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

The Bugzilla Guide

Matthew P. Barnson

   barnboy@trilobyte.net

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

   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. Installing Bugzilla

        2.1. UNIX Installation
        2.2. Win32 (Win98+/NT/2K) Installation

   3. Administering Bugzilla

        3.1. Post-Installation Checklist
        3.2. User Administration
        3.3. Product, Component, Milestone, and Version Administration
        3.4. Bugzilla Security

   4. Using Bugzilla

        4.1. What is Bugzilla?
        4.2. Why Should We Use Bugzilla?
        4.3. How do I use Bugzilla?
        4.4. What's in it for me?
        4.5. Using Bugzilla-Conclusion

   5. Integrating Bugzilla with Third-Party Tools

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

   6. The Future of Bugzilla

        6.1. Reducing Spam
        6.2. Better Searching
        6.3. Description Flags and Tracking Bugs
        6.4. Bug Issues
        6.5. Database Integrity
        6.6. Bugzilla 3.0

   A. The Bugzilla FAQ
   B. The Bugzilla Database

        B.1. Database Schema Chart
        B.2. MySQL Bugzilla Database Introduction
        B.3. MySQL Permissions & Grant Tables
        B.4. Cleaning up after mucking with Bugzilla

   C. Useful Patches and Utilities for Bugzilla

        C.1. The setperl.pl Utility
        C.2. Command-line Bugzilla Queries
        C.3. The Quicksearch Utility

   D. 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
   3-1. Creating some Components
   3-2. Common Use of Versions
   3-3. A Different Use of Versions
   3-4. Using SortKey with Target Milestone
   3-5. When to Use Group Security
   3-6. Creating a New Group
   4-1. Some Famous Software Versions
   4-2. Mozilla Webtools Components
   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.

   Despite the lack of updates, 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 2.11 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 will follow the numbering
   conventions of the main-tree Bugzilla releases, available at
   Mozilla.org, with the exception that intermediate releases will have a
   minor revision number following a period. For instance, if the current
   version of Bugzilla is 4.2, the current "stable" version of the
   Bugzilla guide, in, say, it's fifth revision, would be numbered
   "4.2.5". 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 thei 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
   <barnboy@trilobyte.net>
     _________________________________________________________________

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. In particular, I like to put down Microsoft(tm). Live with it.

   Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as
   endorsements, with the exception of the term "GNU/Linux". Use
   GNU/Linux. Love it. Bathe with it. It is life and happiness. I endorse
   it wholeheartedly and encourage you to do the same.

   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!

   Bugzilla has not undergone a complete security review. Security holes
   probably 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

1.4. New Versions

   This is the initial release of the Bugzilla 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 converting Bugzilla from BugSplat! and
   writing the README upon which this 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:

   Zach Lipton, Andrew Pearson, Spencer Smith, Eric Hansen
     _________________________________________________________________

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>
     _________________________________________________________________

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. Installing Bugzilla

2.1. UNIX Installation

     Note: Please consult the README included with the Bugzilla
     distribution as the current canonical source for UNIX installation
     instructions. We do, however, have some installation notes for
     errata from the README.

     Note: 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.

     Note:
     _________________________________________________________________

2.2. Win32 (Win98+/NT/2K) Installation

   These directions have not been extensively tested. We need testers!
   Please try these out and post any changes to the newsgroup.
     _________________________________________________________________

2.2.1. Win32 Installation: Step-by-step

     Note: You should be familiar with, and cross-reference, the UNIX
     README while performing your Win32 installation. Unfortunately,
     Win32 directions are not yet as detailed as those for UNIX.

     The most critical difference for Win32 users is the lack of support
     for a crypt() function in MySQL for Windows. It does not have it!
     All ENCRYPT statements must be modified.

    1. Install Apache Web Server for Windows.

     Note: You may also use Internet Information Server or Personal Web
     Server for this purpose. However, setup is slightly more difficult.
     If ActivePerl doesn't seem to handle your file associations
     correctly (for .cgi and .pl files), please consult the FAQ, in the
     "Win32" section.
     If you are going to use IIS, if on Windows NT you must be updated
     to at least Service Pack 4.
    2. Install ActivePerl
       Please also check the following links to fully understand the
       status of ActivePerl on Win32: Perl Porting, and Hixie Click Here
    3. Use ppm from your perl\bin directory to install the following
       packs: DBI, DBD-Mysql, TimeDate, Chart, Date-Calc, Date-Manip, and
       GD. You may need to extract them from .zip format using Winzip or
       other unzip program first. These additional ppm modules can be
       downloaded from ActiveState.
       The syntax for ppm is: C:> ppm install <module>.ppd
       You can find ActiveState ppm modules at
       http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus
    4. Download and install the Windows GNU tools from www.cygwin.com.
       Make sure the GNU utilities are in your $PATH.
    5. Install MySQL for NT.

