<!-- <!DOCTYPE appendix PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN"> -->
<appendix id="faq" xreflabel="The Bugzilla FAQ">
<title>The Bugzilla FAQ</title>
<qandaset>
<qandadiv id="faq_general">
<title>General Questions</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Where can I find information about Bugzilla?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can stay up-to-date with the latest Bugzilla
information at <ulink
url="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/"> http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What license is Bugzilla distributed under?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Bugzilla is covered by the Mozilla Public License. See
details at <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/">
http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I get commercial support for Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
<ulink url="http://www.collab.net/">www.collab.net</ulink>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What major companies or projects are currently using
Bugzilla for bug-tracking?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
There are <emphasis>dozens</emphasis> of major comapanies
with public Bugzilla sites to track bugs in their
products. A few include:
<simplelist>
<member>Netscape/AOL</member>
<member>Mozilla.org</member>
<member>AtHome Corporation</member>
<member>Red Hat Software</member>
<member>Loki Entertainment Software</member>
<member>SuSe Corp</member>
<member>The Horde Project</member>
<member>The Eazel Project</member>
<member>AbiSource</member>
<member>Real Time Enterprises, Inc</member>
<member>Eggheads.org</member>
<member>Strata Software</member>
<member>RockLinux</member>
<member>Creative Labs (makers of SoundBlaster)</member>
<member>The Apache Foundation</member>
<member>The Gnome Foundation</member>
<member>Linux-Mandrake</member>
</simplelist>
</para>
<para>
Suffice to say, there are more than enough huge projects
using Bugzilla that we can safely say it's extremely
popular.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Who maintains Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking
databases?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
A year has gone by, and I <emphasis>still</emphasis> 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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I change my user name in Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can't. However, the administrative account can, by
simply opening your user account in editusers.cgi and
changing the login name.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Why doesn't Bugzilla offer this or that feature or
compatability with this other tracking software?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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 <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/">bugzilla.mozilla.org</ulink>.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on
Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Terry Weissman answers,
<blockquote>
<para>
You're not the only one. But <emphasis>I</emphasis> 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.
</para>
</blockquote>
</para>
<para>
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:
</para>
<simplelist>
<member>
<emphasis><ulink url="http://bugzilla.redhat.com/">Red
Hat Bugzilla</ulink></emphasis>: Runs a modified
Bugzilla 2.8 atop an Oracle database.
</member>
<member>
<emphasis><ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/interzilla">Interzilla</ulink></emphasis>: A project to run Bugzilla on Interbase. No code released yet, however.
</member>
<member>
<emphasis>Bugzilla 3.0</emphasis>: One of the primary
stated goals is multiple database support.
</member>
</simplelist>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Why do the scripts say "/usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl" instead
of "/usr/bin/perl" or something else?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
Here's Terry Weissman's comment, for some historical
context:
<blockquote>
<para>
[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.
</para>
<note>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
Obviously, if you do not have root access to your
Bugzilla box, our suggestion is irrelevant.
</para>
</note>
</blockquote>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_redhat">
<title>Red Hat Bugzilla</title>
<para>
<note>
<para>
<emphasis>This section is no longer up-to-date.</emphasis>
Please see the section on "Red Hat Bugzilla" under
"Variants" in The Bugzilla Guide.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What about Red Hat Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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?
</para>
<para>
Dave Lawrence, the original Red Hat Bugzilla maintainer,
mentions:
<blockquote>
<para>
Somebody needs to take the ball and run with it. I'm
the only maintainer and am very pressed for time.
</para>
</blockquote> 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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What are the primary benefits of Red Hat Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
<emphasis>Dave Lawrence</emphasis>:
<blockquote>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
No enum types. All old enum types are now separate
smaller tables.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
No bit wise operations. Not all databases support
this so they were changed to a more generic way of
doing this task
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
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.
</para>
</blockquote>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What's the current status of Red Hat Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
<note>
<para>
This information is somewhat dated; I last updated it
7 June 2000. Please see the "Variants" section of
"The Bugzilla Guide" for more up-to-date information
regarding Red Hat Bugzilla.
</para>
</note> <emphasis>Dave Lawrence</emphasis>:
<blockquote>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</blockquote>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_loki">
<title>Loki Bugzilla (AKA Fenris)</title>
<para>
<note>
<para>
Loki's "Fenris" Bugzilla is based upon the (now ancient)
Bugzilla 2.8 tree, and 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 leave this section of the FAQ
principally for historical interest, but unless Loki has
further input into Bugzilla's future, it will be
deprecated in future versions of the Guide.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What about Loki Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Loki Games has a customized version of Bugzilla available
at http://fenris.lokigames.com. From that page,
<blockquote>
<para>
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.).
