path: root/docs/txt/Bugzilla-Guide.txt

The Bugzilla GuideMatthew P. Barnson

   barnboy@trilobyte.net

Zach Lipton

   zach AT zachlipton DOT com

2001-04-25

   Revision History
   Revision v2.11  20 December 2000 Revised by: MPB
   Converted the README, FAQ, and DATABASE information into SGML docbook
   format.
   Revision 2.11.1 06 March 2001    Revised by: MPB
   Took way too long to revise this for 2.12 release. Updated FAQ to use
   qandaset tags instead of literallayout, cleaned up administration
   section, added User Guide section, miscellaneous FAQ updates and
   third-party integration information. From this point on all new tags
   are lowercase in preparation for the 2.13 release of the Guide in XML
   format instead of SGML.
   Revision 2.12.0 24 April 2001    Revised by: MPB
   Things fixed this release: Elaborated on queryhelp interface, added
   FAQ regarding moving bugs from one keyword to another, clarified
   possible problems with the Landfill tutorial, fixed a boatload of
   typos and unclear sentence structures. Incorporated the README into
   the UNIX installation section, and changed the README to indicate the
   deprecated status. Things I know need work: Used "simplelist" a lot,
   where I should have used "procedure" to tag things. Need to lowercase
   all tags to be XML compliant.
   Revision 2.14.0 07 August 2001   Revised by: MPB
   Attempted to integrate relevant portions of the UNIX and Windows
   installation instructions, moved some data from FAQ to Install,
   removed references to README from text, added Mac OS X install
   instructions, fixed a bunch of tpyos (Mark Harig), linked text that
   referenced other parts of the Guide, and nuked the old MySQL
   permissions section.

   This  is  the  documentation  for  Bugzilla,  the Mozilla bug-tracking
   system.

   Bugzilla  is  an enterprise-class set of software utilities that, when
   used  together,  power  issue-tracking  for  hundreds of organizations
   around  the  world, tracking millions of bugs. While it is easy to use
   and  quite  flexible,  it  is  difficult  for  a novice to install and
   maintain.  Although we have provided step-by-step directions, Bugzilla
   is  not  always  easy  to  get  working.  Please  be  sure  the person
   responsible   for  installing  and  maintaining  this  software  is  a
   qualified professional for the operating system upon which you install
   Bugzilla.

   THIS  DOCUMENTATION  IS MAINTAINED IN DOCBOOK 4.1.2 XML FORMAT. IF YOU
   WISH TO MAKE CORRECTIONS, PLEASE MAKE THEM IN PLAIN TEXT OR SGML DIFFS
   AGAINST  THE SOURCE. I CANNOT ACCEPT ADDITIONS TO THE GUIDE WRITTEN IN
   HTML!
     _________________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents
   1. About This Guide

        1.1. Purpose and Scope of this Guide
        1.2. Copyright Information
        1.3. Disclaimer
        1.4. New Versions
        1.5. Credits
        1.6. Contributors
        1.7. Feedback
        1.8. Translations
        1.9. Document Conventions

   2. Using Bugzilla

        2.1. What is Bugzilla?
        2.2. Why Should We Use Bugzilla?
        2.3. How do I use Bugzilla?
        2.4. Where can I find my user preferences?
        2.5. Using Bugzilla-Conclusion

   3. Installation

        3.1. ERRATA
        3.2. Step-by-step Install
        3.3. Mac OS X Installation Notes
        3.4. BSD Installation Notes
        3.5. Installation General Notes
        3.6. Win32 Installation Notes

   4. Administering Bugzilla

        4.1. Post-Installation Checklist
        4.2. User Administration
        4.3. Product, Component, Milestone, and Version Administration
        4.4. Bugzilla Security

   5. Integrating Bugzilla with Third-Party Tools

        5.1. Bonsai
        5.2. CVS
        5.3. Perforce SCM
        5.4. Tinderbox/Tinderbox2

   6. The Future of Bugzilla
   7. Bugzilla Variants and Competitors

        7.1. Red Hat Bugzilla
        7.2. Loki Bugzilla (Fenris)
        7.3. Issuezilla
        7.4. Scarab
        7.5. Perforce SCM
        7.6. SourceForge

   A. The Bugzilla FAQ
   B. Software Download Links
   C. The Bugzilla Database

        C.1. Database Schema Chart
        C.2. MySQL Bugzilla Database Introduction
        C.3. MySQL Permissions & Grant Tables

   D. Useful Patches and Utilities for Bugzilla

        D.1. Apache mod_rewrite magic
        D.2. The setperl.csh Utility
        D.3. Command-line Bugzilla Queries
        D.4. The Quicksearch Utility
        D.5. Hacking Bugzilla

   E. GNU Free Documentation License

        0. PREAMBLE
        1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
        2. VERBATIM COPYING
        3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
        4. MODIFICATIONS
        5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
        6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
        7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
        8. TRANSLATION
        9. TERMINATION
        10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
        How to use this License for your documents

   Glossary

   List of Examples
   2-1. Some Famous Software Versions
   2-2. Mozilla's Bugzilla Components
   3-1. Setting up bonsaitools symlink
   3-2. Running checksetup.pl as the web user
   3-3. Installing ActivePerl ppd Modules on Microsoft Windows
   3-4. Installing OpenInteract ppd Modules manually on Microsoft Windows
   3-5. Removing encrypt() for Windows NT Bugzilla version 2.12 or
          earlier

   4-1. Creating some Components
   4-2. Common Use of Versions
   4-3. A Different Use of Versions
   4-4. Using SortKey with Target Milestone
   4-5. When to Use Group Security
   4-6. Creating a New Group
   4-7. Bugzilla Groups
   D-1. Using Setperl to set your perl path
   1. A Sample Product
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 1. About This Guide

1.1. Purpose and Scope of this Guide

This document was started on September 17, 2000 by Matthew P. Barnson after
a great deal of procrastination updating the Bugzilla FAQ, which I left
untouched for nearly half a year. After numerous complete rewrites and
reformatting, it is the document you see today.

Bugzilla is simply the best piece of bug-tracking software the world has
ever seen. This document is intended to be the comprehensive guide to the
installation, administration, maintenance, and use of the Bugzilla
bug-tracking system.

This release of the Bugzilla Guide is the 2.14 release. It is so named that
it may match the current version of Bugzilla. The numbering tradition stems
from that used for many free software projects, in which even-numbered point
releases (1.2, 1.14, etc.) are considered "stable releases", intended for
public consumption; on the other hand, odd-numbered point releases (1.3,
2.09, etc.) are considered unstable development releases intended for
advanced users, systems administrators, developers, and those who enjoy a
lot of pain.

Newer revisions of the Bugzilla Guide follow the numbering conventions of
the main-tree Bugzilla releases, available at http://www.bugzilla.org/.
Intermediate releases will have a minor revision number following a period.
The current version of Bugzilla, as of this writing (August 10, 2001) is
2.14; if something were seriously wrong with that edition of the Guide,
subsequent releases would receive an additional dotted-decimal digit to
indicate the update (2.14.1, 2.14.2, etc.). Got it? Good.

I wrote this in response to the enormous demand for decent Bugzilla
documentation. I have incorporated instructions from the Bugzilla README,
Frequently Asked Questions, Database Schema Document, and various mailing
lists to create it. Chances are, there are glaring errors in this
documentation; please contact <barnboy@trilobyte.net> to correct them.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.2. Copyright Information



   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
   under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
   any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
   Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
   Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
   Free Documentation LIcense".

--Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Matthew P. Barnson

   If  you  have any questions regarding this document, its copyright, or
   publishing  this  document  in  non-electronic  form,  please  contact
   Matthew P. Barnson.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.3. Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the
concepts, examples, and other content at your own risk. As this is a new
edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies that may
damage your system. Use of this document may cause your girlfriend to leave
you, your cats to pee on your furniture and clothing, your computer to cease
functioning, your boss to fire you, and global thermonuclear war. Proceed
with caution.

All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically
noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements,
with the exception of the term "GNU/Linux". I wholeheartedly endorse the use
of GNU/Linux in every situation where it is appropriate. It is an extremely
versatile, stable, and robust operating system that offers an ideal
operating environment for Bugzilla.

You are strongly recommended to make a backup of your system before
installing Bugzilla and at regular intervals thereafter. Heaven knows it's
saved my bacon time after time; if you implement any suggestion in this
Guide, implement this one!

Although the Bugzilla development team has taken great care to ensure that
all easily-exploitable bugs or options are documented or fixed in the code,
security holes surely exist. Great care should be taken both in the
installation and usage of this software. Carefully consider the implications
of installing other network services with Bugzilla. The Bugzilla development
team members, Netscape Communications, America Online Inc., and any
affiliated developers or sponsors assume no liability for your use of this
product. You have the source code to this product, and are responsible for
auditing it yourself to insure your security needs are met.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.4. New Versions

This is the 2.14 version of The Bugzilla Guide. If you are reading this from
any source other than those below, please check one of these mirrors to make
sure you are reading an up-to-date version of the Guide.

This document can be found in the following places:

     * TriloBYTE
     * Mozilla.org
     * The Linux Documentation Project

   The latest version of this document can be checked out via CVS. Please
   follow  the  instructions available at the Mozilla CVS page, and check
   out the mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/docs/ branch.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.5. Credits

The people listed below have made enormous contributions to the creation of
this Guide, through their dedicated hacking efforts, numerous e-mail and IRC
support sessions, and overall excellent contribution to the Bugzilla
community:

Terry Weissman for initially writing Bugzilla and creating the README upon
which the UNIX installation documentation is largely based.

Tara Hernandez for keeping Bugzilla development going strong after Terry
left Mozilla.org

Dave Lawrence for providing insight into the key differences between Red
Hat's customized Bugzilla, and being largely responsible for the "Red Hat
Bugzilla" appendix

Dawn Endico for being a hacker extraordinaire and putting up with my
incessant questions and arguments on irc.mozilla.org in #mozwebtools

Last but not least, all the members of the netscape.public.mozilla.webtools
newsgroup. Without your discussions, insight, suggestions, and patches, this
could never have happened.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.6. Contributors

Thanks go to these people for significant contributions to this
documentation (in no particular order):

Andrew Pearson, Spencer Smith, Eric Hanson, Kevin Brannen, Ron Teitelbaum,
Jacob Steenhagen, Joe Robins
     _________________________________________________________________

1.7. Feedback

I welcome feedback on this document. Without your submissions and input,
this Guide cannot continue to exist. Please mail additions, comments,
criticisms, etc. to <barnboy@trilobyte.net>. Please send flames to
<devnull@localhost>
     _________________________________________________________________

1.8. Translations

The Bugzilla Guide needs translators! Please volunteer your translation into
the language of your choice. If you will translate this Guide, please notify
the members of the mozilla-webtools mailing list at
<mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org>, and arrange with Matt Barnson to check it
into CVS.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.9. Document Conventions

This document uses the following conventions

   Descriptions Appearance
   Warnings

   Caution

   Warnings.
   Hint

   Tip

   Hint.
   Notes

   Note

   Note.
   Information requiring special attention

   Warning

   Warning.
   File Names file.extension
   Directory Names directory
   Commands to be typed command
   Applications Names application
   Prompt of users command under bash shell bash$
   Prompt of root users command under bash shell bash#
   Prompt of user command under tcsh shell tcsh$
   Environment Variables VARIABLE
   Emphasized word word
   Code Example
   <para>Beginning and end of paragraph</para>
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2. Using Bugzilla

  

   What, Why, How, & Where?
     _________________________________________________________________

2.1. What is Bugzilla?

Bugzilla is one example of a class of programs called "Defect Tracking
Systems", or, more commonly, "Bug-Tracking Systems". Defect Tracking Systems
allow individual or groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs
in their product effectively. Bugzilla was originally written by Terry
Weissman in a programming language called "TCL", to replace a crappy
bug-tracking database used internally for Netscape Communications. Terry
later ported Bugzilla to Perl from TCL, and in Perl it remains to this day.
Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors at the time charged
enormous licensing fees, and Bugzilla quickly became a favorite of the
open-source crowd (with its genesis in the open-source browser project,
Mozilla). It is now the de-facto standard defect-tracking system against
which all others are measured.

Bugzilla has matured immensely, and now boasts many advanced features. These
include:

     * integrated, product-based granular security schema
     * inter-bug dependencies and dependency graphing
     * advanced reporting capabilities
     * a robust, stable RDBMS back-end
     * extensive configurability
     * a very well-understood and well-thought-out natural bug resolution
       protocol
     * email, XML, console, and HTTP APIs
     * available integration with automated software configuration
       management systems, including Perforce and CVS (through the
       Bugzilla email interface and checkin/checkout scripts)
     * too many more features to list

   Despite  its  current  robustness  and popularity, Bugzilla faces some
   near-term challenges, such as reliance on a single database, a lack of
   abstraction of the user interface and program logic, verbose email bug
   notifications,   a  powerful  but  daunting  query  interface,  little
   reporting configurability, problems with extremely large queries, some
   unsupportable  bug  resolution  options,  little  internationalization
   (although  non-US  character  sets  are  accepted  for  comments), and
   dependence on some nonstandard libraries.

   Some  recent headway has been made on the query front, however. If you
   are  using  the  latest  version of Bugzilla, you should see a "simple
   search"  form on the default front page of your Bugzilla install. Type
   in  two  or  three  search  terms and you should pull up some relevant
   information. This is also available as "queryhelp.cgi".

   Despite  these  small  problems,  Bugzilla is very hard to beat. It is
   under  very  active  development  to  address  the current issues, and
   continually gains new features.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.2. Why Should We Use Bugzilla?

  

   No, Who's on first...

   For  many years, defect-tracking software has remained principally the
   domain  of  large  software  development houses. Even then, most shops
   never  bothered  with bug-tracking software, and instead simply relied
   on  shared  lists  and  email  to  monitor the status of defects. This
   procedure  is  error-prone  and tends to cause those bugs judged least
   significant by developers to be dropped or ignored.

   These days, many companies are finding that integrated defect-tracking
   systems  reduce  downtime,  increase  productivity, and raise customer
   satisfaction  with  their systems. Along with full disclosure, an open
   bug-tracker  allows  manufacturers to keep in touch with their clients
   and  resellers,  to  communicate about problems effectively throughout
   the data management chain. Many corporations have also discovered that
   defect-tracking   helps   reduce   costs   by   providing  IT  support
   accountability,  telephone  support  knowledge  bases,  and  a common,
   well-understood  system  for accounting for unusual system or software
   issues.

   But why should you use Bugzilla?

   Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses currently
   include   IT   support   queues,   Systems  Administration  deployment
   management,   chip  design  and  development  problem  tracking  (both
   pre-and-post  fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for
   luminaries  such  as  Redhat,  Loki  software,  Linux-Mandrake, and VA
   Systems.  Combined  with systems such as CVS, Bonsai, or Perforce SCM,
   Bugzilla  provides  a  powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration
   management and replication problems

   Bugzilla can dramatically increase the productivity and accountability
   of  individual  employees  by  providing  a  documented  workflow  and
   positive  feedback for good performance. How many times do you wake up
   in  the  morning,  remembering  that you were supposed to do something
   today,  but you just can't quite remember? Put it in Bugzilla, and you
   have a record of it from which you can extrapolate milestones, predict
   product  versions  for  integration,  and  by  using Bugzilla's e-mail
   integration  features  be able to follow the discussion trail that led
   to critical decisions.

   Ultimately,  Bugzilla  puts  the  power  in your hands to improve your
   value  to your employer or business while providing a usable framework
   for your natural attention to detail and knowledge store to flourish.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3. How do I use Bugzilla?

  

   Hey! I'm Woody! Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!

   Bugzilla is a large, complex system. Describing how to use it requires
   some time. If you are only interested in installing or administering a
   Bugzilla installation, please consult the Installing and Administering
   Bugzilla  portions  of  this  Guide. This section is principally aimed
   towards  developing  end-user  mastery  of  Bugzilla, so you may fully
   enjoy  the  benefits  afforded  by  using  this  reliable  open-source
   bug-tracking software.

   Throughout  this  portion  of the Guide, we will refer to user account
   options    available    at    the    Bugzilla    test    installation,
   landfill.tequilarista.org.

   Note

   Some people have run into difficulties completing this tutorial. If
   you run into problems, please check the updated online documentation
   available at http://www.trilobyte.net/barnsons. If you're still
   stumped, please subscribe to the newsgroup and provide details of
   exactly what's stumping you! If enough people complain, I'll have to
   fix it in the next version of this Guide. You can subscribe to the
   newsgroup at news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.webtools
   Although  Landfill serves as a great introduction to Bugzilla, it does
   not  offer  all  the  options  you  would  have  as a user on your own
   installation  of  Bugzilla, nor can it do more than serve as a general
   introduction   to   Bugzilla.   Additionally,   Landfill   often  runs
   cutting-edge versions of Bugzilla for testing, so some things may work
   slightly differently than mentioned here.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3.1. Create a Bugzilla Account

First things first! If you want to use Bugzilla, first you need to create an
account. Consult with the administrator responsible for your installation of
Bugzilla for the URL you should use to access it. If you're test-driving the
end-user Bugzilla experience, use this URL:
http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/

    1. Click the "Open a new Bugzilla account" link.
    2. Enter your "E-mail address" and "Real Name" (or whatever name you
       want to call yourself) in the spaces provided, then select the
       "Create Account" button.
    3. Within moments, you should receive an email to the address you
       provided above, which contains your login name (generally the same
       as the email address), and a password you can use to access your
       account. This password is randomly generated, and should be
       changed at your nearest opportunity (we'll go into how to do it
       later).
    4. Click the "Log In" link in the yellow area at the bottom of the
       page in your browser, then enter your "E-mail address" and
       "Password" you just received into the spaces provided, and select
       "Login".

   Note

   If you ever forget your password, you can come back to this page,
   enter your "E-mail address", then select the "E-mail me a password"
   button to have your password mailed to you again so that you can
   login.

   Caution

   Many modern browsers include an "Auto-Complete" or "Form Fill" feature
   to remember the user names and passwords you type in at many sites.
   Unfortunately, sometimes they attempt to guess what you will put in as
   your password, and guess wrong. If you notice a text box is already
   filled out, please overwrite the contents of the text box so you can
   be sure to input the correct information.

   Congratulations!  If  you  followed  these directions, you now are the
   proud  owner of a user account on landfill.tequilarista.org (Landfill)
   or  your  local Bugzilla install. You should now see in your browser a
   page  called the "Bugzilla Query Page". It may look daunting, but with
   this Guide to walk you through it, you will master it in no time.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3.2. The Bugzilla Query Page

The Bugzilla Query Page is the heart and soul of the Bugzilla user
experience. It is the master interface where you can find any bug report,
comment, or patch currently in the Bugzilla system. We'll go into how to
create your own bug report later on.

There are efforts underway to simplify query usage. If you have a local
installation of Bugzilla 2.12 or higher, you should have quicksearch.html
available to use and simplify your searches. There is also a helper for the
query interface, called queryhelp.cgi. Landfill tends to run the latest
code, so these two utilities should be available there for your perusal.

At this point, let's visit the query page.
landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi

The first thing you need to notice about the Bugzilla Query Page is that
nearly every box you see on your screen has a hyperlink nearby, explaining
what it is or what it does. Near the upper-left-hand corner of your browser
window you should see the word "Status" underlined. Select it.

Notice the page that popped up? Every underlined word you see on your screen
is a hyperlink that will take you to context-sensitive help. Click around
for a while, and learn what everything here does. To return to the query
interface after pulling up a help page, use the "Back" button in your
browser.

I'm sure that after checking out the online help, you are now an expert on
the Bugzilla Query Page. If, however, you feel you haven't mastered it yet,
let me walk you through making a few successful queries to find out what
there are in the Bugzilla bug-tracking system itself.

    1. Ensure you are back on the "Bugzilla Query Page". Do nothing in
       the boxes marked "Status", "Resolution", "Platform", "OpSys",
       "Priority", or "Severity". The default query for "Status" is to
       find all bugs that are NEW, ASSIGNED, or REOPENED, which is what
       we want. If you don't select anything in the other 5 scrollboxes
       there, then you are saying that "any of these are OK"; we're not
       locking ourselves into only finding bugs on the "DEC" Platform, or
       "Windows 95" OpSys (Operating System). You're smart, I think you
       have it figured out.
       Basically, selecting anything on the query page narrows your
       search down. Leaving stuff unselected, or text boxes unfilled,
       broadens your search.
    2. You see the box immediately below the top six boxes that contains
       an "Email" text box, with the words "matching as", a drop-down
       selection box, then some checkboxes with "Assigned To" checked by
       default? This allows you to filter your search down based upon
       email address. Let's put my email address in there, and see what
       happens.
       Type "barnboy@trilobyte.net" in the top Email text box.
    3. Let's narrow the search some more. Scroll down until you find the
       box with the word "Program" over the top of it. This is where we
       can narrow our search down to only specific products (software
       programs or product lines) in our Bugzilla database. Please notice
       the box is a scrollbox. Using the down arrow on the scrollbox,
       scroll down until you can see an entry called "Bugzilla". Select
       this entry.
    4. Did you notice that some of the boxes to the right changed when
       you selected "Bugzilla"? Every Program (or Product) has different
       Versions, Components, and Target Milestones associated with it. A
       "Version" is the number of a software program.
       Example 2-1. Some Famous Software Versions
       Do you remember the hype in 1995 when Microsoft Windows 95(r) was
       released? It may have been several years ago, but Microsoft(tm)
       spent over $300 Million advertising this new Version of their
       software. Three years later, they released Microsoft Windows
       98(r), another new version, to great fanfare, and then in 2000
       quietly released Microsoft Windows ME(Millenium Edition)(r).
       Software "Versions" help a manufacturer differentiate their
       current product from their previous products. Most do not identify
       their products by the year they were released. Instead, the
       "original" version of their software will often be numbered "1.0",
       with small bug-fix releases on subsequent tenths of a digit. In
       most cases, it's not a decimal number; for instance, often 1.9 is
       an older version of the software than 1.11, but is a newer version
       than 1.1.1.
       In general, a "Version" in Bugzilla should refer to released
       products, not products that have not yet been released to the
       public. Forthcoming products are what the Target Milestone field
       is for.
       A "Component" is a piece of a Product. It may be a standalone
       program, or some other logical division of a Product or Program.
       Normally, a Component has a single Owner, who is responsible for
       overseeing efforts to improve that Component.
       Example 2-2. Mozilla's Bugzilla Components
       Mozilla's "Bugzilla" Product is composed of several pieces
       (Components):

   Administration, Administration of a bugzilla installation, including
   editcomponents.cgi, editgroups.cgi, editkeywords.cgi, editparams.cgi,
   editproducts.cgi, editusers.cgi, editversions.cgi, and
   sanitycheck.cgi.
   Bugzilla-General, Anything that doesn't fit in the other components,
   or spans multiple components.
   Creating/Changing Bugs, Creating, changing, and viewing bugs.
   enter_bug.cgi, post_bug.cgi, show_bug.cgi and process_bug.cgi.
   Documentation, The bugzilla documentation, including anything in the
   docs/ directory and The Bugzilla Guide (This document :)
       Email, Anything to do with email sent by Bugzilla. processmail
   Installation, The installation process of Bugzilla. This includes
   checksetup.pl and whatever else it evolves into.
   Query/Buglist, Anything to do with searching for bugs and viewing the
   buglists. query.cgi and buglist.cgi
   Reporting/Charting, Getting reports from Bugzilla. reports.cgi and
   duplicates.cgi
   User Accounts, Anything about managing a user account from the user's
   perspective. userprefs.cgi, saved queries, creating accounts, changing
   passwords, logging in, etc.
   User Interface, General issues having to do with the user interface
   cosmetics (not functionality) including cosmetic issues, HTML
   templates, etc.
       A "Milestone", or "Target Milestone" is a often a planned future
       "Version" of a product. In many cases, though, Milestones simply
       represent significant dates for a developer. Having certain
       features in your Product is frequently tied to revenue (money) the
       developer will receive if the features work by the time she
       reaches the Target Milestone. Target Milestones are a great tool
       to organize your time. If someone will pay you $100,000 for
       incorporating certain features by a certain date, those features
       by that Milestone date become a very high priority. Milestones
       tend to be highly malleable creatures, though, that appear to be
       in reach but are out of reach by the time the important day
       arrives.
       The Bugzilla Project has set up Milestones for future Bugzilla
       versions 2.14, 2.16, 2.18, 3.0, etc. However, a Target Milestone
       can just as easily be a specific date, code name, or weird
       alphanumeric combination, like "M19".
    5. OK, now let's select the "Bugzilla" component from its scrollbox.
    6. Skip down the page a bit -- do you see the "submit query" button?
       Select it, and let's run this query!
    7. Congratulations! You've completed your first Query, and have
       before you the Bug List of the author of this Guide, Matthew P.
       Barnson (barnboy@trilobyte.net). If I'm doing well, you'll have a
       cryptic "Zarro Boogs Found" message on your screen. It is just a
       happy hacker's way of saying "Zero Bugs Found". However, I am
       fairly certain I will always have some bugs assigned to me that
       aren't done yet, so you won't often see that message!