     Note: Your configuration file for MySQL must be named C:\MY.CNF.
    6. 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';
         d. mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER,
            CREATE, DROP, REFERENCES ON bugs.* to bugs@localhost
            IDENTIFIED BY 'bugs_password';
         e. mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
         f. mysql> create database bugs;
         g. mysql> exit
         h. C:> C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root -p reload
    7. Configure Bugzilla. For Win32, this involves editing
       "defparams.pl" and "localconfig" to taste. Running "checksetup.pl"
       should create localconfig for you. Note that getgrnam() doesn't
       work, and should be deleted. Change this line: "my $webservergid =
       getgrnam($my_webservergroup); " to "my $webservergid =
       $my_webservergroup; "
    8.

     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.
       Download NTsendmail, available from www.ntsendmail.com. In order
       for it to work, you must set up some new environment variables
       (detailed on the ntsendmail home page). Figuring out where to put
       those variables is left as an exercise for the reader. 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)
       Once downloaded and installed, modify all open(SENDMAIL) calls to
       open "| c:\ntsendmail\ntsendmail -t" instead of
       "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t".

     Note: We need someone to test this and make sure this works as
     advertised.
    9. Modify globals.pl and CGI.pl to remove the word "encrypt".

     Note: I'm not sure this is all that is involved to remove crypt.
     Any NT Bugzilla hackers want to pipe up?
   10. Change all references to "processmail" to "processmail.pl" in all
       files, and rename "processmail" to "processmail.pl"

     Note: I really 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.
   11. 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.pl" utility to
       speed part of this procedure, available in the "Patches and
       Utilities" section of The Bugzilla Guide.
   12. In processmail.pl, add "binmode(HANDLE)" before all read() calls.
       This may not be necessary, but in some cases the read() under
       Win32 doesn't count the EOL's without using a binary read().
     _________________________________________________________________

2.2.2. 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\Paramete
     rs\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.
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 3. Administering Bugzilla

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

   So you followed the README isntructions to the letter, and just logged
   into bugzilla with your super-duper god account and you are sitting at
   the query screen. Yet, you have nothing to query. Your first act of
   bisuness needs to be to setup the operating parameters for bugzilla.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.1. Post-Installation Checklist

   After installation, follow the checklist below to 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. 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.
    2. Set "urlbase" to the URL reference for your Bugzilla installation.
       If your bugzilla query page is at
       http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi, your url base is
       http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/
    3. Set "usebuggroups" to "1" only if you need to restrict access to
       products. I suggest leaving this parameter off while initially
       testing your Bugzilla.
    4. Set "usebuggroupsentry" to "1" if you want to be able to restrict
       access to products. 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.
    5. 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 may frequently need to manually
     synchronize your databases, or schedule nightly syncs 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.
       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!
    6. 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. If you have a special banner, put the code
     for it in "bannerhtml". You may want to leave these settings at the
     defaults initially.
    7. 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.
    8. Set "newemailtech" to "on". Your users will thank you. This is the
       default in the post-2.12 world.
    9. 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 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 README, or set
       this value to "0".
   11. Set the "commenton" options according to your site policy. It is a
       wise idea to require comments when users resolve, reassign, or
       reopen bugs.

     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. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2. User Administration

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

3.2.1. 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)";
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.2. Managing Other Users

3.2.2.1. 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!
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.2.2. 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. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.2.3. 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!
     _________________________________________________________________

3.2.2.4. Modifying Users

   Here I will attempt to describe the function of each option on the
   user edit 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 will only see asterisks in versions of Bugzilla
       newer than 2.10 or early 2.11. You can change the user password
       here.
     * 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, Q/A 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 Q/A 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, Q/A 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 (ergo: "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 priveleges 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3. Product, Component, Milestone, and Version Administration



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

3.3.1. Products

   Formerly, 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3.2. Components

   Components are subsections of a Product.

