There are several experienced - Bugzilla hackers on the mailing list/newsgroup who are willing - to make themselves available for generous compensation. - Try sending a message to the mailing list asking for a volunteer. -

A.1.3. - What major companies or projects are currently using Bugzilla - for bug-tracking? -

- There are dozens of major companies with public - Bugzilla sites to track bugs in their products. We have a fairly - complete list available on our website at - http://bugzilla.org/installation-list/. If you - have an installation of Bugzilla and would like to be added to the - list, whether it's a public install or not, simply e-mail - Gerv <gerv@mozilla.org>. -

A.1.4. - Who maintains Bugzilla? -

- A - core team, - led by Dave Miller (justdave@bugzilla.org). -

A.1.5. - How does Bugzilla stack up against other bug-tracking databases? -

- We can't find any head-to-head comparisons of Bugzilla against - other defect-tracking software. If you know of one, please - get in touch. However, from the author's personal - experience with other bug-trackers, Bugzilla offers - superior performance on commodity hardware, better price - (free!), more developer- friendly features (such as stored - queries, email integration, and platform independence), - improved scalability, open source code, greater - flexibility, and superior ease-of-use. -

If you happen to be a commercial bug-tracker vendor, please - step forward with a list of advantages your product has over - Bugzilla. We'd be happy to include it in the "Competitors" - section. -

A.1.6. - Why doesn't Bugzilla offer this or that feature or compatibility - with this other tracking software? -

- It may be that the support has not been built yet, or that you - have not yet found it. Bugzilla is making tremendous strides in - usability, customizability, scalability, and user interface. It - is widely considered the most complete and popular open-source - bug-tracking software in existence. -

That doesn't mean it can't use improvement! - You can help the project along by either hacking a patch yourself - that supports the functionality you require, or else submitting a - "Request for Enhancement" (RFE) using the bug submission interface - at bugzilla.mozilla.org. -

A.1.7. - Why MySQL? I'm interested in seeing Bugzilla run on - Oracle/Sybase/Msql/PostgreSQL/MSSQL. -

- MySQL was originally chosen because it is free, easy to install, - and was available for the hardware Netscape intended to run it on. -

There is currently work in progress to make Bugzilla work on - PostgreSQL and Sybase in the default distribution. You can track - the progress of these initiatives in bug 98304 - and bug 173130 - respectively. -

Once both of these are done, adding support for additional - database servers should be trivial. -

A.1.8. - What is /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl? -

- Bugzilla used to have the path to perl on the shebang line set to - /usr/bonsaitools/bin/perl because when - Terry first started writing the code for mozilla.org he needed a - version of Perl and other tools that were completely under his - control. This location was abandoned for the 2.18 release in favor - of the more sensible /usr/bin/perl. If you - installed an older verion of Bugzilla and created the symlink we - suggested, you can remove it now (provided that you don't have - anything else, such as Bonsai, using it and you don't intend to - reinstall an older version of Bugzilla). -

A.1.9. - My perl is not located at /usr/bin/perl, is - there an easy way to change it everywhere it needs to be changed? -

- Yes, the following bit of perl magic will change all the shebang - lines. Be sure to change /usr/local/bin/perl - to your path to the perl binary. -

perl -pi -e 's@#\!/usr/bin/perl@#\!/usr/local/bin/perl@' *cgi *pl
-

A.1.10. - Is there an easy way to change the Bugzilla cookie name? -

- At present, no. -

A.1.11. - Does bugzilla run under mod_perl? -

- At present, no. This is being worked on. -

2. Managerial Questions

A.2.1. - Is Bugzilla web-based, or do you have to have specific software or - a specific operating system on your machine? -

- It is web and e-mail based. -

A.2.2. - Does Bugzilla allow us to define our own priorities and levels? Do we - have complete freedom to change the labels of fields and format of them, and - the choice of acceptable values? -

- Yes. However, modifying some fields, notably those related to bug - progression states, also require adjusting the program logic to - compensate for the change. -

