From 78e29c8900fa96d67163a34a0c02c7cecb31b55f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "jake%bugzilla.org" <> Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 09:04:01 +0000 Subject: The source files for the Bugzilla Guide have long been using the XML version of DocBook but still residing in the sgml/ directory with an extension of .sgml. In an effort to maintain CVS history, the raw files were copied on the CVS server to the xml/ directory and renamed to have .xml for the extension; any checkins before this one did have the .sgml extension. --- docs/sgml/faq.sgml | 1321 ---------------------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 1321 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 docs/sgml/faq.sgml (limited to 'docs/sgml/faq.sgml') diff --git a/docs/sgml/faq.sgml b/docs/sgml/faq.sgml deleted file mode 100644 index ef5f23123..000000000 --- a/docs/sgml/faq.sgml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1321 +0,0 @@ - - - - The Bugzilla FAQ - - - This FAQ includes questions not covered elsewhere in the Guide. - - - - - - - General Questions - - - - - Where can I find information about Bugzilla? - - - - You can stay up-to-date with the latest Bugzilla - information at - http://www.bugzilla.org/ - - - - - - - - What license is Bugzilla distributed under? - - - - - Bugzilla is covered by the Mozilla Public License. - See details at - http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ - - - - - - - - How do I get commercial support for Bugzilla? - - - - - http://bugzilla.org/consulting.html - is a list of people and companies who have asked us to list them - as consultants for Bugzilla. - - - www.collab.net offers - Bugzilla as part of their standard offering to large projects. - They do have some minimum fees that are pretty hefty, and generally - aren't interested in small projects. - - - There are several experienced - Bugzilla hackers on the mailing list/newsgroup who are willing - to make themselves available for generous compensation. - Try sending a message to the mailing list asking for a volunteer. - - - - - - - - What major companies or projects are currently using Bugzilla - for bug-tracking? - - - - - There are dozens of major companies with public - Bugzilla sites to track bugs in their products. A few include: - - Netscape/AOL - Mozilla.org - NASA - Red Hat Software - SuSe Corp - The Horde Project - AbiSource - Real Time Enterprises, Inc - Eggheads.org - Strata Software - RockLinux - Creative Labs (makers of SoundBlaster) - The Apache Foundation - The Gnome Foundation - Ximian - Linux-Mandrake - - - - Suffice to say, there are more than enough huge projects using Bugzilla - that we can safely say it's extremely popular. - - - - - - - - Who maintains Bugzilla? - - - - - A - core team, - led by Dave Miller (justdave@netscape.com). - - - - - - - - How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking databases? - - - - - 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 - queries, email integration, and platform independence), - improved scalability, open source code, greater - flexibility, and superior ease-of-use. - - - If you happen to be a commercial bug-tracker vendor, please - step forward with a list of advantages your product has over - Bugzilla. We'd be happy to include it in the "Competitors" - section. - - - - - - - - Why doesn't Bugzilla offer this or that feature or compatibility - with this other tracking software? - - - - - It may be that the support has not been built yet, or that you - have not yet found it. Bugzilla is making tremendous strides in - usability, customizability, scalability, and user interface. It - is widely considered the most complete and popular open-source - bug-tracking software in existence. - - - That doesn't mean it can't use improvement! - You can help the project along by either hacking a patch yourself - that supports the functionality you require, or else submitting a - "Request for Enhancement" (RFE) using the bug submission interface - at bugzilla.mozilla.org. - - - - - - - - Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on - Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL. - - - - - MySQL was originally chosen because it is free, easy to install, - and was available for the hardware Netscape intended to run it on. - - - There is currently work in progress to make Bugzilla work on - PostgreSQL and Sybase in the default distribution. You can track - the progress of these initiatives in bugs 98304 - and 173130 - respectively. - - - Once both of these are done, adding support for additional - database servers should be trivial. - - - - - - - - What is /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl? - - - - - Bugzilla used to have the path to perl on the shebang line set to - /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl because when - Terry first started writing the code for mozilla.org he needed a - version of Perl and other tools that were completely under his - control. This location was abandoned for the 2.18 release in favor - of the more sensible /usr/bin/perl. If you - installed an older verion of Bugzilla and created the symlink we - suggested, you can remove it now (provided that you don't have - anything else, such as Bonsai, using it and you don't intend to - reinstall an older version of Bugzilla). - - - - - - - - My perl is not located at /usr/bin/perl, is - there an easy way to change it everywhere it needs to be changed? - - - - - Yes, the following bit of perl magic will change all the shebang - lines. Be sure to change /usr/local/bin/perl - to your path to the perl binary. - - -perl -pi -e 's@#\!