   Example 3-1. Creating some Components

   The computer game you are designing may 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 Q/A
   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" field should not contain a space.
       The "Description" field is free-form. The "Initial Owner" field
       must be that of a valid user 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 "query" page on the
       ensuing "Addming new component" page. To return to the Product you
       were editing, you must select the "components" link as before.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3.3. 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 3-2. 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 3-3. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3.4. 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 3-4. 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.
    7.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3.5. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.3.6. 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 3-5. 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 3-6. 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
       "*@velio.com". This new group automatically includes all Bugzilla
       users with "@velio.com" 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

3.4. 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.

   First thing's first: 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 Privelege 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.
    5. Ensure you have adequate access controls for $BUGZILLA_HOME/data/
       and $BUGZILLA_HOME/localconfig. The localconfig file stores your
       "bugs" user password, which would be terrible to have in the hands
       of a criminal. Also some files under $BUGZILLA_HOME/data store
       sensitive information.
       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

    6.
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 4. Using Bugzilla



   What, Why, How, & What's in it for me?
     _________________________________________________________________

4.1. 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. At the time Bugzilla
   was originally written, as a port from Netscape Communications'
   "Bugsplat!" program to Perl from TCL, there were very few competitors
   in the market for bug-tracking software. Most commercial
   defect-tracking software vendors at the time charged enormous
   licensing fees. Bugzilla quickly became a favorite of the open-source
   crowd (with its genesis in the open-source browser project, Mozilla)
   and 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, and HTTP APIs
     * integration with several automated software configuration
       management systems
     * too many more features to list

   Despite its current robustness and popularity, however, 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, no
   internationalization, and dependence on some nonstandard libraries.

   Despite these small problems, Bugzilla is very hard to beat. It is
   under very active development to address the current issues, and a
   long-awaited overhaul in the form of Bugzilla 3.0 is expected sometime
   later this year.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.2. 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 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3. How do I use Bugzilla?



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

   Bugzilla is a large and 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. 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. However, please
   use it if you want to follow this tutorial.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.1. Create a Bugzilla Account

   First thing's 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/mozilla/bugzilla/

    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 5-10 minutes, 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.2. The Bugzilla Query Page

   The Bugzilla Query Page is the heart and soul of Bugzilla. 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, or shortly will be, 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, please visit the main Bugzilla site,
   bugzilla.mozilla.org, to see a more fleshed-out query page.

   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 "Webtools". Select
       this entry.
    4. Did you notice that some of the boxes to the right changed when
       you selected "Webtools"? Every Program (or Product) has different
       Versions, Components, and Target Milestones associated with it. A
       "Version" is the number of a software program.
       Example 4-1. 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 4-2. Mozilla Webtools Components
       Mozilla's "Webtools" Product is composed of several pieces
       (Components):

       Bonsai, a tool to show recent changes to Mozilla
       Bugzilla, a defect-tracking tool
   Build, a tool to automatically compile source code into
   machine-readable form
       Despot, a program that controls access to the other Webtools
   LXR, a utility that automatically marks up text files to make them
   more readable
       MozBot, a "robot" that announces changes to Mozilla in Chat
       TestManager, a tool to help find bugs in Mozilla
       Tinderbox, which displays reports from Build
       A different person is responsible for each of these Components.
       Tara Hernandez keeps the "Bugzilla" component up-to-date.
       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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.3. Creating and Managing Bug Reports



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

4.3.3.1. Writing a Great Bug Report

   Before we plunge into writing your first bug report, I encourage you
   to read Mozilla.org's Bug Writing Guidelines. 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/mozilla/bugzilla/ 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.3.3.2. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4. What's in it for me?



   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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.1. 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're done!
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.2. Email Settings

4.4.2.1. Email Notification

   Ahh, here you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent you from
   Bugzilla! In the drop-down "Notify me of changes to", select one of

   All qualifying bugs: sends you every change to every bug where your
   name is somewhere on it, regardless of who changed it.
   Only those bugs which I am listed in the CC line: prevents you from
   receiving mail for which you are the reporter,' owner, or QA contact.
   If you are on the CC list, presumably someone had a good reason for
   you to get the email.
   All qulifying bugs except those which I change: This is the default,
   and a sensible setting. If someone else changes your bugs, you will
   get emailed, but if you change bugs yourself you will receive no
   notification of the change.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.2.2. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.2.3. "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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.3. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.4.4. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

4.5. 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 5. Integrating Bugzilla with Third-Party Tools

5.1. Bonsai

   We need Bonsai integration information.
     _________________________________________________________________

5.2. CVS

   We need CVS integration information
     _________________________________________________________________

5.3. Perforce SCM

   Richard Brooksby and his team have an integration tool in public beta.
   You can find it at http://www.ravenbrook.com/project/p4dti.
     _________________________________________________________________

