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<chapter id="administration">
<title>Administering Bugzilla</title>
<section id="parameters">
<title>Bugzilla Configuration</title>
<para>
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.
</para>
<indexterm>
<primary>checklist</primary>
</indexterm>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
maintainer
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
urlbase
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This parameter defines the fully qualified domain name and web
server path to your Bugzilla installation.
</para>
<para>
For example, if your Bugzilla query page is
<filename>http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi</filename>,
set your <quote>urlbase</quote>
to <filename>http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
makeproductgroups
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This dictates whether or not to automatically create groups
when new products are created.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
useentrygroupdefault
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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 <quote>on</quote>, 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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
mail_delivery_method
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This is used to specify how email is sent, or if it is sent at
all. There are several options included for different MTAs,
along with two additional options that disable email sending.
"testfile" does not send mail, but instead saves it in
<filename>data/mailer.testfile</filename> for later review.
"none" disables email sending entirely.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
shadowdb
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
The <quote>shadowdb</quote> 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.
</para>
<para>
As a guide, on reasonably old hardware, mozilla.org began needing
<quote>shadowdb</quote> when they reached around 40,000 Bugzilla
users with several hundred Bugzilla bug changes and comments per day.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
shutdownhtml
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
If you need to shut down Bugzilla to perform administration, enter
some descriptive text (with embedded HTML codes, if you'd like)
into this box. Anyone who tries to use Bugzilla (including admins)
will receive a page displaying this text. Users can neither log in
nor log out while shutdownhtml is enabled.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Although regular log-in capability is disabled while 'shutdownhtml'
is enabled, safeguards are in place to protect the unfortunate
admin who loses connection to Bugzilla. Should this happen to you,
go directly to the <filename>editparams.cgi</filename> (by typing
the URL in manually, if necessary). Doing this will prompt you to
log in, and your name/password will be accepted here (but nowhere
else).
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
movebugs
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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
<filename>movebugs.pl</filename> in your Bugzilla source tree for
further documentation, such as it is.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
useqacontact
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This allows you to define an email address for each component,
in addition to that of the default assignee, who will be sent
carbon copies of incoming bugs.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
globalwatcher
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This allows you to define specific users who will
receive notification each time a new bug in entered, or when
an existing bug changes, according to the normal groupset
permissions. It may be useful for sending notifications to a
mailing-list, for instance.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
usestatuswhiteboard
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
whinedays
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
commenton*
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
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.
</para>
<note>
<para>
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!)
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
supportwatchers
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Turning on this option allows users to ask to receive copies
of bug mail sent to another user. Watching a user with
different group permissions is not a way to 'get around' the
system; copied emails are still subject to the normal groupset
permissions of a bug, and <quote>watchers</quote> will only be
copied on emails from bugs they would normally be allowed to view.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
noresolveonopenblockers
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option will prevent users from resolving bugs as FIXED if
they have unresolved dependencies. Only the FIXED resolution
is affected. Users will be still able to resolve bugs to
resolutions other than FIXED if they have unresolved dependent
bugs.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
sendmailnow
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
When Bugzilla is using Sendmail older than 8.12, turning this option
off will improve performance by not waiting for Sendmail to actually
send mail. If Sendmail 8.12 or later is being used, there is
nothing to gain by turning this off. If another MTA is being used,
such as Postfix, then this option *must* be turned on (even if you
are using the fake sendmail executable that Postfix provides).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</section>
<section id="useradmin">
<title>User Administration</title>
<section id="defaultuser">
<title>Creating the Default User</title>
<para>When you first run checksetup.pl after installing Bugzilla, it
will prompt you for the administrative username (email address) and
password for this "super user". If for some reason you delete
the "super user" account, re-running checksetup.pl will again prompt
you for this username and password.</para>
<tip>
<para>If you wish to add more administrative users, add them to
the "admin" group and, optionally, edit the tweakparams, editusers,
creategroups, editcomponents, and editkeywords groups to add the
entire admin group to those groups (which is the case by default).
</para>
</tip>
</section>
<section id="manageusers">
<title>Managing Other Users</title>
<section id="user-account-search">
<title>Searching for existing users</title>
<para>
If you have <quote>editusers</quote> privileges or if you are allowed
to grant privileges for some groups, the <quote>Users</quote> link
appears in the footer.
</para>
<para>
The first screen you get is a search form to search for existing user
accounts. You can run searches based either on the ID, real name or
login name (i.e. the email address in most cases) of users. You can
search in different ways the listbox to the right of the text entry
box. You can match by case-insensitive substring (the default),
regular expression, a <emphasis>reverse</emphasis> regular expression
match, which finds every user name which does NOT match the regular
expression, or the exact string if you know exactly who you are looking for.
</para>
<para>
You can also restrict your search to users being in some specific group.
By default, the restriction is turned off. Then you get a list of
users matching your criteria, and clicking their login name lets you
edit their properties.
</para>
</section>
<section id="createnewusers">
<title>Creating new users</title>
<section id="self-registration">
<title>Self-registration</title>
<para>
By default, users can create their own user accounts by clicking the
<quote>New Account</quote> link at the bottom of each page (assuming
they aren't logged in as someone else already). If you want to disable
this self-registration, or if you want to restrict who can create his
own user account, you have to edit the <quote>createemailregexp</quote>
parameter in the <quote>Configuration</quote> page, see
<xref linkend="parameters" />.