   I  encourage  you to click the bug numbers in the left-hand column and
   examine  my  bugs.  Also notice that if you click the underlined links
   near  the  top of this page, they do not take you to context-sensitive
   help  here,  but  instead sort the columns of bugs on the screen! When
   you  need  to sort your bugs by priority, severity, or the people they
   are assigned to, this is a tremendous timesaver.

   A couple more interesting things about the Bug List page:

   Change Columns: by selecting this link, you can show all kinds of
   information in the Bug List
   Change several bugs at once: If you have sufficient rights to change
   all the bugs shown in the Bug List, you can mass-modify them. This is
   a big time-saver.
   Send mail to bug owners: If you have many related bugs, you can
   request an update from every person who owns the bugs in the Bug List
   asking them the status.
   Edit this query: If you didn't get exactly the results you were
   looking for, you can return to the Query page through this link and
   make small revisions to the query you just made so you get more
   accurate results.

   Note

   There are many more options to the Bugzilla Query Page and the Bug
   List than I have shown you. But this should be enough for you to learn
   to get around. I encourage you to check out the Bugzilla Home Page to
   learn about the Anatomy and Life Cycle of a Bug before continuing.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3.3. Creating and Managing Bug Reports

  

   And all this time, I thought we were taking bugs out...
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3.3.1. Writing a Great Bug Report

Before we plunge into writing your first bug report, I encourage you to read
some bug-writing guidelines. If you are reading this document as part of a
Bugzilla CVS checkout or un-tarred Bugzilla distribution, you should be able
to read them by clicking here. If you are reading this online, check out the
Mozilla.org bug-writing guidelines at
http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html. While some of
the advice is Mozilla-specific, the basic principles of reporting
Reproducible, Specific bugs, isolating the Product you are using, the
Version of the Product, the Component which failed, the Hardware Platform,
and Operating System you were using at the time of the failure go a long way
toward ensuring accurate, responsible fixes for the bug that bit you.

While you are at it, why not learn how to find previously reported bugs?
Mozilla.org has published a great tutorial on finding duplicate bugs,
available at
http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/beginning-duplicate-finding.html.

I realize this was a lot to read. However, understanding the mentality of
writing great bug reports will help us on the next part!

    1. Go back to http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/ in your
       browser.
    2. Select the Enter a new bug report link.
    3. Select a product.
    4. Now you should be at the "Enter Bug" form. The "reporter" should
       have been automatically filled out for you (or else Bugzilla
       prompted you to Log In again -- you did keep the email with your
       username and password, didn't you?).
    5. Select a Component in the scrollbox.
    6. Bugzilla should have made reasonable guesses, based upon your
       browser, for the "Platform" and "OS" drop-down boxes. If those are
       wrong, change them -- if you're on an SGI box running IRIX, we
       want to know!
    7. Fill in the "Assigned To" box with the email address you provided
       earlier. This way you don't end up sending copies of your bug to
       lots of other people, since it's just a test bug.
    8. Leave the "CC" text box blank. Fill in the "URL" box with
       "http://www.mozilla.org".
    9. Enter "The Bugzilla Guide" in the Summary text box, and place any
       comments you have on this tutorial, or the Guide in general, into
       the Description box.

   Voila! Select "Commit" and send in your bug report! Next we'll look at
   resolving bugs.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.3.3.2. Managing your Bug Reports

OK, you should have a link to the bug you just created near the top of your
page. It should say "Bug XXXX posted", with a link to the right saying "Back
to BUG# XXXX". Select this link.

    1. Scroll down a bit on the subsequent page, until you see the
       "Resolve bug, changing resolution to (dropdown box). Normally, you
       would "Accept bug (change status to ASSIGNED)", fix it, and then
       resolve. But in this case, we're going to short-circuit the
       process because this wasn't a real bug. Change the dropdown next
       to "Resolve Bug" to "INVALID", make sure the radio button is
       marked next to "Resolve Bug", then click "Commit".
    2. Hey! It said it couldn't take the change in a big red box! That's
       right, you must specify a Comment in order to make this change.
       Select the "Back" button in your browser, add a Comment, then try
       Resolving the bug with INVALID status again. This time it should
       work.

   You  have  now  learned  the basics of Bugzilla navigation, entering a
   bug,  and  bug maintenance. I encourage you to explore these features,
   and  see  what  you  can  do  with  them!  We'll spend no more time on
   individual  Bugs or Queries from this point on, so you are on your own
   there.

   But I'll give a few last hints!

   There  is a CLUE on the Query page that will teach you more how to use
   the form.

   If you click the hyperlink on the Component box of the Query page, you
   will  be  presented  a form that will describe what all the components
   are.

   Possibly  the  most  powerful feature of the Query page is the Boolean
   Chart  section.  It's  a  bit confusing to use the first time, but can
   provide  unparalleled  flexibility  in  your  queries, allowing you to
   build extremely powerful requests.

   Finally, you can build some nifty Reports using the "Bug Reports" link
   near  the  bottom  of  the  query  page,  and  also  available via the
   "Reports" link at the footer of each page.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4. Where can I find my user preferences?

     

   Indiana, it feels like we walking on fortune cookies!

   These ain't fortune cookies, kid...

   Customized  User  Preferences  offer  tremendous  versatility  to your
   individual Bugzilla experience. Let's plunge into what you can do! The
   first  step  is  to  click the "Edit prefs" link at the footer of each
   page once you have logged in to Landfill.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.1. Account Settings

On this page, you can change your basic Account Settings, including your
password and full name. For security reasons, in order to change anything on
this page you must type your current password into the "Old Password" field.
If you wish to change your password, type the new password you want into the
"New Password" field and again into the "Re-enter new password" field to
ensure you typed your new password correctly. Select the "Submit" button and
you are done.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.2. Email Settings

2.4.2.1. Email Notification

Here you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent you from Bugzilla.
Although this is referred to as "Advanced Email Filtering Options", they
are, in fact, the standard email filter set. All of them are
self-explanatory, but you can use the filters in interesting ways. For
instance, some people (notably Quality Assurance personnel) often only care
to receive updates regarding a bug when the bug changes state, so they can
track bugs on their flow charts and know when it is time to pull the bug
onto a quality assurance platform for inspection. Other people set up email
gateways to Bonsai, the Mozilla automated CVS management system or
Tinderbox, the Mozilla automated build management system, and restrict which
types of Bugzilla information are fed to these systems..
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.2.2. New Email Technology

   Note

   This option may not be available in all Bugzilla installations,
   depending upon the preferences of the systems administrator
   responsible for the setup of your Bugzilla. However, if you really
   want this functionality, ask her to "enable newemailtech in Params"
   and "make it the default for all new users", referring her to the
   Administration section of this Guide.

   Disregard  the  warnings  about  "experimental and bleeding edge"; the
   code  to  handle email in a cleaner manner than that historically used
   for Bugzilla is quite robust and well-tested now.

   I  recommend  you  enable the option, "Click here to sign up (and risk
   any  bugs)".  Your  email-box  will  thank you for it. The fundamental
   shift  in  "newemailtech"  is  away  from standard UNIX "diff" output,
   which is quite ugly, to a prettier, better laid-out email.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.2.3. "Watching" Users

   Note

   This option may not be available in all Bugzilla installations,
   depending upon the preferences of the systems administrator
   responsible for the setup of your Bugzilla. However, if you really
   want this functionality, ask her to "enable watchers in Params".

   By entering user email names into the "Users to watch" text entry box,
   delineated by commas, you can watch bugs of other users. This powerful
   functionality   enables  seamless  transitions  as  developers  change
   projects, managers wish to get in touch with the issues faced by their
   direct  reports,  or  users  go  on  vacation.  If  any of these three
   situations  apply to you, you will undoubtedly find this feature quite
   convenient.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.3. Page Footer

   Note

   By default, this page is quite barren. However, go explore the Query
   Page some more; you will find that you can store numerous queries on
   the server, so if you regularly run a particular query it is just a
   drop-down menu away. On this page of Preferences, if you have many
   stored queries you can elect to have them always one-click away!

   If  you  have  many  stored  queries on the server, here you will find
   individual  drop-downs for each stored query. Each drop-down gives you
   the  option  of  that  query  appearing on the footer of every page in
   Bugzilla!  This  gives  you  powerful  one-click access to any complex
   searches  you  may  set  up,  and  is an excellent way to impress your
   boss...

   Tip

   By default, the "My Bugs" link appears at the bottom of each page.
   However, this query gives you both the bugs you have reported, as well
   as those you are assigned. One of the most common uses for this page
   is to remove the "My Bugs" link, replacing it with two other queries,
   commonly called "My Bug Reports" and "My Bugs" (but only referencing
   bugs assigned to you). This allows you to distinguish those bugs you
   have reported from those you are assigned. I commonly set up complex
   Boolean queries in the Query page and link them to my footer in this
   page. When they are significantly complex, a one-click reference can
   save hours of work.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.4.4. Permissions

This is a purely informative page which outlines your current permissions on
this installation of Bugzilla. If you have permissions to grant certain
permissions to other users, the "other users" link appears on this page as
well as the footer. For more information regarding user administration,
please consult the Administration section of this Guide.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.5. Using Bugzilla-Conclusion

Thank you for reading through this portion of the Bugzilla Guide. I
anticipate it may not yet meet the needs of all readers. If you have
additional comments or corrections to make, please submit your contributions
to the mozilla-webtools mailing list/newsgroup. The mailing list is mirrored
to the netscape.public.mozilla.webtools newsgroup, and the newsgroup is
mirrored to mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 3. Installation

These installation instructions are presented assuming you are installing on
a UNIX or completely POSIX-compliant system. If you are installing on
Microsoft Windows or another oddball operating system, please consult the
appropriate sections in this installation guide for notes on how to be
successful.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.1. ERRATA

Here are some miscellaneous notes about possible issues you main run into
when you begin your Bugzilla installation. Reference platforms for Bugzilla
installation are Redhat Linux 7.2, Linux-Mandrake 8.0, and Solaris 8.

   If you are installing Bugzilla on S.u.S.e. Linux, or some other
   distributions with "paranoid" security options, it is possible that
   the checksetup.pl script may fail with the error: cannot
   chdir(/var/spool/mqueue): Permission denied This is because your
   /var/spool/mqueue directory has a mode of "drwx------". Type chmod 755
   /var/spool/mqueue as root to fix this problem.
   Bugzilla may be installed on Macintosh OS X (10), which is a
   unix-based (BSD) operating system. Everything required for Bugzilla on
   OS X will install cleanly, but the optional GD perl module which is
   used for bug charting requires some additional setup for installation.
   Please see the Mac OS X installation section below for details
   Release Notes for Bugzilla 2.14 are available at docs/rel_notes.txt in
   your Bugzilla source distribution.
   The preferred documentation for Bugzilla is available in docs/, with a
   variety of document types available. Please refer to these documents
   when installing, configuring, and maintaining your Bugzilla
   installation.

   Warning

   Bugzilla is not a package where you can just plop it in a directory,
   twiddle a few things, and you're off. Installing Bugzilla assumes you
   know your variant of UNIX or Microsoft Windows well, are familiar with
   the command line, and are comfortable compiling and installing a
   plethora of third-party utilities. To install Bugzilla on Win32
   requires fair Perl proficiency, and if you use a webserver other than
   Apache you should be intimately familiar with the security mechanisms
   and CGI environment thereof.

   Warning

   Bugzilla has not undergone a complete security review. Security holes
   may exist in the code. Great care should be taken both in the
   installation and usage of this software. Carefully consider the
   implications of installing other network services with Bugzilla.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2. Step-by-step Install

3.2.1. Introduction

Installation of bugzilla is pretty straightforward, particularly if your
machine already has MySQL and the MySQL-related perl packages installed. If
those aren't installed yet, then that's the first order of business. The
other necessary ingredient is a web server set up to run cgi scripts. While
using Apache for your webserver is not required, it is recommended.

Bugzilla has been successfully installed under Solaris, Linux, and Win32.
The peculiarities of installing on Win32 (Microsoft Windows) are not
included in this section of the Guide; please check out the Win32
Installation Notes for further advice on getting Bugzilla to work on
Microsoft Windows.

The Bugzilla Guide is contained in the "docs/" folder in your Bugzilla
distribution. It is available in plain text (docs/txt), HTML (docs/html), or
SGML source (docs/sgml).
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.2. Installing the Prerequisites

   Note

   If you want to skip these manual installation steps for the CPAN
   dependencies listed below, and are running the very most recent
   version of Perl and MySQL (both the executables and development
   libraries) on your system, check out Bundle::Bugzilla in Using
   Bundle::Bugzilla instead of manually installing Perl modules

   The  software  packages  necessary  for the proper running of bugzilla
   are:

    1. MySQL database server and the mysql client (3.22.5 or greater)
    2. Perl  (5.004  or  greater, 5.6.1 is recommended if you wish to use
       Bundle::Bugzilla)
    3. DBI Perl module
    4. Data::Dumper Perl module
    5. Bundle::Mysql Perl module collection
    6. TimeDate Perl module collection
    7. GD perl module (1.8.3) (optional, for bug charting)
    8. Chart::Base Perl module (0.99c) (optional, for bug charting)
    9. DB_File Perl module (optional, for bug charting)
   10. The web server of your choice. Apache is recommended.
   11. MIME::Parser   Perl  module  (optional,  for  contrib/bug_email.pl
       interface)

   Warning

   It is a good idea, while installing Bugzilla, to ensure it is not
   accessible by other machines on the Internet. Your machine may be
   vulnerable to attacks while you are installing. In other words, ensure
   there is some kind of firewall between you and the rest of the
   Internet. Many installation steps require an active Internet
   connection to complete, but you must take care to ensure that at no
   point is your machine vulnerable to an attack.

   Note

   Linux-Mandrake 8.0, the author's test system, includes every required
   and optional library for Bugzilla. The easiest way to install them is
   by using the urpmi utility. If you follow these commands, you should
   have everything you need for Bugzilla, and checksetup.pl should not
   complain about any missing libraries. You may already have some of
   these installed.

   bash# urpmi perl-mysql
   bash# urpmi perl-chart
   bash# urpmi perl-gd
   bash# urpmi perl-MailTools (for Bugzilla email integration)
   bash# urpmi apache-modules
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.3. Installing MySQL Database

Visit MySQL homepage at www.mysql.com and grab the latest stable release of
the server. Many of the binary versions of MySQL store their data files in
/var which is often part of a smaller root partition. If you decide to build
from sources you can easily set the dataDir as an option to configure.

If you install from source or non-package (RPM, deb, etc.) binaries you need
to add mysqld to your init scripts so the server daemon will come back up
whenever your machine reboots. Further discussion of UNIX init sequences are
beyond the scope of this guide.

   Note

   You should have your init script start mysqld with the ability to
   accept large packets. By default, mysqld only accepts packets up to
   64K long. This limits the size of attachments you may put on bugs. If
   you add -O max_allowed_packet=1M to the command that starts mysqld (or
   safe_mysqld), then you will be able to have attachments up to about 1
   megabyte.

   Note

   If you plan on running Bugzilla and MySQL on the same machine,
   consider using the --skip-networking option in the init script. This
   enhances security by preventing network access to MySQL.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.4. Perl (5.004 or greater)

Any machine that doesn't have perl on it is a sad machine indeed. Perl for
*nix systems can be gotten in source form from http://www.perl.com. Although
Bugzilla runs with most post-5.004 versions of Perl, it's a good idea to be
up to the very latest version if you can when running Bugzilla. As of this
writing, that is perl version 5.6.1.

Perl is now a far cry from the the single compiler/interpreter binary it
once was. It includes a great many required modules and quite a few other
support files. If you're not up to or not inclined to build perl from
source, you'll want to install it on your machine using some sort of
packaging system (be it RPM, deb, or what have you) to ensure a sane
install. In the subsequent sections you'll be installing quite a few perl
modules; this can be quite ornery if your perl installation isn't up to
snuff.

   Warning

   Many people complain that Perl modules will not install for them. Most
   times, the error messages complain that they are missing a file in
   "@INC". Virtually every time, this is due to permissions being set too
   restrictively for you to compile Perl modules or not having the
   necessary Perl development libraries installed on your system..
   Consult your local UNIX systems administrator for help solving these
   permissions issues; if you are the local UNIX sysadmin, please consult
   the newsgroup/mailing list for further assistance or hire someone to
   help you out.

   Tip

   You can skip the following Perl module installation steps by
   installing Bundle::Bugzilla from CPAN, which includes them. All Perl
   module installation steps require you have an active Internet
   connection. If you wish to use Bundle::Bugzilla, however, you must be
   using the latest version of Perl (at this writing, version 5.6.1)

   bash# perl -MCPAN -e 'install "Bundle::Bugzilla"'

   Bundle::Bugzilla doesn't include GD, Chart::Base, or MIME::Parser,
   which are not essential to a basic Bugzilla install. If installing
   this bundle fails, you should install each module individually to
   isolate the problem.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.5. DBI Perl Module

The DBI module is a generic Perl module used by other database related Perl
modules. For our purposes it's required by the MySQL-related modules. As
long as your Perl installation was done correctly the DBI module should be a
breeze. It's a mixed Perl/C module, but Perl's MakeMaker system simplifies
the C compilation greatly.

Like almost all Perl modules DBI can be found on the Comprehensive Perl
Archive Network (CPAN) at http://www.cpan.org. The CPAN servers have a real
tendency to bog down, so please use mirrors. The current location at the
time of this writing can be found in Appendix B.

Quality, general Perl module installation instructions can be found on the
CPAN website, but the easy thing to do is to just use the CPAN shell which
does all the hard work for you.

To use the CPAN shell to install DBI:

   bash# perl -MCPAN -e 'install "DBI"'

   Note

   Replace "DBI" with the name of whichever module you wish to install,
   such as Data::Dumper, TimeDate, GD, etc.

To do it the hard way:

   Untar the module tarball -- it should create its own directory

   CD to the directory just created, and enter the following commands:

    1. bash# perl Makefile.PL
    2. bash# make
    3. bash# make test
    4. bash# make install

   If  everything  went  ok  that  should  be  all it takes. For the vast
   majority of perl modules this is all that's required.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.6. Data::Dumper Perl Module

The Data::Dumper module provides data structure persistence for Perl
(similar to Java's serialization). It comes with later sub-releases of Perl
5.004, but a re-installation just to be sure it's available won't hurt
anything.

Data::Dumper is used by the MySQL-related Perl modules. It can be found on
CPAN (see Appendix B) and can be installed by following the same four step
make sequence used for the DBI module.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.7. MySQL related Perl Module Collection

The Perl/MySQL interface requires a few mutually-dependent perl modules.
These modules are grouped together into the the Msql-Mysql-modules package.
This package can be found at CPAN. After the archive file has been
downloaded it should be untarred.

The MySQL modules are all built using one make file which is generated by
running: bash# perl Makefile.pl

The MakeMaker process will ask you a few questions about the desired
compilation target and your MySQL installation. For many of the questions
the provided default will be adequate.

When asked if your desired target is the MySQL or mSQL packages, select the
MySQL related ones. Later you will be asked if you wish to provide backwards
compatibility with the older MySQL packages; you should answer YES to this
question. The default is NO.

A host of 'localhost' should be fine and a testing user of 'test' and a null
password should find itself with sufficient access to run tests on the
'test' database which MySQL created upon installation. If 'make test' and
'make install' go through without errors you should be ready to go as far as
database connectivity is concerned.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.8. TimeDate Perl Module Collection

Many of the more common date/time/calendar related Perl modules have been
grouped into a bundle similar to the MySQL modules bundle. This bundle is
stored on the CPAN under the name TimeDate (see link: Appendix B). The
component module we're most interested in is the Date::Format module, but
installing all of them is probably a good idea anyway. The standard Perl
module installation instructions should work perfectly for this simple
package.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.9. GD Perl Module (1.8.3)

The GD library was written by Thomas Boutell a long while ago to
programatically generate images in C. Since then it's become the defacto
standard for programatic image construction. The Perl bindings to it found
in the GD library are used on millions of web pages to generate graphs on
the fly. That's what bugzilla will be using it for so you must install it if
you want any of the graphing to work.

Actually bugzilla uses the Graph module which relies on GD itself. Isn't
that always the way with object-oriented programming? At any rate, you can
find the GD library on CPAN in Appendix B.

   Note

   The Perl GD library requires some other libraries that may or may not
   be installed on your system, including libpng and libgd. The full
   requirements are listed in the Perl GD library README. Just realize
   that if compiling GD fails, it's probably because you're missing a
   required library.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.10. Chart::Base Perl Module (0.99c)

The Chart module provides bugzilla with on-the-fly charting abilities. It
can be installed in the usual fashion after it has been fetched from CPAN
where it is found as the Chart-x.x... tarball, linked in Appendix B. Note
that as with the GD perl module, only the version listed above, or newer,
will work. Earlier versions used GIF's, which are no longer supported by the
latest versions of GD.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.11. DB_File Perl Module

DB_File is a module which allows Perl programs to make use of the facilities
provided by Berkeley DB version 1.x. This module is required by
collectstats.pl which is used for bug charting. If you plan to make use of
bug charting, you must install this module.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.12. HTTP Server

You have a freedom of choice here - Apache, Netscape or any other server on
UNIX would do. You can easily run the web server on a different machine than
MySQL, but need to adjust the MySQL "bugs" user permissions accordingly.

   Note

   I strongly recommend Apache as the web server to use. The Bugzilla
   Guide installation instructions, in general, assume you are using
   Apache. As more users use different webservers and send me information
   on the peculiarities of installing using their favorite webserver, I
   will provide notes for them.

   You'll  want  to make sure that your web server will run any file with
   the  .cgi  extension as a cgi and not just display it. If you're using
   apache  that  means  uncommenting  the  following line in the srm.conf
   file:
   AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

   With  apache you'll also want to make sure that within the access.conf
   file the line:
Options ExecCGI
AllowOverride Limit

   is  in the stanza that covers the directories into which you intend to
   put the bugzilla .html and .cgi files.