5.4. Tinderbox

   We need Tinderbox integration information
     _________________________________________________________________

Chapter 6. The Future of Bugzilla

   This section largely contributed by Matthew Tuck
     _________________________________________________________________

6.1. Reducing Spam

   Those who use Bugzilla frequently are probably used to notification sp
   am
   - unwanted or unnecessary notifications.  A number of proposals have
   been put forward to attempt to reduce this.
   1. Reduce CC Spam
   Some of you probably know me as that guy who CCs on heaps and heaps of
   bugs.  Just as you get a lot of CC changes from me, so do I get a lot
   from others.  Why should CC changes send out email notifications?
   It's not necessarily the best idea to just remove the CC spam, there a
   re
   other issues too, like the difficulty of adding to large CC fields.
   For these reasons and more, an RFE for a per user "BCC" facility exist
   s
   that people could use to silently and privately track bugs, in a simil
   ar
   way to voting today, but applying to an unlimited number of bugs.  See
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7345".
   2. Bulk Changes
   You know the drill - a large milestone change, a component movement,
   whatever, and lots of notifications are generated.  If there's enough
   maybe you'll just go delete, delete, delete, whoops, there goes anothe
   r
   notification that wasn't from the bulk change you missed.
   Shouldn't bulk changes send out one notification?  A proposal for this
   is at "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26943".
   3. Configurable Notification Criteria
   It would be good if you could choose what you want to receive.  There
   are two parts to this.
   (a) Choose a selection of bugs you're interested in.  This would be
   similar to CC except you let the set be computed from selection criter
   ia
   rather than limited to the bugs your name is on.  There is currently a
   limited version of this in the bugzilla preferences, ie "all qualifyin
   g
   bugs"/"all qualifying bugs except the ones I change"/"only those bugs
   which I am listed on the cc line".
   (b) Choose what changes will trigger a notification for the bugs you a
   re
   watching.  With this, you could choose whether you want to receive cc,
   dependency and keyword changes, for example.
   Both of these proposals live at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14137".
     _________________________________________________________________

6.2. Better Searching

   Current searching tools in Bugzilla include the querying mechanism,
   special summary reports and dependency trees.  This message is about n
   ew
   facilities.
   1. General Summary Reports
   For some time now it has been apparent to me that the query bug list
   leaves a little to be desired in its linear nature.  There is a need t
   o
   have categorised subsets, and counts of each category.  If you don't
   believe me, how about these facilities already in place or which peopl
   e
   have asked for:
   Most Doomed Reports - Categorised On Assignee, Shows and Counts Number
   of Bugs For Each Assignee
   Bug #15806 (Most Voted For Bugs) - Categorised On Product, Shows Bugs
   Voters Most Want Fixed
   Bug #9789 (BugAThon Tracking Page) - Categorised On Developer (Subset)
   ,
   Counts Number of Bugs
   Bug #9409 and #9411 - The desire to be able to report on more subsets.
   Hopefully you can see the gist of what is desired here.  It's a genera
   l
   reporting mechanism.
   This mechanism lets you choose the subset of bugs to operate on (like
   query), let's you categorise them, possibly along with subcategories a
   nd
   counts the number of bugs within each category.  It might or might not
   show the actual bugs themselves, and it might limit the number of bugs
   within a category, or categories to report on.
   I'm further sure that many applications of this mechanism would only b
   e
   recognised once it was implemented.
   The general summary reports bug is at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12282".
   2. 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.  See
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12286".
   3. Column Specification Support
   Currently query seems to get what columns to report on from whatever t
   he
   user last used.  This doesn't work well for "prepackaged queries", whe
   re
   you followed a link.  You can probably add a column by specifying a so
   rt
   column, but this is difficult and suboptimal.
   Furthermore, I find that when I want to add a column to a query, it's
   usually a one off and I would prefer it to go away for the next query.