</para>
</section>
<section id="user-account-creation">
<title>Accounts created by an administrator</title>
<para>
Users with <quote>editusers</quote> privileges, such as administrators,
can create user accounts for other users:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>After logging in, click the "Users" link at the footer of
the query page, and then click "Add a new user".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fill out the form presented. This page is self-explanatory.
When done, click "Submit".</para>
<note>
<para>Adding a user this way will <emphasis>not</emphasis>
send an email informing them of their username and password.
While useful for creating dummy accounts (watchers which
shuttle mail to another system, for instance, or email
addresses which are a mailing list), in general it is
preferable to log out and use the <quote>New Account</quote>
button to create users, as it will pre-populate all the
required fields and also notify the user of her account name
and password.</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
</section>
<section id="modifyusers">
<title>Modifying Users</title>
<para>Once you have found your user, you can change the following
fields:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Login Name</emphasis>:
This is generally the user's full email address. However, if you
have are using the <quote>emailsuffix</quote> parameter, this may
just be the user's login name. Note that users can now change their
login names themselves (to any valid email address).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Real Name</emphasis>: The user's real name. Note that
Bugzilla does not require this to create an account.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Password</emphasis>:
You can change the user's password here. Users can automatically
request a new password, so you shouldn't need to do this often.
If you want to disable an account, see Disable Text below.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Bugmail Disabled</emphasis>:
Mark this checkbox to disable bugmail and whinemail completely
for this account. This checkbox replaces the data/nomail file
which existed in older versions of Bugzilla.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Disable Text</emphasis>:
If you type anything in this box, including just a space, the
user is prevented from logging in, or making any changes to
bugs via the web interface.
The HTML you type in this box is presented to the user when
they attempt to perform these actions, and should explain
why the account was disabled.
</para>
<para>
Users with disabled accounts will continue to receive
mail from Bugzilla; furthermore, they will not be able
to log in themselves to change their own preferences and
stop it. If you want an account (disabled or active) to
stop receiving mail, simply check the
<quote>Bugmail Disabled</quote> checkbox above.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Even users whose accounts have been disabled can still
submit bugs via the e-mail gateway, if one exists.
The e-mail gateway should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
enabled for secure installations of Bugzilla.
</para>
</note>
<warning>
<para>
Don't disable all the administrator accounts!
</para>
</warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis><groupname></emphasis>:
If you have created some groups, e.g. "securitysensitive", then
checkboxes will appear here to allow you to add users to, or
remove them from, these groups.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>canconfirm</emphasis>:
This field is only used if you have enabled the "unconfirmed"
status. If you enable this for a user,
that user can then move bugs from "Unconfirmed" to a "Confirmed"
status (e.g.: "New" status).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>creategroups</emphasis>:
This option will allow a user to create and destroy groups in
Bugzilla.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>editbugs</emphasis>:
Unless a user has this bit set, they can only edit those bugs
for which they are the assignee or the reporter. Even if this
option is unchecked, users can still add comments to bugs.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>editcomponents</emphasis>:
This flag allows a user to create new products and components,
as well as modify and destroy those that have no bugs associated
with them. If a product or component has bugs associated with it,
those bugs must be moved to a different product or component
before Bugzilla will allow them to be destroyed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>editkeywords</emphasis>:
If you use Bugzilla's keyword functionality, enabling this
feature allows a user to create and destroy keywords. As always,
the keywords for existing bugs containing the keyword the user
wishes to destroy must be changed before Bugzilla will allow it
to die.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>editusers</emphasis>:
This flag allows a user to do what you're doing right now: edit
other users. This will allow those with the right to do so to
remove administrator privileges from other users or grant them to
themselves. Enable with care.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>tweakparams</emphasis>:
This flag allows a user to change Bugzilla's Params
(using <filename>editparams.cgi</filename>.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis><productname></emphasis>:
This allows an administrator to specify the products
in which a user can see bugs. If you turn on the
<quote>makeproductgroups</quote> parameter in
the Group Security Panel in the Parameters page,
then Bugzilla creates one group per product (at the time you create
the product), and this group has exactly the same name as the
product itself. Note that for products that already exist when
the parameter is turned on, the corresponding group will not be
created. The user must still have the <quote>editbugs</quote>
privilege to edit bugs in these products.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="user-account-deletion">
<title>Deleting Users</title>
<para>
If the <quote>allowuserdeletion</quote> parameter is turned on, see
<xref linkend="parameters" />, then you can also delete user accounts.
Note that this is most of the time not the best thing to do. If only
a warning in a yellow box is displayed, then the deletion is safe.
If a warning is also displayed in a red box, then you should NOT try
to delete the user account, else you will get referential integrity
problems in your database, which can lead to unexpected behavior,
such as bugs not appearing in bug lists anymore, or data displaying
incorrectly. You have been warned!
</para>
</section>
<section id="impersonatingusers">
<title>Impersonating Users</title>
<para>
There may be times when an administrator would like to do something as
another user. The <command>sudo</command> feature may be used to do
this.