   Note

   AllowOverride Limit allows the use of a Deny statement in the
   .htaccess file generated by checksetup.pl

   Users of newer versions of Apache will generally find both of the
   above lines will be in the httpd.conf file, rather than srm.conf or
   access.conf.

   Warning

   There are important files and directories that should not be a served
   by the HTTP server. These are most files in the "data" and "shadow"
   directories and the "localconfig" file. You should configure your HTTP
   server to not serve content from these files. Failure to do so will
   expose critical passwords and other data. Please see .htaccess files
   and security for details on how to do this for Apache. I appreciate
   notes on how to get this same functionality using other webservers.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.13. Installing the Bugzilla Files

You should untar the Bugzilla files into a directory that you're willing to
make writable by the default web server user (probably "nobody"). You may
decide to put the files off of the main web space for your web server or
perhaps off of /usr/local with a symbolic link in the web space that points
to the Bugzilla directory. At any rate, just dump all the files in the same
place, and make sure you can access the files in that directory through your
web server.

   Tip

   If you symlink the bugzilla directory into your Apache's HTML
   heirarchy, you may receive Forbidden errors unless you add the
   "FollowSymLinks" directive to the <Directory> entry for the HTML root.

   Once  all  the  files  are  in  a  web accessible directory, make that
   directory  writable by your webserver's user. This is a temporary step
   until  you run the post-install checksetup.pl script, which locks down
   your installation.

   Lastly,    you'll    need    to    set   up   a   symbolic   link   to
   /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl  for  the  correct  location  of  your  perl
   executable  (probably  /usr/bin/perl). Otherwise you must hack all the
   .cgi  files to change where they look for perl, or use The setperl.csh
   Utility, found in Useful Patches and Utilities for Bugzilla. I suggest
   using the symlink approach for future release compatability.

   Example 3-1. Setting up bonsaitools symlink

   Here's how you set up the Perl symlink on Linux to make Bugzilla work.
   Your  mileage  may vary. For some UNIX operating systems, you probably
   need  to subsitute "/usr/local/bin/perl" for "/usr/bin/perl" below; if
   on  certain  other  UNIX  systems,  Perl may live in weird places like
   "/opt/perl". As root, run these commands:
bash# mkdir /usr/bonsaitools
bash# mkdir /usr/bonsaitools/bin
bash# ln -s /usr/bin/perl /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl

   Alternately,  you  can  simply  run this perl one-liner to change your
   path to perl in all the files in your Bugzilla installation:
perl -pi -e 's@#!/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl@#!/usr/bin/perl@' *cgi *pl Bug.pm pr
ocessmail syncshadowdb

   Change the second path to perl to match your installation.

   Tip

   If you don't have root access to set this symlink up, check out the
   The setperl.csh Utility, listed in Useful Patches and Utilities for
   Bugzilla. It will change the path to perl in all your Bugzilla files
   for you.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.14. Setting Up the MySQL Database

After you've gotten all the software installed and working you're ready to
start preparing the database for its life as a the back end to a high
quality bug tracker.

First, you'll want to fix MySQL permissions to allow access from Bugzilla.
For the purpose of this Installation section, the Bugzilla username will be
"bugs", and will have minimal permissions.

   Warning

   Bugzilla has not undergone a thorough security audit. It may be
   possible for a system cracker to somehow trick Bugzilla into executing
   a command such as DROP DATABASE mysql.

   That would be bad.

   Give the MySQL root user a password. MySQL passwords are limited to 16
   characters.

   bash# mysql -u root mysql
   mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD ('new_password') WHERE
   user='root'; 
   mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   From  this  point  on,  if  you need to access MySQL as the MySQL root
   user,  you  will  need  to  use  mysql  -u  root  -p  and  enter  your
   new_password.  Remember  that MySQL user names have nothing to do with
   Unix user names (login names).

   Next,  we create the "bugs" user, and grant sufficient permissions for
   checksetup.pl,  which  we'll  use  later, to work its magic. This also
   restricts  the  "bugs"  user  to  operations  within a database called
   "bugs",  and  only  allows  the  account  to connect from "localhost".
   Modify it to reflect your setup if you will be connecting from another
   machine or as a different user.

   Remember to set bugs_password to some unique password.

   mysql> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,INDEX,
   ALTER,CREATE,DROP,REFERENCES ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost IDENTIFIED BY
   'bugs_password';
   mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 

   Next,  run  the  magic  checksetup.pl  script.  (Many thanks to Holger
   Schurig  <holgerschurig@nikocity.de> for writing this script!) It will
   make  sure Bugzilla files and directories have reasonable permissions,
   set up the data directory, and create all the MySQL tables.

   bash# ./checksetup.pl

   The first time you run it, it will create a file called localconfig.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.15. Tweaking localconfig

This file contains a variety of settings you may need to tweak including how
Bugzilla should connect to the MySQL database.

The connection settings include:

    1. server's host: just use "localhost" if the MySQL server is local
    2. database name: "bugs" if you're following these directions
    3. MySQL username: "bugs" if you're following these directions
    4. Password for the "bugs" MySQL account above

   You should also install .htaccess files that the Apache webserver will
   use to restrict access to Bugzilla data files. See .htaccess files and
   security.

   Once  you  are  happy with the settings, re-run checksetup.pl. On this
   second  run,  it will create the database and an administrator account
   for which you will be prompted to provide information.

   When logged into an administrator account once Bugzilla is running, if
   you  go to the query page (off of the Bugzilla main menu), you'll find
   an "edit parameters" option that is filled with editable treats.

   Should everything work, you will have a nearly empty Bugzilla database
   and a newly-created localconfig file in your Bugzilla root directory.

   Note

   The second time you run checksetup.pl, you should become the user your
   web server runs as, and that you ensure that you set the
   "webservergroup" parameter in localconfig to match the web server's
   group name, if any. I believe, for the next release of Bugzilla, this
   will be fixed so that Bugzilla supports a "webserveruser" parameter in
   localconfig as well.

   Example 3-2. Running checksetup.pl as the web user

   Assuming your web server runs as user "apache", and Bugzilla is
   installed in "/usr/local/bugzilla", here's one way to run
   checksetup.pl as the web server user. As root, for the second run of
   checksetup.pl, do this:

bash# chown -R apache:apache /usr/local/bugzilla
bash# su - apache
bash# cd /usr/local/bugzilla
bash# ./checksetup.pl

   Note

   The checksetup.pl script is designed so that you can run it at any
   time without causing harm. You should run it after any upgrade to
   Bugzilla.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.16. Setting Up Maintainers Manually (Optional)

If you want to add someone else to every group by hand, you can do it by
typing the appropriate MySQL commands. Run mysql -u root -p bugs You may
need different parameters, depending on your security settings. Then:

   mysql> update profiles set groupset=0x7fffffffffffffff where
   login_name = 'XXX'; (yes, that's fifteen"f"'s.

   replacing XXX with the Bugzilla email address.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.17. The Whining Cron (Optional)

By now you have a fully functional bugzilla, but what good are bugs if
they're not annoying? To help make those bugs more annoying you can set up
bugzilla's automatic whining system. This can be done by adding the
following command as a daily crontab entry (for help on that see that
crontab man page):

cd <your-bugzilla-directory> ; ./whineatnews.pl

   Tip

   Depending on your system, crontab may have several manpages. The
   following command should lead you to the most useful page for this
   purpose:
 man 5 crontab
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.18. Bug Graphs (Optional)

As long as you installed the GD and Graph::Base Perl modules you might as
well turn on the nifty bugzilla bug reporting graphs.

Add a cron entry like this to run collectstats daily at 5 after midnight:

bash# crontab -e
5 0 * * * cd <your-bugzilla-directory> ; ./collectstats.pl

   After  two days have passed you'll be able to view bug graphs from the
   Bug Reports page.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.19. Securing MySQL

If you followed the installation instructions for setting up your "bugs" and
"root" user in MySQL, much of this should not apply to you. If you are
upgrading an existing installation of Bugzilla, you should pay close
attention to this section.

Most MySQL installs have "interesting" default security parameters:

mysqld defaults to running as root
it defaults to allowing external network connections
it has a known port number, and is easy to detect
it defaults to no passwords whatsoever
it defaults to allowing "File_Priv"

   This  means anyone from anywhere on the internet can not only drop the
   database  with  one  SQL  command,  and  they can write as root to the
   system.

   To see your permissions do:

   bash# mysql -u root -p
   mysql> use mysql;
   mysql> show tables;
   mysql> select * from user;
   mysql> select * from db;

   To fix the gaping holes:

   DELETE FROM user WHERE User='';
   UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new_password') WHERE user='root';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   If you're not running "mit-pthreads" you can use:

   GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO bugs@localhost;
   GRANT ALL ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost;
   REVOKE DROP ON bugs.* FROM bugs@localhost;
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   With   "mit-pthreads"   you'll   need   to   modify  the  "globals.pl"
   Mysql->Connect  line  to  specify  a  specific  host  name  instead of
   "localhost", and accept external connections:

   GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO bugs@bounce.hop.com;
   GRANT ALL ON bugs.* TO bugs@bounce.hop.com;
   REVOKE DROP ON bugs.* FROM bugs@bounce.hop.com;
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   Use  .htaccess files with the Apache webserver to secure your bugzilla
   install. See .htaccess files and security

   Consider also:

    1. Turning  off  external networking with "--skip-networking", unless
       you   have  "mit-pthreads",  in  which  case  you  can't.  Without
       networking, MySQL connects with a Unix domain socket.
    2. using  the  --user=  option to mysqld to run it as an unprivileged
       user.
    3. starting MySQL in a chroot jail
    4. running the httpd in a "chrooted" jail
    5. making  sure  the  MySQL  passwords  are  different  from  the  OS
       passwords (MySQL "root" has nothing to do with system "root").
    6. running MySQL on a separate untrusted machine
    7. making backups ;-)
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3. Mac OS X Installation Notes

There are a lot of common libraries and utilities out there that Apple did
not include with Mac OS X, but which run perfectly well on it. The GD
library, which Bugzilla needs to do bug graphs, is one of these.

The easiest way to get a lot of these is with a program called Fink, which
is similar in nature to the CPAN installer, but installs common GNU
utilities. Fink is available from <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fink/>.

Follow the instructions for setting up Fink. Once it's installed, you'll
want to run the following as root: fink install gd

It will prompt you for a number of dependencies, type 'y' and hit enter to
install all of the dependencies. Then watch it work.

To prevent creating conflicts with the software that Apple installs by
default, Fink creates its own directory tree at /sw where it installs most
of the software that it installs. This means your libraries and headers for
libgd will be at /sw/lib and /sw/include instead of /usr/lib and
/usr/local/include. Because of these changed locations for the libraries,
the Perl GD module will not install directly via CPAN (it looks for the
specific paths instead of getting them from your environment). But there's a
way around that :-)

Instead of typing "install GD" at the cpan> prompt, type look GD. This
should go through the motions of downloading the latest version of the GD
module, then it will open a shell and drop you into the build directory.
Apply the following patch to the Makefile.PL file (save the patch into a
file and use the command patch < patchfile:


--- GD-1.33/Makefile.PL Fri Aug  4 16:59:22 2000
+++ GD-1.33-darwin/Makefile.PL  Tue Jun 26 01:29:32 2001
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 warn "NOTICE: This module requires libgd 1.8.3 or higher (shared library versi
on 4.X).\n";

 # =====> PATHS: CHECK AND ADJUST <=====
-my @INC     = qw(-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/gd);
-my @LIBPATH = qw(-L/usr/lib/X11 -L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/X11/lib -L/usr/local/l
ib );
+my @INC     = qw(-I/sw/include -I/sw/include/gd -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/lo
cal/include/gd);
+my @LIBPATH = qw(-L/usr/lib/X11 -L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/X11/lib -L/sw/lib -L/u
sr/local/lib);
 my @LIBS    = qw(-lgd -lpng -lz);

 # FEATURE FLAGS
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@

 push @LIBS,'-lttf' if $TTF;
 push @LIBS,'-ljpeg' if $JPEG;
-push @LIBS, '-lm' unless $^O eq 'MSWin32';
+push @LIBS, '-lm' unless ($^O =~ /^MSWin32|darwin$/);

 # FreeBSD 3.3 with libgd built from ports croaks if -lXpm is specified
 if ($^O ne 'freebsd' && $^O ne 'MSWin32') {



   Then,  run  these  commands  to  finish  the  installation of the perl
   module:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install
   And don't forget to run exit to get back to cpan.

   Happy Hacking!
     _________________________________________________________________

3.4. BSD Installation Notes

For instructions on how to set up Bugzilla on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
BSDi, etc. please consult Section 3.3.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5. Installation General Notes

3.5.1. Modifying Your Running System

Bugzilla optimizes database lookups by storing all relatively static
information in the versioncache file, located in the data/ subdirectory
under your installation directory.

If you make a change to the structural data in your database (the versions
table for example), or to the "constants" encoded in defparams.pl, you will
need to remove the cached content from the data directory (by doing a "rm
data/versioncache"), or your changes won't show up.

That file gets automatically regenerated whenever it's more than an hour
old, so Bugzilla will eventually notice your changes by itself, but
generally you want it to notice right away, so that you can test things.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5.2. Upgrading From Previous Versions

The developers of Bugzilla are constantly adding new tables, columns and
fields. You'll get SQL errors if you just update the code. The strategy to
update is to simply always run the checksetup.pl script whenever you upgrade
your installation of Bugzilla. If you want to see what has changed, you can
read the comments in that file, starting from the end.

If you are running Bugzilla version 2.8 or lower, and wish to upgrade to the
latest version, please consult the file, "UPGRADING-pre-2.8" in the Bugzilla
root directory after untarring the archive.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5.3. .htaccess files and security

To enhance the security of your Bugzilla installation, Bugzilla will
generate .htaccess files which the Apache webserver can use to restrict
access to the bugzilla data files. The checksetup script will generate the
.htaccess files.

   Note

   If you are using an alternate provider of webdot services for graphing
   (as described when viewing editparams.cgi in your web browser), you
   will need to change the ip address in data/webdot/.htaccess to the ip
   address of the webdot server that you are using.

   The   default   .htaccess   file   may  not  provide  adequate  access
   restrictions,  depending  on your web server configuration. Be sure to
   check  the <Directory> entries for your Bugzilla directory so that the
   .htaccess  file  is  allowed  to  override  web  server  defaults. For
   instance,  let's  assume your installation of Bugzilla is installed to
   /usr/local/bugzilla.  You  should  have this <Directory> entry in your
   httpd.conf file:

<Directory /usr/local/bugzilla/>
  Options +FollowSymLinks +Indexes +Includes +ExecCGI
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

           The  important  part  above  is  "AllowOverride  All".  Without  that,
   the  .htaccess  file created by checksetup.pl will not have sufficient
   permissions to protect your Bugzilla installation.

   If you are using Internet Information Server or other web server which
   does not observe .htaccess conventions, you can disable their creation
   by editing localconfig and setting the $create_htaccess variable to 0.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5.4. mod_throttle and Security

It is possible for a user, by mistake or on purpose, to access the database
many times in a row which can result in very slow access speeds for other
users. If your Bugzilla installation is experiencing this problem , you may
install the Apache module mod_throttle which can limit connections by
ip-address. You may download this module at
http://www.snert.com/Software/Throttle/. Follow the instructions to install
into your Apache install. This module only functions with the Apache web
server!. You may use the ThrottleClientIP command provided by this module to
accomplish this goal. See the Module Instructions for more information.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5.5. Preventing untrusted Bugzilla content from executing malicious
Javascript code

It is possible for a Bugzilla to execute malicious Javascript code. Due to
internationalization concerns, we are unable to incorporate the code changes
necessary to fulfill the CERT advisory requirements mentioned in
http://www.cet.org/tech_tips/malicious_code_mitigation.html/#3. Executing
the following code snippet from a UNIX command shell will rectify the
problem if your Bugzilla installation is intended for an English-speaking
audience. As always, be sure your Bugzilla installation has a good backup
before making changes, and I recommend you understand what the script is
doing before executing it.

bash# cd $BUGZILLA_HOME; for i in `ls *.cgi`; \
          do cat $i | sed 's/Content-type\: text\/html/Content-Type: text\/html
\; charset=ISO-8859-1/' >$i.tmp; \
          mv $i.tmp $i; done

   All  this  one-liner  command  does  is  search  for  all instances of
   "Content-type:   text/html"   and   replaces  it  with  "Content-Type:
   text/html;  charset=ISO-8859-1".  This specification prevents possible
   Javascript   attacks   on  the  browser,  and  is  suggested  for  all
   English-speaking  sites.  For  non-english-speaking  Bugzilla sites, I
   suggest changing "ISO-8859-1", above, to "UTF-8".
     _________________________________________________________________

3.5.6. UNIX Installation Instructions History

This document was originally adapted from the Bonsai installation
instructions by Terry Weissman <terry@mozilla.org>.

The February 25, 1999 re-write of this page was done by Ry4an Brase
<ry4an@ry4an.org>, with some edits by Terry Weissman, Bryce Nesbitt, Martin
Pool, & Dan Mosedale (But don't send bug reports to them; report them using
bugzilla, at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Bugzilla ).

This document was heavily modified again Wednesday, March 07 2001 to reflect
changes for Bugzilla 2.12 release by Matthew P. Barnson. The securing MySQL
section should be changed to become standard procedure for Bugzilla
installations.

Finally, the README in its entirety was marked up in SGML and included into
the Guide on April 24, 2001 by Matt Barnson. Since that time, it's undergone
extensive modification as Bugzilla grew.

Comments from people using this Guide for the first time are particularly
welcome.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.6. Win32 Installation Notes

This section covers installation on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and
2000. Bugzilla works fine on Win32 platforms, but please remember that the
Bugzilla team and the author of the Guide neither endorse nor support
installation on Microsoft Windows. Bugzilla installs and runs best and
easiest on UNIX-like operating systems, and that is the way it will stay for
the foreseeable future. The Bugzilla team is considering supporting Win32
for the 2.16 release and later.

The easiest way to install Bugzilla on Intel-archiecture machines is to
install some variant of GNU/Linux, then follow the UNIX installation
instructions in this Guide. If you have any influence in the platform choice
for running this system, please choose GNU/Linux instead of Microsoft
Windows.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.6.1. Win32 Installation: Step-by-step

   Note

   You should be familiar with, and cross-reference, the rest of the
   Bugzilla Installation section while performing your Win32
   installation.

   Making Bugzilla work on Microsoft Windows is no picnic. Support for
   Win32 has improved dramatically in the last few releases, but, if you
   choose to proceed, you should be a very skilled Windows Systems
   Administrator with strong troubleshooting abilities, a high tolerance
   for pain, and moderate perl skills. Bugzilla on NT requires hacking
   source code and implementing some advanced utilities. What follows is
   the recommended installation procedure for Win32; additional
   suggestions are provided in Appendix A.

    1. Install Apache Web Server for Windows, and copy the Bugzilla files
       somewhere Apache can serve them. Please follow all the
       instructions referenced in Bugzilla Installation regarding your
       Apache configuration, particularly instructions regarding the
       "AddHandler" parameter and "ExecCGI".

   Note

   You may also use Internet Information Server or Personal Web Server
   for this purpose. However, setup is quite different. If ActivePerl
   doesn't seem to handle your file associations correctly (for .cgi and
   .pl files), please consult Appendix A.
   If you are going to use IIS, if on Windows NT you must be updated to
   at least Service Pack 4. Windows 2000 ships with a sufficient version
   of IIS.
    2. Install ActivePerl for Windows. Check
       http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Downloads/ActivePerl for a
       current compiled binary.
       Please also check the following links to fully understand the
       status of ActivePerl on Win32: Perl Porting, and Perl on Win32 FAQ
    3. Use ppm from your perl\bin directory to install the following
       packs: DBI, DBD-Mysql, TimeDate, Chart, Date-Calc, Date-Manip, GD,
       AppConfig, and Template. You may need to extract them from .zip
       format using Winzip or other unzip program first. Most of these
       additional ppm modules can be downloaded from ActiveState, but
       AppConfig and Template should be obtained from OpenInteract using
       the instructions on the Template Toolkit web site.

   Note

   You can find a list of modules at
   http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/5xx-builds-only/ or
   http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus
       The syntax for ppm is: C:> ppm <modulename>
       Example 3-3. Installing ActivePerl ppd Modules on Microsoft
       Windows
       C:>ppm DBD-Mysql
       Watch your capitalization!
       ActiveState's 5.6Plus directory also contains an AppConfig ppm, so
       you might see the following error when trying to install the
       version at OpenInteract:
       Error installing package 'AppConfig': Read a PPD for 'AppConfig',
       but it is not intended for this build of Perl
       (MSWin32-x86-multi-thread)
       If so, download both the tarball and the ppd directly from
       OpenInteract, then run ppm from within the same directory to which
       you downloaded those files and install the package by referencing
       the ppd file explicitly via in the install command, f.e.:
       Example 3-4. Installing OpenInteract ppd Modules manually on
       Microsoft Windows
       install C:\AppConfig.ppd
    4. Install MySQL for NT.

   Note

   You can download MySQL for Windows NT from MySQL.com. Some find it
   helpful to use the WinMySqlAdmin utility, included with the download,
   to set up the database.
    5. Setup MySQL
         a. C:> C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root mysql
         b. mysql> DELETE FROM user WHERE Host='localhost' AND User='';
         c. mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD ('new_password')
            WHERE user='root';
            "new_password", above, indicates whatever password you wish
            to use for your "root" user.
         d. mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER,
            CREATE, DROP, REFERENCES ON bugs.* to bugs@localhost
            IDENTIFIED BY 'bugs_password';
            "bugs_password", above, indicates whatever password you wish
            to use for your "bugs" user.
         e. mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
         f. mysql> create database bugs;
         g. mysql> exit;
         h. C:> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root -p reload
    6. Edit checksetup.pl in your Bugzilla directory. Change this line:

my $webservergid = getgrnam($my_webservergroup);


       to

my $webservergid = $my_webservergroup;


       or the name of the group you wish to own the files explicitly:

my $webservergid = 'Administrators'


    7. Run checksetup.pl from the Bugzilla directory.
    8. Edit localconfig to suit your requirements. Set $db_pass to your
       "bugs_password" from step 5.d, and $webservergroup to "8".

       Note

   Not sure on the "8" for $webservergroup above. If it's wrong, please
   send corrections.
    9. Edit defparams.pl to suit your requirements. Particularly, set
       DefParam("maintainer") and DefParam("urlbase") to match your
       install.

   Note

   This is yet another step I'm not sure of, since the maintainer of this
   documentation does not maintain Bugzilla on NT. If you can confirm or
   deny that this step is required, please let me know.
   10.

   Note

   There are several alternatives to Sendmail that will work on Win32.
   The one mentioned here is a suggestion, not a requirement. Some other
   mail packages that can work include BLAT, Windmail, Mercury Sendmail,
   and the CPAN Net::SMTP Perl module (available in .ppm). Every option
   requires some hacking of the Perl scripts for Bugzilla to make it
   work. The option here simply requires the least.
         1. Download NTsendmail, available from www.ntsendmail.com. You
            must have a "real" mail server which allows you to relay off
            it in your $ENV{"NTsendmail"} (which you should probably
            place in globals.pl)
         2. Put ntsendmail.pm into your .\perl\lib directory.
         3. Add to globals.pl:

# these settings configure the NTsendmail process
use NTsendmail;
$ENV{"NTsendmail"}="your.smtpserver.box";
$ENV{"NTsendmail_debug"}=1;
$ENV{"NTsendmail_max_tries"}=5;


   Note

   Some mention to also edit $db_pass in globals.pl to be your
   "bugs_password". Although this may get you around some problem
   authenticating to your database, since globals.pl is not normally
   restricted by .htaccess, your database password is exposed to whoever
   uses your web server.
         4. Find and comment out all occurences of "open(SENDMAIL" in
            your Bugzilla directory. Then replace them with:

# new sendmail functionality
my $mail=new NTsendmail;
my $from="bugzilla\@your.machine.name.tld";
my $to=$login;
my $subject=$urlbase;
$mail->send($from,$to,$subject,$msg);

   Note

   Some have found success using the commercial product, Windmail. You
   could try replacing your sendmail calls with:
open SENDMAIL, "|\"C:/General/Web/tools/Windmail 4.0 Beta/windmail\" -t > mail.
log";


   or something to that effect.
   11. Change all references in all files from processmail to
       processmail.pl, and rename processmail to processmail.pl.