There is no GUI for adding fields to Bugzilla at this - time. You can follow development of this feature in - bug 91037 -

A.2.3. - Does Bugzilla provide any reporting features, metrics, graphs, etc? You - know, the type of stuff that management likes to see. :) -

- Yes. Look at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/report.cgi - for samples of what Bugzilla can do in reporting and graphing. -

If you can not get the reports you want from the included reporting - scripts, it is possible to hook up a professional reporting package - such as Crystal Reports using ODBC. If you choose to do this, - beware that giving direct access to the database does contain some - security implications. Even if you give read-only access to the - bugs database it will bypass the secure bugs features of Bugzilla. -

A.2.4. - Is there email notification and if so, what do you see when you get an - email? -

- Email notification is user-configurable. By default, the bug id and - summary of the bug report accompany each email notification, along with - a list of the changes made. -

A.2.5. - Do users have to have any particular - type of email application? -

- Bugzilla email is sent in plain text, the most compatible mail format - on the planet. -

If you decide to use the bugzilla_email integration features - to allow Bugzilla to record responses to mail with the associated bug, - you may need to caution your users to set their mailer to "respond - to messages in the format in which they were sent". For security reasons - Bugzilla ignores HTML tags in comments, and if a user sends HTML-based - email into Bugzilla the resulting comment looks downright awful. -

A.2.6. - 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? -

- Bugzilla can output buglists as HTML (the default), CSV or RDF. - The link for CSV can be found at the bottom of the buglist in HTML - format. This CSV format can easily be imported into MS Excel or - other spreadsheet applications. -

To use the RDF format of the buglist it is necessary to append a - &ctype=rdf to the URL. RDF - is meant to be machine readable and thus it is assumed that the - URL would be generated programatically so there is no user visible - link to this format. -

Currently the only script included with Bugzilla that can import - data is importxml.pl which is intended to be - used for importing the data generated by the XML ctype of - show_bug.cgi in association with bug moving. - Any other use is left as an exercise for the user. -

There are also scripts included in the contrib/ - directory for using e-mail to import information into Bugzilla, - but these scripts are not currently supported and included for - educational purposes. -

A.2.7. - Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used in other - countries? Is it localizable? -

- Yes. For more information including available translated templates, - see http://www.bugzilla.org/download.html#localizations. - The admin interfaces are still not included in these translated - templates and is therefore still English only. Also, there may be - issues with the charset not being declared. See bug 126226 - for more information. -

A.2.8. - Can a user create and save reports? Can they do this in Word format? - Excel format? -

- Yes. No. Yes (using the CSV format). -

A.2.9. - Does Bugzilla provide record locking when there is simultaneous access - to the same bug? Does the second person get a notice that the bug is in use - or how are they notified? -

- Bugzilla does not lock records. It provides mid-air collision detection, - and offers the offending user a choice of options to deal with the conflict. -

A.2.10. - Are there any backup features provided? -

- MySQL, the database back-end for Bugzilla, allows hot-backup of data. - You can find strategies for dealing with backup considerations - at http://www.mysql.com/doc/B/a/Backup.html. -

A.2.11. - Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress? -

- Yes. However, commits to the database must wait - until the tables are unlocked. Bugzilla databases are typically - very small, and backups routinely take less than a minute. -

A.2.12. - What type of human resources are needed to be on staff to install and - maintain Bugzilla? Specifically, what type of skills does the person need to - have? I need to find out if we were to go with Bugzilla, what types of - individuals would we need to hire and how much would that cost vs buying an - "out-of-the-box" solution? -

- If Bugzilla is set up correctly from the start, continuing maintenance - needs are minimal and can be done easily using the web interface. -

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. Simple questions - are answered there and then. -

A.2.13. - What time frame are we looking at if we decide to hire people to install - and maintain the Bugzilla? Is this something that takes hours or weeks to - install and a couple of hours per week to maintain and customize or is this - a multi-week install process, plus a full time job for 1 person, 2 people, - etc? -