</para>
<note>
<para>
To use the sudo feature, you must be in the
<emphasis>bz_sudoers</emphasis> group. By default, all
administrators are in this group.</para>
</note>
<para>
If you have access to this feature, you may start a session by
going to the Edit Users page, Searching for a user and clicking on
their login. You should see a link below their login name titled
"Impersonate this user". Click on the link. This will take you
to a page where you will see a description of the feature and
instructions for using it. After reading the text, simply
enter the login of the user you would like to impersonate, provide
a short message explaining why you are doing this, and press the
button.</para>
<para>
As long as you are using this feature, everything you do will be done
as if you were logged in as the user you are impersonating.</para>
<warning>
<para>
The user you are impersonating will not be told about what you are
doing. If you do anything that results in mail being sent, that
mail will appear to be from the user you are impersonating. You
should be extremely careful while using this feature.</para>
</warning>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="classifications">
<title>Classifications</title>
<para>Classifications tend to be used in order to group several related
products into one distinct entity.</para>
<para>The classifications layer is disabled by default; it can be turned
on or off using the useclassification parameter,
in the <emphasis>Bug Fields</emphasis> section of the edit parameters screen.</para>
<para>Access to the administration of classifications is controlled using
the <emphasis>editclassifications</emphasis> system group, which defines
a privilege for creating, destroying, and editing classifications.</para>
<para>When activated, classifications will introduce an additional
step when filling bugs (dedicated to classification selection), and they
will also appear in the advanced search form.</para>
</section>
<section id="products">
<title>Products</title>
<para>
<glossterm linkend="gloss-product" baseform="product">
Products</glossterm>
tend to represent real-world
shipping products. E.g. if your company makes computer games,
you should have one product per game, perhaps a
<quote>Common</quote> product for units of technology used
in multiple games, and maybe a few special products
(Website, Administration...)
</para>
<para>
Many of Bugzilla's settings are configurable on a per-product
basis. The number of <quote>votes</quote> available to
users is set per-product, as is the number of votes
required to move a bug automatically from the UNCONFIRMED
status to the NEW status.
</para>
<para>
To create a new product:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Select <quote>Adminstration</quote> from the footer and then
choose <quote>Products</quote> from the main administration page.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Select the <quote>Add</quote> link in the bottom right.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Enter the name of the product and a description. The
Description field may contain HTML.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<section>
<title>Assigning Group Controls to Products</title>
<para>
On the <quote>Product Edit</quote> page,
there is a link called
<quote>Edit Group Access Controls</quote>.
The settings on this page control the relationship
of the groups to the product being edited.
</para>
<para>
Groups may be applicable, default, and
mandatory for each product. Groups can also control access
to bugs for a given product, or be used to make bugs
for a product totally read-only unless the group
restrictions are met.
</para>
<para>
If any group has <emphasis>Entry</emphasis> selected, then the
product will restrict bug entry to only those users
who are members of all the groups with
<emphasis>Entry</emphasis> selected.
</para>
<para>
If any group has <emphasis>Canedit</emphasis> selected,
then the product will be read-only for any users
who are not members of all of the groups with
<emphasis>Canedit</emphasis> selected. ONLY users who
are members of all the <emphasis>Canedit</emphasis> groups
will be able to edit. This is an
additional restriction that further limits
what can be edited by a user.
</para>
<para>
The following settings let you
choose privileges on a <emphasis>per-product basis</emphasis>.
This is a convenient way to give privileges to
some users for some products only, without having
to give them global privileges which would affect
all products.
</para>
<para>
Any group having <emphasis>editcomponents</emphasis>
selected allows users who are in this group to edit all
aspects of this product, including components, milestones
and versions.
</para>
<para>
Any group having <emphasis>canconfirm</emphasis> selected
allows users who are in this group to confirm bugs
in this product.
</para>
<para>
Any group having <emphasis>editbugs</emphasis> selected allows
users who are in this group to edit all fields of
bugs in this product.
</para>
<para>
The <emphasis>MemberControl</emphasis> and
<emphasis>OtherControl</emphasis> fields indicate which
bugs will be placed in this group according
to the following definitions.