   Note

   Many think this may be a change we want to make for main-tree
   Bugzilla. It's painless for the UNIX folks, and will make the Win32
   people happier.

   Note

   Some people have suggested using the Net::SMTP Perl module instead of
   NTsendmail or the other options listed here. You can change
   processmail.pl to make this work.

my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('<Name of your SMTP server>');   #connect to SMTP ser
ver
$smtp->mail('<your name>@<you smpt server>');# use the sender's adress here
$smtp->to($tolist); # recipient's address
$smtp->data();  # Start the mail
$smtp->datasend($msg);
$smtp->dataend();   # Finish sending the mail
$smtp->quit;    # Close the SMTP connection
$logstr = "$logstr; mail sent to $tolist $cclist";
}


   here is a test mail program for Net::SMTP:

use Net::SMTP;
 my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('<Name of your SMTP server', Timeout => 30, Debug
=> 1, ); # connect to SMTP server
                 $smtp->auth;
                $smtp->mail('you@yourcompany.com');# use the sender's adress
here
                $smtp->to('someotherAddress@someotherdomain.com'); #
recipient's address
                $smtp->data();  # Start the mail
                $smtp->datasend('test');
                $smtp->dataend();   # Finish sending the mail
                $smtp->quit;    # Close the SMTP connection
exit;


   12.

   Note

   This step is optional if you are using IIS or another web server which
   only decides on an interpreter based upon the file extension (.pl),
   rather than the "shebang" line (#/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl)
       Modify the path to perl on the first line (#!) of all files to
       point to your Perl installation, and add "perl" to the beginning
       of all Perl system calls that use a perl script as an argument.
       This may take you a while. There is a "setperl.csh" utility to
       speed part of this procedure, available in the Useful Patches and
       Utilities for Bugzilla section of The Bugzilla Guide. However, it
       requires the Cygwin GNU-compatible environment for Win32 be set up
       in order to work. See http://www.cygwin.com/ for details on
       obtaining Cygwin.
   13. Modify the invocation of all system() calls in all perl scripts in
       your Bugzilla directory. You should specify the full path to perl
       for each system() call. For instance, change this line in
       processmail:


system ("./processmail",@ARGLIST);
            </programlisting> to
            <programlisting>
system ("C:\\perl\\bin\\perl", "processmail", @ARGLIST);


   14. Add binmode() calls so attachments will work (bug 62000).
       Because Microsoft Windows based systems handle binary files
       different than Unix based systems, you need to add the following
       lines to createattachment.cgi and showattachment.cgi before the
       require 'CGI.pl'; line.

binmode(STDIN);
binmode(STDOUT);

   Note

   According to bug 62000, the perl documentation says that you should
   always use binmode() when dealing with binary files, but never when
   dealing with text files. That seems to suggest that rather than
   arbitrarily putting binmode() at the beginning of the attachment
   files, there should be logic to determine if binmode() is needed or
   not.

   Tip

   If you are using IIS or Personal Web Server, you must add cgi
   relationships to Properties -> Home directory (tab) -> Application
   Settings (section) -> Configuration (button), such as:


.cgi to: <perl install directory>\perl.exe %s %s
.pl to: <perl install directory>\perl.exe %s %s
GET,HEAD,POST

   Change the path to Perl to match your install, of course.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.6.2. Additional Windows Tips

   Tip

   From Andrew Pearson:

     You can make Bugzilla work with Personal Web Server for Windows 98
     and higher, as well as for IIS 4.0. Microsoft has information
     available at
     http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q231/9/98.ASP

     Basically you need to add two String Keys in the registry at the
     following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC\Parameters\ScriptMap

     The keys should be called ".pl" and ".cgi", and both should have a
     value something like: c:/perl/bin/perl.exe "%s" "%s"

     The KB article only talks about .pl, but it goes into more detail
     and provides a perl test script.

   Tip

   If attempting to run Bugzilla 2.12 or older, you will need to remove
   encrypt() calls from the Perl source. This is not necessary for
   Bugzilla 2.13 and later, which includes the current release, Bugzilla
   2.14.

   Example 3-5. Removing encrypt() for Windows NT Bugzilla version 2.12
   or earlier

   Replace this:

SendSQL("SELECT encrypt(" . SqlQuote($enteredpwd) . ", " . SQLQuote(substr($rea
lcryptpwd, 0, 2)) . ")");
my $enteredcryptpwd = FetchOneColumn();

   with this:

my $enteredcryptpwd = $enteredpwd

   in cgi.pl.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.6.3. Bugzilla LDAP Integration

What follows is some late-breaking information on using the LDAP
authentication options with Bugzilla. The author has not tested these (nor
even formatted this section!) so please contribute feedback to the
newsgroup.

Mozilla::LDAP module
The Mozilla::LDAP module allows you to use LDAP for authentication to
the Bugzilla system.  This module is not required if you are not using
LDAP.
Mozilla::LDAP (aka PerLDAP) is available for download from
http://www.mozilla.org/directory.
NOTE: The Mozilla::LDAP module requires Netscape's Directory SDK.
Follow the link for "Directory SDK for C" on that same page to
download the SDK first.  After you have installed this SDK, then
install the PerLDAP module.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-Installation Checklist
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Set useLDAP to "On" **only** if you will be using an LDAP directory
for authentication.  Be very careful when setting up this parameter;
if you set LDAP authentication, but do not have a valid LDAP directory
set up, you will not be able to log back in to Bugzilla once you log
out.  (If this happens, you can get back in by manually editing the
data/params file, and setting useLDAP back to 0.)
If using LDAP, you must set the three additional parameters:
Set LDAPserver to the name (and optionally port) of your LDAP server.
If no port is specified, it defaults to the default port of 389.  (e.g
"ldap.mycompany.com" or "ldap.mycompany.com:1234")
Set LDAPBaseDN to the base DN for searching for users in your LDAP
directory.  (e.g. "ou=People,o=MyCompany")  uids must be unique under
the DN specified here.
Set LDAPmailattribute to the name of the attribute in your LDAP
directory which contains the primary email address.  On most directory
servers available, this is "mail", but you may need to change this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Not sure where this bit should go, but it's important that it be in
there somewhere...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Using LDAP authentication for Bugzilla:
The existing authentication scheme for Bugzilla uses email addresses
as the primary user ID, and a password to authenticate that user.  All
places within Bugzilla where you need to deal with user ID (e.g
assigning a bug) use the email address.
The LDAP authentication builds on top of this scheme, rather than
replacing it.  The initial log in is done with a username and password
for the LDAP directory.  This then fetches the email address from LDAP
and authenticates seamlessly in the standard Bugzilla authentication
scheme using this email address.  If an account for this address
already exists in your Bugzilla system, it will log in to that
account.  If no account for that email address exists, one is created
at the time of login.  (In this case, Bugzilla will attempt to use the
"displayName" or "cn" attribute to determine the user's full name.)
After authentication, all other user-related tasks are still handled
by email address, not LDAP username.  You still assign bugs by email
address, query on users by email address, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 4. Administering Bugzilla Or, I just got this cool thing installed.
Now what the heck do I do with it?

So you followed "Bugzilla Installation" to the letter, and logged into
Bugzilla for the very first time with your super-duper god account. You sit,
contentedly staring at the Bugzilla Query Screen, the worst of the whole mad
business of installing this terrific program behind you. It seems, though,
you have nothing yet to query! Your first act of business should be to setup
the operating parameters for Bugzilla so you can get busy getting data into
your bug tracker.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.1. Post-Installation Checklist

After installation, follow the checklist below to help ensure that you have
a successful installation. If you do not see a recommended setting for a
parameter, consider leaving it at the default while you perform your initial
tests on your Bugzilla setup.

    1. Bring up editparams.cgi in your web browser. This should be
       available as the "edit parameters" link from any Bugzilla screen
       once you have logged in.
    2. The "maintainer" is the email address of the person responsible
       for maintaining this Bugzilla installation. The maintainer need
       not be a valid Bugzilla user. Error pages, error emails, and
       administrative mail will be sent with the maintainer as the return
       email address.
       Set "maintainer" to your email address. This allows Bugzilla's
       error messages to display your email address and allow people to
       contact you for help.
    3. The "urlbase" parameter defines the fully qualified domain name
       and web server path to your Bugzilla installation.
       For example, if your bugzilla query page is
       http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi, set your "urlbase" is
       http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/.
    4. "usebuggroups" dictates whether or not to implement group-based
       security for Bugzilla. If set, Bugzilla bugs can have an
       associated groupmask defining which groups of users are allowed to
       see and edit the bug.
       Set "usebuggroups" to "on" only if you may wish to restrict access
       to products. I suggest leaving this parameter off while initially
       testing your Bugzilla.
    5. "usebuggroupsentry", when set to "on", requires that all bugs have
       an associated groupmask when submitted. This parameter is made for
       those installations where product isolation is a necessity.
       Set "usebuggroupsentry" to "on" if you absolutely need to restrict
       access to bugs from the moment they are submitted through
       resolution. Once again, if you are simply testing your
       installation, I suggest against turning this parameter on; the
       strict security checking may stop you from being able to modify
       your new entries.
    6. You run into an interesting problem when Bugzilla reaches a high
       level of continuous activity. MySQL supports only table-level
       write locking. What this means is that if someone needs to make a
       change to a bug, they will lock the entire table until the
       operation is complete. Locking for write also blocks reads until
       the write is complete. The "shadowdb" parameter was designed to
       get around this limitation. While only a single user is allowed to
       write to a table at a time, reads can continue unimpeded on a
       read-only shadow copy of the database. Although your database size
       will double, a shadow database can cause an enormous performance
       improvement when implemented on extremely high-traffic Bugzilla
       databases.
       Set "shadowdb" to "bug_shadowdb" if you will be running a *very*
       large installation of Bugzilla. The shadow database enables many
       simultaneous users to read and write to the database without
       interfering with one another.

   Note

   Enabling "shadowdb" can adversely affect the stability of your
   installation of Bugzilla. You should regularly check that your
   database is in sync. It is often advisable to force a shadow database
   sync nightly via "cron".
       Once again, in testing you should avoid this option -- use it if
       or when you need to use it, and have repeatedly run into the
       problem it was designed to solve -- very long wait times while
       attempting to commit a change to the database. Mozilla.org began
       needing "shadowdb" when they reached around 40,000 Bugzilla users
       with several hundred Bugzilla bug changes and comments per day.
       If you use the "shadowdb" option, it is only natural that you
       should turn the "queryagainstshadowdb" option "On" as well.
       Otherwise you are replicating data into a shadow database for no
       reason!
    7. "headerhtml", "footerhtml", "errorhtml", "bannerhtml", and
       "blurbhtml" are all templates which control display of headers,
       footers, errors, banners, and additional data. We could go into
       some detail regarding the usage of these, but it is really best
       just to monkey around with them a bit to see what they do. I
       strongly recommend you copy your data/params file somewhere safe
       before playing with these values, though. If they are changed
       dramatically, it may make it impossible for you to display
       Bugzilla pages to fix the problem until you have restored your
       data/params file.
       If you have custom logos or HTML you must put in place to fit
       within your site design guidelines, place the code in the
       "headerhtml", "footerhtml", "errorhtml", "bannerhtml", or
       "blurbhtml" text boxes.

   Note

   The "headerhtml" text box is the HTML printed out before any other
   code on the page, except the CONTENT-TYPE header sent by the Bugzilla
   engine. If you have a special banner, put the code for it in
   "bannerhtml". You may want to leave these settings at the defaults
   initially.
    8. "passwordmail" is rather simple. Every time a user creates an
       account, the text of this parameter is read as the text to send to
       the new user along with their password message.
       Add any text you wish to the "passwordmail" parameter box. For
       instance, many people choose to use this box to give a quick
       training blurb about how to use Bugzilla at your site.
    9. "useqacontact" allows you to define an email address for each
       component, in addition to that of the default owner, who will be
       sent carbon copies of incoming bugs. The critical difference
       between a QA Contact and an Owner is that the QA Contact follows
       the component. If you reassign a bug from component A to component
       B, the QA Contact for that bug will change with the reassignment,
       regardless of owner.
       "usestatuswhiteboard" defines whether you wish to have a
       free-form, overwritable field associated with each bug. The
       advantage of the Status Whiteboard is that it can be deleted or
       modified with ease, and provides an easily-searchable field for
       indexing some bugs that have some trait in common. Many people
       will put "help wanted", "stalled", or "waiting on reply from
       somebody" messages into the Status Whiteboard field so those who
       peruse the bugs are aware of their status even more than that
       which can be indicated by the Resolution fields.
       Do you want to use the QA Contact ("useqacontact") and status
       whiteboard ("usestatuswhiteboard") fields? These fields are useful
       because they allow for more flexibility, particularly when you
       have an existing Quality Assurance and/or Release Engineering
       team, but they may not be needed for many smaller installations.
   10. Set "whinedays" to the amount of days you want to let bugs go in
       the "New" or "Reopened" state before notifying people they have
       untouched new bugs. If you do not plan to use this feature, simply
       do not set up the whining cron job described in the installation
       instructions, or set this value to "0" (never whine).
   11. "commenton" fields allow you to dictate what changes can pass
       without comment, and which must have a comment from the person who
       changed them. Often, administrators will allow users to add
       themselves to the CC list, accept bugs, or change the Status
       Whiteboard without adding a comment as to their reasons for the
       change, yet require that most other changes come with an
       explanation.
       Set the "commenton" options according to your site policy. It is a
       wise idea to require comments when users resolve, reassign, or
       reopen bugs at the very least.

   Note

   It is generally far better to require a developer comment when
   resolving bugs than not. Few things are more annoying to bug database
   users than having a developer mark a bug "fixed" without any comment
   as to what the fix was (or even that it was truly fixed!)
   12. The "supportwatchers" option can be an exceptionally powerful tool
       in the hands of a power Bugzilla user. By enabling this option,
       you allow users to receive email updates whenever other users
       receive email updates. This is, of course, subject to the groupset
       restrictions on the bug; if the "watcher" would not normally be
       allowed to view a bug, the watcher cannot get around the system by
       setting herself up to watch the bugs of someone with bugs outside
       her privileges. She would still only receive email updates for
       those bugs she could normally view.
       For Bugzilla sites which require strong inter-Product security to
       prevent snooping, watchers are not a good idea.
       However, for most sites you should set "supportwatchers" to "On".
       This feature is helpful for team leads to monitor progress in
       their respective areas, and can offer many other benefits, such as
       allowing a developer to pick up a former engineer's bugs without
       requiring her to change all the information in the bug.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2. User Administration

User administration is one of the easiest parts of Bugzilla. Keeping it from
getting out of hand, however, can become a challenge.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2.1. Creating the Default User

When you first run checksetup.pl after installing Bugzilla, it will prompt
you for the administrative username (email address) and password for this
"super user". If for some reason you were to delete the "super user"
account, re-running checksetup.pl will again prompt you for this username
and password.

   Tip

   If you wish to add more administrative users, you must use the MySQL
   interface. Run "mysql" from the command line, and use these commands
   ("mysql>" denotes the mysql prompt, not something you should type in):
   mysql> use bugs; mysql> update profiles set groupset=0x7ffffffffffffff
   where login_name = "(user's login name)"; 

   Yes, that is fourteen "f"'s. A whole lot of f-ing going on if you want
   to create a new administator.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2.2. Managing Other Users

4.2.2.1. Logging In

    1. Open the index.html page for your Bugzilla installation in your
       browser window.
    2. Click the "Query Existing Bug Reports" link.
    3. Click the "Log In" link at the foot of the page.
    4. Type your email address, and the password which was emailed to you
       when you created your Bugzilla account, into the spaces provided.

   Congratulations, you are logged in!
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2.2.2. Creating new users

Your users can create their own user accounts by clicking the "New Account"
link at the bottom of each page. However, should you desire to create user
accounts ahead of time, here is how you do it.

    1. After logging in, click the "Users" link at the footer of the
       query page.
    2. To see a specific user, type a portion of their login name in the
       box provided and click "submit". To see all users, simply click
       the "submit" button. You must click "submit" here to be able to
       add a new user.

   Tip

   More functionality is available via the list on the right-hand side of
   the text entry box. You can match what you type as a case-insensitive
   substring (the default) of all users on your system, a case-sensitive
   regular expression (please see the man regexp manual page for details
   on regular expression syntax), or a reverse regular expression match,
   where every user name which does NOT match the regular expression is
   selected.
    3. Click the "Add New User" link at the bottom of the user list
    4. Fill out the form presented. This page is self-explanatory. When
       done, click "submit".

   Note

   Adding a user this way will not send an email informing them of their
   username and password. While useful for creating dummy accounts
   (watchers which shuttle mail to another system, for instance, or email
   addresses which are a mailing list), in general it is preferable to
   log out and use the "New Account" button to create users, as it will
   pre-populate all the required fields and also notify the user of her
   account name and password.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2.2.3. Disabling Users

I bet you noticed that big "Disabled Text" entry box available from the "Add
New User" screen, when you edit an account? By entering any text in this box
and selecting "submit", you have prevented the user from using Bugzilla via
the web interface. Your explanation, written in this text box, will be
presented to the user the next time she attempts to use the system.

   Warning

   Don't disable your own administrative account, or you will hate life!

   At this time, "Disabled Text" does not prevent a user from using the
   email interface. If you have the email interface enabled, they can
   still continue to submit bugs and comments that way. We need a patch
   to fix this.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2.2.4. Modifying Users

Here I will attempt to describe the function of each option on the Edit User
screen.

     * Login Name: This is generally the user's email address. However,
       if you have edited your system parameters, this may just be the
       user's login name or some other identifier.

       Tip

   For compatability reasons, you should probably stick with email
   addresses as user login names. It will make your life easier.
     * Real Name: Duh!
     * Password: You can change the user password here. It is normal to
       only see asterisks.
     * Email Notification: You may choose from one of three options:
         1. All qualifying bugs except those which I change: The user
            will be notified of any change to any bug for which she is
            the reporter, assignee, QA Contact, CC recipient, or
            "watcher".
         2. Only those bugs which I am listed on the CC line: The user
            will not be notified of changes to bugs where she is the
            assignee, reporter, or QA Contact, but will receive them if
            she is on the CC list.

            Note

   She will still receive whining cron emails if you set up the
   "whinemail" feature.
         3. All Qualifying Bugs: This user is a glutton for punishment.
            If her name is in the reporter, QA Contact, CC, assignee, or
            is a "watcher", she will get email updates regarding the bug.
       Disable Text: If you type anything in this box, including just a
       space, the user account is disabled from making any changes to
       bugs via the web interface, and what you type in this box is
       presented as the reason.

       Warning

   Don't disable the administrator account!

   Note

   As of this writing, the user can still submit bugs via the e-mail
   gateway, if you set it up, despite the disabled text field. The e-mail
   gateway should not be enabled for secure installations of Bugzilla.
     * CanConfirm: This field is only used if you have enabled
       "unconfirmed" status in your parameters screen. If you enable this
       for a user, that user can then move bugs from "Unconfirmed" to
       "Confirmed" status (e.g.: "New" status). Be judicious about
       allowing users to turn this bit on for other users.
     * Creategroups: This option will allow a user to create and destroy
       groups in Bugzilla. Unless you are using the Bugzilla GroupSentry
       security option "usebuggroupsentry" in your parameters, this
       setting has no effect.
     * Editbugs: Unless a user has this bit set, they can only edit those
       bugs for which they are the assignee or the reporter.

   Note

   Leaving this option unchecked does not prevent users from adding
   comments to a bug! They simply cannot change a bug priority, severity,
   etc. unless they are the assignee or reporter.
     * Editcomponents: This flag allows a user to create new products and
       components, as well as modify and destroy those that have no bugs
       associated with them. If a product or component has bugs
       associated with it, those bugs must be moved to a different
       product or component before Bugzilla will allow them to be
       destroyed. The name of a product or component can be changed
       without affecting the associated bugs, but it tends to annoy the
       hell out of your users when these change a lot.
     * Editkeywords: If you use Bugzilla's keyword functionality,
       enabling this feature allows a user can create and destroy
       keywords. As always, the keywords for existing bugs containing the
       keyword the user wishes to destroy must be changed before Bugzilla
       will allow it to die. You must be very careful about creating too
       many new keywords if you run a very large Bugzilla installation;
       keywords are global variables across products, and you can often
       run into a phenomenon called "keyword bloat". This confuses users,
       and then the feature goes unused.
     * Editusers: This flag allows a user do what you're doing right now:
       edit other users. This will allow those with the right to do so to
       remove administrator privileges from other users or grant them to
       themselves. Enable with care.
     * PRODUCT: PRODUCT bugs access. This allows an administrator, with
       product-level granularity, to specify in which products a user can
       edit bugs. The user must still have the "editbugs" privelege to
       edit bugs in this area; this simply restricts them from even
       seeing bugs outside these boundaries if the administrator has
       enabled the group sentry parameter "usebuggroupsentry". Unless you
       are using bug groups, this option has no effect.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3. Product, Component, Milestone, and Version Administration

  

   Dear Lord, we have to get our users to do WHAT?
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.1. ProductsFormerly, and in some spots still, called "Programs"

Products are the broadest category in Bugzilla, and you should have the
least of these. If your company makes computer games, you should have one
product per game, and possibly a few special products (website, meetings...)

A Product (formerly called "Program", and still referred to that way in some
portions of the source code) controls some very important functions. The
number of "votes" available for users to vote for the most important bugs is
set per-product, as is the number of votes required to move a bug
automatically from the UNCONFIRMED status to the NEW status. One can close a
Product for further bug entry and define various Versions available from the
Edit product screen.

To create a new product:

    1. Select "components" from the yellow footer

   Tip

   It may seem counterintuitive to click "components" when you want to
   edit the properties associated with Products. This is one of a long
   list of things we want in Bugzilla 3.0...
    2. Select the "Add" link to the right of "Add a new product".
    3. Enter the name of the product and a description. The Description
       field is free-form.

   Tip

   Don't worry about the "Closed for bug entry", "Maximum Votes per
   person", "Maximum votes a person can put on a single bug", "Number of
   votes a bug in this Product needs to automatically get out of the
   UNCOMFIRMED state", and "Version" options yet. We'll cover those in a
   few moments.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.2. Components

Components are subsections of a Product.

   Example 4-1. Creating some Components

   The computer game you are designing may have a "UI" component, an
   "API" component, a "Sound System" component, and a "Plugins"
   component, each overseen by a different programmer. It often makes
   sense to divide Components in Bugzilla according to the natural
   divisions of responsibility within your Product or company.

Each component has a owner and (if you turned it on in the parameters), a QA
Contact. The owner should be the primary person who fixes bugs in that
component. The QA Contact should be the person who will ensure these bugs
are completely fixed. The Owner, QA Contact, and Reporter will get email
when new bugs are created in this Component and when these bugs change.
Default Owner and Default QA Contact fields only dictate the default
assignments; the Owner and QA Contact fields in a bug are otherwise
unrelated to the Component.