   Hence, it would be nice to specify the columns that appear on the quer
   y
   (and general summary report) pages.  The default query mechanism shoul
   d
   be able to let you specify your default columns.
   This proposal lives at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12284".
     _________________________________________________________________

6.3. Description Flags and Tracking Bugs

   Since I last posted on this issue, we now have "keywords" that solve
   many of the issues of description and status whiteboard keywords.  We
   have seen a migration towards keywords, but there is still further to
   go.
   Description ( + Status Whiteboard ) Keywords
   --------------------------------------------
   Some description keywords remain.  I'd like to hear what reasons, othe
   r
   than time, there are for these staying as they are.  I'm suspecting ma
   ny
   are not really being used.  Hopefully we can totally remove these
   eventually.
   Tracking Bugs
   -------------
   When I suggested keywords, I did so to get rid of tracking bugs too,
   though we've had less success on that front.
   There are many disadvantages to tracking bugs.
   - They can pollute bugs counts, and you must make sure you exclude
   them.  I believe the meta keyword might be used for this purpose.
   - They have an assignee but there is nothing to fix, and that person c
   an
   get whined at by Bugzilla.
   - It would be better to craft your own "dependency tree" rather than
   rely on a fixed hierachy in the bug system.
   - In creating a nice little hierachy, many bugs duplicate information
   that should be available in other ways, eg
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12833" which is
   about beta 1 networking issues.  These could fall behind the actual
   data.  What tracking bugs are good for, ad hoc lists, is what keywords
   are better for.
   - An automatically generated dependency structure between one "trackin
   g
   bug" and another would be better than a manual one, since it gives exa
   ct
   rather than manually set up classifications.
   Probably the only feature preventing tracking bugs being replaced is t
   he
   dependency tree.  The quintessential tracking bug seems to be bug #722
   9
   "chofmann's watch list", which probably has about a couple of hundred
   bugs at various levels, which allows a nice visualisation.
   Before keywords can replace tracking bugs better visualisation is goin
   g
   to be required.  General summary reports and dependency forests of a b
   ug
   list ("http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12992") could both
   help, but neither solves the problem totally.  Perhaps keywords within
   keywords would help here.  In any case, I'm still thinking about this
   one.
   Some tracking bugs could definitely be turned into keywords immediatel
   y
   though, and I'll point the finger at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7954" here since that's
   what came to mind first.
     _________________________________________________________________

6.4. Bug Issues

   1. Inline Bug Changes
   Why do I see so many "moving to M5" and "reassigning to blahblah"
   messages, and in other circumstances none are entered?  Why aren't the
   se
   automatically generated?  A comment should be only necessary when ther
   e
   is something to add, and if I'm not interested in this sort of
   information, I should be able to hide it.
   At the moment we're in a hybrid world where we don't get everything, b
   ut
   we can't get rid of the bug change "messages" either.  Furthermore,
   "View Bug Activity" requires me to manually cross reference events on
   another page, rather than being able to visually see the chronological
   order.  Shouldn't I be able to see all the information on one page?
   A proposal to allow bugs to be shown either way is at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11368".
   2.  Hard Wrapping Comments
   One thing that annoys me is the fact that comments are "hard wrapped"
   to
   a certain column width.  This is a mistake Internet Mail and News has
   made, unlike every word processor in existence, and as a consequence,
   Usenet suffers to this day from bad software.  Why has Bugzilla repeat
   ed
   the problem?
   Hard wrapping to a certain column width is open to abuse (see old
   Mozilla browsers that didn't wrap properly, resulting in many ugly bug
   reports we have to read to this day), and furthermore doesn't expand t
   o
   fill greater screen sizes.  I'm also under the impression the current
   hard wrap uses a non-standard HTML facility.  See
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11901".
   3. REMIND and LATER Are Evil
   I really hate REMIND and LATER.  Not because they mean something
   won't be implemented, but because they aren't the best solutions.
   Why are they bad?  Well, basically because they are not resolved, yet
   they are marked as such.  Hence queries have to be well crafted to
   include them.
   LATER, according to Bugzilla, means it won't be done this release.
   There is a better mechanism of doing this, that is assigning to
   nobody@mozilla.org and making the milestone blank.  It's more likely t
   o
   appear in a casual query, and it doesn't resolve the bug.
   REMIND, according to Bugzilla, means it might still be implemented thi
   s
   release.  Well, why not just move it to a later milestone then?  You'r
   e
   a lot less likely to forget it.  If it's really needed, a keyword woul
   d
   be better.
   Some people can't use blank milestones to mean an untargetted mileston
   e,
   since they use this to assess new bugs that have no target.  Hence, it
   would be nice to distinguish between bugs that have not yet been
   considered, and those that really are not assigned to any milestone in
   the future (assumedly beyond).
   All this is covered at
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13534".
   4. Create An Enhancement Field
   Currently enhancement is an option in severity.  This means that
   important enhancements (like for example, POP3 support) are not proper
   ly
   distinguished as such, because they need a proper severity.  This
   dilutes the meaning of enhancement.
   If enhancement was separated, we could properly see what was an
   enhancement.  See "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9412".
    I
   see keywords like [RFE] and [FEATURE] that seem to be compensating for
   this problem.
     _________________________________________________________________