/usr/bin/perl@#\!/usr/local/bin/perl@' *cgi *pl - - - - - - - - Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name? - - - - - At present, no. - - - - - - - - Managerial Questions - - - - Questions likely to be asked by managers. :-) - - - - - - - - Is Bugzilla web-based, or do you have to have specific software or - a specific operating system on your machine? - - - - - It is web and e-mail based. You can edit bugs by sending specially - formatted email to a properly configured Bugzilla, or control via the web. - - - - - - - - Can Bugzilla integrate with - Perforce (SCM software)? - - - - - Yes! You can find more information elsewhere in "The Bugzilla - Guide" in the "Integration with Third-Party Products" section. - - - - - - - - Does Bugzilla allow the user to track multiple projects? - - - - - Absolutely! You can track any number of Products that can each be - composed of any number of Components. - - - - - - - - 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? - - - - - Yes. - - - - - - - - Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, URLs etc)? If yes, - are there any that are NOT allowed? - - - - - Yes - any sort of attachment is allowed, although administrators can - configure a maximum size. - Bugzilla gives the user the option of either using the MIME-type - supplied by the browser, choosing from a pre-defined list or - manually typing any arbitrary MIME-type. - - - - - - - - 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? - - - - - Yes. However, modifying some fields, notably those related to bug - progression states, also require adjusting the program logic to - compensate for the change. - - - There is no GUI for adding fields to Bugzilla at this - time. You can follow development of this feature at - http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91037 - - - - - - - - Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics, graphs, etc? You - know, the type of stuff that management likes to see. :) - - - - - Yes. Look at - http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/report.cgi for samples of what - Bugzilla can do in reporting and graphing. - - - If you can not get the reports you want from the included reporting - scripts, it is possible to hook up a professional reporting package - such as Crystal Reports using ODBC. If you choose to do this, - beware that giving direct access to the database does contain some - security implications. Even if you give read-only access to the - bugs database it will bypass the secure bugs features of Bugzilla. - - - - - - - - Is there email notification and if so, what do you see when you get an - email? - - - - - Email notification is user-configurable. By default, the bug id and - Summary of the bug report accompany each email notification, along with - a list of the changes made. - - - - - - - - Can email notification be set up to send to multiple - people, some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc? - - - - - Yes. - - - - - - - - Do users have to have any particular - type of email application? - - - - - Bugzilla email is sent in plain text, the most compatible mail format - on the planet. - - - If you decide to use the bugzilla_email integration features - to allow Bugzilla to record responses to mail with the associated bug, - you may need to caution your users to set their mailer to "respond - to messages in the format in which they were sent". For security reasons - Bugzilla ignores HTML tags in comments, and if a user sends HTML-based - email into Bugzilla the resulting comment looks downright awful. - - - - - - - - - - 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? - - - - - Bugzilla can output buglists as HTML (the default), CSV or RDF. - The link for CSV can be found at the bottom of the buglist in HTML - format. This CSV format can easily be imported into MS Excel or - other spread-sheet applications. - - - To use the RDF format of the buglist it is necessary to append a - &ctype=rdf to the URL. RDF - is meant to be machine readable and thus it is assumed that the - URL would be generated progmatically so there is no user visible - link to this format. - - - Currently the only script included with Bugzilla that can import - data is importxml.pl which is intended to be - used for importing the