654 lines
22 KiB
XML
654 lines
22 KiB
XML
<!-- <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN"> -->
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<!-- TOC
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Chapter: Using Bugzilla
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Create an account
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Logging in
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Setting up preferences
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Account Settings
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Email Settings
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Page Footer
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Permissions
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Life cycle of a bug
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Creating a bug
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Checking for duplicates
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Overview of all bug fields
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Setting bug permissions
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The Query Interface
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Standard Queries
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Email Queries
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Boolean Queries
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Regexp Queries
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The Query Results
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Changing Columns
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Changing sorting order
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Mass changes
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Miscellaneous usage hints
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-->
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<chapter id="using">
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<title>Using Bugzilla</title>
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<section id="whatis">
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<title>What is Bugzilla?</title>
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<para>Bugzilla is one example of a class of programs called "Defect
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Tracking Systems", or, more commonly, "Bug-Tracking Systems". Defect
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Tracking Systems allow individual or groups of developers to keep track
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of outstanding bugs in their product effectively. Bugzilla was originally
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written by Terry Weissman in a programming language called "TCL", to
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replace a crappy bug-tracking database used internally by Netscape
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Communications. Terry later ported Bugzilla to Perl from TCL, and in Perl
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it remains to this day. Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors
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at the time charged enormous licensing fees, and Bugzilla quickly became
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a favorite of the open-source crowd (with its genesis in the open-source
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browser project, Mozilla). It is now the de-facto standard
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defect-tracking system against which all others are measured.</para>
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<para>Bugzilla has matured immensely, and now boasts many advanced
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features. These include:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Powerful searching</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>User-configurable email notifications of bug changes</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Full change history</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Inter-bug dependency tracking and graphing</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Excellent attachment management</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Integrated, product-based, granular security schema</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Fully security-audited, and runs under Perl's taint mode</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>A robust, stable RDBMS back-end</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Web, XML, email and console interfaces</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Completely customisable and/or localisable web user
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interface</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Extensive configurability</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Smooth upgrade pathway between versions</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="why">
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<title>Why Should We Use Bugzilla?</title>
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<para>For many years, defect-tracking software has remained principally
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the domain of large software development houses. Even then, most shops
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never bothered with bug-tracking software, and instead simply relied on
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shared lists and email to monitor the status of defects. This procedure
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is error-prone and tends to cause those bugs judged least significant by
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developers to be dropped or ignored.</para>
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<para>These days, many companies are finding that integrated
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defect-tracking systems reduce downtime, increase productivity, and raise
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customer satisfaction with their systems. Along with full disclosure, an
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open bug-tracker allows manufacturers to keep in touch with their clients
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and resellers, to communicate about problems effectively throughout the
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data management chain. Many corporations have also discovered that
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defect-tracking helps reduce costs by providing IT support
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accountability, telephone support knowledge bases, and a common,
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well-understood system for accounting for unusual system or software
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issues.</para>
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<para>But why should
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<emphasis>you</emphasis>
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use Bugzilla?</para>
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<para>Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses
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currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment
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management, chip design and development problem tracking (both
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pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for
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luminaries such as Redhat, Loki software, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems.
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Combined with systems such as CVS, Bonsai, or Perforce SCM, Bugzilla
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provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration management and
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replication problems</para>
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<para>Bugzilla can dramatically increase the productivity and
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accountability of individual employees by providing a documented workflow
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and positive feedback for good performance. How many times do you wake up
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in the morning, remembering that you were supposed to do
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<emphasis>something</emphasis>
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today, but you just can't quite remember? Put it in Bugzilla, and you
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have a record of it from which you can extrapolate milestones, predict
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product versions for integration, and by using Bugzilla's e-mail
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integration features be able to follow the discussion trail that led to
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critical decisions.</para>
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<para>Ultimately, Bugzilla puts the power in your hands to improve your
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value to your employer or business while providing a usable framework for
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your natural attention to detail and knowledge store to flourish.</para>
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</section>
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<section id="how">
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<title>How do I use Bugzilla?</title>
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<para>This section contains information for end-users of Bugzilla. If you
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are administering a Bugzilla installation, please consult the Installing
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and Administering Bugzilla portions of this Guide.</para>
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<para>There is a Bugzilla test installation, called
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<ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/">Landfill</ulink>
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, which you are welcome to play with. However, it does not necessarily
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have all Bugzilla features enabled, and often runs cutting-edge versions
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of Bugzilla for testing, so some things may work slightly differently
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than mentioned here.</para>
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<section id="myaccount">
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<title>Create a Bugzilla Account</title>
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<para>If you want to use Bugzilla, first you need to create an account.