- It all depends on your level of commitment. Someone with much Bugzilla - experience can get you up and running in less than a day, and - your Bugzilla install can run untended for years. If your - Bugzilla strategy is critical to your business workflow, hire somebody - with reasonable UNIX or Perl skills to handle your process management and - bug-tracking maintenance & customization. -

A.2.14. - Is there any licensing fee or other fees for using Bugzilla? Any - out-of-pocket cost other than the bodies needed as identified above? -

- No. MySQL asks, if you find their product valuable, that you purchase - a support contract from them that suits your needs. -

3. Bugzilla Security

A.3.1. - How do I completely disable MySQL security if it's giving me problems - (I've followed the instructions in the installation section of this guide)? -

- Run MySQL like this: "mysqld --skip-grant-tables". Please remember this - makes MySQL as secure as taping a $100 to the floor of a football stadium - bathroom for safekeeping. -

A.3.2. - Are there any security problems with Bugzilla? -

- The Bugzilla code has undergone a reasonably complete security audit, - and user-facing CGIs run under Perl's taint mode. However, - it is recommended that you closely examine permissions on your Bugzilla - installation, and follow the recommended security guidelines found - in The Bugzilla Guide. -

4. Bugzilla Email

A.4.1. - I have a user who doesn't want to receive any more email from Bugzilla. - How do I stop it entirely for this user? -

- The user should be able to set - this in user email preferences (uncheck all boxes) or you can add - their email address to the data/nomail file. -

A.4.2. - I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send email to - anyone but me. How do I do it? -

- Edit the "newchangedmail" Param. Replace "To:" with "X-Real-To:", - replace "Cc:" with "X-Real-CC:", and add a "To: <youremailaddress>". -

A.4.3. - I want whineatnews.pl to whine at something other than new and - reopened bugs. How do I do it? -

- Try Klaas Freitag's excellent patch for "whineatassigned" - functionality. You can find it in bug 6679. This - patch is against an older version of Bugzilla, so you must apply - the diffs manually. - -

A.4.4. - How do I set up the email interface to submit/change bugs via email? -

- You can find an updated README.mailif file in the contrib/ directory - of your Bugzilla distribution that walks you through the setup. -

A.4.5. - Email takes FOREVER to reach me from Bugzilla -- it's extremely slow. - What gives? -

- If you are using sendmail, try enabling - sendmailnow in editparams.cgi. - -

If you are using an alternate MTA, - make sure the options given in Bugzilla/BugMail.pm - and any other place where sendmail is called from - are correct for your MTA. You should also ensure that the - sendmailnow param is set to on. -

A.4.6. - How come email from Bugzilla changes never reaches me? -

- Double-check that you have not turned off email in your user preferences. - Confirm that Bugzilla is able to send email by visiting the "Log In" - link of your Bugzilla installation and clicking the "Email me a password" - button after entering your email address. -

If you never receive mail from Bugzilla, chances are you do not have - sendmail in "/usr/lib/sendmail". Ensure sendmail lives in, or is symlinked - to, "/usr/lib/sendmail". -

5. Bugzilla Database

A.5.1. - I've heard Bugzilla can be used with Oracle? -

- Red Hat's old version of Bugzilla (based on 2.8) worked on Oracle, - but it is now so old as to be obsolete, and is totally unsupported. - Red Hat's newer version (based on 2.17.1 and soon to be merged into - the main distribution) runs on PostgreSQL. At this time we know of - no recent ports of Bugzilla to Oracle; to be honest, Bugzilla - doesn't need what Oracle offers. -

A.5.2. - I think my database might be corrupted, or contain invalid entries. What - do I do? -