data generated by the XML ctype of - show_bug.cgi in association with bug moving. - Any other use is left as an exercise for the user. - - - There are also scripts included in the contrib/ - directory for using e-mail to import information into Bugzilla, - but these scripts are not currently supported and included for - educational purposes. - - - - - - - - Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used in other - countries? Is it localizable? - - - - - Yes. For more information including available translated templates, - see . - The admin interfaces are still not included in these translated - templates and is therefore still English only. Also, there may be - issues with the charset not being declared. See bug 126226 - for more information. - - - - - - - - Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in Word format? - Excel format? - - - - - Yes. No. Yes (using the CSV format). - - - - - - - - Does Bugzilla have the ability to search by word, phrase, compound - search? - - - - - You have no idea. Bugzilla's query interface, particularly with the - advanced Boolean operators, is incredibly versatile. - - - - - - - - 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? - - - - - Bugzilla does not lock records. It provides mid-air collision detection, - and offers the offending user a choice of options to deal with the conflict. - - - - - - - - Are there any backup features provided? - - - - - MySQL, the database back-end for Bugzilla, allows hot-backup of data. - You can find strategies for dealing with backup considerations - at - http://www.mysql.com/doc/B/a/Backup.html - - - - - - - - Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress? - - - - - Yes. However, commits to the database must wait - until the tables are unlocked. Bugzilla databases are typically - very small, and backups routinely take less than a minute. - - - - - - - - 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 - individuals would we need to hire and how much would that cost vs buying an - "Out-of-the-Box" solution. - - - - - 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. Simple questions - are answered there and then. - - - - - - - - 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 - a multi-week install process, plus a full time job for 1 person, 2 people, - etc? - - - - - It all depends on your level of commitment. Someone with much Bugzilla - experience can get you up and running in less than a day, and - your Bugzilla install can run untended for years. If your - Bugzilla strategy is critical to your business workflow, hire somebody - with reasonable UNIX or Perl skills to handle your process management and - bug-tracking maintenance & customization. - - - - - - - - Is there any licensing fee or other fees for using Bugzilla? Any - out-of-pocket cost other than the bodies needed as identified above? - - - - - No. MySQL asks, if you find their product valuable, that you purchase - a support contract from them that suits your needs. - - - - - - - Bugzilla Security - - - - - 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)? - - - - - Run MySQL like this: "mysqld --skip-grant-tables". Please remember this - makes MySQL as secure as taping a $100 to the floor of a football stadium - bathroom for safekeeping. - - - - - - - - Are there any security problems with 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. - - - - - - - - - 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. - - - - - This is a common problem, related to running out of file descriptors. - Simply add "ulimit -n unlimited" to the script which starts - mysqld. - - - - - - - Bugzilla Email - - - - - I have a user who doesn't want to receive any more email from Bugzilla. - How do I stop it entirely for this user? - - - - - The user should be able to set - this in user email preferences (uncheck all boxes) or you can add - their email address to the data/nomail file. - - - - - - - - I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send email to - anyone but me. How do I do it? - - - - - Edit the "newchangedmail" Param. Replace "To:" with "X-Real-To:", - replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a "To: <youremailaddress>". - - - - - - - - I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something more, or other than, only new - bugs. How do I do it? - - - - - Try Klaas Freitag's excellent patch for "whineatassigned" functionality. - You can find it at . This - patch is against an older version of Bugzilla, so you must apply - the diffs manually. - - - - - - - - - I don't like/want to use Procmail to hand mail off to bug_email.pl. - What alternatives do I have? - - - - - 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" - -