6.5. Database Integrity

   Bugzilla could be more proactive in detecting suboptimal situations an
   d
   prevent them or whine about them.
   1. Bugzilla Crime #1: Marking A Bug Fixed With Unresolved Dependencies
   It can't be marked fixed with unresolved dependencies.  Either mark it
   INVALID (tracking bugs), fix the dependencies at the same time, or
   resolve the blockers.
   See "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24496".
   2. Keyword Restrictions
   Some keywords should only apply in certain circumstances, eg beta1 =>
   Milestone <
   M14, css1 => Component = Style System are possibilities.  See
   "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26940".
   3. Whine About Old Votes
   Old votes can just sit on resolved bugs.  This is problematic with
   duplicates especially.  Automatic transferral/removal is not
   appropriate since bugs can be reopened, but a whining solution might
   work.  See "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27553".
   4. Whine And Warn About Milestone Mismatches
   Here's a fun one.  Bug X (M17) depends on Bug Y (M15).  Bug Y gets mov
   ed
   out to M19.  The notification to the assignee of Bug X gets ignored (o
   f
   course) and Bug X is now due to be fixed before one of its blockers.
   Warnings about this when it is detected as well as whining about it in
   email would help bring these issues to the attention of people sooner.
   Note that this would be less of a problem if we didn't have so many
   tracking bugs since they aren't updated that often and often have this
   problem.
   See "http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16743".
     _________________________________________________________________

6.6. Bugzilla 3.0

   One day, Bugzilla 3.0 will have lots of cool stuff.
     _________________________________________________________________

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 about Loki Bugzilla?
        A.3.2. Who maintains Fenris (Loki Bugzilla) now?
        A.3.3.

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

        A.4.8. Is there email notification and if so, what do you see
                when you get an email? Do you see bug number and title or
                is it only the number?

        A.4.9. Can email notification be set up to send to multiple
                people, some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc?

        A.4.10. If there is email notification, do users have to have any
                particular type of email application?

        A.4.11. 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.4.12. 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.4.13. Does Bugzilla allow fields to be added, changed or
                deleted? If I want to customize the bug submission form
                to meet our needs, can I do that using our terminology?

        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
                README!)?

        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. 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?

   There are many, many contributors from around the world maintaining
   Bugzilla. The designated "Maintainer" is Tara Hernandez, with QA
   support by Matthew Tuck. Dan Mosedale and Dawn Endico are employees of
   Mozilla.org responsible for the installation of Bugzilla there, and
   are very frequent code contributors. Terry Weissman originally ported
   Bugzilla, but "these days, Terry just hangs around and heckles." The
   rest of us are mostly transient developers; Bugzilla suits our needs,
   and we contribute code as we have needs for updates.

   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 Bugzilla 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

   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.

   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)

     Note: Loki's "Fenris" Bugzilla is no longer actively maintained. It
     works well enough for Loki. Additionally, the major differences in
     Fenris have now been integrated into the main source tree of
     Bugzilla, so there's not much reason to go grab the source. I left
     this section of the FAQ principally for historical interest.

   A.3.1. What about Loki Bugzilla?

   Loki Games has a customized version of Bugzilla available at
   http://fenris.lokigames.com. From that page,

     You may have noticed that Fenris is a fork from Bugzilla-- our
     patches weren't suitable for integration --and a few people have
     expressed interest in the code. Fenris has one major improvement
     over Bugzilla, and that is individual comments are not appended
     onto a string blob, they are stored as a record in a separate
     table. This allows you to, for instance, separate comments out
     according to privilege levels in case your bug database could
     contain sensitive information not for public eyes. We also provide
     things like email hiding to protect user's privacy, additional
     fields such as 'user_affected' in case someone enters someone
     else's bug, comment editing and deletion, and more conditional
     system variables than Bugzilla does (turn off attachments,
     qacontact, etc.).

   A.3.2. Who maintains Fenris (Loki Bugzilla) now?

   Raphael Barrerro <raistlin@lokigames.com>. Michael Vance created the
   initial fork, but no longer maintains the project.

   A.3.3.

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. The section on
   Perforce isn't very large, but as the maintainer of the Guide is
   charged with Perforce/Bugzilla integration by his company, you can
   expect this section to grow.

   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.

