insert_priv,update_priv,delete_priv,create_priv,drop_priv)
-          values('localhost','bugs','bugs','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','N')
-           mysql> quit
-           C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload
-  9. Run the table scripts to setup the bugs database.
- 10. Change CGI.pm to use the following regular expression because of
-     differing backslashes in NT versus UNIX.
-        o $0 =~ m:[^\\]*$:;
- 11. Had to make the crypt password = plain text password in the database.
-     (Thanks to Andrew Lahser" <andrew_lahser@merck.com>" on this one.) The
-     files that I changed were:
-        o globals.pl
-        o CGI.pl
-        o alternately, you can try commenting all references to 'crypt'
-          string and replace them with similar lines but without encrypt()
-          or crypr() functions insida all files.
- 12. Replaced sendmail with Windmail. Basically, you have to come up with a
-     sendmail substitute for NT. Someone said that they used a Perl module
-     (Net::SMTP), but I was trying to save time and do as little Perl coding
-     as possible.
- 13. Added "perl" to the beginning of all Perl system calls that use a perl
-     script as an argument and renamed processmail to processmail.pl.
- 14. In processmail.pl, I added binmode(HANDLE) before all read() calls. I'm
-     not sure about this one, but the read() under NT wasn't counting the
-     EOLs without the binary read."
-     

-

A.9.5. A.6.4. I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being able to talk to to the database. @@ -3358,15 +2197,38 @@ TARGET="_top" CLASS="qandadiv" >

10. Bugzilla Usage

7. Bugzilla Usage

A.10.1. A.7.2. The query page is very confusing. Isn't there a simpler way to query?

- We are developing in that direction. You can follow progress on this - at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16775. Some functionality - is available in Bugzilla 2.12, and is available as "quicksearch.html" + The interface was simplified by a UI designer for 2.16. Further + suggestions for improvement are welcome, but we won't sacrifice power for + simplicity.

A.10.2. A.7.3. I'm confused by the behavior of the "accept" button in the Show Bug form. Why doesn't it assign the bug to me when I accept it? @@ -3407,7 +2265,7 @@ CLASS="answer" > The current behavior is acceptable to bugzilla.mozilla.org and most - users. I personally don't like it. You have your choice of patches + users. You have your choice of patches to change this behavior, however.

- Note that these patches are somewhat dated. You will need to do the find - and replace manually to apply them. They are very small, though. It is easy. + Note that these patches are somewhat dated. You will need to apply + them manually.

A.10.3. A.7.4. I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create Attachment" link. What am I doing wrong? @@ -3471,8 +2329,8 @@ CLASS="qandaentry" CLASS="question" >

A.10.4. A.7.5. Email submissions to Bugzilla that have attachments end up asking me to save it as a "cgi" file. @@ -3485,7 +2343,7 @@ CLASS="answer" > Yup. Just rename it once you download it, or save it under a different - filename. This will not be fixed anytime too soon, because it would + filename. This will not be fixed anytime soon, because it would cripple some other functionality.

A.10.5. A.7.6. How do I change a keyword in Bugzilla, once some bugs are using it?

11. Bugzilla Hacking

8. Bugzilla Hacking

A.11.3. A.8.3. What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines should I follow?

  • Upload your patch as a unified DIFF (having used "diff -u" against +> Upload your patch as a unified diff (having used "diff -u" against the current sources checked out of CVS), or new source file by clicking "Create a new attachment" link on the bug page you've just created, and include any descriptions of database changes you may make, into the bug - ID you submitted in step #1. Be sure and click the "Patch" radio - button to indicate the text you are sending is a patch! + ID you submitted in step #1. Be sure and click the "Patch" checkbox + to indicate the text you are sending is a patch!

  • Announce your patch and the associated URL - (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=XXXX) for discussion in + (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=XXXXXX) for discussion in the newsgroup (netscape.public.mozilla.webtools). You'll get a really good, fairly immediate reaction to the implications of your patch, which will also give us an idea how well-received the change would @@ -3689,7 +2545,7 @@ WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >PrevNextSourceForgeIntegrating Bugzilla with Third-Party ToolsSoftware Download LinksThe Bugzilla Database