- Run the "sanity check" utility - (sanitycheck.cgi) from your web browser to see! - If it finishes without errors, you're - probably OK. If it doesn't come back - OK (i.e. any red letters), there are certain things - Bugzilla can recover from and certain things it can't. If - it can't auto-recover, I hope you're familiar with - mysqladmin commands or have installed another way to - manage your database. Sanity Check, although it is a good - basic check on your database integrity, by no means is a - substitute for competent database administration and - avoiding deletion of data. It is not exhaustive, and was - created to do a basic check for the most common problems - in Bugzilla databases. -

A.5.3. - I want to manually edit some entries in my database. How? -

- There is no facility in Bugzilla itself to do this. It's also generally - not a smart thing to do if you don't know exactly what you're doing. - However, if you understand SQL you can use the mysql - command line utility to manually insert, delete and modify table - information. There are also more intuitive GUI clients available. - Personal favorites of the Bugzilla team are phpMyAdmin and MySQL Control - Center. -

A.5.4. - I think I've set up MySQL permissions correctly, but Bugzilla still can't - connect. -

- Try running MySQL from its binary: "mysqld --skip-grant-tables". This - will allow you to completely rule out grant tables as the cause of your - frustration. If this Bugzilla is able to connect at this point then - you need to check that you have granted proper permission to the user - password combo defined in localconfig. -

Running MySQL with this command line option is very insecure and - should only be done when not connected to the external network - as a troubleshooting step. -

A.5.5. - How do I synchronize bug information among multiple different Bugzilla - databases? -

- Well, you can synchronize or you can move bugs. Synchronization will - only work one way -- you can create a read-only copy of the database - at one site, and have it regularly updated at intervals from the main - database. -

MySQL has some synchronization features builtin to the latest releases. - It would be great if someone looked into the possibilities there - and provided a report to the newsgroup on how to effectively - synchronize two Bugzilla installations. -

If you simply need to transfer bugs from one Bugzilla to another, - checkout the "move.pl" script in the Bugzilla distribution. -

6. Bugzilla and Win32

A.6.1. - What is the easiest way to run Bugzilla on Win32 (Win98+/NT/2K)? -

- Remove Windows. Install Linux. Install Bugzilla. - The boss will never know the difference. -

A.6.2. - Is there a "Bundle::Bugzilla" equivalent for Win32? -

- Not currently. Bundle::Bugzilla enormously simplifies Bugzilla - installation on UNIX systems. If someone can volunteer to - create a suitable PPM bundle for Win32, it would be appreciated. -

A.6.3. - CGI's are failing with a "something.cgi is not a valid Windows NT - application" error. Why? -

- Depending on what Web server you are using, you will have to configure - the Web server to treat *.cgi files as CGI scripts. In IIS, you do this by - adding *.cgi to the App Mappings with the <path>\perl.exe %s %s as the - executable. -

Microsoft has some advice on this matter, as well: -

"Set application mappings. In the ISM, map the extension for the script - file(s) to the executable for the script interpreter. For example, you might - map the extension .py to Python.exe, the executable for the Python script - interpreter. Note For the ActiveState Perl script interpreter, the extension - .pl is associated with PerlIS.dll by default. If you want to change the - association of .pl to perl.exe, you need to change the application mapping. - In the mapping, you must add two percent (%) characters to the end of the - pathname for perl.exe, as shown in this example: c:\perl\bin\perl.exe %s %s" -

A.6.4. - I'm having trouble with the perl modules for NT not being able to talk to - to the database. -

- Your modules may be outdated or inaccurate. Try: -

Hitting http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl -
Download ActivePerl -
Go to your prompt -
Type 'ppm' -
PPM> install DBI DBD-mysql GD -

- I reckon TimeDate and Data::Dumper come with the activeperl. You can check - the ActiveState site for packages for installation through PPM. - http://www.activestate.com/Packages/. -

7. Bugzilla Usage

A.7.1. - How do I change my user name (email address) in Bugzilla? -

- New in 2.16 - go to the Account section of the Preferences. You will - be emailed at both addresses for confirmation. -

