3.1. Bugzilla Configuration
Bugzilla is configured by changing various parameters, accessed - from the "Edit parameters" link in the page footer. Here are - some of the key parameters on that page. You should run down this - list and set them appropriately after installing Bugzilla.
- maintainer: - The maintainer parameter is the email address of the person - responsible for maintaining this - Bugzilla installation. The address need not be that of a valid Bugzilla - account.
urlbase: - This parameter defines the fully qualified domain name and web - server path to your Bugzilla installation.
For example, if your Bugzilla query page is - http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi, - set your "urlbase" - to http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/.
makeproductgroups: - This dictates whether or not to automatically create groups - when new products are created. -
useentrygroupdefault: - Bugzilla products can have a group associated with them, so that - certain users can only see bugs in certain products. When this - parameter is set to "on", this - causes the initial group controls on newly created products - to place all newly-created bugs in the group - having the same name as the product immediately. - After a product is initially created, the group controls - can be further adjusted without interference by - this mechanism.
shadowdb: - You run into an interesting problem when Bugzilla reaches a - high level of continuous activity. MySQL supports only table-level - write locking. What this means is that if someone needs to make a - change to a bug, they will lock the entire table until the operation - is complete. Locking for write also blocks reads until the write is - complete. Note that more recent versions of mysql support row level - locking using different table types. These types are slower than the - standard type, and Bugzilla does not yet take advantage of features - such as transactions which would justify this speed decrease. The - Bugzilla team are, however, happy to hear about any experiences with - row level locking and Bugzilla.
The "shadowdb" - parameter was designed to get around this limitation. While only a - single user is allowed to write to a table at a time, reads can - continue unimpeded on a read-only shadow copy of the database. - Although your database size will double, a shadow database can cause - an enormous performance improvement when implemented on extremely - high-traffic Bugzilla databases.
As a guide, on reasonably old hardware, mozilla.org began needing - "shadowdb" - when they reached around 40,000 Bugzilla users with several hundred - Bugzilla bug changes and comments per day.
The value of the parameter defines the name of the - shadow bug database. You will need to set the host and port settings - from the params page, and set up replication in your database server - so that updates reach this readonly mirror. Consult your database - documentation for more detail.
shutdownhtml: - - If you need to shut down Bugzilla to perform administration, enter - some descriptive HTML here and anyone who tries to use Bugzilla will - receive a page to that effect. Obviously, editparams.cgi will - still be accessible so you can remove the HTML and re-enable Bugzilla. - :-) -
passwordmail: - - Every time a user creates an account, the text of - this parameter (with substitutions) is sent to the new user along with - their password message.
Add any text you wish to the "passwordmail" parameter box. For - instance, many people choose to use this box to give a quick training - blurb about how to use Bugzilla at your site.
movebugs: - - This option is an undocumented feature to allow moving bugs - between separate Bugzilla installations. You will need to understand - the source code in order to use this feature. Please consult - movebugs.pl in your Bugzilla source tree for - further documentation, such as it is. -
useqacontact: - - This allows you to define an email address for each component, in - addition - to that of the default owner, who will be sent carbon copies of - incoming bugs.
usestatuswhiteboard: - This defines whether you wish to have a free-form, overwritable field - associated with each bug. The advantage of the Status Whiteboard is - that it can be deleted or modified with ease, and provides an - easily-searchable field for indexing some bugs that have some trait - in common. -
whinedays: - Set this to the number of days you want to let bugs go - in the NEW or REOPENED state before notifying people they have - untouched new bugs. If you do not plan to use this feature, simply do - not set up the whining cron job described in the installation - instructions, or set this value to "0" (never whine).
commenton*: - All these - fields allow you to dictate what changes can pass without comment, - and which must have a comment from the person who changed them. - Often, administrators will allow users to add themselves to the CC - list, accept bugs, or change the Status Whiteboard without adding a - comment as to their reasons for the change, yet require that most - other changes come with an explanation.
Set the "commenton" options according to your site policy. It - is a wise idea to require comments when users resolve, reassign, or - reopen bugs at the very least. -
-It is generally far better to require a developer comment - when resolving bugs than not. Few things are more annoying to bug - database users than having a developer mark a bug "fixed" without - any comment as to what the fix was (or even that it was truly - fixed!)
supportwatchers: - - Turning on this option allows users to ask to receive copies of - all a particular other user's bug email. This is, of - course, subject to the groupset restrictions on the bug; if the - "watcher" - would not normally be allowed to view a bug, the watcher cannot get - around the system by setting herself up to watch the bugs of someone - with bugs outside her privileges. They would still only receive email - updates for those bugs she could normally view.