   To create a new Component:

    1. Select the "Edit components" link from the "Edit product" page
    2. Select  the  "Add"  link to the right of the "Add a new component"
       text on the "Select Component" page.
    3. Fill  out  the  "Component"  field, a short "Description", and the
       "Initial   Owner".   The  Component  and  Description  fields  are
       free-form;  the  "Initial  Owner"  field must be that of a user ID
       already  existing  in  the database. If the initial owner does not
       exist, Bugzilla will refuse to create the component.

   Tip

   Is your "Default Owner" a user who is not yet in the database? No
   problem.
         a. Select the "Log out" link on the footer of the page.
         b. Select the "New Account" link on the footer of the "Relogin"
            page
         c. Type in the email address of the default owner you want to
            create in the "E-mail address" field, and her full name in
            the "Real name" field, then select the "Submit Query" button.
         d. Now select "Log in" again, type in your login information,
            and you can modify the product to use the Default Owner
            information you require.

    4. Either  Edit more components or return to the Bugzilla Query Page.
       To  return  to  the  Product you were editing, you must select the
       Components link as before.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.3. Versions

Versions are the revisions of the product, such as "Flinders 3.1", "Flinders
95", and "Flinders 2000". Using Versions helps you isolate code changes and
are an aid in reporting.

   Example 4-2. Common Use of Versions

   A user reports a bug against Version "Beta 2.0" of your product. The
   current Version of your software is "Release Candidate 1", and no
   longer has the bug. This will help you triage and classify bugs
   according to their relevance. It is also possible people may report
   bugs against bleeding-edge beta versions that are not evident in older
   versions of the software. This can help isolate code changes that
   caused the bug

   Example 4-3. A Different Use of Versions

   This  field has been used to good effect by an online service provider
   in  a  slightly different way. They had three versions of the product:
   "Production",  "QA", and "Dev". Although it may be the same product, a
   bug  in  the  development environment is not normally as critical as a
   Production bug, nor does it need to be reported publicly. When used in
   conjunction  with  Target  Milestones,  one  can  easily  specify  the
   environment  where a bug can be reproduced, and the Milestone by which
   it will be fixed.

   To create and edit Versions:

    1. From the "Edit product" screen, select "Edit Versions"
    2. You  will  notice that the product already has the default version
       "undefined".  If your product doesn't use version numbers, you may
       want  to  leave  this as it is or edit it so that it is "---". You
       can then go back to the edit versions page and add new versions to
       your product.
       Otherwise,  click  the "Add" button to the right of the "Add a new
       version" text.
    3. Enter the name of the Version. This can be free-form characters up
       to the limit of the text box. Then select the "Add" button.
    4. At  this  point  you  can  select "Edit" to edit more Versions, or
       return  to  the  "Query" page, from which you can navigate back to
       the product through the "components" link at the foot of the Query
       page.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.4. Milestones

Milestones are "targets" that you plan to get a bug fixed by. For example,
you have a bug that you plan to fix for your 3.0 release, it would be
assigned the milestone of 3.0. Or, you have a bug that you plan to fix for
2.8, this would have a milestone of 2.8.

   Note

   Milestone options will only appear for a Product if you turned the
   "usetargetmilestone" field in the "Edit Parameters" screen "On".

   To  create  new  Milestones, set Default Milestones, and set Milestone
   URL:

    1. Select "edit milestones"
    2. Select "Add" to the right of the "Add a new milestone" text
    3. Enter  the name of the Milestone in the "Milestone" field. You can
       optionally  set  the  "Sortkey",  which  is a positive or negative
       number  (-255  to  255)  that  defines  where  in  the  list  this
       particular milestone appears. Select "Add".
       Example 4-4. Using SortKey with Target Milestone
       Let's say you create a target milestone called "Release 1.0", with
       Sortkey set to "0". Later, you realize that you will have a public
       beta,  called  "Beta1". You can create a Milestone called "Beta1",
       with  a  Sortkey  of  "-1"  in order to ensure people will see the
       Target Milestone of "Beta1" earlier on the list than "Release 1.0"
    4. If you want to add more milestones, select the "Edit" link. If you
       don't,  well  shoot,  you  have to go back to the "query" page and
       select  "components"  again, and make your way back to the Product
       you were editing.

   Note

   This is another in the list of unusual user interface decisions that
   we'd like to get cleaned up. Shouldn't there be a link to the effect
   of "edit the Product I was editing when I ended up here"? In any case,
   clicking "components" in the footer takes you back to the "Select
   product" screen, from which you can begin editing your product again.
    5. From  the  Edit  product  screen  again (once you've made your way
       back), enter the URL for a description of what your milestones are
       for this product in the "Milestone URL" field. It should be of the
       format "http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/product_milestones.html"
       Some  common  uses  of  this  field  include product descriptions,
       product  roadmaps,  and  of  course  a  simple  description of the
       meaning of each milestone.
    6. If  you're  using Target Milestones, the "Default Milestone" field
       must  have  some kind of entry. If you really don't care if people
       set  coherent Target Milestones, simply leave this at the default,
       "---".  However,  controlling  and  regularly updating the Default
       Milestone  field  is  a powerful tool when reporting the status of
       projects.
       Select the "Update" button when you are done.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.5. Voting

The concept of "voting" is a poorly understood, yet powerful feature for the
management of open-source projects. Each user is assigned so many Votes per
product, which they can freely reassign (or assign multiple votes to a
single bug). This allows developers to gauge user need for a particular
enhancement or bugfix. By allowing bugs with a certain number of votes to
automatically move from "UNCONFIRMED" to "NEW", users of the bug system can
help high-priority bugs garner attention so they don't sit for a long time
awaiting triage.

The daunting challenge of Votes is deciding where you draw the line for a
"vocal majority". If you only have a user base of 100 users, setting a low
threshold for bugs to move from UNCONFIRMED to NEW makes sense. As the
Bugzilla user base expands, however, these thresholds must be re-evaluated.
You should gauge whether this feature is worth the time and close monitoring
involved, and perhaps forego implementation until you have a critical mass
of users who demand it.

To modify Voting settings:

    1. Navigate to the "Edit product" screen for the Product you wish to
       modify
    2. Set "Maximum Votes per person" to your calculated value. Setting
       this field to "0" disables voting.
    3. Set "Maximum Votes a person can put on a single bug" to your
       calculated value. It should probably be some number lower than the
       "Maximum votes per person". Setting this field to "0" disables
       voting, but leaves the voting options open to the user. This is
       confusing.
    4. Set "Number of votes a bug in this product needs to automatically
       get out of the UNCONFIRMED state" to your calculated number.
       Setting this field to "0" disables the automatic move of bugs from
       UNCONFIRMED to NEW. Some people advocate leaving this at "0", but
       of what use are Votes if your Bugzilla user base is unable to
       affect which bugs appear on Development radar?

   Tip

   You should probably set this number to higher than a small coalition
   of Bugzilla users can influence it. Most sites use this as a
   "referendum" mechanism -- if users are able to vote a bug out of
   UNCONFIRMED, it is a really bad bug!
    5. Once you have adjusted the values to your preference, select the
       "Update" button.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.6. Groups and Group Security

Groups can be very useful in bugzilla, because they allow users to isolate
bugs or products that should only be seen by certain people. Groups can also
be a complicated minefield of interdependencies and weirdness if mismanaged.

   Example 4-5. When to Use Group Security

   Many Bugzilla sites isolate "Security-related" bugs from all other
   bugs. This way, they can have a fix ready before the security
   vulnerability is announced to the world. You can create a "Security"
   product which, by default, has no members, and only add members to the
   group (in their individual User page, as described under User
   Administration) who should have priveleged access to "Security" bugs.
   Alternately, you may create a Group independently of any Product, and
   change the Group mask on individual bugs to restrict access to members
   only of certain Groups.

Groups only work if you enable the "usebuggroups" paramater. In addition, if
the "usebuggroupsentry" parameter is "On", one can restrict access to
products by groups, so that only members of a product group are able to view
bugs within that product. Group security in Bugzilla can be divided into two
categories: Generic and Product-Based.

   Note

   Groups in Bugzilla are a complicated beast that evolved out of very
   simple user permission bitmasks, apparently itself derived from common
   concepts in UNIX access controls. A "bitmask" is a fixed-length number
   whose value can describe one, and only one, set of states. For
   instance, UNIX file permissions are assigned bitmask values: "execute"
   has a value of 1, "write" has a value of 2, and "read" has a value of
   4. Add them together, and a file can be read, written to, and executed
   if it has a bitmask of "7". (This is a simplified example -- anybody
   who knows UNIX security knows there is much more to it than this.
   Please bear with me for the purpose of this note.) The only way a
   bitmask scheme can work is by doubling the bit count for each value.
   Thus if UNIX wanted to offer another file permission, the next would
   have to be a value of 8, then the next 16, the next 32, etc.

   Similarly, Bugzilla offers a bitmask to define group permissions, with
   an internal limit of 64. Several are already occupied by built-in
   permissions. The way around this limitation is to avoid assigning
   groups to products if you have many products, avoid bloating of group
   lists, and religiously prune irrelevant groups. In reality, most
   installations of Bugzilla support far fewer than 64 groups, so this
   limitation has not hit for most sites, but it is on the table to be
   revised for Bugzilla 3.0 because it interferes with the security
   schemes of some administrators.

   To enable Generic Group Security ("usebuggroups"):

    1. Turn "On" "usebuggroups" in the "Edit Parameters" screen.
    2. You will generally have no groups set up. Select the "groups" link
       in the footer.
    3. Take  a moment to understand the instructions on the "Edit Groups"
       screen. Once you feel confident you understand what is expected of
       you, select the "Add Group" link.
    4. Fill out the "New Name" (remember, no spaces!), "New Description",
       and  "New  User  RegExp"  fields.  "New User RegExp" allows you to
       automatically  place  all users who fulfill the Regular Expression
       into the new group.
       Example 4-6. Creating a New Group
       I  created a group called DefaultGroup with a description of "This
       is  simply  a  group  to  play  with",  and  a  New User RegExp of
       ".*@mydomain.tld".  This  new  group  automatically  includes  all
       Bugzilla  users  with "@mydomain.tld" at the end of their user id.
       When I finished, my new group was assigned bit #128.
       When you have finished, select the Add button.

   To enable Product-Based Group Security (usebuggroupsentry):

   Warning

   Don't forget that you only have 64 groups masks available, total, for
   your installation of Bugzilla! If you plan on having more than 50
   products in your individual Bugzilla installation, and require group
   security for your products, you should consider either running
   multiple Bugzillas or using Generic Group Security instead of
   Product-Based ("usebuggroupsentry") Group Security.

    1. Turn  "On"  "usebuggroups"  and  "usebuggroupsentry"  in the "Edit
       Parameters" screen.

   Warning

   "usebuggroupsentry" has the capacity to prevent the administrative
   user from directly altering bugs because of conflicting group
   permissions. If you plan on using "usebuggroupsentry", you should plan
   on restricting administrative account usage to administrative duties
   only. In other words, manage bugs with an unpriveleged user account,
   and manage users, groups, Products, etc. with the administrative
   account.
    2. You  will  generally  have  no  Groups  set up, unless you enabled
       "usebuggroupsentry"  prior  to  creating  any  Products. To create
       "Generic  Group  Security"  groups,  follow the instructions given
       above.  To  create Product-Based Group security, simply follow the
       instructions  for creating a new Product. If you need to add users
       to  these  new groups as you create them, you will find the option
       to add them to the group available under the "Edit User" screens.

   You may find this example illustrative for how bug groups work.

   Example 4-7. Bugzilla Groups

   Bugzilla Groups example
   -----------------------
   For this example, let us suppose we have four groups, call them
   Group1, Group2, Group3, and Group4.
   We have 5 users, User1, User2, User3, User4, User5.
   We have 8 bugs, Bug1, ..., Bug8.
   Group membership is defined by this chart:
   (X denotes that user is in that group.)
   (I apologize for the nasty formatting of this table.  Try viewing
   it in a text-based browser or something for now. -MPB)
         G G G G
         r r r r
         o o o o
         u u u u
         p p p p
         1 2 3 4
        +-+-+-+-+
   User1|X| | | |
        +-+-+-+-+
   User2| |X| | |
        +-+-+-+-+
   User3|X| |X| |
        +-+-+-+-+
   User4|X|X|X| |
        +-+-+-+-+
   User5| | | | |
        +-+-+-+-+
   Bug restrictions are defined by this chart:
   (X denotes that bug is restricted to that group.)
        G G G G
        r r r r
        o o o o
        u u u u
        p p p p
        1 2 3 4
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug1| | | | |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug2| |X| | |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug3| | |X| |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug4| | | |X|
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug5|X|X| | |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug6|X| |X| |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug7|X|X|X| |
       +-+-+-+-+
   Bug8|X|X|X|X|
       +-+-+-+-+
   Who can see each bug?
   Bug1 has no group restrictions.  Therefore, Bug1 can be seen by any
   user, whatever their group membership.  This is going to be the only
   bug that User5 can see, because User5 isn't in any groups.
   Bug2 can be seen by anyone in Group2, that is User2 and User4.
   Bug3 can be seen by anyone in Group3, that is User3 and User4.
   Bug4 can be seen by anyone in Group4.  Nobody is in Group4, so none of
   these users can see Bug4.
   Bug5 can be seen by anyone who is in _both_ Group1 and Group2.  This
   is only User4.  User1 cannot see it because he is not in Group2, and
   User2 cannot see it because she is not in Group1.
   Bug6 can be seen by anyone who is in both Group1 and Group3.  This
   would include User3 and User4.  Similar to Bug5, User1 cannot see Bug6
   because he is not in Group3.
   Bug7 can be seen by anyone who is in Group1, Group2, and Group3.  This
   is only User4.  All of the others are missing at least one of those
   group privileges, and thus cannot see the bug.
   Bug8 can be seen by anyone who is in Group1, Group2, Group3, and
   Group4.  There is nobody in all four of these groups, so nobody can
   see Bug8.  It doesn't matter that User4 is in Group1, Group2, and
   Group3, since he isn't in Group4.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4. Bugzilla Security

     

   Putting your money in a wall safe is better protection than depending
   on the fact that no one knows that you hide your money in a mayonnaise
   jar in your fridge.

   Note

   Poorly-configured MySQL, Bugzilla, and FTP installations have given
   attackers full access to systems in the past. Please take these
   guidelines seriously, even for Bugzilla machines hidden away behind
   your firewall. 80% of all computer trespassers are insiders, not
   anonymous crackers.

   Secure your installation.

   Note

   These instructions must, of necessity, be somewhat vague since
   Bugzilla runs on so many different platforms. If you have refinements
   of these directions for specific platforms, please submit them to
   mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org

    1. Ensure  you  are  running at least MysQL version 3.22.32 or newer.
       Earlier  versions  had  notable  security holes and poorly secured
       default configuration choices.
    2. There is no substitute for understanding the tools on your system!
       Read  The  MySQL  Privilege  System  until  you can recite it from
       memory!
       At the very least, ensure you password the "mysql -u root" account
       and  the "bugs" account, establish grant table rights (consult the
       Keystone  guide  in  Appendix  C:  The  Bugzilla Database for some
       easy-to-use  details)  that  do  not  allow  CREATE, DROP, RELOAD,
       SHUTDOWN,  and  PROCESS  for  user "bugs". I wrote up the Keystone
       advice back when I knew far less about security than I do now : )
    3. Lock  down  /etc/inetd.conf.  Heck,  disable inet entirely on this
       box. It should only listen to port 25 for Sendmail and port 80 for
       Apache.
    4. Do  not  run  Apache  as  "nobody".  This  will  require  very lax
       permissions  in  your  Bugzilla directories. Run it, instead, as a
       user with a name, set via your httpd.conf file.

   Note

   "nobody" is a real user on UNIX systems. Having a process run as user
   id "nobody" is absolutely no protection against system crackers versus
   using any other user account. As a general security measure, I
   recommend you create unique user ID's for each daemon running on your
   system and, if possible, use "chroot" to jail that process away from
   the rest of your system.
    5. Ensure    you    have    adequate    access   controls   for   the
       $BUGZILLA_HOME/data/  and  $BUGZILLA_HOME/shadow/  directories, as
       well as the $BUGZILLA_HOME/localconfig and
       $BUGZILLA_HOME/globals.pl  files. The localconfig file stores your
       "bugs" user password, which would be terrible to have in the hands
       of   a  criminal,  while  the  "globals.pl"  stores  some  default
       information  regarding  your installation which could aid a system
       cracker.  In addition, some files under $BUGZILLA_HOME/data/ store
       sensitive   information,  and  $BUGZILLA_HOME/shadow/  stores  bug
       information  for  faster  retrieval.  If  you fail to secure these
       directories  and  this  file,  you  will expose bug information to
       those who may not be allowed to see it.

   Note

   Bugzilla provides default .htaccess files to protect the most common
   Apache installations. However, you should verify these are adequate
   according to the site-wide security policy of your web server, and
   ensure that the .htaccess files are allowed to "override" default
   permissions set in your Apache configuration files. Covering Apache
   security is beyond the scope of this Guide; please consult the Apache
   documentation for details.
   If you are using a web server that does not support the .htaccess
   control method, you are at risk! After installing, check to see if you
   can view the file "localconfig" in your web browser (e.g.:
   http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/localconfig). If you can read the contents
   of this file, your web server has not secured your bugzilla directory
   properly and you must fix this problem before deploying Bugzilla. If,
   however, it gives you a "Forbidden" error, then it probably respects
   the .htaccess conventions and you are good to go.
       On  Apache, you can use .htaccess files to protect access to these
       directories,  as  outlined  in Bug 57161 for the localconfig file,
       and  Bug  65572  for adequate protection in your data/ and shadow/
       directories.
       Note the instructions which follow are Apache-specific. If you use
       IIS,  Netscape,  or  other  non-Apache web servers, please consult
       your system documentation for how to secure these files from being
       transmitted to curious users.
       Place  the  following text into a file named ".htaccess", readable
       by your web server, in your $BUGZILLA_HOME/data directory.
        <Files comments> allow
             from all </Files> deny from all
       Place  the  following text into a file named ".htaccess", readable
       by your web server, in your $BUGZILLA_HOME/ directory.
        <Files localconfig> deny
             from all </Files> allow from all
       Place  the  following text into a file named ".htaccess", readable
       by your web server, in your $BUGZILLA_HOME/shadow directory.
        deny from all
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 5. Integrating Bugzilla with Third-Party Tools

5.1. Bonsai

Bonsai is a web-based tool for managing CVS, the Concurrent Versioning
System . Using Bonsai, administrators can control open/closed status of
trees, query a fast relational database back-end for change, branch, and
comment information, and view changes made since the last time the tree was
closed. These kinds of changes cause the engineer responsible to be "on the
hook" (include cool URL link here for Hook policies at mozilla.org). Bonsai
also includes gateways to Tinderbox, the Mozilla automated build management
system and Bugzilla
     _________________________________________________________________

5.2. CVS

CVS integration is best accomplished, at this point, using the Bugzilla
Email Gateway. There have been some files submitted to allow greater CVS
integration, but we need to make certain that Bugzilla is not tied into one
particular software management package.

Follow the instructions in the FAQ for enabling Bugzilla e-mail integration.
Ensure that your check-in script sends an email to your Bugzilla e-mail
gateway with the subject of "[Bug XXXX]", and you can have CVS check-in
comments append to your Bugzilla bug. If you have your check-in script
include an @resolution field, you can even change the Bugzilla bug state.

There is also a project, based upon somewhat dated Bugzilla code, to
integrate CVS and Bugzilla through CVS' ability to email. Check it out at:
http://homepages.kcbbs.gen.nz/~tonyg/, under the "cvszilla" link.
     _________________________________________________________________

5.3. Perforce SCM

You can find the project page for Bugzilla and Teamtrack Perforce
integration (p4dti) at: http://www.ravenbrook.com/project/p4dti . "p4dti" is
now an officially supported product from Perforce, and you can find the
"Perforce Public Depot" p4dti page at
http://public.perforce.com/public/perforce/p4dti/index.html.

Integration of Perforce with Bugzilla, once patches are applied, is
seamless. Perforce replication information will appear below the comments of
each bug. Be certain you have a matching set of patches for the Bugzilla
version you are installing. p4dti is designed to support multiple defect
trackers, and maintains its own documentation for it. Please consult the
pages linked above for further information.
     _________________________________________________________________

5.4. Tinderbox/Tinderbox2

We need Tinderbox integration information.
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 6. The Future of Bugzilla

Bugzilla's Future.  Much of this is the present, now.

   Bugzilla's   future   is   a  constantly-changing  thing,  as  various
   developers "scratch an itch" when it comes to functionality. Thus this
   section  is  very  malleable,  subject  to change without notice, etc.
   You'll  probably  also notice the lack of formatting. I apologize that
   it's not quite as readable as the rest of the Guide.