A.7.2. - The query page is very confusing. Isn't there a simpler way to query? -

- The interface was simplified by a UI designer for 2.16. Further - suggestions for improvement are welcome, but we won't sacrifice power for - simplicity. -

A.7.3. - I'm confused by the behavior of the "accept" button in the Show Bug form. - Why doesn't it assign the bug to me when I accept it? -

- The current behavior is acceptable to bugzilla.mozilla.org and most - users. You have your choice of patches to change this behavior, however. -

Add a "and accept bug" radio button

"Accept" button automatically assigns to you

- Note that these patches are somewhat dated. You will need to apply - them manually. -

A.7.4. - I can't upload anything into the database via the "Create Attachment" - link. What am I doing wrong? -

- The most likely cause is a very old browser or a browser that is - incompatible with file upload via POST. Download the latest Netscape, - Microsoft, or Mozilla browser to handle uploads correctly. -

A.7.5. - How do I change a keyword in Bugzilla, once some bugs are using it? -

- In the Bugzilla administrator UI, edit the keyword and it will let you - replace the old keyword name with a new one. This will cause a problem - with the keyword cache. Run sanitycheck.cgi to fix it. -

A.7.6. - Why can't I close bugs from the "Change Several Bugs at Once" page? -

- The logic flow currently used is RESOLVED, then VERIFIED, then CLOSED. - You can mass-CLOSE bugs from the change several - bugs at once page. but, every bug listed on the - page has to be in VERIFIED state before the control to do it will show - up on the form. You can also mass-VERIFY, but every bug listed has to be - RESOLVED in order for the control to show up on the form. The logic - behind this is that if you pick one of the bugs that's not VERIFIED and - try to CLOSE it, the bug change will fail miserably (thus killing any - changes in the list after it while doing the bulk change) so it doesn't - even give you the choice. -

8. Bugzilla Hacking

A.8.1. - What kind of style should I use for templatization? -

- Gerv and Myk suggest a 2-space indent, with embedded code sections on - their own line, in line with outer tags. Like this:

<fred>
-[% IF foo %]
-  <bar>
-  [% FOREACH x = barney %]
-    <tr>
-      <td>
-        [% x %]
-      </td>
-    <tr>
-  [% END %]
-[% END %]
-</fred>
-

Myk also recommends you turn on PRE_CHOMP in the template - initialization to prevent bloating of HTML with unnecessary whitespace. -

Please note that many have differing opinions on this subject, - and the existing templates in Bugzilla espouse both this and a 4-space - style. Either is acceptable; the above is preferred.

A.8.2. - What bugs are in Bugzilla right now? -

- Try this link to view current bugs or requests for - enhancement for Bugzilla. -

You can view bugs marked for 2.18 release - here. - This list includes bugs for the 2.18 release that have already - been fixed and checked into CVS. Please consult the - Bugzilla Project Page for details on how to - check current sources out of CVS so you can have these - bug fixes early! -

A.8.3. - How can I change the default priority to a null value? For instance, have the default - priority be "---" instead of "P2"? -

- This is well-documented in bug 49862. Ultimately, it's as easy as adding the "---" priority field to your - localconfig file in the appropriate area, re-running checksetup.pl, and then changing the - default priority in your browser using "editparams.cgi". -

A.8.4. - What's the best way to submit patches? What guidelines should I follow? -

Enter a bug into bugzilla.mozilla.org for the "Bugzilla" - product. -
Upload your patch as a unified diff (having used "diff -u" against - the current sources checked out of CVS), - or new source file by clicking - "Create a new attachment" link on the bug page you've just created, and - include any descriptions of database changes you may make, into the bug - ID you submitted in step #1. Be sure and click the "Patch" checkbox - to indicate the text you are sending is a patch! -
Announce your patch and the associated URL - (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=XXXXXX) 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. -
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. -
Bask in the glory of the fact that you helped write the most successful - open-source bug-tracking software on the planet :) -