</para>
<para>
For each group, it is possible to specify if
membership in that group is:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Required for bug entry.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Not applicable to this product(NA),
a possible restriction for a member of the
group to place on a bug in this product(Shown),
a default restriction for a member of the
group to place on a bug in this product(Default),
or a mandatory restriction to be placed on bugs
in this product(Mandatory).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Not applicable by non-members to this product(NA),
a possible restriction for a non-member of the
group to place on a bug in this product(Shown),
a default restriction for a non-member of the
group to place on a bug in this product(Default),
or a mandatory restriction to be placed on bugs
in this product when entered by a non-member(Mandatory).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Required in order to make <emphasis>any</emphasis> change
to bugs in this product <emphasis>including comments.</emphasis>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>These controls are often described in this order, so a
product that requires a user to be a member of group "foo"
to enter a bug and then requires that the bug stay restricted
to group "foo" at all times and that only members of group "foo"
can edit the bug even if they otherwise could see the bug would
have its controls summarized by...</para>
<programlisting>
foo: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY, CANEDIT
</programlisting>
</section>
</section>
<section id="components">
<title>Components</title>
<para>Components are subsections of a Product. E.g. the computer game
you are designing may have a "UI"
component, an "API" component, a "Sound System" component, and a
"Plugins" component, each overseen by a different programmer. It
often makes sense to divide Components in Bugzilla according to the
natural divisions of responsibility within your Product or
company.</para>
<para>
Each component has a default assignee and (if you turned it on in the parameters),
a QA Contact. The default assignee should be the primary person who fixes bugs in
that component. The QA Contact should be the person who will ensure
these bugs are completely fixed. The Assignee, QA Contact, and Reporter
will get email when new bugs are created in this Component and when
these bugs change. Default Assignee and Default QA Contact fields only
dictate the
<emphasis>default assignments</emphasis>;
these can be changed on bug submission, or at any later point in
a bug's life.</para>
<para>To create a new Component:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Select the <quote>Edit components</quote> link
from the <quote>Edit product</quote> page</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Select the <quote>Add</quote> link in the bottom right.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fill out the <quote>Component</quote> field, a
short <quote>Description</quote>, the
<quote>Default Assignee</quote>, <quote>Default CC List</quote>
and <quote>Default QA Contact</quote> (if enabled).
The <quote>Component Description</quote> field may contain a
limited subset of HTML tags. The <quote>Default Assignee</quote>
field must be a login name already existing in the Bugzilla database.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="versions">
<title>Versions</title>
<para>Versions are the revisions of the product, such as "Flinders
3.1", "Flinders 95", and "Flinders 2000". Version is not a multi-select
field; the usual practice is to select the earliest version known to have
the bug.
</para>
<para>To create and edit Versions:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>From the "Edit product" screen, select "Edit Versions"</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You will notice that the product already has the default
version "undefined". Click the "Add" link in the bottom right.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Enter the name of the Version. This field takes text only.
Then click the "Add" button.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="milestones">
<title>Milestones</title>
<para>Milestones are "targets" that you plan to get a bug fixed by. For
example, you have a bug that you plan to fix for your 3.0 release, it
would be assigned the milestone of 3.0.</para>
<note>
<para>Milestone options will only appear for a Product if you turned
on the "usetargetmilestone" Param in the "Edit Parameters" screen.
</para>
</note>
<para>To create new Milestones, set Default Milestones, and set
Milestone URL:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Select "Edit milestones" from the "Edit product" page.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Select "Add" in the bottom right corner.
text</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Enter the name of the Milestone in the "Milestone" field. You
can optionally set the "sortkey", which is a positive or negative
number (-32768 to 32767) that defines where in the list this particular
milestone appears. This is because milestones often do not
occur in alphanumeric order For example, "Future" might be
after "Release 1.2". Select "Add".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>From the Edit product screen, you can enter the URL of a
page which gives information about your milestones and what
they mean. </para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="flags-overview">
<title>Flags</title>
<para>
Flags are a way to attach a specific status to a bug or attachment,
either <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote>. The meaning of these symbols depends on the text
the flag itself, but contextually they could mean pass/fail,
accept/reject, approved/denied, or even a simple yes/no. If your site
allows requestable flags, then users may set a flag to <quote>?</quote> as a
request to another user that they look at the bug/attachment, and set
the flag to its correct status.
</para>
<section id="flags-simpleexample">
<title>A Simple Example</title>
<para>
A developer might want to ask their manager,
<quote>Should we fix this bug before we release version 2.0?</quote>
They might want to do this for a <emphasis>lot</emphasis> of bugs,
so it would be nice to streamline the process...
</para>
<para>
In Bugzilla, it would work this way:
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The Bugzilla administrator creates a flag type called
<quote>blocking2.0</quote> that shows up on all bugs in
your product.
</para>
<para>
It shows up on the <quote>Show Bug</quote> screen
as the text <quote>blocking2.0</quote> with a drop-down box next
to it. The drop-down box contains four values: an empty space,
<quote>?</quote>, <quote>-</quote>, and <quote>+</quote>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The developer sets the flag to <quote>?</quote>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The manager sees the <computeroutput>blocking2.0</computeroutput>
flag with a <quote>?</quote> value.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If the manager thinks the feature should go into the product
before version 2.0 can be released, he sets the flag to
<quote>+</quote>. Otherwise, he sets it to <quote>-</quote>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Now, every Bugzilla user who looks at the bug knows whether or
not the bug needs to be fixed before release of version 2.0.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-about">
<title>About Flags</title>
<section id="flag-values">
<title>Values</title>
<para>
Flags can have three values:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><computeroutput>?</computeroutput></term>
<listitem><simpara>
A user is requesting that a status be set. (Think of it as 'A question is being asked'.)
</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><computeroutput>-</computeroutput></term>
<listitem><simpara>
The status has been set negatively. (The question has been answered <quote>no</quote>.)
</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><computeroutput>+</computeroutput></term>
<listitem><simpara>
The status has been set positively.
(The question has been answered <quote>yes</quote>.)