                                  Bugzilla Blue Sky
   Customisability
      One of the major stumbling blocks of Bugzilla has been that it is t
   oo
      rigid and does not adapt itself well enough to the needs of an
      organisation.  This has led to organisations making changes to the
      Bugzilla code that need to be redone each new version of Bugzilla.
      Bugzilla should attempt to move away from this to a world where thi
   s
      doesn't need to occur.
      Most of the subsections in this section are currently explicit desi
   gn
      goals for the "Bugzilla 3" rewrite.  This does not necessarily mean
      that they will not occur before them in Bugzilla 2, but most are
      significant undertakings.
     Field Customisation
      Many installations wish to customise the fields that appear on bug
      reports.   Current versions of Bugzilla offer limited
      customisability.  In particular, some fields can be turned off.
      However, many administrators wish to add their own fields, and rena
   me
      or otherwise modify existing fields.  An architecture that supports
      this would be extraordinarily useful.
      Indeed, many fields work similarly and could be abstracted into "fi
   eld
      types", so that an administrator need write little or no code to
      support the new fields they desire.
      Possible field types include text (eg status whiteboard), numbers,
      dates (eg report time), accounts (eg reporter, qa, cc), inter-bug
      relationships (dependencies, duplicates), option groups (platform,
   os,
      severity, priority, target milestone, version) etc.
      Ideally an administrator could configure their fields through a
      Bugzilla interface that requires no code to be added.  However, it
   is
      highly unlikely this ideal will never be met, and in a similar way
      that office applications have scripting languages, Bugzilla should
      allow new field types to be written.
      Similarly, a common desire is for resolutions to be added or remove
   d.
       Allocations
      ?
       Option Groups
      ?
       Relations
      ?
     Database Integrity
      Furthermore, it is desirable for administrators to be able to speci
   fy
      rules that must or should apply between the fields on a bug report.
      For example, you might wish to specify that a bug with status ASSIG
   NED
      must have a target milestone field that that is not untargetted.  O
   r
      that a bug with a certain number of votes should get ASSIGNED.  Or
      that the QA contact must be different from the assignee.
      "Must" relationships could be implemented by refusing to make chang
   es
      that violate the relationships, or alternatively, automatically
      updating certain fields in order to satisfy the criteria.  Which
      occurs should be up to the administrator.
      "Should" relationships could be implemented by a combination of
      emitting warnings on the process bug page, the same on notification
      mails, or emitting periodic whine mails about the situation.  Again
   ,
      which occurs should be up to the administrator.
      It should also be possible for whine mails to be emitted for "must"
      relationships, as they might become violated through direct databas
   e
      access, Bugzilla bugs, or because they were there before the
      relationship was enforced.
      As well as implementing intra-bug constraints, it would be useful t
   o
      create inter-bug constraints.  For example, a bug that is dependent
    on
      another bug should not have an earlier milestone or greater priorit
   y
      than that bug.
     Database Adaptability
      Often an administrator desires that fields adapt to the values of
      other fields.  For example, the value of a field might determine th
   e
      possible values of another field or even whether it appears (whethe
   r
      it is "applicable").
      Limited adaptability is present in Bugzilla 2, and only on the
      "Product" field:
        * The possible values of the target milestone, version and compon
   ent
          fields depend on the product.
        * UNCONFIRMED can be turned off for specific products.
        * Voting can be configured differently or turned off for differen
   t
          products, and there is a separate user vote limits for each
          product.
      It would be good if more adaptability was present, both in terms of
      all fields relying on the product, as well as the ability to adapt
      based on the value of all fields.
      Example ???
      General adaptability raises the issue of circular references betwee
   n
      fields causing problems.  One possible solution to this is to place
      the fields in a total ordering and require a field refer only to th
   e
      previous fields.
      In Bugzilla 2, changing the product of a bug meant a second page wo
   uld
      appear that allowed you to choose a new milestone, component and
      version, as those fields adapted themselves to the new product.  Th
   is
      page could be generalised to support all instances where:
        * a field value must or might be changed because the possible val
   ues
          have changed
        * is going to drop off because it it is no longer applicable, and
          this should be confirmed
        * must be specified because it is suddenly applicable, and the
          default value, if one exists, might not be acceptable
     Database Independence
      Currently Bugzilla only runs on the MySQL database.  It would be
      desirable for Bugzilla to run on other databases, because:
        * Organisations may have existing database products they use and
          would prefer to run a homogenous environment.
        * Databases each have their own shortcomings, including MySQL.  A
   n
          administrator might choose a database that would work better wi
   th
          their Bugzilla.
      This raises the possibility that we could use features that are onl
   y
      present in some databases, by appropriately falling back.  For
      example, in the MySQL world, we live without:
        * record-level locking, instead we use table-level locking
        * referential and record constraints, instead we checking code
        * subselects, instead we use multiple queries and redundant "cach
   es"
     Multiple Front Ends
      Currently Bugzilla is manipulated via the Web, and notifies via
      E-Mail.  It would be desirable for Bugzilla to easily support vario
   us
      front ends.
      There is no reason that Bugzilla could not be controlled via a whol
   e
      range of front ends, including Web, E-Mail, IRC, ICQ, etc, and
      similarly for how it notifies.  It's also possible that we could
      introduce a special Bugzilla client that uses its own protocol, for
      maximum user productivity.
      Indeed a request reply might be returned via a totally different
      transport method than was use to submit the request.
   Internationalisation
      Bugzilla currently supports only English.  All of the field names,
      user instructions, etc are written in English.  It would be desirab
   le
      to allow "language packs" so Bugzilla can be easily used in
      non-English speaking locales.
      To a degree field customisation supports this, because administrato
   rs
      could specify their own fields names anyway.  However, there will
      always be some basic facilities not covered by this, and it is
      desirable that the administrator's interface also is
      internationalisable.
   Better Searching
     General Summary Reports
      Sometimes, the normal querying page leaves a lot to be desired.  Th
   ere
      are other facilities already in place or which people have asked fo
   r:
      Most Doomed Reports - All Bugs or All Bugs In A Product, Categorise
   d
      On Assignee, Shows and Counts Number of Bugs For Each Assignee
      Most Voted For Bugs - All Bugs, Categorised On Product, Shows Top T
   en
      Bugs Voters Most Want Fixed
      Number of Open Bugs For An Assignee - Bug List, Categorised On
      Developers, Counts Number of Bugs In Category
      The important thing to realise is that people want categorised repo
   rts
      on all sorts of things - a general summary report.
      In a categorised report, you choose the subset of bugs you wish to
      operate on (similar to how you would specify a query), and then
      categorise them on one or more fields.
      For each category you display the count of the number of things in
      that category.  You can optionally display the bugs themselves, or
      leave them out, just showing the counts.  And you can optionally li
   mit
      the number of things (bugs or subcategories) that display in each
      category.
      Such a mechanism would let you do all of the above and more.
      Applications of this mechanism would only be recognised once it was
      implemented.
     Related Bugs
      It would be nice to have a field where you could enter other bugs
      related to the current bug.  It would be handy for navigation and
      possibly even finding duplicates.
     Column Specification Support
      Currently bug lists use the columns that you last used.  This doesn
   't
      work well for "prepackaged queries", where you followed a link.  Yo
   u
      can probably add a column by specifying a sort column, but this is
      difficult and suboptimal.
      Furthermore, I find that when I want to add a column to a bug list,
      it's usually a one off and I would prefer it to go away for the nex
   t
      query.  Hence, it would be nice to specify the columns that appear
   on
      the bug list (and general summary report) pages.  The default query
      mechanism should be able to let you specify your default columns.
     Advanced Querying Redesign
      ?
   Keywords
      People have a need to apply tags to bugs.  In the beginning, people
      placed designators in the summary and status whiteboard.  However,
      these fields were not designed for that, and so there were many fla
   ws
      with this system:
        * They pollute the field with information that was never intended
    to
          be present.
        * Removing them with a bulk change is a difficult problem that ha
   s
          too many pitfalls to implement.
        * You can easily get the capitalisation wrong.
      Then dependencies were introduced (when?), and people realised that
      they could use them for "tracking bugs".  Again, dependencies were
   not
      designed for that, and so there were more flaws, albeit different
      ones, including:
        * They aren't really bugs, so it's difficult to distinguish issue
   s
          from bugs.
        * They can pollute bugs counts, and you must somehow exclude them
          from queries.
        * There is a whole lot of useless information on them.  They have
    an
          assignee but there is nothing to fix, and that person can get
          whined at by Bugzilla.  They have target milestones which must
   be
          manually maintained.  And so on.
      Finally, keywords were introduced (when?) for this purpose to remov
   e
      the need for these two systems.  Unfortunately, the simple keywords
      implementation was itself lacking in certain features provided by t
   he
      two previous systems, and has remained almost unchanged since its
      inception.  Furthermore, it could not be forseen that in large
      installations, the sheer number of keywords could become unwieldly
   and
      could lead to a movement back to the other systems.
      The keywords system was the right idea, however, and it remains so.
      Fixing the keywords system is one of the most important Bugzilla
      issues.
     Bringing Keywords Up To Par
      For the most part, keywords are very good at what they do.  It is e
   asy
      to add and remove them (unlike summary/whiteboard designators), we
   can
      simply see what issues are present on a bug (unlike tracking bugs),
      and we do not confuse bugs with issues (unlike tracking bugs).
      However, there are still some "regressions" in the keyword system o
   ver
      previous systems:
        * Users wish to view the "dependency forest" of a keyword.  While
    a
          dependency tree is of one bug, a dependency forest is of a bug
          list, and consists of a dependency tree for each member of the
   bug
          list.  Users can work around this with tracking bugs by creatin
   g a
          tracking bug and viewing the dependency tree of that tracking b
   ug.
        * Users wish to specify the keywords that initially apply to a bu
   g,
          but instead they must edit the bug once it has already been
          submitted.  They can work around this with summary designators,
          since they specify the summary at reporting time.
        * Users wish to store or share a bug list that contains a keyword
   s
          column.  Hence they wish to be able to specify what columns app
   ear
          in the bug list URL, as mentioned earlier.  They can work aroun
   d
          this using summary designators, since almost all bug lists have
    a
          summary column.
        * Users wish to be able to view keywords on a bug list.  However
          often they are only interested in a small number of keywords.
          Having a bug list with a keywords column means that all keyword
   s
          will appear on a bug list.  This can take a substantial amount
   of
          space where a bug has a lot of keywords, since the table column
   s
          in Bugzilla adjust to the largest cell in that column.  Hence
          users wish to be able to specify which keywords should appear i
   n
          the bug list.  In a very real sense, each keyword is a field un
   to
          itself.  Users can work around this by using summary designator
   s,
          since they keywords will share the space in the summary column.
        * Users wish to know when bugs with a specific issue are resolved
   .
          Hence they wish to be able to receive notifications on all the
          bugs with a specific keyword.  The introduction a generic watch
   ing
          facility (also for things like watching all bugs in a component
   )
          would achieve this.  Users can work around this by using tracki
   ng
          bugs, as dependencies have an existing way of detecting fixes t
   o
          bug a bug was blocked by.
     Dealing With The Keyword Overload
      At the time of writing, the mozilla.org installation has approximat
   ely
      100 keywords, and many more would be in use if the keywords system
      didn't have the problems it does.
      Such a large number of keywords introduces logistical problems:
        * It must be easy for someone to learn what a keyword means.  If
   a
          keyword is buried within a lot of other keywords, it can be
          difficult to find.
        * It must be easy to see what keywords are on a bug.  If the numb
   er
          of keywords is large, then this can be difficult.
      These lead some people to feel that there are "too many keywords".
      These problems are not without solutions however.  It is harder to
      find a list of designators or tracking bugs than it is a list of
      keywords.
      The essential problem is it needs to be easy to find the keywords
      we're interested in through the mass of keywords.
       Keyword Applicability
      As has been previously mentioned, it is desirable for fields to be
      able to adapt to the values of other fields.  This is certainly tru
   e
      for keywords.  Many keywords are simply not relevant because of the
      bugs product, component, etc.
      Hence, by introducing keyword applicability, and not displaying
      keywords that are not relevant to the current bug, or clearly
      separating them, we can make the keyword overload problem less
      significant.
      Currently when you click on "keywords" on a bug, you get a list of
   all
      bugs.  It would be desirable to introduce a list of keywords tailor
   ed
      to a specific bug, that reports, in order:
        * the keywords currently on the bug
        * the keywords not currently on the bug, but applicable to the bu
   g
        * optionally, the keywords not applicable to the bug
      This essentially orders the keywords into three groups, where each
      group is more important than the previous, and therefore appears
      closer to the top.
       Keyword Grouping & Ordering
      We could further enhance both the global and bug specific keyword l
   ist
      by grouping keywords.  We should always have a "flat" view of
      keywords, but other ways of viewing the keywords would be useful to
   o.
      If keyword applicability was implemented, we could group keywords
      based on their "applicability condition".  Keywords that apply to a
   ll
      bugs could be separated from keywords that apply to a specific
      product, both on the global keyword list and the keyword list of a
   bug
      that is in that product.
      We could specify groups of our own.  For example, many keywords are
    in
      a mutually exclusive group, essentially like radio buttons in a use
   r
      interface.  This creates a natural grouping, although other groupin
   gs
      occur (which depends on your keywords).
      It is possible that we could use collapsing/expanding operations on
      "twisties" to only should the groups we are interested in.
      And instead of grouping keywords, we could order them on some metri
   c
      of usefulness, such as:
        * when the keyword was last added to a bug
        * how many bugs the keyword is on
        * how many open bugs the keyword is on
       Opting Out Of Keywords
      Not all people are going to care about all keywords.  Therefore it
      makes sense that you may wish to specify which keywords you are
      interested in, either on the bug page, or on notifications.
      Other keywords will therefore not bother users who are not interest
   ed
      in them.
     Keyword Security
      Currently all keywords are available and editable to all people wit
   h
      edit bugs access.  This situation is clearly suboptimal.
      Although relying on good behaviour for people to not do what they
      shouldn't works reasonably well on the mozilla.org, it is better to
      enforce that behaviour - it can be breached through malice, acciden
   t
      or ignorance.
      And in the situation where it is desirable for the presence or abse
   nce
      of a keyword not to be revealed, organisations either need to be
      content with the divulgence, or not use keywords at all.
      In the situation where they choose to divulge, introducing the abil
   ity
      to restrict who can see the keyword would also reduce keyword
      overload.
     Personal Keywords
      Keywords join together a set of bugs which would otherwise be
      unrelated in the bug system.
      We allow users to store their own queries.  However we don't allow
      them to store their own keywords on a bug.  This reduces the
      usefulness of personal queries, since you cannot join a set of
      unrelated bugs together in a way that you wish.  Lists of bug numbe
   rs
      can work, by they can only be used for small lists, and it is
      impossible to share a list between multiple queries.
      Personal keywords are necessary to replace personal tracking bugs,
   as
      they would not pollute the keyword space.  Indeed, on many
      installations this could remove some keywords out of the global
      keyword space.
      In a similar vein and with similar effects, group keywords could be
      introduced that are only available to members of a specific group.
     Keyword Restrictions
      Keywords are not islands unto themselves.  Along with their potenti
   al
      to be involved in the inter-field relationships mentioned earlier,
      keywords can also be related to other keywords.
      Essentially, there are two possibilities:
        * a set of keywords are mutually exclusive
        * the presence of a keyword implies another keyword must be prese
   nt
      Introduction of the ability to specify these restrictions would hav
   e
      benefits.
      If mutually exclusive keywords were present on a bug, their removal
      would fix up the database, as well as reducing the number of keywor
   ds
      on that bug.
      In the situation where a keyword implies another keyword, there are
      two possiblities as to how to handle the situation.
      The first is automatically add the keyword.  This would fix up the
      database, but it would increase the number of keywords on a bug.
      The second is to automatically remove the keyword, and alter querie
   s
      so they pick up the first keyword as well as the removed keyword.
      This would fix up the database and reduce the number of keywords on
    a
      bug, but it might confuse users who don't see the keyword.
      Alternatively, the implied keywords could be listed separately.
   Notifications
      Every time a bug gets changed notifications get sent out to people
      letting them know about what changes have been made.  This is a
      significant feature, and all sorts of questions can be raised, but
      they mainly boil down to when they should be sent and what they sho
   uld
      look like.
     Changes You're Interested In
      As of version 2.12 users can specify what sort of changes they are
      interested in receiving notifications for.  However, this is still
      limited.  As yet there is no facility to specify which keywords you
      care about, and whether you care about changes to fields such as th
   e
      QA contact changes.
      Furthermore, often an unnecessary comment will go along with a chan
   ge,
      either because it is required, or the commenter is ignorant of how
   the
      new system works.  While explaining why you did something is useful
   ,
      merely commenting on what you did is not because that information i
   s
      already accessible view "Bug Activity".
      Because of this unnecessary comment, a lot of changes that would
      otherwise not generate notifications for certain people do so, beca
   use
      few people are willing to turn off comments.  One way to deal with
      this problem is to allow people to specify that their comments are
      purely explanatory, and that anyone who is not interested in the
      change will not be interested in the comment.
      Furthermore, one possible rationale for unnecessary comments is tha
   t
      the bug activity does not display on the normal page and hence it i
   s
      difficult to cross reference comments and actions.  Hence, it would
    be
      beneficial to be able to do this.
     Bugs You're Watching
      Currently to receive a notification about a bug you need to have yo
   ur
      name on it.  This is suboptimal because you need to know about a bu
   g
      before you can receive notifications on it.  Often you are interest
   ed
      in any bug with a field set to a specific value.  For example, you
      might be interested in all bugs with a specific product, component
   or
      keyword.
      If someone could automatically receive notifications about these bu
   gs,
      it would make everyone's lives easier.  Currently the default assig
   nee
      and QA contact for a component will automatically receive
      notifications for
      Question:  This moves half way to a BCC.
     Bulk Changes
      A very useful feature of Bugzilla is the ability to perform an acti
   on
      on multiple bugs at once.  However, this means that similar
      notifications are currently generated for each bug modified.
      This can result in a torrent of notifications that can annoy.
      Furthermore, since the bugs are all changed close to each other in
      time, it is easy for someone to mass delete all the notifications
      generated by a bulk change and miss an unrelated notification in th
   e
      middle.
      These factors can lead to a tendency for people to delay bulk chang
   es,
      or avoid them entirely.  This is suboptimal.
      It would be better if a bulk change generated only one notification
      mail.  This would vastly reduce the annoyance factor, and prevent
      accidental deletion of notifications.
      One problem with this change is that some people separate out
      notifications using filtering.  This means that they would no longe
   r
      be match parts of a bulk change under different filtering rules.
      One possibility to resolve this is to allow people to specify group
   s
      of bugs.  All bugs within a group would go into the same
      notification.  The filters could then distinguish the different bug
      groups.
      In any case, it is likely there would need to be a transition perio
   d
      to allow people to alter their filters.
   Nominations
      ?
   Linking Bugzilla Installations
      The first example of linking Bugzilla installations together has is
      the introduction of bug moving in version 2.12.  However, it would
   be
      useful to be able to link installations in more ways.
        * Dependencies and other relationships between bugs in other
          installations.  This is difficult because dependencies are
          synchronised on both bugs, so the installation that changes
          dependencies would need to communicate the new state to the oth
   er
          installation.  It would also mean that relationships and
          notifications that refer to other bugs would need to communicat
   e
          with the other installation.
        * References to bugs in other installations.  Currently if you ty
   pe
          "bug XXX" or "bug #XXX" where XXX is a number, you get an
          automatic hyperlink to that bug.  It would be useful if you cou
   ld
          say "YYY bug #XXX" where YYY is the name of another installatio
   n.
   Retirement
      ?
   Whiny Reports
      ?
     Group Redesign
      ?
     Hard Wrapping Comments
      Currently Bugzilla "hard wraps" its comments to a specific line siz
   e,
      similar to E-Mail.  This has various problems:
        * The way it currently works, wrapping is done in the browser at
          submission time using a non-standard HTML extension not support
   ed
          by some (uncommon) browsers.  These browsers generate comments
          that scroll off the right side of the screen.
        * Because comments are of fixed width, when you expand your brows
   er
          window, the comments do not expand to fit available space.
      It would be much better to move to a world of soft wrapping, where
   the
      browser wraps the text at display time, similar to a world processo
   r.
       And as in a word processor, soft wrapping does not preclude the
      insertion of newlines.
      Hard wrapping is too entrenched into text E-Mail to fix, but we can
      fix Bugzilla without causing any problems.  The old content will st
   ill
      be wrapped too early, but at least new content will work.
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 7. Bugzilla Variants and Competitors

I created this section to answer questions about Bugzilla competitors and
variants, then found a wonderful site which covers an awful lot of what I
wanted to discuss. Rather than quote it in its entirety, I'll simply refer
you here: http://linas.org/linux/pm.html
     _________________________________________________________________

7.1. Red Hat Bugzilla

Red Hat Bugzilla is probably the most popular Bugzilla variant on the
planet. One of the major benefits of Red Hat Bugzilla is the ability to work
with Oracle, MySQL, and PostGreSQL databases serving as the back-end,
instead of just MySQL. Dave Lawrence has worked very hard to keep Red Hat
Bugzilla up-to-date, and many people prefer the snappier-looking page layout
of Red Hat Bugzilla to the default Mozilla-standard formatting.

URL: http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/
     _________________________________________________________________

7.2. Loki Bugzilla (Fenris)

Fenris can be found at http://fenris.lokigames.com. It is a fork from
Bugzilla.
     _________________________________________________________________

7.3. Issuezilla

Issuezilla is another fork from Bugzilla, and seems nearly as popular as the
Red Hat Bugzilla fork. Some Issuezilla team members are regular contributors
to the Bugzilla mailing list/newsgroup. Issuezilla is not the primary focus
of bug-tracking at tigris.org, however. Their Java-based bug-tracker,
Scarab, a newfangled Java-based issue tracker, is under heavy development
and looks promising!

URL: http://issuezilla.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectHome
     _________________________________________________________________

7.4. Scarab

Scarab is a promising new bug-tracking system built using Java Serlet
technology. As of this writing, no source code has been released as a
package, but you can obtain the code from CVS.

URL: http://scarab.tigris.org
     _________________________________________________________________

7.5. Perforce SCM

Although Perforce isn't really a bug tracker, it can be used as such through
the "jobs" functionality.

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/technotes/note052.htmlhttp://www.perforce.c
om/perforce/technotes/note052.html
     _________________________________________________________________

7.6. SourceForge

SourceForge is more of a way of coordinating geographically distributed free
software and open source projects over the Internet than strictly a bug
tracker, but if you're hunting for bug-tracking for your open project, it
may be just what the software engineer ordered!

URL: http://www.sourceforge.net
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix A. The Bugzilla FAQ

   1. General Questions

        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. Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on
                Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL? 

        A.1.10. 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)? 

   4. Pointy-Haired-Boss Questions

        A.4.1. Is Bugzilla web-based or do you have to have specific
                software or specific operating system on your machine? 

        A.4.2. Has anyone you know of already done any Bugzilla
                integration with Perforce (SCM software)? 

        A.4.3. Does Bugzilla allow the user to track multiple projects? 
        A.4.4. 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, are there any that are NOT allowed? 

        A.4.6. 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. Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics,
                graphs, etc? You know, the type of stuff that management
                likes to see. :) 

        A.4.9. 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? 

        A.4.10. 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 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. 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.4.14. Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be
                used in other countries? Is it localizable? 

        A.4.15. 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. 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. 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. Are there any backup features provided? 
        A.4.22. Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress?
                
        A.4.23. 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. 

        A.4.24. 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? 

        A.4.25. 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. Bugzilla Security

        A.6.1. 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!)? 

        A.6.2. Are there any security problems with Bugzilla? 
        A.6.3. 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. 

   7. Bugzilla Email

        A.7.1. 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. 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. I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something more, or other
                than, only new bugs. How do I do it? 

        A.7.4. I don't like/want to use Procmail to hand mail off to
                bug_email.pl. What alternatives do I have? 

        A.7.5. 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. What gives? 

        A.7.7. How come email never reaches me from bugzilla changes? 

   8. Bugzilla Database

        A.8.1. 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. I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid
                entries. What do I do? 

        A.8.4. I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How? 
        A.8.5. 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 connect. 

        A.8.7. 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. Bugzilla and Win32

        A.9.1. What is the easiest way to run Bugzilla on Win32
                (Win98+/NT/2K)? 

        A.9.2. Is there a "Bundle::Bugzilla" equivalent for Win32? 
        A.9.3. 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. I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being
                able to talk to to the database. 

   10. Bugzilla Usage

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

        A.10.2. 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. I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create
                Attachment" link. What am I doing wrong? 

        A.10.4. Email submissions to Bugzilla that have attachments end
                up asking me to save it as a "cgi" file. 

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

   11. Bugzilla Hacking

        A.11.1. What bugs are in Bugzilla right now? 
        A.11.2. How can I change the default priority to a null value?
                For instance, have the default priority be "---" instead
                of "P2"? 

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

1. General Questions

   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/

   A.1.2. What license is Bugzilla distributed under?

   Bugzilla is covered by the Mozilla Public License. See details at
   http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/

   A.1.3. How do I get commercial support 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 whore themselves out 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
   for bug-tracking?

   There are dozens of major comapanies with public Bugzilla sites to
   track bugs in their products. A few include:

   Netscape/AOL
   Mozilla.org
   AtHome Corporation
   Red Hat Software
   Loki Entertainment Software
   SuSe Corp
   The Horde Project
   The Eazel Project
   AbiSource
   Real Time Enterprises, Inc
   Eggheads.org
   Strata Software
   RockLinux
   Creative Labs (makers of SoundBlaster)
   The Apache Foundation
   The Gnome Foundation
   Linux-Mandrake

   Suffice to say, there are more than enough huge projects using
   Bugzilla that we can safely say it's extremely popular.

   A.1.5. Who maintains Bugzilla?

   Bugzilla maintenance has been in a state of flux recently. Please
   check the Bugzilla Project Page for the latest details. 

   A.1.6. How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking
   databases?

   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 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 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.

   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?

   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.

   A.1.9. Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on
   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.

   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. Why do the scripts say "/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl" instead of
   "/usr/bin/perl" or something else?

   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:

     [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.

   Note

   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

   Note

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

   A.2.1. What about Red Hat Bugzilla?