   A.4.7. 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.4.8. Is there email notification and if so, what do you see when you
   get an email? Do you see bug number and title or is it only the
   number?

   Email 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.4.9. Can email notification be set up to send to multiple people,
   some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc?

   Yes.

   A.4.10. 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.4.11. 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.4.12. 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.4.13. Does Bugzilla allow fields to be added, changed or deleted? If
   I want to customize the bug submission form to meet our needs, can I
   do that using our terminology?

   Yes.

   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 README and 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 README!)?

   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 README and 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, you may wish to delete the "-ODeliveryMode=deferred" option
   in the "processmail" script for every invocation of "sendmail". (Be
   sure and leave the "-t" option, though!)

   A better alternative is to change the "-O" option to
   "-ODeliveryMode=background". This prevents Sendmail from hanging your
   Bugzilla Perl processes if the domain to which it must send mail is
   unavailable.

   This is now a configurable parameter called "sendmailparm", available
   from editparams.cgi.

   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) to see! If it all comes back, you're 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...

   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?

   Delete everything from $BUZILLA_HOME/shadow. Bugzilla creates shadow
   files there, with each filename corresponding to a bug number. Also be
   sure to run syncshadowdb to make sure, if you are using a shadow
   database, that the shadow database is current.

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 2.14 release here. This list includes
   bugs for the 2.14 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. What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines should
   I follow?

    1. Enter a bug into bugzilla.mozilla.org for the "Webtools" product,
       "Bugzilla" component.
    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. 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?
     _________________________________________________________________

B.1. Database Schema Chart

   Database Relationships

   Bugzilla database relationships chart
     _________________________________________________________________

B.2. MySQL Bugzilla Database Introduction

   Contributor(s):  Matthew P. Barnson (mbarnson@excitehome.net)
   Last update: May 16, 2000
   Changes:
   Version 1.0: Initial public release (May 16, 2000)
   Maintainer:  Matthew P. Barnson (mbarnson@excitehome.net)
   ===
   Table Of Contents
   ===
   FOREWORD
   INTRODUCTION
   THE BASICS
   THE TABLES
   THE DETAILS
   ===
   FOREWORD
   ===
     This information comes straight from my life.  I was forced to learn
    how
   Bugzilla organizes database because of nitpicky requests from users fo
   r 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.
     I'm sorry this version is plain text.  I can whip this info out a lo
   t faster
   if I'm not concerned about complex formatting.  I'll get it into sgml
   for easy
   portability as time permits.
     The Bugzilla Database Schema has a home!  In addition to availabilit
   y via CVS
   and released versions 2.12 and higher of Bugzilla, you can find the la
   test &
   greatest version of the Bugzilla Database Schema at
   http://www.trilobyte.net/barnsons/. This is a living document; please
   be sure
   you are up-to-date with the latest version before mirroring.
     The Bugzilla Database Schema is designed to provide vital informatio
   n
   regarding the structure of the MySQL database.  Where appropriate, thi
   s
   document will refer to URLs rather than including documents in their e
   ntirety
   to ensure completeness even should this paper become out of date.
     This document is not maintained by Netscape or Netscape employees, s
   o please
   do not contact them regarding errors or omissions contained herein. Pl
   ease
   direct all questions, comments, updates, flames, etc. to Matthew P. Ba
   rnson
   mbarnson@excitehome.net) (barnboy or barnhome on irc.mozilla.org in
   #mozwebtools).
     I'm sure I've made some glaring errors or omissions in this paper --
    please
   email me corrections or post corrections to the
   netscape.public.mozilla.webtools newsgroup.
   ===
   INTRODUCTION
   ===
     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 da
   tabase
   flawlessly.  Maybe you've even entered a few test bugs to make sure em
   ail's
   working; people seem to be notified of new bugs and changes, and you c
   an
   enter and edit bugs to your heart's content.  Perhaps you've gone thro
   ugh the
   trouble of setting up a gateway for people to submit bugs to your data
   base via
   email, have had a few people test it, and received rave reviews from y
   our 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 too
   l you've
   labored over for hours.
     Your first training session starts off very well!  You have a captiv
   e
   audience which seems enraptured by the efficiency embodied in this thi
   ng called
   "Bugzilla".  You are caught up describing the nifty features, how peop
   le can
   save favorite queries in the database, set them up as headers and foot
   ers on
   their pages, customize their layouts, generate reports, track status w
   ith
   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 o
   f the
   conference room.  "I have a concern," the voice hisses from the darkne
   ss,
   "about the use of the word 'verified'.
     The room, previously filled with happy chatter, lapses into reverent
   ial
   silence as Certain Death (better known as the Vice President of Softwa
   re
   Engineering) continues.  "You see, for two years we've used the word '
   verified'
   to indicate that a developer or quality assurance engineer has confirm
   ed 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 "ye
   s, yes, I
   don't think that would be a problem," You review the changes with Cert
   ain
   Death, and continue to jabber on, "no, it's not too big a change. I me
   an, 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 tinyin
   t
   definitions. The Adventure Awaits You!
   ===
   The 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 th
   e Vice
   President you couldn't care less about the difference between a "bigin
   t" and a
   "tinyint" entry in MySQL.  I'd refer you first to the MySQL documentat
   ion,
   available at http://www.mysql.com/doc.html, but that's mostly a confus
   ing
   morass of high-level database jargon.  Here are the basics you need to
    know
   about the database to proceed:
   1.  To connect to your database, type "mysql -u root" at the command p
   rompt as
   any user. If this works without asking you for a password, SHAME ON YO
   U!  You
   should have locked your security down like the README told you to.  Yo
   u 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 of your Bugzilla database, type:
   mysql> use bugs;
   (don't forget the ";" at the end of each line, or you'll be kicking yo
   urself
   all the way through this documentation)
     Young Grasshopper, you are now ready for the unveiling of the Bugzil
   la
   database, in the next section...
   ===
   THE 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
   .  Cool,
   huh?  It's kinda' like a filesystem, only much faster and more robust.
     Come
   on, I'll show you more!
     From the command issued above, you should now 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         |
   | versions          |
   | votes             |
   | watch             |
   +-------------------+
             If it doesn't look quite the same, that probably means it's
   time to
   update this documentation :)
     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/
     _________________________________________________________________