</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
Actually, there's a fourth value a flag can have --
<quote>unset</quote> -- which shows up as a blank space. This
just means that nobody has expressed an opinion (or asked
someone else to express an opinion) about this bug or attachment.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="flag-askto">
<title>Using flag requests</title>
<para>
If a flag has been defined as 'requestable', and a user has enough privileges
to request it (see below), the user can set the flag's status to <quote>?</quote>.
This status indicates that someone (a.k.a. <quote>the requester</quote>) is asking
someone else to set the flag to either <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote>.
</para>
<para>
If a flag has been defined as 'specifically requestable',
a text box will appear next to the flag into which the requester may
enter a Bugzilla username. That named person (a.k.a. <quote>the requestee</quote>)
will receive an email notifying them of the request, and pointing them
to the bug/attachment in question.
</para>
<para>
If a flag has <emphasis>not</emphasis> been defined as 'specifically requestable',
then no such text-box will appear. A request to set this flag cannot be made of
any specific individual, but must be asked <quote>to the wind</quote>.
A requester may <quote>ask the wind</quote> on any flag simply by leaving the text-box blank.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flag-types">
<title>Two Types of Flags</title>
<para>
Flags can go in two places: on an attachment, or on a bug.
</para>
<section id="flag-type-attachment">
<title>Attachment Flags</title>
<para>
Attachment flags are used to ask a question about a specific
attachment on a bug.
</para>
<para>
Many Bugzilla installations use this to
request that one developer <quote>review</quote> another
developer's code before they check it in. They attach the code to
a bug report, and then set a flag on that attachment called
<quote>review</quote> to
<computeroutput>review?boss@domain.com</computeroutput>.
boss@domain.com is then notified by email that
he has to check out that attachment and approve it or deny it.
</para>
<para>
For a Bugzilla user, attachment flags show up in three places:
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
On the list of attachments in the <quote>Show Bug</quote>
screen, you can see the current state of any flags that
have been set to ?, +, or -. You can see who asked about
the flag (the requester), and who is being asked (the
requestee).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
When you <quote>Edit</quote> an attachment, you can
see any settable flag, along with any flags that have
already been set. This <quote>Edit Attachment</quote>
screen is where you set flags to ?, -, +, or unset them.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Requests are listed in the <quote>Request Queue</quote>, which
is accessible from the <quote>My Requests</quote> link (if you are
logged in) or <quote>Requests</quote> link (if you are logged out)
visible in the footer of all pages.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
</section>
<section id="flag-type-bug">
<title>Bug Flags</title>
<para>
Bug flags are used to set a status on the bug itself. You can
see Bug Flags in the <quote>Show Bug</quote> and <quote>Requests</quote>
screens, as described above.
</para>
<para>
Only users with enough privileges (see below) may set flags on bugs.
This doesn't necessarily include the assignee, reporter, or users with the
<computeroutput>editbugs</computeroutput> permission.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="flags-admin">
<title>Administering Flags</title>
<para>
If you have the <quote>editcomponents</quote> permission, you can
edit Flag Types from the main administration page. Clicking the
<quote>Flags</quote> link will bring you to the <quote>Administer
Flag Types</quote> page. Here, you can select whether you want
to create (or edit) a Bug flag, or an Attachment flag.
</para>
<para>
No matter which you choose, the interface is the same, so we'll
just go over it once.
</para>
<section id="flags-edit">
<title>Editing a Flag</title>
<para>
To edit a flag's properties, just click on the <quote>Edit</quote>
link next to the flag's description. That will take you to the same
form as described below (<xref linkend="flags-create"/>).
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create">
<title>Creating a Flag</title>
<para>
When you click on the <quote>Create a Flag Type for...</quote>
link, you will be presented with a form. Here is what the fields in
the form mean:
</para>
<section id="flags-create-field-name">
<title>Name</title>
<para>
This is the name of the flag. This will be displayed
to Bugzilla users who are looking at or setting the flag.
The name may contain any valid Unicode characters except commas
and spaces.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-description">
<title>Description</title>
<para>
The description describes the flag in more detail. It is visible
in a tooltip when hovering over a flag either in the <quote>Show Bug</quote>
or <quote>Edit Attachment</quote> pages. This field can be as
long as you like, and can contain any character you want.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-category">
<title>Category</title>
<para>
Default behaviour for a newly-created flag is to appear on
products and all components, which is why <quote>__Any__:__Any__</quote>
is already entered in the <quote>Inclusions</quote> box.
If this is not your desired behaviour, you must either set some
exclusions (for products on which you don't want the flag to appear),
or you must remove <quote>__Any__:__Any__</quote> from the Inclusions box
and define products/components specifically for this flag.
</para>
<para>
To create an Inclusion, select a Product from the top drop-down box.
You may also select a specific component from the bottom drop-down box.
(Setting <quote>__Any__</quote> for Product translates to,
<quote>all the products in this Bugzilla</quote>.
Selecting <quote>__Any__</quote> in the Component field means
<quote>all components in the selected product.</quote>)
Selections made, press <quote>Include</quote>, and your
Product/Component pairing will show up in the <quote>Inclusions</quote> box on the right.