   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.

   A.2.2. What are the primary benefits of Red Hat Bugzilla?

   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.

   A.2.3. What's the current status of Red Hat Bugzilla?

   Note

   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 2.14 rather than using a fork, but it's up to you.

4. Pointy-Haired-Boss Questions

   Note

   The title of this section doesn't mean you're a PHB -- it just means
   you probably HAVE a PHB who wants to know this :)

   A.4.1. Is Bugzilla web-based or do you have to have specific software
   or 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.

   A.4.2. Has anyone you know of already done any Bugzilla integration
   with Perforce (SCM software)?

   Yes! You can find more information elsewhere in "The Bugzilla Guide"
   in the "Integration with Third-Party Products" section.

   A.4.3. 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.

   A.4.4. 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?

   Yes.

   A.4.5. 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, 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.

   A.4.6. 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?

   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

   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;" -->

   Note

   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"-->

   Note

   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. 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/reports.cgi for basic
   reporting facilities.

   For more advanced reporting, I recommend hooking up a professional
   reporting package, such as Crystal Reports, and use ODBC to access the
   MySQL database. You can do a lot through the Query page of Bugzilla as
   well, but right now Advanced Reporting is much better accomplished
   through third-party utilities that can interface with the database
   directly.

   Advanced Reporting is a Bugzilla 3.X proposed feature.

   A.4.9. 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 notification is user-configurable. The bug id and Topic of the
   bug report accompany each email notification, along with a list of the
   changes made.

   A.4.10. Can email notification be set up to send to multiple people,
   some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc?

   Yes.

   A.4.11. If there is email notification, 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.

   Note

   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.

   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.?

   Yes. Place yourself in the "cc" field of the bug you wish to monitor.
   Then change your "Notify me of changes to" field in the Email Settings
   tab of the User Preferences screen in Bugzilla to the "Only those bugs
   which I am listed on the CC line" option.

   A.4.13. 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?

   Mozilla allows data export through a custom DTD in XML format. It does
   not, however, export to specific formats other than the XML Mozilla
   DTD. Importing the data into Excel or any other application is left as
   an exercise for the reader.

   If you create import filters to other applications from Mozilla's XML,
   please submit your modifications for inclusion in future Bugzilla
   distributions.

   As for data import, any application can send data to Bugzilla through
   the HTTP protocol, or through Mozilla's XML API. However, it seems
   kind of silly to put another front-end in front of Bugzilla; it makes
   more sense to create a simplified bug submission form in HTML. You can
   find an excellent example at
   http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/bugzilla-helper.html

   A.4.14. Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used
   in other countries? Is it localizable?

   Currently, no. Internationalization support for Perl did not exist in
   a robust fashion until the recent release of version 5.6.0; Bugzilla
   is, and likely will remain (until 3.X) completely non-localized.

   A.4.15. Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in Word
   format? Excel format?

   Yes. No. No.

   A.4.16. Can a user re-run a report with a new project, same query?

   Yes.

   A.4.17. Can a user modify an existing report and then save it into
   another name?

   You can save an unlimited number of queries in Bugzilla. You are free
   to modify them and rename them to your heart's desire.

   A.4.18. 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.

   A.4.19. Can the admin person establish separate group and individual
   user privileges?

   Yes.

   A.4.20. 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.

   A.4.21. 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

   A.4.22. 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.

   A.4.23. 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 completed by unskilled labor. Things like
   rotate backup tapes and check log files for the word "error".

   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.

   A.4.24. 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.

   A.4.25. 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.

5. Bugzilla Installation

   A.5.1. How do I download and install Bugzilla?

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

   A.5.2. How do I install Bugzilla on Windows NT?

   Installation on Windows NT has its own section in "The Bugzilla
   Guide".

   A.5.3. Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name?

   At present, no.

6. Bugzilla Security

   A.6.1. 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!)?

   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. Please read the Security section of
   the Administration chapter of "The Bugzilla Guide" before proceeding.

   A.6.2. 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
   installation, and follow the recommended security guidelines found in
   The Bugzilla Guide.

   A.6.3. 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.

   This is a common problem, related to running out of file descriptors.
   Simply add "ulimit -n unlimited" to the script which starts mysqld.

7. Bugzilla Email

   A.7.1. I have a user who doesn't want to receive any more email from
   Bugzilla. How do I stop it entirely for this user?

   With the email changes to 2.12, the user should be able to set this in
   user email preferences.

   A.7.2. I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send
   email to anyone but me. How do I do it?

   Edit the param for the mail text. Replace "To:" with "X-Real-To:",
   replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a "To: (myemailaddress)".

   A.7.3. 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
   http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6679. This patch is
   against an older version of Bugzilla, so you must apply the diffs
   manually.

   A.7.4. 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.

   A.7.5. 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.

   A.7.6. 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 instances of "sendmail" are correct for your MTA.

   If you are using Sendmail, try enabling "sendmailnow" in
   editparams.cgi. If you are using Postfix, you will also need to enable
   "sendmailnow".

   A.7.7. How come email never reaches me from bugzilla changes?

   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".

8. Bugzilla Database

   A.8.1. I've heard Bugzilla can be used with Oracle?

   Red Hat Bugzilla, mentioned above, works with Oracle. The current
   version from Mozilla.org does not have this capability. Unfortunately,
   though you will sacrifice a lot of the really great features available
   in Bugzilla 2.10 and 2.12 if you go with the 2.8-based Redhat version.

   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?

   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.

   A.8.3. 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.

   A.8.4. 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
   mysqladmin utility to manually insert, delete, and modify table
   information. Personally, I use "phpMyAdmin". You have to compile a PHP
   module with MySQL support to make it work, but it's very clean and
   easy to use.

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

   Certain version of MySQL (notably, 3.23.29 and 3.23.30) accidentally
   disabled the "crypt()" function. This prevented MySQL from storing
   encrypted passwords. Upgrade to the "3.23 stable" version of MySQL and
   you should be good to go.

   A.8.6. 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. However, I do not recommend you run it this way on a
   regular basis, unless you really want your web site defaced and your
   machine cracked.

   A.8.7. 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.

   A.8.8. Why do I get bizarre errors when trying to submit data,
   particularly problems with "groupset"?

   If you're sure your MySQL parameters are correct, you might want turn
   "strictvaluechecks" OFF in editparams.cgi. If you have "usebugsentry"
   set "On", you also cannot submit a bug as readable by more than one
   group with "strictvaluechecks" ON.

   A.8.9. How come even after I delete bugs, the long descriptions show
   up?

   This should only happen with Bugzilla 2.14 if you are using the
   "shadow database" feature, and your shadow database is out of sync.
   Try running syncshadowdb -syncall to make sure your shadow database is
   in synch with your primary database.

9. Bugzilla and Win32

   A.9.1. 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.

   A.9.2. 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.

   A.9.3. 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"

   A.9.4. Can I have some general instructions on how to make Bugzilla on
   Win32 work?

   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 t
   hat 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 work
   ing
        good, and I have inserted almost 100 bugs from another bug tracki
   ng
        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 wou
   ld
        like a zip file, let me know.
   Q: Hmm, couldn't figure it out from the general instructions above.  H
   ow
   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 b
   in
        directory to your system path. (Everyone should have these, wheth
   er
        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 usin
   g the
        notation: ppm install <module>.ppd
     6. Install Mysql.  *Note: If you move the default install from c:\my
   sql,
        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_pri
   v,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 datab
   ase.
        (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 encry
   pt()
             or crypr() functions insida all files.
    12. Replaced sendmail with Windmail. Basically, you have to come up w
   ith a
        sendmail substitute for NT. Someone said that they used a Perl mo
   dule
        (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() call
   s. I'm
        not sure about this one, but the read() under NT wasn't counting
   the
        EOLs without the binary read."

   A.9.5. 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:

    1. Hitting http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl
    2. Download ActivePerl
    3. Go to your prompt
    4. Type 'ppm'
    5. 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/

10. Bugzilla Usage

   A.10.1. 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"

   A.10.2. 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. I personally don't like it. 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 do the
   find and replace manually to apply them. They are very small, though.
   It is easy.

   A.10.3. 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.

   A.10.4. Email submissions to Bugzilla that have attachments end up
   asking me to save it as a "cgi" file.

   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
   cripple some other functionality.

   A.10.5. 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.

11. Bugzilla Hacking

   A.11.1. 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 2.16 release here. This list includes
   bugs for the 2.16 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!

   A.11.2. 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". Hmm, now that
   I think about it, that is kind of a klunky way to handle it, but for
   now it's what we have! Although the bug has been closed "resolved
   wontfix", there may be a better way to handle this...

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

    1. Enter a bug into bugzilla.mozilla.org for the "Bugzilla" product.
    2. 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!
    3. Announce your patch and the associated URL
       (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=XXXX) 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Bask in the glory of the fact that you helped write the most
       successful open-source bug-tracking software on the planet :)
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix B. Software Download Links

All of these sites are current as of April, 2001. Hopefully they'll stay
current for a while.

Apache Web Server: http://www.apache.org Optional web server for Bugzilla,
but recommended because of broad user base and support.

Bugzilla: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/

MySQL: http://www.mysql.com/

Perl: http://www.perl.org/

CPAN: http://www.cpan.org/

DBI Perl module: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/DBI/

Data::Dumper module: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Data/

MySQL related Perl modules: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Mysql/

TimeDate Perl module collection: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Date/

GD Perl module: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/GD/ Alternately, you
should be able to find the latest version of GD at
http://www.boutell.com/gd/

Chart::Base module: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Chart/

LinuxDoc Software: http://www.linuxdoc.org/ (for documentation maintenance)
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix C. The Bugzilla Database

   Note

   This document really needs to be updated with more fleshed out
   information about primary keys, interrelationships, and maybe some
   nifty tables to document dependencies. Any takers?
     _________________________________________________________________

C.1. Database Schema Chart

   [dbschema.jpg]

   Bugzilla database relationships chart
     _________________________________________________________________

C.2. MySQL Bugzilla Database Introduction

This information comes straight from my life. I was forced to learn how
Bugzilla organizes database because of nitpicky requests from users for tiny
changes in wording, rather than having people re-educate themselves or
figure out how to work our procedures around the tool. It sucks, but it can
and will happen to you, so learn how the schema works and deal with it when
it comes.

So, here you are with your brand-new installation of Bugzilla. You've got
MySQL set up, Apache working right, Perl DBI and DBD talking to the database
flawlessly. Maybe you've even entered a few test bugs to make sure email's
working; people seem to be notified of new bugs and changes, and you can
enter and edit bugs to your heart's content. Perhaps you've gone through the
trouble of setting up a gateway for people to submit bugs to your database
via email, have had a few people test it, and received rave reviews from
your beta testers.

What's the next thing you do? Outline a training strategy for your
development team, of course, and bring them up to speed on the new tool
you've labored over for hours.

Your first training session starts off very well! You have a captive
audience which seems enraptured by the efficiency embodied in this thing
called "Bugzilla". You are caught up describing the nifty features, how
people can save favorite queries in the database, set them up as headers and
footers on their pages, customize their layouts, generate reports, track
status with greater efficiency than ever before, leap tall buildings with a
single bound and rescue Jane from the clutches of Certain Death!

But Certain Death speaks up -- a tiny voice, from the dark corners of the
conference room. "I have a concern," the voice hisses from the darkness,
"about the use of the word 'verified'.

The room, previously filled with happy chatter, lapses into reverential
silence as Certain Death (better known as the Vice President of Software
Engineering) continues. "You see, for two years we've used the word
'verified' to indicate that a developer or quality assurance engineer has
confirmed that, in fact, a bug is valid. I don't want to lose two years of
training to a new software product. You need to change the bug status of
'verified' to 'approved' as soon as possible. To avoid confusion, of
course."

Oh no! Terror strikes your heart, as you find yourself mumbling "yes, yes, I
don't think that would be a problem," You review the changes with Certain
Death, and continue to jabber on, "no, it's not too big a change. I mean, we
have the source code, right? You know, 'Use the Source, Luke' and all
that... no problem," All the while you quiver inside like a beached
jellyfish bubbling, burbling, and boiling on a hot Jamaican sand dune...

Thus begins your adventure into the heart of Bugzilla. You've been forced to
learn about non-portable enum() fields, varchar columns, and tinyint
definitions. The Adventure Awaits You!
     _________________________________________________________________

C.2.1. Bugzilla Database Basics

If you were like me, at this point you're totally clueless about the
internals of MySQL, and if it weren't for this executive order from the Vice
President you couldn't care less about the difference between a "bigint" and
a "tinyint" entry in MySQL. I recommend you refer to the MySQL
documentation, available at MySQL.com. Below are the basics you need to know
about the Bugzilla database. Check the chart above for more details.

    1. To connect to your database:
       bash#mysql-u root
       If this works without asking you for a password, shame on you! You
       should have locked your security down like the installation
       instructions told you to. You can find details on locking down
       your database in the Bugzilla FAQ in this directory (under
       "Security"), or more robust security generalities in the MySQL
       searchable documentation at
       http://www.mysql.com/php/manual.php3?section=Privilege_system .
    2. You should now be at a prompt that looks like this:
       mysql>
       At the prompt, if "bugs" is the name you chose in thelocalconfig
       file for your Bugzilla database, type:
       mysqluse bugs;

       Note

   Don't forget the ";" at the end of each line, or you'll be kicking
   yourself later.
     _________________________________________________________________

C.2.1.1. Bugzilla Database Tables

Imagine your MySQL database as a series of spreadsheets, and you won't be
too far off. If you use this command:

mysql>show tables from bugs;

you'll be able to see all the "spreadsheets" (tables) in your database. It
is similar to a file system, only faster and more robust for certain types
of operations.

From the command issued above, ou should have some output that looks like
this:

+-------------------+
| Tables in bugs    |
+-------------------+
| attachments       |
| bugs              |
| bugs_activity     |
| cc                |
| components        |
| dependencies      |
| fielddefs         |
| groups            |
| keyworddefs       |
| keywords          |
| logincookies      |
| longdescs         |
| milestones        |
| namedqueries      |
| products          |
| profiles          |
| profiles_activity |
| shadowlog         |
| tokens            |
| versions          |
| votes             |
| watch             |
+-------------------+

     Here's an overview of what each table does.  Most columns in each ta
   ble have
   descriptive names that make it fairly trivial to figure out their jobs
   .
   attachments: This table stores all attachments to bugs.  It tends to b
   e your
   largest table, yet also generally has the fewest entries because file
   attachments are so (relatively) large.
   bugs:  This is the core of your system.  The bugs table stores most of
    the
   current information about a bug, with the exception of the info stored
    in the
   other tables.
   bugs_activity:  This stores information regarding what changes are mad
   e to bugs
   when -- a history file.
   cc:  This tiny table simply stores all the CC information for any bug
   which has
   any entries in the CC field of the bug.  Note that, like most other ta
   bles in
   Bugzilla, it does not refer to users by their user names, but by their
    unique
   userid, stored as a primary key in the profiles table.
   components: This stores the programs and components (or products and
   components, in newer Bugzilla parlance) for Bugzilla.  Curiously, the
   "program"
   (product) field is the full name of the product, rather than some othe
   r unique
   identifier, like bug_id and user_id are elsewhere in the database.
   dependencies: Stores data about those cool dependency trees.
   fielddefs:  A nifty table that defines other tables.  For instance, wh
   en you
   submit a form that changes the value of "AssignedTo" this table allows
   translation to the actual field name "assigned_to" for entry into MySQ
   L.
   groups:  defines bitmasks for groups.  A bitmask is a number that can
   uniquely
   identify group memberships.  For instance, say the group that is allow
   ed to
   tweak parameters is assigned a value of "1", the group that is allowed
    to edit
   users is assigned a "2", and the group that is allowed to create new g
   roups is
   assigned the bitmask of "4".  By uniquely combining the group bitmasks
    (much
   like the chmod command in UNIX,) you can identify a user is allowed to
    tweak
   parameters and create groups, but not edit users, by giving him a bitm
   ask of
   "5", or a user allowed to edit users and create groups, but not tweak
   parameters, by giving him a bitmask of "6" Simple, huh?
     If this makes no sense to you, try this at the mysql prompt:
   mysql> select * from groups;
     You'll see the list, it makes much more sense that way.
   keyworddefs:  Definitions of keywords to be used
   keywords: Unlike what you'd think, this table holds which keywords are
   associated with which bug id's.
   logincookies: This stores every login cookie ever assigned to you for
   every
   machine you've ever logged into Bugzilla from.  Curiously, it never do
   es any
   housecleaning -- I see cookies in this file I've not used for months.
    However,
   since Bugzilla never expires your cookie (for convenience' sake), it m
   akes
   sense.
   longdescs:  The meat of bugzilla -- here is where all user comments ar
   e stored!
   You've only got 2^24 bytes per comment (it's a mediumtext field), so s
   peak
   sparingly -- that's only the amount of space the Old Testament from th
   e Bible
   would take (uncompressed, 16 megabytes).  Each comment is keyed to the
   bug_id to which it's attached, so the order is necessarily chronologic
   al, for
   comments are played back in the order in which they are received.
   milestones:  Interesting that milestones are associated with a specifi
   c product
   in this table, but Bugzilla does not yet support differing milestones
   by
   product through the standard configuration interfaces.
   namedqueries:  This is where everybody stores their "custom queries".
    Very
   cool feature; it beats the tar out of having to bookmark each cool que
   ry you
   construct.
   products:  What products you have, whether new bug entries are allowed
    for the
   product, what milestone you're working toward on that product, votes,
   etc.  It
   will be nice when the components table supports these same features, s
   o you
   could close a particular component for bug entry without having to clo
   se an
   entire product...
   profiles:  Ahh, so you were wondering where your precious user informa
   tion was
   stored?  Here it is!  With the passwords in plain text for all to see!
    (but
   sshh... don't tell your users!)
   profiles_activity:  Need to know who did what when to who's profile?
   This'll
   tell you, it's a pretty complete history.
   shadowlog:  I could be mistaken here, but I believe this table tells y
   ou when
   your shadow database is updated and what commands were used to update
   it.  We
   don't use a shadow database at our site yet, so it's pretty empty for
   us.
   versions:  Version information for every product
   votes:  Who voted for what when
   watch:  Who (according to userid) is watching who's bugs (according to
    their
   userid).
   ===
   THE DETAILS
   ===
     Ahh, so you're wondering just what to do with the information above?
     At the
   mysql prompt, you can view any information about the columns in a tabl
   e with
   this command (where "table" is the name of the table you wish to view)
   :
   mysql> show columns from table;
     You can also view all the data in a table with this command:
   mysql> select * from table;
     -- note: this is a very bad idea to do on, for instance, the "bugs"
   table if
   you have 50,000 bugs.  You'll be sitting there a while until you ctrl-
   c or
   50,000 bugs play across your screen.
     You can limit the display from above a little with the command, wher
   e
   "column" is the name of the column for which you wish to restrict info
   rmation:
   mysql> select * from table where (column = "some info");
     -- or the reverse of this
   mysql> select * from table where (column != "some info");
     Let's take our example from the introduction, and assume you need to
    change
   the word "verified" to "approved" in the resolution field.  We know fr
   om the
   above information that the resolution is likely to be stored in the "b
   ugs"
   table. Note we'll need to change a little perl code as well as this da
   tabase
   change, but I won't plunge into that in this document. Let's verify th
   e
   information is stored in the "bugs" table:
   mysql> show columns from bugs
     (exceedingly long output truncated here)
   | bug_status| enum('UNCONFIRMED','NEW','ASSIGNED','REOPENED','RESOLVED
   ','VERIFIED','CLOSED')||MUL | UNCONFIRMED||
     Sorry about that long line.  We see from this that the "bug status"
   column is
   an "enum field", which is a MySQL peculiarity where a string type fiel
   d can
   only have certain types of entries.  While I think this is very cool,
   it's not
   standard SQL.  Anyway, we need to add the possible enum field entry
   'APPROVED' by altering the "bugs" table.
   mysql> ALTER table bugs CHANGE bug_status bug_status
       -> enum("UNCONFIRMED", "NEW", "ASSIGNED", "REOPENED", "RESOLVED",
       -> "VERIFIED", "APPROVED", "CLOSED") not null;
       (note we can take three lines or more -- whatever you put in befor
   e the
   semicolon is evaluated as a single expression)
   Now if you do this:
   mysql> show columns from bugs;
     you'll see that the bug_status field has an extra "APPROVED" enum th
   at's
   available!  Cool thing, too, is that this is reflected on your query p
   age as
   well -- you can query by the new status.  But how's it fit into the ex
   isting
   scheme of things?
     Looks like you need to go back and look for instances of the word "v
   erified"
   in the perl code for Bugzilla -- wherever you find "verified", change
   it to
   "approved" and you're in business (make sure that's a case-insensitive
    search).
   Although you can query by the enum field, you can't give something a s
   tatus
   of "APPROVED" until you make the perl changes.   Note that this change
    I
   mentioned can also be done by editing checksetup.pl, which automates a
    lot of
   this.  But you need to know this stuff anyway, right?
     I hope this database tutorial has been useful for you.  If you have
   comments
   to add, questions, concerns, etc. please direct them to
   mbarnson@excitehome.net.  Please direct flames to /dev/null :)  Have a
    nice
   day!
   ===
   LINKS
   ===
   Great MySQL tutorial site:
   http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL/
     _________________________________________________________________

C.3. MySQL Permissions & Grant Tables

   Note

   The following portion of documentation comes from my answer to an old
   discussion of Keystone, a cool product that does trouble-ticket
   tracking for IT departments. I wrote this post to the Keystone support
   group regarding MySQL grant table permissions, and how to use them
   effectively. It is badly in need of updating, as I believe MySQL has
   added a field or two to the grant tables since this time, but it
   serves as a decent introduction and troubleshooting document for grant
   table issues. I used Keynote to track my troubles until I discovered
   Bugzilla, which gave me a whole new set of troubles to work on : )
   Although it is of limited use, it still has SOME use, thus it's still
   included.

   Please note, however, that I was a relatively new user to MySQL at the
   time. Some of my suggestions, particularly in how to set up security,
   showed a terrible lack of security-related database experience.