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Consult with the administrator responsible for your installation of
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Bugzilla for the URL you should use to access it. If you're
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test-driving Bugzilla, use this URL:
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<ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/">
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http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/</ulink>
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</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Click the
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<quote>Open a new Bugzilla account</quote>
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link, enter your email address and, optionally, your name in the
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spaces provided, then click
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<quote>Create Account</quote>
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.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Within moments, you should receive an email to the address
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you provided above, which contains your login name (generally the
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same as the email address), and a password you can use to access
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your account. This password is randomly generated, and can be
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changed to something more memorable.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Click the
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<quote>Log In</quote>
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link in the yellow area at the bottom of the page in your browser,
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enter your email address and password into the spaces provided, and
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click
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<quote>Login</quote>
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.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para>You are now logged in. Bugzilla uses cookies for authentication,
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so (unless your IP address changes) you should not have to log in
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again.</para>
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</section>
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<section id="bug_page">
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<title>Anatomy of a Bug</title>
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<para>The core of Bugzilla is the screen which displays a particular
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bug. It's a good place to explain some Bugzilla concepts.
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<ulink
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url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/show_bug.cgi?id=1">
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Bug 1 on Landfill</ulink>
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is a good example. Note that the names of most fields are hyperlinks;
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clicking them will take you to context-sensitive help on that
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particular field.</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Product and Component</emphasis>
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: Bugs are divided up by Product and Component, with a Product
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having one or more Components in it. For example,
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bugzilla.mozilla.org's "Bugzilla" Product is composed of several
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Components:
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<simplelist>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Administration:</emphasis>
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Administration of a Bugzilla installation.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Bugzilla-General:</emphasis>
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Anything that doesn't fit in the other components, or spans
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multiple components.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Creating/Changing Bugs:</emphasis>
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Creating, changing, and viewing bugs.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Documentation:</emphasis>
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The Bugzilla documentation, including The Bugzilla Guide.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Email:</emphasis>
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Anything to do with email sent by Bugzilla.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Installation:</emphasis>
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The installation process of Bugzilla.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Query/Buglist:</emphasis>
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Anything to do with searching for bugs and viewing the
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buglists.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Reporting/Charting:</emphasis>
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Getting reports from Bugzilla.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>User Accounts:</emphasis>
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Anything about managing a user account from the user's perspective.
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Saved queries, creating accounts, changing passwords, logging in,
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etc.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>User Interface:</emphasis>
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General issues having to do with the user interface cosmetics (not
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functionality) including cosmetic issues, HTML templates,
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etc.</member>
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</simplelist>
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Status and Resolution:</emphasis>
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A bug passes through several Statuses in its lifetime, and ends up
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in the RESOLVED status, with one of a set of Resolutions (e.g.
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FIXED, INVALID.) The different possible values for Status and
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Resolution on your installation will be documented in the
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context-sensitive help for those items.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Assigned To:</emphasis>
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The person responsible for fixing the bug.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>URL:</emphasis>
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A URL associated with the bug, if any.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Summary:</emphasis>
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A one-sentence summary of the problem.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Status Whiteboard:</emphasis>
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(a.k.a. Whiteboard) A free-form text area for adding short notes
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and tags to a bug.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Keywords:</emphasis>
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The administrator can define keywords which you can use to tag and
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categorise bugs - e.g. The Mozilla Project has keywords like crash
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and regression.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Platform and OS:</emphasis>
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These indicate the computing environment where the bug was
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found.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Version:</emphasis>
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The "Version" field is usually used for versions of a product which
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have been released, and is set to indicate which versions of a
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Component have the particular problem the bug report is
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about.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Priority:</emphasis>
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The bug assignee uses this field to prioritise his or her bugs.
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It's a good idea not to change this on other people's bugs.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Severity:</emphasis>
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This indicates how severe the problem is - from blocker
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("application unusable") to trivial ("minor cosmetic issue"). You
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can also use this field to indicate whether a bug is an enhancement
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request.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Target:</emphasis>
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(a.k.a. Target Milestone) A future version by which the bug is to
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be fixed. e.g. The Bugzilla Project's milestones for future
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Bugzilla versions are 2.18, 2.20, 3.0, etc. Milestones are not
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restricted to numbers, thought - you can use any text strings, such
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as dates.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Reporter:</emphasis>
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The person who filed the bug.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>CC list:</emphasis>
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A list of people who get mail when the bug changes.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Attachments:</emphasis>
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You can attach files (e.g. testcases or patches) to bugs. If there
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are any attachments, they are listed in this section.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Dependencies:</emphasis>
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If this bug cannot be fixed unless other bugs are fixed (depends
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on), or this bug stops other bugs being fixed (blocks), their
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numbers are recorded here.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Votes:</emphasis>
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Whether this bug has any votes.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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<emphasis>Additional Comments:</emphasis>
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You can add your two cents to the bug discussion here, if you have
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something worthwhile to say.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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</section>
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<section id="query">
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<title>Searching for Bugs</title>
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<para>The Bugzilla Search page is is the interface where you can find
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any bug report, comment, or patch currently in the Bugzilla system. You
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can play with it here:
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<ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi">
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landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi</ulink>
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.</para>
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<para>The Search page has controls for selecting different possible
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values for all of the fields in a bug, as described above. Once you've
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defined a search, you can either run it, or save it as a Remembered
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Query, which can optionally appear in the footer of your pages.</para>
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<para>Highly advanced querying is done using Boolean Charts, which have
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their own
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<ulink
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url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/booleanchart.html">
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context-sensitive help</ulink>
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.</para>
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</section>
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<section id="list">
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<title>Bug Lists</title>
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<para>If you run a search, a list of matching bugs will be returned.