</para>
</blockquote>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Who maintains Fenris (Loki Bugzilla) now?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Raphael Barrerro <raistlin@lokigames.com>. Michael
Vance created the initial fork, but no longer maintains
the project.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
</para>
</question>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_phb">
<title>Pointy-Haired-Boss Questions</title>
<para>
<note>
<para>
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
:)
</para>
</note>
</para>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Is Bugzilla web-based or do you have to have specific
software or specific operating system on your machine?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Has anyone you know of already done any Bugzilla
integration with Perforce (SCM software)?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Does Bugzilla allow the user to track multiple projects?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Does Bugzilla allow attachments (text, screenshots, urls
etc)? If yes, are there any that are NOT allowed?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes. However, modifying some fields, notably those
related to bug progression states, also require adjusting
the program logic to compensate for the change.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
The index.html page doesn't show the footer. It's really
annoying to have to go to the querypage just to check my
"my bugs" link. How do I get a footer on static HTML
pages?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
This was a late-breaking question for the Guide, so I just
have to quote the relevant newsgroup thread on it.
</para>
<literallayout>
> AFAIK, most sites (even if they have SSI enabled) won't have #exec
cmd > enabled. Perhaps what would be better is a #include
virtual and a > footer.cgi the basically has the "require
'CGI.pl' and PutFooter command. > > Please note that under
most configurations, this also requires naming > the file
from index.html to index.shtml (and making sure that it
will > still be reconized as an index). Personally, I
think this is better on > a per-installation basis
(perhaps add something to the FAQ that says how > to do
this). Good point. Yeah, easy enough to do, that it
shouldn't be a big deal for someone to take it on if they
want it. FAQ is a good place for it. > Dave Miller wrote:
> >> I did a little experimenting with getting the command
menu and footer on >> the end of the index page while
leaving it as an HTML file... >> >> I was successful. :)
>> >> I added this line: >> >> <!--#exec
cmd="/usr/bin/perl -e "require 'CGI.pl';
>>PutFooter();"" --> >> >> Just before the
</BODY> </HTML> at the end of the file. And
it worked. >> >> Thought I'd toss that out there. Should
I check this in? For those that >> have SSI disabled,
it'll act like a comment, so I wouldn't think it would >>
break anything.
</literallayout>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics,
graphs, etc? You know, the type of stuff that management
likes to see. :)
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes. Look at <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/reports.cgi"> http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/reports.cgi</ulink> for basic reporting facilities.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
Advanced Reporting is a Bugzilla 3.X proposed feature.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can email notification be set up to send to multiple
people, some on the To List, CC List, BCC List etc?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
If there is email notification, do users have to have any
particular type of email application?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Bugzilla email is sent in plain text, the most compatible
mail format on the planet.
<note>
<para>
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.
</para>
</note>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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.?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
If you create import filters to other applications from
Mozilla's XML, please submit your modifications for
inclusion in future Bugzilla distributions.
</para>
<para>
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 <ulink
url="http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/bugzilla-helper.html"> http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/bugzilla-helper.html</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be
used in other countries? Is it localizable?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in
Word format? Excel format?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes. No. No.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can a user re-run a report with a new project, same query?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can a user modify an existing report and then save it into
another name?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can save an unlimited number of queries in Bugzilla.
You are free to modify them and rename them to your
heart's desire.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Does Bugzilla have the ability to search by word, phrase,
compound search?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You have no idea. Bugzilla's query interface,
particularly with the advanced Boolean operators, is
incredibly versatile.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can the admin person establish separate group and
individual user privileges?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Yes.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Are there any backup features provided?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
MySQL, the database back-end for Bugzilla, allows
hot-backup of data. You can find strategies for dealing
with backup considerations at <ulink
url="http://www.mysql.com/doc/B/a/Backup.html"> http://www.mysql.com/doc/B/a/Backup.html</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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".
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Is there any licensing fee or other fees for using
Bugzilla? Any out-of-pocket cost other than the bodies
needed as identified above?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
No. MySQL asks, if you find their product valuable, that
you purchase a support contract from them that suits your
needs.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_install">
<title>Bugzilla Installation</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I download and install Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Check <ulink
url="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/"> http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/</ulink> for details. Once you download it, untar it, read the Bugzilla Guide.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I install Bugzilla on Windows NT?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Installation on Windows NT has its own section in "The
Bugzilla Guide".