   From matt_barnson@singletrac.com Wed Jul  7 09:00:07 1999
   Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 21:37:04 -0700
   From: Matthew Barnson matt_barnson@singletrac.com
   To: keystone-users@homeport.org
   Subject: [keystone-users] Grant Tables FAQ
       [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
       [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
       [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
   Maybe we can include this rambling message in the Keystone FAQ?  It ge
   ts
   asked a lot, and the only option current listed in the FAQ is
   "--skip-grant-tables".
   Really, you can't go wrong by reading section 6 of the MySQL manual, a
   t
   http://www.mysql.com/Manual/manual.html.  I am sure their description
   is
   better than mine.
   MySQL runs fine without permissions set up correctly if you run the my
   sql
   daemon with the "--skip-grant-tables" option.  Running this way denies
   access to nobody.  Unfortunately, unless you've got yourself firewalle
   d it
   also opens the potential for abuse if someone knows you're running it.
   Additionally, the default permissions for MySQL allow anyone at localh
   ost
   access to the database if the database name begins with "test_" or is
   named
   "test" (i.e. "test_keystone").  You can change the name of your databa
   se in
   the keystone.conf file ($sys_dbname).  This is the way I am doing it f
   or
   some of my databases, and it works fine.
   The methods described below assume you're running MySQL on the same bo
   x as
   your webserver, and that you don't mind if your $sys_dbuser for Keysto
   ne has
   superuser access.  See near the bottom of this message for a descripti
   on of
   what each field does.
   Method #1:
   1.  cd /var/lib
   #location where you'll want to run /usr/bin/mysql_install_db shell
   script from to get it to work.
   2.  ln -s mysql data
   # soft links the "mysql" directory to "data", which is what
   mysql_install_db expects.  Alternately, you can edit mysql_install_db
   and
   change all the "./data" references to "./mysql".
   3.  Edit /usr/bin/mysql_install_db with your favorite text editor (vi,
   emacs, jot, pico, etc.)
   A)  Copy the "INSERT INTO db VALUES
   ('%','test\_%','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');" and paste it immediately
   after
   itself.  Chage the 'test\_%' value to 'keystone', or the value of
   $sys_dbname in keystone.conf.
   B)  If you are running your keystone database with any user, you'll ne
   ed to
   copy the "INSERT INTO user VALUES
   ('localhost','root','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');" line
    after
   itself and change 'root' to the name of the keystone database user
   ($sys_dbuser) in keystone.conf.
   # adds entries to the script to create grant tables for specific
   hosts and users.  The user you set up has super-user access ($sys_dbus
   er) --
   you may or may not want this.  The layout of mysql_install_db is reall
   y very
   uncomplicated.
   4.  /usr/bin/mysqladmin shutdown
   # ya gotta shut it down before you can reinstall the grant tables!
   5.  rm -i /var/lib/mysql/mysql/*.IS?' and answer 'Y' to the deletion
   questions.
   # nuke your current grant tables.  This WILL NOT delete any other
   databases than your grant tables.
   6.  /usr/bin/mysql_install_db
   # run the script you just edited to install your new grant tables.
   7.  mysqladmin -u root password (new_password)
   # change the root MySQL password, or else anyone on localhost can
   login to MySQL as root and make changes.  You can skip this step if yo
   u want
   keystone to connect as root with no password.
   8.  mysqladmin -u (webserver_user_name) password (new_password)
   # change the password of the $sys_dbuser.  Note that you will need
   to change the password in the keystone.conf file as well in $sys_dbpas
   swd,
   and if your permissions are set up incorrectly anybody can type the UR
   L to
   your keystone.conf file and get the password.  Not that this will help
    them
   much if your permissions are set to @localhost.
   Method #2:  easier, but a pain reproducing if you have to delete your
   grant
   tables.  This is the "recommended" method for altering grant tables in
   MySQL.  I don't use it because I like the other way :)
   shell> mysql --user=root keystone
   mysql> GRANT
   SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,INDEX,ALTER,CREATE,DROP,RELOAD,SHUTDOWN,PR
   OCESS,
   FILE,
              ON keystone.*
              TO <$sys_dbuser name>@localhost
              IDENTIFIED BY '(password)'
        WITH GRANT OPTION;
   OR
   mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES
   ON keystone.*
   TO <$sys_dbuser name>@localhost
   IDENTIFIED BY '(password)'
   WITH GRANT OPTION;
   # this grants the required permissions to the keystone ($sys_dbuser)
   account defined in keystone.conf.  However, if you are runnning many
   different MySQL-based apps, as we are, it's generally better to edit t
   he
   mysql_install_db script to be able to quickly reproduce your permissio
   ns
   structure again.  Note that the FILE privelege and WITH GRANT OPTION m
   ay not
   be in your best interest to include.
   GRANT TABLE FIELDS EXPLANATION:
   Quick syntax summary:  "%" in MySQL is a wildcard.  I.E., if you are
   defining your DB table and in the 'host' field and enter '%', that mea
   ns
   that any host can access that database.  Of course, that host must als
   o have
   a valid db user in order to do anything useful.  'db'=name of database
   .  In
   our case, it should be "keystone".  "user" should be your "$sys_dbuser
   "
   defined in keystone.conf.  Note that you CANNOT add or change a passwo
   rd by
   using the "INSERT INTO db (X)" command -- you must change it with the
   mysql
   -u command as defined above.  Passwords are stored encrypted in the My
   SQL
   database, and if you try to enter it directly into the table they will
    not
   match.
   TABLE:  USER.  Everything after "password" is a privelege granted (Y/N
   ).
   This table controls individual user global access rights.
   'host','user','password','select','insert','update','delete','index','
   alter'
   ,'create','drop','grant','reload','shutdown','process','file'
   TABLE:  DB.  This controls access of USERS to databases.
   'host','db','user','select','insert','update','delete','index','alter'
   ,'crea
   te','drop','grant'
   TABLE:  HOST.  This controls which HOSTS are allowed what global acces
   s
   rights.  Note that the HOST table, USER table, and DB table are very c
   losely
   connected -- if an authorized USER attempts an SQL request from an
   unauthorized HOST, she's denied.  If a request from an authorized HOST
    is
   not an authorized USER, it is denied.  If a globally authorized USER d
   oes
   not have rights to a certain DB, she's denied.  Get the picture?
   'host','db','select','insert','update','delete','index','alter','creat
   e','dr
   op','grant'
   You should now have a working knowledge of MySQL grant tables.  If the
   re is
   anything I've left out of this answer that you feel is pertinent, or i
   f my
   instructions don't work for you, please let me know and I'll re-post t
   his
   letter again, corrected.  I threw it together one night out of exasper
   ation
   for all the newbies who don't know squat about MySQL yet, so it is alm
   ost
   guaranteed to have errors.
   Once again, you can't go wrong by reading section 6 of the MySQL manua
   l.  It
   is more detailed than I!
   http://www.mysql.com/Manual/manual.html.
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix D. Useful Patches and Utilities for Bugzilla

Are you looking for a way to put your Bugzilla into overdrive? Catch some of
the niftiest tricks here in this section.
     _________________________________________________________________

D.1. Apache mod_rewrite magic

Apache's mod_rewrite module lets you do some truly amazing things with URL
rewriting. Here are a couple of examples of what you can do.

    1. Make it so if someone types http://www.foo.com/12345, Bugzilla
       spits back http://www.foo.com/show_bug.cgi?id=12345. Try setting
       up your VirtualHost section for Bugzilla with a rule like this:

<VirtualHost 12.34.56.78>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/([0-9]+)$ http://foo.bar.com/show_bug.cgi?id=$1 [L,R]
</VirtualHost>

            2. There are many, many more things you can do with
       mod_rewrite. As time goes on, I will include many more in the
       Guide. For now, though, please refer to the mod_rewrite
       documentation at http://www.apache.org
     _________________________________________________________________

D.2. The setperl.csh Utility

You can use the "setperl.csh" utility to quickly and easily change the path
to perl on all your Bugzilla files. This is a C-shell script; if you do not
have "csh" or "tcsh" in the search path on your system, it will not work!

    1. Download the "setperl.csh" utility to your Bugzilla directory and
       make it executable.
         a. bash# cd /your/path/to/bugzilla
         b. bash# wget -O setperl.csh
            'http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=107
            95'
         c. bash# chmod u+x setperl.csh
    2. Prepare (and fix) Bugzilla file permissions.
         a. bash# chmod u+w *
         b. bash# chmod u+x duplicates.cgi
         c. bash# chmod a-x bug_status.html
    3. Run the script:
       bash# ./setperl.csh /your/path/to/perl
       Example D-1. Using Setperl to set your perl path
       bash# ./setperl.csh /usr/bin/perl
     _________________________________________________________________

D.3. Command-line Bugzilla Queries

Users can query Bugzilla from the command line using this suite of
utilities.

The query.conf file contains the mapping from options to field names and
comparison types. Quoted option names are "grepped" for, so it should be
easy to edit this file. Comments (#) have no effect; you must make sure
these lines do not contain any quoted "option"

buglist is a shell script which submits a Bugzilla query and writes the
resulting HTML page to stdout. It supports both short options, (such as
"-Afoo" or "-Rbar") and long options (such as "--assignedto=foo" or
"--reporter=bar"). If the first character of an option is not "-", it is
treated as if it were prefixed with "--default=".

The columlist is taken from the COLUMNLIST environment variable. This is
equivalent to the "Change Columns" option when you list bugs in buglist.cgi.
If you have already used Bugzilla, use grep COLUMLIST ~/.netscape/cookies to
see your current COLUMNLIST setting.

bugs is a simple shell script which calls buglist and extracts the bug
numbers from the output. Adding the prefix
"http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?bug_id=" turns the bug list into a
working link if any bugs are found. Counting bugs is easy. Pipe the results
through sed -e 's/,/ /g' | wc | awk '{printf $2 "\n"}'

Akkana says she has good results piping buglist output through w3m -T
text/html -dump

    1. Download three files:
         a. bash$ wget -O query.conf
            'http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=261
            57'
         b. bash$ wget -O buglist
            'http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=269
            44'
         c. bash# wget -O bugs
            'http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=262
            15'
    2. Make your utilities executable: bash$ chmod u+x buglist bugs
     _________________________________________________________________

D.4. The Quicksearch Utility

Quicksearch is a new, experimental feature of the 2.12 release. It consist
of two Javascript files, "quicksearch.js" and "localconfig.js", and two
documentation files, "quicksearch.html" and "quicksearchhack.html"

The index.html page has been updated to include the QuickSearch text box.

To take full advantage of the query power, the Bugzilla maintainer must edit
"localconfig.js" according to the value sets used in the local installation.

Currently, keywords must be hard-coded in localconfig.js. If they are not,
keywords are not automatically recognized. This means, if localconfig.js is
left unconfigured, that searching for a bug with the "foo" keyword will only
find bugs with "foo" in the summary, status whiteboard, product or component
name, but not those with the keyword "foo".

Workarounds for Bugzilla users:

search for '!foo' (this will find only bugs with the keyword "foo"
search 'foo,!foo' (equivalent to 'foo OR keyword:foo')

   When  this  tool  is ported from client-side JavaScript to server-side
   Perl,  the requirement for hard-coding keywords can be fixed. This bug
   has details.
     _________________________________________________________________

D.5. Hacking Bugzilla

The following is a guide for reviewers when checking code into Bugzilla's
CVS repostory at mozilla.org. If you wish to submit patches to Bugzilla, you
should follow the rules and style conventions below. Any code that does not
adhere to these basic rules will not be added to Bugzilla's codebase.
     _________________________________________________________________

D.5.1. Things that have caused problems and should be avoided

    1. Usage of variables in Regular Expressions
       It is very important that you don't use a variable in a regular
       expression unless that variable is supposed to contain an
       expression. This especially applies when using grep. You should
       use:

grep ($_ eq $value, @array);


       -- NOT THIS --

grep (/$value/, @array);


       Note

   If you need to use a non-expression variable inside of an expression,
   be sure to quote it properly (using \Q..\E).
     _________________________________________________________________

D.5.2. Coding Style for Bugzilla

While it's true that not all of the code currently in Bugzilla adheres to
this (or any) styleguide, it is something that is being worked toward.
Therefore, we ask that all new code (submitted patches and new files) follow
this guide as closely as possible (if you're only changing 1 or 2 lines, you
don't have to reformat the entire file :).

The Bugzilla development team has decided to adopt the perl style guide as
published by Larry Wall. This giude can be found in "Programming Perl" (the
camel book) or by typing man perlstyle at your favorite shell prompt.

What appears below if a brief summary, please refer to the perl style guide
if you don't see your question covered here. It is much better to submit a
patch which fails these criteria than no patch at all, but please try to
meet these minimum standards when submitting code to Bugzilla.

     * Whitespace
       Bugzilla's preferred indentation is 4 spaces (no tabs, please).
     * Curly braces.
       The opening brace of a block should be on the same line as the
       statement that is causing the block and the closing brace should
       be at the same indentation level as that statement, for example:

if ($var) {
    print "The variable is true";
}
else {
    print "Try again";
}


       -- NOT THIS --

if ($var)
{
    print "The variable is true";
}
else
{
    print "Try again";
}


     * Cookies
       Bugzilla uses cookies to ease the user experience, but no new
       patches should require user-side cookies.
     * File Names
       File names for bugzilla code and support documention should be
       legal across multiple platforms. \ / : * ? " < > and | are all
       illegal characters for filenames on various platforms. Also, file
       names should not have spaces in them as they can cause confusion
       in CVS and other mozilla.org utilities.
     * Javascript dependencies
       While Bugzilla uses Javascript to make the user experience easier,
       no patch to Bugzilla should require Javascript.
     * Patch Format
       All patches submitted for inclusion into Bugzilla should be in the
       form of a "unified diff". This comes from using "diff -u" instead
       of simply "diff" when creating your patch. This will result in
       quicker acceptance of the patch.
     * Schema Changes
       If you make schema changes, you should modify sanitycheck.cgi to
       support the new schema. All referential columns should be checked.
     * Taint Mode
       All new cgis must run in Taint mode (Perl taint and DBI taint),
       and existing cgi's which run in taint mode must not have taint
       mode turned off.
     * Templatization
       Patches to Bugzilla need to support templates so they do not force
       user interface choices on Bugzilla administrators.
     * Variable Names
       If a variable is scoped globally ($::variable) its name should be
       descriptive of what it contains. Local variables can be named a
       bit looser, provided the context makes their content obvious. For
       example, $ret could be used as a staging variable for a routine's
       return value as the line return $ret; will make it blatantly
       obvious what the variable holds and most likely be shown on the
       same screen as my $ret = "";.
     * Cross Database Compatability
       Bugzilla was originally written to work with MySQL and therefore
       took advantage of some of its features that aren't contained in
       other RDBMS software. These should be avoided in all new code.
       Examples of these features are enums and encrypt().
     * Cross Platform Compatability
       While Bugzilla was written to be used on Unix based systems (and
       Unix/Linux is still the only officially supported platform) there
       are many who desire/need to run Bugzilla on Microsoft Windows
       boxes. Whenever possible, we should strive not to make the lives
       of these people any more complicated and avoid doing things that
       break Bugzilla's ability to run on multiple operating systems.
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix E. GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.1, March 2000

     Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place,
     Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy
     and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but
     changing it is not allowed.
     _________________________________________________________________

0. PREAMBLE

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other written
document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective
freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either
commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the
author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being
considered responsible for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of
the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the
GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free
software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program
should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does.
But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any
textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a
printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose
is instruction or reference.
     _________________________________________________________________

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a notice
placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms
of this License. The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work.
Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".

A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document
or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or
translated into another language.

A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the
Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or
authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related
matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall
subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics,
a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could
be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related
matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political
position regarding them.

The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are
designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says
that the Document is released under this License.

The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as
Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the
Document is released under this License.

A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
represented in a format whose specification is available to the general
public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and
straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of
pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available
drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for
automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text
formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup
has been designed to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers
is not Transparent. A copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII
without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using
a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML designed for
human modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF, proprietary
formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors,
SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally
available, and the machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors
for output purposes only.

The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such
following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License
requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have
any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent
appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the
text.
     _________________________________________________________________

2. VERBATIM COPYING

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially
or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and
the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are
reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to
those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or
control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.
However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you
distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the
conditions in section 3.

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you
may publicly display copies.
     _________________________________________________________________

3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and
the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts:
Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back
cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the
publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with
all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other
material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the
covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these
conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly,
you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the
actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more
than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along
with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a
publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete
Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the general
network-using public has access to download anonymously at no charge using
public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter option, you must
take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies
in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus
accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last
time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or
retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them
a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
     _________________________________________________________________

4. MODIFICATIONS

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the
conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified
Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the
role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the
Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do
these things in the Modified Version:

    A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
       from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
       (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
       of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
       if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
    B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
       entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the
       Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal
       authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has
       less than five).
    C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified
       Version, as the publisher.
    D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
    E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
       adjacent to the other copyright notices.
    F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice
       giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the
       terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
    G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
       Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license
       notice.
    H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
    I. Preserve the section entitled "History", and its title, and add to
       it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and
       publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If
       there is no section entitled "History" in the Document, create one
       stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as
       given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
       Version as stated in the previous sentence.
    J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
       public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise
       the network locations given in the Document for previous versions
       it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You
       may omit a network location for a work that was published at least
       four years before the Document itself, or if the original
       publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
    K. In any section entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
       preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the
       substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
       and/or dedications given therein.
    L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in
       their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent
       are not considered part of the section titles.
    M. Delete any section entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not
       be included in the Modified Version.
    N. Do not retitle any existing section as "Endorsements" or to
       conflict in title with any Invariant Section.

   If   the  Modified  Version  includes  new  front-matter  sections  or
   appendices  that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
   copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
   of  these  sections  as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the
   list  of  Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
   These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

   You  may  add  a section entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
   nothing   but   endorsements  of  your  Modified  Version  by  various
   parties--for  example,  statements of peer review or that the text has
   been  approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
   standard.

   You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a
   passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list
   of   Cover  Texts  in  the  Modified  Version.  Only  one  passage  of
   Front-Cover  Text  and  one  of  Back-Cover  Text  may be added by (or
   through  arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
   includes  a  cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
   by  arrangement  made  by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
   you  may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
   permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

   The  author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
   give  permission  to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
   imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
     _________________________________________________________________

5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions,
provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections
of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant
Sections of your combined work in its license notice.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple
identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there
are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents,
make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in
parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if
known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section
titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled "History" in the
various original documents, forming one section entitled "History"; likewise
combine any sections entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections entitled
"Dedications". You must delete all sections entitled "Endorsements."
     _________________________________________________________________

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this
License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the
collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim
copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it
individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License
into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects
regarding verbatim copying of that document.
     _________________________________________________________________

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and
independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version of the
Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the compilation.
Such a compilation is called an "aggregate", and this License does not apply
to the other self-contained works thus compiled with the Document, on
account of their being thus compiled, if they are not themselves derivative
works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of
the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter of the entire
aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that surround
only the Document within the aggregate. Otherwise they must appear on covers
around the whole aggregate.
     _________________________________________________________________

8. TRANSLATION

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute
translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing
Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their
copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant
Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections.
You may include a translation of this License provided that you also include
the original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement
between the translation and the original English version of this License,
the original English version will prevail.
     _________________________________________________________________

9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as
expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy,
modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who
have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have
their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
     _________________________________________________________________

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU
Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be
similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the
Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or
any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms
and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that
has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose
any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
     _________________________________________________________________

How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the
License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices
just after the title page:

     Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy,
     distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
     Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version
     published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant
     Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front-Cover Texts being
     LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST. A copy of the
     license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
     License".

   If  you have no Invariant Sections, write "with no Invariant Sections"
   instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no Front-Cover
   Texts,  write  "no  Front-Cover  Texts"  instead of "Front-Cover Texts
   being LIST"; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.

   If  your  document  contains  nontrivial  examples of program code, we
   recommend  releasing  these  examples in parallel under your choice of
   free  software  license,  such  as  the GNU General Public License, to
   permit their use in free software.

Glossary

0-9, high ascii

   .htaccess
          Apache web server, and other NCSA-compliant web servers,
          observe the convention of using files in directories called
          .htaccess files. These restrict parameters of the web server.
          In Bugzilla, they are used to restrict access to certain files
          which would otherwise compromise your installation. For
          instance, the localconfig file contains the password to your
          database. If this information were generally available, and
          remote access to your database turned on, you risk corruption
          of your database by computer criminals or the curious.

A

   Apache
          In this context, Apache is the web server most commonly used
          for serving up Bugzilla pages. Contrary to popular belief, the
          apache web server has nothing to do with the ancient and noble
          Native American tribe, but instead derived its name from the
          fact that it was "a patchy" version of the original NCSA
          world-wide-web server.

B

   Bug
          A "Bug" in Bugzilla refers to an issue entered into the
          database which has an associated number, assignments, comments,
          etc. Some also refer to a "tickets" or "issues"; in the context
          of Bugzilla, they are synonymous.

   Bug Number
          Each Bugzilla Bug is assigned a number that uniquely identifies
          that Bug. The Bug associated with a Bug Number can be pulled up
          via a query, or easily from the very front page by typing the
          number in the "Find" box.

   Bug Life Cycle
          A Bug has stages through which it must pass before becoming a
          "closed bug", including acceptance, resolution, and
          verification. The "Bug Life Cycle" is moderately flexible
          according to the needs of the organization using it, though.

   Bugzilla
          Bugzilla is the industry-standard bug tracking system. It is
          quite popular among Open Source enthusiasts.

   Component
          A Component is a subsection of a Product. It should be a narrow
          category, tailored to your organization. All Products must
          contain at least one Component (and, as a matter of fact,
          creating a Product with no Components will create an error in
          Bugzilla).

   CPAN
          CPAN stands for the "Comprehensive Perl Archive Network". CPAN
          maintains a large number of extremely useful Perl modules. By
          themselves, Perl modules generally do nothing, but when used as
          part of a larger program, they provide much-needed algorithms
          and functionality.

D

   daemon
          A daemon is a computer program which runs in the background. In
          general, most daemons are started at boot time via System V
          init scripts, or through RC scripts on BSD-based systems.
          mysqld, the MySQL server, and apache, a web server, are
          generally run as daemons.

   Groups
          The word "Groups" has a very special meaning to Bugzilla.
          Bugzilla's main security mechanism comes by lumping users into
          groups, and assigning those groups certain privileges to
          Products and Components in the Bugzilla database.

I

   Infinite Loop
          A loop of information that never ends; see recursion.

M

   mysqld
          mysqld is the name of the daemon for the MySQL database. In
          general, it is invoked automatically through the use of the
          System V init scripts on GNU/Linux and AT&T System V-based
          systems, such as Solaris and HP/UX, or through the RC scripts
          on BSD-based systems.

P

   Product
          A Product is a broad category of types of bugs. In general,
          there are several Components to a Product. A Product also
          defines a default Group (used for Bug Security) for all bugs
          entered into components beneath it.

          Example 1. A Sample Product

          A company sells a software product called "X". They also
          maintain some older software called "Y", and have a secret
          project "Z". An effective use of Products might be to create
          Products "X", "Y", "Z", each with Components of User Interface,
          Database, and Business Logic. They might also change group
          permissions so that only those people who are members of Group
          "Z" can see components and bugs under Product "Z".

   Perl
          First written by Larry Wall, Perl is a remarkable program
          language. It has the benefits of the flexibility of an
          interpreted scripting language (such as shell script), combined
          with the speed and power of a compiled language, such as C.
          Bugzilla is maintained in Perl.

Q

   QA
          "QA", "Q/A", and "Q.A." are short for "Quality Assurance". In
          most large software development organizations, there is a team
          devoted to ensuring the product meets minimum standards before
          shipping. This team will also generally want to track the
          progress of bugs over their life cycle, thus the need for the
          "QA Contact" field in a Bug.

R

   Recursion
          The property of a function looking back at itself for
          something. "GNU", for instance, stands for "GNU's Not UNIX",
          thus recursing upon itself for definition. For further clarity,
          see Infinite Loop.

S

   SGML
          SGML stands for "Standard Generalized Markup Language". Created
          in the 1980's to provide an extensible means to maintain
          documentation based upon content instead of presentation, SGML
          has withstood the test of time as a robust, powerful language.
          XML is the "baby brother" of SGML; any valid XML document it,
          by definition, a valid SGML document. The document you are
          reading is written and maintained in SGML, and is also valid
          XML if you modify the Document Type Definition.

T

   Target Milestone
          Target Milestones are Product goals. They are configurable on a
          per-Product basis. Most software development houses have a
          concept of "milestones" where the people funding a project
          expect certain functionality on certain dates. Bugzilla
          facilitates meeting these milestones by giving you the ability
          to declare by which milestone a bug will be fixed, or an
          enhancement will be implemented.

Z

   Zarro Boogs Found
          This is the cryptic response sent by Bugzilla when a query
          returned no results. It is just a goofy way of saying "Zero
          Bugs Found".