</para>
<para>
To create an Exclusion, the process is the same; select a Product from the
top drop-down box, select a specific component if you want one, and press
<quote>Exclude</quote>. The Product/Component pairing will show up in the
<quote>Exclusions</quote> box on the right.
</para>
<para>
This flag <emphasis>will</emphasis> and <emphasis>can</emphasis> be set for any
products/components that appearing in the <quote>Inclusions</quote> box
(or which fall under the appropriate <quote>__Any__</quote>).
This flag <emphasis>will not</emphasis> appear (and therefore cannot be set) on
any products appearing in the <quote>Exclusions</quote> box.
<emphasis> IMPORTANT: Exclusions override inclusions.</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
You may select a Product without selecting a specific Component,
but you can't select a Component without a Product, or to select a
Component that does not belong to the named Product. If you do so,
Bugzilla will display an error message, even if all your products
have a component by that name.
</para>
<para><emphasis>Example:</emphasis> Let's say you have a product called
<quote>Jet Plane</quote> that has thousands of components. You want
to be able to ask if a problem should be fixed in the next model of
plane you release. We'll call the flag <quote>fixInNext</quote>.
But, there's one component in <quote>Jet Plane,</quote>
called <quote>Pilot.</quote> It doesn't make sense to release a
new pilot, so you don't want to have the flag show up in that component.
So, you include <quote>Jet Plane:__Any__</quote> and you exclude
<quote>Jet Plane:Pilot</quote>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-sortkey">
<title>Sort Key</title>
<para>
Flags normally show up in alphabetical order. If you want them to
show up in a different order, you can use this key set the order on each flag.
Flags with a lower sort key will appear before flags with a higher
sort key. Flags that have the same sort key will be sorted alphabetically,
but they will still be after flags with a lower sort key, and before flags
with a higher sort key.
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>Example:</emphasis> I have AFlag (Sort Key 100), BFlag (Sort Key 10),
CFlag (Sort Key 10), and DFlag (Sort Key 1). These show up in
the order: DFlag, BFlag, CFlag, AFlag.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-active">
<title>Active</title>
<para>
Sometimes, you might want to keep old flag information in the
Bugzilla database, but stop users from setting any new flags of this type.
To do this, uncheck <quote>active</quote>. Deactivated
flags will still show up in the UI if they are ?, +, or -, but they
may only be cleared (unset), and cannot be changed to a new value.
Once a deactivated flag is cleared, it will completely disappear from a
bug/attachment, and cannot be set again.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-requestable">
<title>Requestable</title>
<para>
New flags are, by default, <quote>requestable</quote>, meaning that they
offer users the <quote>?</quote> option, as well as <quote>+</quote>
and <quote>-</quote>.
To remove the ? option, uncheck <quote>requestable</quote>.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-specific">
<title>Specifically Requestable</title>
<para>
By default this box is checked for new flags, meaning that users may make
flag requests of specific individuals. Unchecking this box will remove the
text box next to a flag; if it is still requestable, then requests may
only be made <quote>to the wind.</quote> Removing this after specific
requests have been made will not remove those requests; that data will
stay in the database (though it will no longer appear to the user).
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-multiplicable">
<title>Multiplicable</title>
<para>
Any flag with <quote>Multiplicable</quote> set (default for new flags is 'on')
may be set more than once. After being set once, an unset flag
of the same type will appear below it with <quote>addl.</quote> (short for
<quote>additional</quote>) before the name. There is no limit to the number of
times a Multiplicable flags may be set on the same bug/attachment.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-field-cclist">
<title>CC List</title>
<para>
If you want certain users to be notified every time this flag is
set to ?, -, +, or unset, add them here. This is a comma-separated
list of email addresses that need not be restricted to Bugzilla usernames.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-grant-group">
<title>Grant Group</title>
<para>
When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group
can set the flag to <quote>+</quote> and <quote>-</quote>. This
field does not affect who can request or cancel the flag. For that,
see the <quote>Request Group</quote> field below. If this field
is left blank, all users can set or delete this flag. This field is
useful for restricting which users can approve or reject requests.
</para>
</section>
<section id="flags-create-request-group">
<title>Request Group</title>
<para>
When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group
can request or cancel this flag. Note that this field has no effect
if the <quote>grant group</quote> field is empty. You can set the
value of this field to a different group, but both fields have to be
set to a group for this field to have an effect.
</para>
</section>
</section> <!-- flags-create -->
<section id="flags-delete">
<title>Deleting a Flag</title>
<para>
When you are at the <quote>Administer Flag Types</quote> screen,
you will be presented with a list of Bug flags and a list of Attachment
Flags.
</para>
<para>
To delete a flag, click on the <quote>Delete</quote> link next to
the flag description.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
Once you delete a flag, it is <emphasis>gone</emphasis> from
your Bugzilla. All the data for that flag will be deleted.
Everywhere that flag was set, it will disappear,
and you cannot get that data back. If you want to keep flag data,
but don't want anybody to set any new flags or change current flags,
unset <quote>active</quote> in the flag Edit form.
