51a7de4d46
The README is now gutted, pointers to Guide. Also some new sections added, old ones fixed, and notes appended to deprecated sections I've not yet had the heart to remove. git-svn-id: svn://10.0.0.236/trunk@93058 18797224-902f-48f8-a5cc-f745e15eee43
226 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
226 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>What is Bugzilla?</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.64
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"><LINK
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REL="HOME"
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TITLE="The Bugzilla Guide"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="UP"
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TITLE="Using Bugzilla"
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HREF="using.html"><LINK
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REL="PREVIOUS"
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TITLE="Using Bugzilla"
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HREF="using.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="Why Should We Use Bugzilla?"
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HREF="why.html"></HEAD
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><BODY
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CLASS="SECTION"
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BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
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TEXT="#000000"
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LINK="#0000FF"
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VLINK="#840084"
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ALINK="#0000FF"
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVHEADER"
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><TABLE
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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CELLPADDING="0"
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CELLSPACING="0"
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><TR
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><TH
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COLSPAN="3"
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ALIGN="center"
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>The Bugzilla Guide</TH
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="using.html"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="80%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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>Chapter 4. Using Bugzilla</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="why.html"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECTION"
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><H1
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CLASS="SECTION"
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><A
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NAME="WHATIS"
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>4.1. What is Bugzilla?</A
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></H1
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><P
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> Bugzilla is one example of a class of programs called "Defect Tracking Systems",
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or, more commonly, "Bug-Tracking Systems". Defect Tracking Systems allow individual or
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groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs in their product effectively.
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Bugzilla was originally written by Terry Weissman in a programming language called
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"TCL", to replace a crappy
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bug-tracking database used internally for Netscape Communications. Terry later ported
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Bugzilla to
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Perl from TCL, and in Perl it remains to this day.
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Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors at the
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time charged enormous licensing fees, and Bugzilla quickly became a favorite of the
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open-source crowd (with its genesis in the open-source browser project, Mozilla). It
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is now the de-facto standard defect-tracking system against which all others are
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measured.
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</P
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><P
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> Bugzilla has matured immensely, and now boasts many advanced features. These include:
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<P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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> integrated, product-based granular security schema
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> inter-bug dependencies and dependency graphing
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> advanced reporting capabilities
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> a robust, stable RDBMS back-end
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> extensive configurability
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> a very well-understood and well-thought-out natural bug resolution protocol
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> email, XML, and HTTP APIs
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> available integration with automated software configuration management systems, including
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Perforce and CVS.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> too many more features to list
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</P
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></LI
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></UL
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>
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</P
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><P
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> Despite its current robustness and popularity, however, Bugzilla
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faces some near-term challenges, such as reliance on a single database, a lack of
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abstraction of the user interface and program logic, verbose email bug
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notifications, a powerful but daunting query interface, little reporting configurability,
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problems with extremely large queries, some unsupportable bug resolution options,
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no internationalization, and dependence on some nonstandard libraries.
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</P
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><P
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> Some recent headway has been made on the query front, however. If you are using the latest
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version of Bugzilla, you should see a "simple search" form on the default front page of
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your Bugzilla install. Type in two or three search terms and you should pull up some
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relevant information. This is also available as "queryhelp.cgi".
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</P
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><P
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> Despite these small problems, Bugzilla is very hard to beat. It is under <EM
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>very</EM
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>
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active development to address the current issues, and a long-awaited overhaul in the form
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of Bugzilla 3.0 is expected sometime later this year.
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</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
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WIDTH="100%"
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BORDER="0"
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CELLPADDING="0"
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CELLSPACING="0"
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="using.html"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="index.html"
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>Home</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="why.html"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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>Using Bugzilla</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="using.html"
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>Up</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
|
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VALIGN="top"
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>Why Should We Use Bugzilla?</TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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></DIV
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></BODY
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></HTML
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> |