- However, this is fairly nasty and subject to problems; you also - need to set up your smrsh (sendmail restricted shell) to allow - it. In a pinch, though, it can work. - - - - - - - - How do I set up the email interface to submit/change bugs via email? - - - - - You can find an updated README.mailif file in the contrib/ directory - of your Bugzilla distribution that walks you through the setup. - - - - - - - - Email takes FOREVER to reach me from Bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. - What gives? - - - - - If you are using an alternate MTA, - make sure the options given in Bugzilla/BugMail.pm - and any other place where sendmail is called from - are correct for your MTA. You should also ensure that the - param is set to on. - - - If you are using sendmail, try enabling - in editparams.cgi. - - - - - - - - - How come email from Bugzilla changes never reaches me? - - - - - Double-check that you have not turned off email in your user preferences. - Confirm that Bugzilla is able to send email by visiting the "Log In" - link of your Bugzilla installation and clicking the "Email me a password" - button after entering your email address. - - - If you never receive mail from Bugzilla, chances you do not have - sendmail in "/usr/lib/sendmail". Ensure sendmail lives in, or is symlinked - to, "/usr/lib/sendmail". - - - - - - - Bugzilla Database - - - - - I've heard Bugzilla can be used with Oracle? - - - - - Red Hat's old version of Bugzilla (based on 2.8) worked on Oracle. - Red Hat's newer version (based on 2.17.1 and soon to be merged into - the main distribution) runs on PostgreSQL. At this time we know of - no recent ports of Bugzilla to Oracle but do intend to support it - in the future (possibly the 2.20 time-frame). - - - - - - - - I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid entries. What - do I do? - - - - - Run the sanity check utility - (./sanitycheck.cgi in the - Bugzilla_home directory) from your web browser to see! If - it finishes without errors, you're - probably OK. If it doesn't come back - OK (i.e. any red letters), there are certain things - Bugzilla can recover from and certain things it can't. If - it can't auto-recover, I hope you're familiar with - mysqladmin commands or have installed another way to - manage your database. Sanity Check, although it is a good - basic check on your database integrity, by no means is a - substitute for competent database administration and - avoiding deletion of data. It is not exhaustive, and was - created to do a basic check for the most common problems - in Bugzilla databases. - - - - - - - - I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How? - - - - - There is no facility in Bugzilla itself to do this. It's also generally - not a smart thing to do if you don't know exactly what you're doing. - However, if you understand SQL you can use the mysql - command line utility to manually insert, delete and modify table - information. There are also more intuitive GUI clients available. - Personal favorites of the Bugzilla team are phpMyAdmin and MySQL Control - Center. - - - - - - - - I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but Bugzilla still can't - connect. - - - - - Try running MySQL from its binary: "mysqld --skip-grant-tables". This - will allow you to completely rule out grant tables as the cause of your - frustration. If this Bugzilla is able to connect at this point then - you need to check that you have granted proper permission to the user - password combo defined in localconfig. - - - - Running MySQL with this command line option is very insecure and - should only be done when not connected to the external network - as a troubleshooting step. - - - - - - - - - How do I synchronize bug information among multiple different Bugzilla - databases? - - - - - Well, you can synchronize or you can move bugs. Synchronization will - only work one way -- you can create a read-only copy of the database - at one site, and have it regularly updated at intervals from the main - database. - - - MySQL has some synchronization features builtin to the latest releases. - It would be great if someone looked into the possibilities there - and provided a report to the newsgroup on how to effectively - synchronize two Bugzilla installations. - - - If you simply need to transfer bugs from one Bugzilla to another, - checkout the "move.pl" script in the Bugzilla distribution. - - - - - - - Bugzilla and Win32 - - - - - What is the easiest way to run Bugzilla on Win32 (Win98+/NT/2K)? - - - - - Remove Windows. Install Linux. Install Bugzilla. - The boss will never know the difference. - - - - - - - - Is there a "Bundle::Bugzilla" equivalent for Win32? - - - - - Not currently. Bundle::Bugzilla enormously simplifies Bugzilla - installation on UNIX systems. If someone can volunteer to - create a suitable PPM bundle for Win32, it would be appreciated. - - - - - - - - CGI's are failing with a "something.cgi is not a valid Windows NT - application" error. Why? - - - - - Depending on what Web server you are using, you will have to configure - the Web server to treat *.cgi files as CGI scripts. In IIS, you do this by - adding *.cgi to the App Mappings with the <path>\perl.exe %s %s as the - executable. - - - Microsoft has some advice on this matter, as well: -