</para>
</warning>
</section>
</section> <!-- flags-admin -->
<!-- XXX We should add a "Uses of Flags" section, here, with examples. -->
</section> <!-- flags -->
<section id="custom-fields">
<title>Custom Fields</title>
<para>
One of the most requested features was the ability to add your own custom
fields to bugs, based on your needs. With the release of Bugzilla 3.0, this
dream finally comes true. Administrators can manage these fields using the
<quote>Custom Fields</quote> link in the footer of pages. The first thing
they will see is the list of existing custom fields (which is empty by default).
</para>
<section id="add-custom-fields">
<title>Adding Custom Fields</title>
<para>
The <quote>Add a new custom field</quote> link permits you to add a
new field which can be either a free text box or a drop down menu.
More field types will be available in future releases.
</para>
<para>
The following attributes must be set for each new custom field:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Name:</emphasis>
the name of the field, used internally. This name MUST begin
with <quote>cf_</quote>. If you omit this string, it will
be automatically added to the name you entered. This way, all
custom fields added to Bugzilla begin with <quote>cf_</quote>,
avoiding any conflict with default fields.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Description:</emphasis>
the string which is used as a label for this custom field.
That is the string that users will see, and so should be
short and explicit.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Type:</emphasis>
as mentioned above, only two types are implemented so far.
Free text boxes let you type any string, while drop down menus
only let you choose one value in the list provided. The list of
legal values for this field can be created and edited as soon as
this custom field is added to the DB. See
<xref linkend="edit-values-list" /> for information about editing
legal values.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Sortkey:</emphasis>
this integer determines in which order custom fields are
displayed in the UI, especially when viewing a bug. Fields
with lower values are displayed first.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Can be set on bug creation:</emphasis>
this boolean determines whether this field can be set on
bug creation or not. If not, then you have to create the
bug first before being able to set this field. Else you
can set its value at the same time you file a bug,
see <xref linkend="bugreports" /> about filing bugs.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Displayed in bugmail for new bugs:</emphasis>
this boolean determines whether the value set on this field
should appear in bugmail when the bug is filed. This attribute
has no effect if the field cannot be set on bug creation.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Is obsolete:</emphasis>
this boolean determines whether or not this field should
be displayed at all. Obsolete custom fields are hidden.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</section>
<section id="edit-custom-fields">
<title>Editing Custom Fields</title>
<para>
As soon as a custom field is created, its name and type cannot be
changed. If this field is a drop down menu, its legal values can
be set as described in <xref linkend="edit-values-list" />. All
other attributes can be edited as described above.
</para>
</section>
<section id="delete-custom-fields">
<title>Deleting Custom Fields</title>
<para>
At this point, it is not possible to delete custom fields from
your web browser. If you don't want to make one available anymore,
mark it as obsolete. This way, you will preserve your DB
referential integrity.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="edit-values">
<title>Legal Values</title>
<para>
Since Bugzilla 2.20 RC1, legal values for Operating Systems, platforms,
bug priorities and severities can be edited from the User Interface
directly. This means that it is no longer required to manually edit
<filename>localconfig</filename>. Starting with Bugzilla 2.23.3, you
can also customize the list of valid resolutions from the same interface.
</para>
<section id="edit-values-list">
<title>Viewing/Editing legal values</title>
<para>
Editing legal values requires <quote>admin</quote> privileges.
A link named <quote>Field Values</quote> is visible in your footer and
clicking on it displays the list of fields whose values can be edited.
</para>
<para>
You can add as many legal values as you want, and each value must be
unique (on a per field basis). The sortkey is important to display these
values in the desired order.
</para>
</section>
<section id="edit-values-delete">
<title>Deleting legal values</title>
<para>
You can also delete legal values, but only if the two following conditions
are respected:
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The value is not used by default for the field.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>No bug is currently using this value.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
If any of these conditions is not respected, the value cannot be deleted.
The only way to delete these values is to reassign bugs to another value
and to set another value as default for the field.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="voting">
<title>Voting</title>
<para>Voting allows users to be given a pot of votes which they can allocate
to bugs, to indicate that they'd like them fixed.
This allows developers to gauge
user need for a particular enhancement or bugfix. By allowing bugs with
a certain number of votes to automatically move from "UNCONFIRMED" to
"NEW", users of the bug system can help high-priority bugs garner
attention so they don't sit for a long time awaiting triage.</para>
<para>To modify Voting settings:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Navigate to the "Edit product" screen for the Product you
wish to modify</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Maximum Votes per person</emphasis>:
Setting this field to "0" disables voting.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Maximum Votes a person can put on a single
bug</emphasis>:
It should probably be some number lower than the
"Maximum votes per person". Don't set this field to "0" if
"Maximum votes per person" is non-zero; that doesn't make
any sense.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Number of votes a bug in this product needs to
automatically get out of the UNCONFIRMED state</emphasis>:
Setting this field to "0" disables the automatic move of
bugs from UNCONFIRMED to NEW.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Once you have adjusted the values to your preference, click
"Update".</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="quips">
<title>Quips</title>
<para>
Quips are small text messages that can be configured to appear
next to search results. A Bugzilla installation can have its own specific
quips. Whenever a quip needs to be displayed, a random selection
is made from the pool of already existing quips.
</para>
<para>
Quips are controlled by the <emphasis>enablequips</emphasis> parameter.