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The default search is to return all open bugs on the system - don't try
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running this search on a Bugzilla installation with a lot of
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bugs!</para>
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<para>The format of the list is configurable. For example, it can be
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sorted by clicking the column headings. Other useful features can be
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accessed using the links at the bottom of the list:
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<simplelist>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Long Format:</emphasis>
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this gives you a large page with a non-editable summary of the fields
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of each bug.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Change Columns:</emphasis>
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change the bug attributes which appear in the list.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Change several bugs at once:</emphasis>
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If your account is sufficiently empowered, you can make the same
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change to all the bugs in the list - for example, changing their
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owner.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Send mail to bug owners:</emphasis>
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Sends mail to the owners of all bugs on the list.</member>
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<member>
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<emphasis>Edit this query:</emphasis>
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If you didn't get exactly the results you were looking for, you can
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return to the Query page through this link and make small revisions
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to the query you just made so you get more accurate results.</member>
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</simplelist>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="bugreports">
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<title>Filing Bugs</title>
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<para>Years of bug writing experience has been distilled for your
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reading pleasure into the
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<ulink
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url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/bugwritinghelp.html">
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Bug Writing Guidelines</ulink>
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. While some of the advice is Mozilla-specific, the basic principles of
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reporting Reproducible, Specific bugs, isolating the Product you are
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using, the Version of the Product, the Component which failed, the
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Hardware Platform, and Operating System you were using at the time of
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the failure go a long way toward ensuring accurate, responsible fixes
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for the bug that bit you.</para>
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<para>The procedure for filing a test bug is as follows:</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Go to
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<ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/">
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Landfill</ulink>
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in your browser and click
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<ulink
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url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/enter_bug.cgi">
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Enter a new bug report</ulink>
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.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Select a product - any one will do.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Fill in the fields. Bugzilla should have made reasonable
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guesses, based upon your browser, for the "Platform" and "OS"
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drop-down boxes. If they are wrong, change them.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Select "Commit" and send in your bug report.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section id="init4me">
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<title>User Preferences</title>
|
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|
|
<para>You can customise various aspects of Bugzilla, via the "Edit prefs"
|
|
link in the page footer, once you have logged in, e.g. to
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<ulink
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url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi?GoAheadAndLogIn=1">
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|
Landfill</ulink>
|
|
|
|
. The preferences are split into four tabs.</para>
|
|
|
|
<section id="accountsettings" xreflabel="Account Settings">
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<title>Account Settings</title>
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|
|
|
<para>On this tab, you can change your basic Account Settings,
|
|
including your password, email address and real name. For security
|
|
reasons, in order to change anything on this page you must type your
|
|
<emphasis>current</emphasis>
|
|
|
|
password into the
|
|
<quote>Password</quote>
|
|
|
|
field. If you attempt to change your email address, a confirmation
|
|
email is sent to both the old and new addresses, with a link to use to
|
|
confirm the change. This helps to prevent account hijacking.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="emailsettings">
|
|
<title>Email Settings</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>On this tab you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent
|
|
you from Bugzilla, opting in our out depending on your relationship to
|
|
the bug and the change that was made to it. (Note that you can also do
|
|
client-side filtering using the X-Bugzilla-Reason header which Bugzilla
|
|
adds to all bugmail.)</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>By entering user email names, delineated by commas, into the
|
|
"Users to watch" text entry box you can receive a copy of all the
|
|
bugmail of other users (security settings permitting.) 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.</para>
|
|
|
|
<note>
|
|
<para>This option may not be available in all Bugzilla installations.
|
|
Ask your administrator.</para>
|
|
</note>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="footersettings">
|
|
<title>Page Footer</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>By default, this page is quite barren. However, if you explore
|
|
the Search 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. Once you have a stored query, you can come
|
|
here to request that it also be displayed in your page footer.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="permissionsettings">
|
|
<title>Permissions</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This is a purely informative page which outlines your current
|
|
permissions on this installation of Bugzilla - what product groups you
|
|
are in, and whether you can edit bugs or perform various administration
|
|
functions.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
</section>
|
|
</chapter>
|
|
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