- - "Set application mappings. In the ISM, map the extension for the script - file(s) to the executable for the script interpreter. For example, you might - map the extension .py to Python.exe, the executable for the Python script - interpreter. Note For the ActiveState Perl script interpreter, the extension - .pl is associated with PerlIS.dll by default. If you want to change the - association of .pl to perl.exe, you need to change the application mapping. - In the mapping, you must add two percent (%) characters to the end of the - pathname for perl.exe, as shown in this example: c:\perl\bin\perl.exe %s %s" - -
- - - - - - - - I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being able to talk to - to the database. - - - - - Your modules may be outdated or inaccurate. Try: - - - - Hitting http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl - - - - - Download ActivePerl - - - - - Go to your prompt - - - - - Type 'ppm' - - - - - PPM> install DBI DBD-mysql GD - - - - I reckon TimeDate and Data::Dumper come with the activeperl. You can check - the ActiveState site for packages for installation through PPM. - - http://www.activestate.com/Packages/ - - - - - - - - Bugzilla Usage - - - - - How do I change my user name (email address) in Bugzilla? - - - - - New in 2.16 - go to the Account section of the Preferences. You will - be emailed at both addresses for confirmation. - - - - - - - - The query page is very confusing. Isn't there a simpler way to query? - - - - - 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. - - - - - - - - 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? - - - - - The current behavior is acceptable to bugzilla.mozilla.org and most - users. You have your choice of patches - to change this behavior, however. - - - Add a "and accept bug" radio button - - "Accept" button automatically assigns to you - - Note that these patches are somewhat dated. You will need to apply - them manually. - - - - - - - - I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create Attachment" - link. What am I doing wrong? - - - - - The most likely cause is a very old browser or a browser that is - incompatible with file upload via POST. Download the latest Netscape, - Microsoft, or Mozilla browser to handle uploads correctly. - - - - - - - - How do I change a keyword in Bugzilla, once some bugs are using it? - - - - - In the Bugzilla administrator UI, edit the keyword and it will let you - replace the old keyword name with a new one. This will cause a problem - with the keyword cache. Run sanitycheck.cgi to fix it. - - - - - - - - Bugzilla Hacking - - - - - What kind of style should I use for templatization? - - - - - Gerv and Myk suggest a 2-space indent, with embedded code sections on - their own line, in line with outer tags. Like this: - -[% IF foo %] - - [% FOREACH x = barney %] - - - [% x %] - - - [% END %] -[% END %] - -]]> - - Myk also recommends you turn on PRE_CHOMP in the template - initialization to prevent bloating of HTML with unnecessary whitespace. - - - Please note that many have differing opinions on this subject, - and the existing templates in Bugzilla espouse both this and a 4-space - style. Either is acceptable; the above is preferred. - - - - - - - What bugs are in Bugzilla right now? - - - - - Try - this link to view current bugs or requests for - enhancement for Bugzilla. - - - You can view bugs marked for &bz-nextver; release - here. - This list includes bugs for the &bz-nextver; release that have already - been fixed and checked into CVS. Please consult the - - Bugzilla Project Page for details on how to - check current sources out of CVS so you can have these - bug fixes early! - - - - - - - - How can I change the default priority to a null value? For instance, have the default - priority be "---" instead of "P2"? - - - - - This is well-documented here: - http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49862. Ultimately, it's as easy - as adding the "---" priority field to your localconfig file in the appropriate area, - re-running checksetup.pl, and then changing the default priority in your browser using - "editparams.cgi". - - - - - - - - What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines should I follow? - - - -
- - - - Enter a bug into bugzilla.mozilla.org for the Bugzilla - product. - - - - - 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" 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=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 - be. - - - - - If it passes muster with minimal modification, the person to whom - the bug is assigned in Bugzilla is responsible for seeing the patch - is checked into CVS. - - - - - Bask in the glory of the fact that you helped write the most successful - open-source bug-tracking software on the planet :) - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -- cgit v1.2.3-24-g4f1b