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
At present, no.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_security">
<title>Bugzilla Security</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I completely disable MySQL security if it's giving
me problems (I've followed the instructions in the
installation section of this guide!)?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Run mysql like this: "mysqld --skip-grant-tables". Please
remember <emphasis>this makes mysql as secure as taping a
$100 to the floor of a football stadium bathroom for
safekeeping.</emphasis> Please read the Security
section of the Administration chapter of "The Bugzilla
Guide" before proceeding.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Are there any security problems with Bugzilla?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
The Bugzilla code has not undergone a complete security
audit. It is recommended that you closely examine
permissions on your Bugzilla installation, and follow the
recommended security guidelines found in The Bugzilla
Guide.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
This is a common problem, related to running out of file
descriptors. Simply add "ulimit -n unlimited" to the
script which starts mysqld.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_email">
<title>Bugzilla Email</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I have a user who doesn't want to receive any more email
from Bugzilla. How do I stop it entirely for this user?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
With the email changes to 2.12, the user should be able to
set this in user email preferences.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send
email to anyone but me. How do I do it?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Edit the param for the mail text. Replace "To:" with
"X-Real-To:", replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a
"To: (myemailaddress)".
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something more, or other
than, only new bugs. How do I do it?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Try Klaas Freitag's excellent patch for "whineatassigned"
functionality. You can find it at<ulink url="
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6679"> http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6679</ulink>. This patch is against an older version of Bugzilla, so you must apply the diffs manually.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I don't like/want to use Procmail to hand mail off to
bug_email.pl. What alternatives do I have?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can call bug_email.pl directly from your aliases file,
with an entry like this:
<blockquote>
<para>
bugzilla-daemon:
"|/usr/local/bin/bugzilla/contrib/bug_email.pl"
</para>
</blockquote> 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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I set up the email interface to submit/change bugs
via email?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can find an updated README.mailif file in the contrib/
directory of your Bugzilla distribution that walks you
through the setup.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Email takes FOREVER to reach me from bugzilla -- it's
extremely slow. What gives?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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!)
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
This is now a configurable parameter called "sendmailnow",
available from editparams.cgi.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How come email never reaches me from bugzilla changes?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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".
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_db">
<title>Bugzilla Database</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I've heard Bugzilla can be used with Oracle?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Bugs are missing from queries, but exist in the database
(and I can pull them up by specifying the bug ID). What's
wrong?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid
entries. What do I do?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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...
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I try to add myself as a user, but Bugzilla always tells
me my password is wrong.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but
bugzilla still can't connect.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I synchronize bug information among multiple
different Bugzilla databases?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
If you simply need to transfer bugs from one Bugzilla to
another, checkout the "move.pl" script in the Bugzilla
distribution.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Why do I get bizarre errors when trying to submit data,
particularly problems with "groupset"?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How come even after I delete bugs, the long descriptions
show up?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_nt">
<title>Bugzilla and Win32</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What is the easiest way to run Bugzilla on Win32
(Win98+/NT/2K)?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Remove Windows. Install Linux. Install Bugzilla. The boss
will never know the difference.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Is there a "Bundle::Bugzilla" equivalent for Win32?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
CGI's are failing with a "something.cgi is not a valid
Windows NT application" error. Why?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
Microsoft has some advice on this matter, as well:
<blockquote>
<para>
"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"
</para>
</blockquote>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Can I have some general instructions on how to make
Bugzilla on Win32 work?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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. <literallayout> 1. #!C:/perl/bin/perl had to be
added to every perl file. 2. Converted to Net::SMTP to
handle mail messages instead of /usr/bin/sendmail. 3.
The crypt function isn't available on Windows NT (at
least none that I am aware), so I made encrypted
passwords = plaintext passwords. 4. The system call to
diff had to be changed to the Cygwin diff. 5. This was
just to get a demo running under NT, it seems to be
working good, and I have inserted almost 100 bugs from
another bug tracking system. Since this work was done
just to get an in-house demo, I am NOT planning on
making a patch for submission to Bugzilla. If you would
like a zip file, let me know. Q: Hmm, couldn't figure it
out from the general instructions above. How about
step-by-step? A: Sure! Here ya go! 1. Install IIS 4.0
from the NT Option Pack #4. 2. Download and install
Active Perl. 3. Install the Windows GNU tools from
Cygwin. Make sure to add the bin directory to your
system path. (Everyone should have these, whether they
decide to use Bugzilla or not. :-) ) 4. Download
relevant packages from ActiveState at
http://www.activestate.com/packages/zips/. +
DBD-Mysql.zip 5. Extract each zip file with WinZip, and
install each ppd file using the notation: ppm install
<module>.ppd 6. Install Mysql. *Note: If you move
the default install from c:\mysql, you must add the
appropriate startup parameters to the NT service. (ex.
-b e:\\programs\\mysql) 7. Download any Mysql client.
http://www.mysql.com/download_win.html 8. Setup MySql.
(These are the commands that I used.) I. Cleanup default
database settings. C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root mysql
mysql> DELETE FROM user WHERE Host='localhost' AND
User=''; mysql> quit C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin reload II.
Set password for root. C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root mysql
mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new_password')
WHERE user='root'; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> quit
C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload III. Create bugs
user. C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p mysql> insert into
user (host,user,password) values('localhost','bugs','');
mysql> quit C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload IV.