B.3. MySQL Permissions & Grant Tables

     Note: The following portion of documentation comes from my answer
     to an old discussion of Keynote, a cool product that does
     trouble-ticket tracking for IT departments. I wrote this post to
     the Keynote 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 : )

   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 PRIVELEGES
   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.
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   ------
   10/12/2000
   Matthew sent in some mail with updated contact information:
   NEW CONTACT INFORMATION:
                           ------------------------
                           Matthew P. Barnson
                           Manager, Systems Administration
                           Excite@Home Business Applications
                           mbarnson@excitehome.net
                           (801)234-8300
     _________________________________________________________________

B.4. Cleaning up after mucking with Bugzilla

   Contributed by Eric Hansen:
   There are several things, and one trick.  There is a small tiny piece
   of
   documentation I saw once that said something very important.
   1)  After pretty much any manual working of the Mysql db, you must
   delete a file in the bugzilla directory: data/versioncache
   Versioncache basically is a way to speed up bugzilla (from what I
   understand).  It stores a lot of commonly used information.  However,
   this file is refreshed every so often (I can't remember the time
   interval though).  So eventually all changes do propogate out, so you
   may see stuff suddenly working.
   2)  Assuming that failed, you will also have to check something with t
   he
   checksetup.pl file.  It actually is run twice.  The first time it
   creates the file: localconfig.  You can modify localconfig, (or not if
   you are doing bug_status stuff) or you should delete localconfig and
   rerun your modified checksetup.pl.  Since I don't actually see anythin
   g
   in localconfig pertaining to bug_status, this point is mainly a FYI.
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix C. Useful Patches and Utilities for Bugzilla

C.1. The setperl.pl Utility

   You can use the "setperl.pl" utility to quickly and easily change the
   path to perl on all your Bugzilla files.
    1. Download the "setperl.pl" utility to your Bugzilla directory and
       make it executable.
         a. bash# cd /your/path/to/bugzilla
         b. bash# wget -O setperl.pl
            'http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=107
            95'
         c. bash# chmod u+x setperl.pl
    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.pl /your/path/to/perl
     _________________________________________________________________

C.2. 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
     _________________________________________________________________

C.3. 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.
     _________________________________________________________________

Appendix D. 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

A

   There are no entries for A

B

   Bug
          A "Bug" in Bugzilla refers to an issue entered into the
          database which has an associated number, assignments, comments,
          etc. Many also refer to a "Ticket" or "Issue"; in this context,
          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.

I

   Infinite Loop
          See: Recursion

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", and "Z", each with Components "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".

Q

   Q/A
          "Q/A" is 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 "Q/A Contact" field in
          a Bug.

R

   Recursion
          See: Infinite Loop

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".