Create the bugs database. C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p
mysql> create database bugs; V. Give the bugs user
access to the bugs database. mysql> insert into db
(host,db,user,select_priv,insert_priv,update_priv,delete_priv,create_priv,drop_priv) values('localhost','bugs','bugs','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','N') mysql> quit C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root reload 9. Run the table scripts to setup the bugs database. 10. Change CGI.pm to use the following regular expression because of differing backslashes in NT versus UNIX. o $0 =~ m:[^\\]*$:; 11. Had to make the crypt password = plain text password in the database. (Thanks to Andrew Lahser" <andrew_lahser@merck.com>" on this one.) The files that I changed were: o globals.pl o CGI.pl o alternately, you can try commenting all references to 'crypt' string and replace them with similar lines but without encrypt() or crypr() functions insida all files. 12. Replaced sendmail with Windmail. Basically, you have to come up with a sendmail substitute for NT. Someone said that they used a Perl module (Net::SMTP), but I was trying to save time and do as little Perl coding as possible. 13. Added "perl" to the beginning of all Perl system calls that use a perl script as an argument and renamed processmail to processmail.pl. 14. In processmail.pl, I added binmode(HANDLE) before all read() calls. I'm not sure about this one, but the read() under NT wasn't counting the EOLs without the binary read." </literallayout>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being
able to talk to to the database.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Your modules may be outdated or inaccurate. Try:
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Hitting http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Download ActivePerl
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to your prompt
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Type 'ppm'
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<prompt>PPM></prompt> <command>install DBI DBD-mysql
GD</command>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist> I reckon TimeDate and Data::Dumper come
with the activeperl. You can check the ActiveState site
for packages for installation through PPM. <ulink url="
http://www.activestate.com/Packages/"> http://www.activestate.com/Packages/</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_use">
<title>Bugzilla Usage</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
The query page is very confusing. Isn't there a simpler
way to query?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
We are developing in that direction. You can follow
progress on this at <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16775"> http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16775</ulink>. Some functionality is available in Bugzilla 2.12, and is available as "quicksearch.html"
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
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?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
<simplelist>
<member><ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=8029"> Add a "and accept bug" radio button</ulink></member>
<member><ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showattachment.cgi?attach_id=8153"> "Accept" button automatically assigns to you</ulink></member>
</simplelist> 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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create
Attachment" link. What am I doing wrong?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
Email submissions to Bugzilla that have attachments end up
asking me to save it as a "cgi" file.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How do I change a keyword in Bugzilla, once some bugs are
using it?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
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.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv id="faq_hacking">
<title>Bugzilla Hacking</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What bugs are in Bugzilla right now?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Try <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&product=Webtools&component=Bugzilla"> this link</ulink> to view current bugs or requests for enhancement for Bugzilla.
</para>
<para>
You can view bugs marked for 2.14 release <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?product=Webtools&component=Bugzilla&target_milestone=Bugzilla+2.14">here</ulink>. This list includes bugs for the 2.14 release that have already been fixed and checked into CVS. Please consult the <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bugzilla/"> Bugzilla Project Page</ulink> for details on how to check current sources out of CVS so you can have these bug fixes early!
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
How can I change the default priority to a null value?
For instance, have the default priority be "---" instead
of "P2"?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
This is well-documented here: <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49862"> http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49862</ulink>. Ultimately, it's as easy as adding the "---" priority field to your localconfig file in the appropriate area, re-running checksetup.pl, and then changing the default priority in your browser using "editparams.cgi". Hmm, now that I think about it, that is kind of a klunky way to handle it, but for now it's what we have! Although the bug has been closed "resolved wontfix", there may be a better way to handle this...
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines
should I follow?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<blockquote>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Enter a bug into bugzilla.mozilla.org for the
"Webtools" product, "Bugzilla" component.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Upload your patch as a unified DIFF (having used
"diff -u" against the <emphasis>current
sources</emphasis> 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!
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Bask in the glory of the fact that you helped write
the most successful open-source bug-tracking
software on the planet :)
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</blockquote>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
</qandaset>
</APPENDIX>
<!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
Local variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-always-quote-attributes:t
sgml-auto-insert-required-elements:t
sgml-balanced-tag-edit:t
sgml-exposed-tags:nil
sgml-general-insert-case:lower
sgml-indent-data:t
sgml-indent-step:2
sgml-local-catalogs:nil
sgml-local-ecat-files:nil
sgml-minimize-attributes:nil
sgml-namecase-general:t
sgml-omittag:t
sgml-parent-document:("Bugzilla-Guide.sgml" "book" "chapter")
sgml-shorttag:t
sgml-tag-region-if-active:t
End:
-->