It has several possible values: on, approved, frozen or off.
In order to enable quips approval you need to set this parameter
to "approved". In this way, users are free to submit quips for
addition but an administrator must explicitly approve them before
they are actually used.
</para>
<para>
In order to see the user interface for the quips, it is enough to click
on a quip when it is displayed together with the search results. Or
it can be seen directly in the browser by visiting the quips.cgi URL
(prefixed with the usual web location of the Bugzilla installation).
Once the quip interface is displayed, it is enough to click the
"view and edit the whole quip list" in order to see the administration
page. A page with all the quips available in the database will
be displayed.
</para>
<para>
Next to each tip there is a checkbox, under the
"Approved" column. Quips who have this checkbox checked are
already approved and will appear next to the search results.
The ones that have it unchecked are still preserved in the
database but they will not appear on search results pages.
User submitted quips have initially the checkbox unchecked.
</para>
<para>
Also, there is a delete link next to each quip,
which can be used in order to permanently delete a quip.
</para>
</section>
<section id="groups">
<title>Groups and Group Security</title>
<para>Groups allow the administrator
to isolate bugs or products that should only be seen by certain people.
The association between products and groups is controlled from
the product edit page under <quote>Edit Group Controls.</quote>
</para>
<para>
If the makeproductgroups param is on, a new group will be automatically
created for every new product. It is primarily available for backward
compatibility with older sites.
</para>
<para>
Note that group permissions are such that you need to be a member
of <emphasis>all</emphasis> the groups a bug is in, for whatever
reason, to see that bug. Similarly, you must be a member
of <emphasis>all</emphasis> of the entry groups for a product
to add bugs to a product and you must be a member
of <emphasis>all</emphasis> of the canedit groups for a product
in order to make <emphasis>any</emphasis> change to bugs in that
product.
</para>
<note>
<para>
By default, bugs can also be seen by the Assignee, the Reporter, and
by everyone on the CC List, regardless of whether or not the bug would
typically be viewable by them. Visibility to the Reporter and CC List can
be overridden (on a per-bug basis) by bringing up the bug, finding the
section that starts with <quote>Users in the roles selected below...</quote>
and un-checking the box next to either 'Reporter' or 'CC List' (or both).
</para>
</note>
<section id="create-groups">
<title>Creating Groups</title>
<para>To create Groups:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Select the <quote>groups</quote>
link in the footer.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Take a moment to understand the instructions on the <quote>Edit
Groups</quote> screen, then select the <quote>Add Group</quote> link.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fill out the <quote>Group</quote>, <quote>Description</quote>,
and <quote>User RegExp</quote> fields.
<quote>User RegExp</quote> allows you to automatically
place all users who fulfill the Regular Expression into the new group.
When you have finished, click <quote>Add</quote>.</para>
<para>Users whose email addresses match the regular expression
will automatically be members of the group as long as their
email addresses continue to match the regular expression.</para>
<note>
<para>This is a change from 2.16 where the regular expression
resulted in a user acquiring permanent membership in a group.
To remove a user from a group the user was in due to a regular
expression in version 2.16 or earlier, the user must be explicitly
removed from the group. This can easily be done by pressing
buttons named 'Remove Memberships' or 'Remove Memberships
included in regular expression' under the table.</para>
</note>
<warning>
<para>If specifying a domain in the regexp, make sure you end
the regexp with a $. Otherwise, when granting access to
"@mycompany\.com", you will allow access to
'badperson@mycompany.com.cracker.net'. You need to use
'@mycompany\.com$' as the regexp.</para>
</warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you plan to use this group to directly control
access to bugs, check the "use for bugs" box. Groups
not used for bugs are still useful because other groups
can include the group as a whole.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>After you add your new group, edit the new group. On the
edit page, you can specify other groups that should be included
in this group and which groups should be permitted to add and delete
users from this group.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section id="edit-groups">
<title>Assigning Users to Groups</title>
<para>Users can become a member of a group in several ways.</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The user can be explicitly placed in the group by editing
the user's own profile</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The group can include another group of which the user is
a member.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The user's email address can match a regular expression
that the group specifies to automatically grant membership to
the group.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Assigning Group Controls to Products</title>
<para>
For information on assigning group controls to
products, see <xref linkend="products" />.
</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Common Applications of Group Controls</title>
<section>
<title>General User Access With Security Group</title>
<para>To permit any user to file bugs in each product (A, B, C...)
and to permit any user to submit those bugs into a security
group....</para>
<programlisting>
Product A...
security: SHOWN/SHOWN
Product B...
security: SHOWN/SHOWN
Product C...
security: SHOWN/SHOWN
</programlisting>
</section>
<section>
<title>General User Access With A Security Product</title>
<para>To permit any user to file bugs in a Security product
while keeping those bugs from becoming visible to anyone
outside the securityworkers group unless a member of the
securityworkers group removes that restriction....</para>
<programlisting>
Product Security...
securityworkers: DEFAULT/MANDATORY
</programlisting>
</section>
<section>
<title>Product Isolation With Common Group</title>
<para>To permit users of product A to access the bugs for
product A, users of product B to access product B, and support
staff to access both, 3 groups are needed</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Support: Contains members of the support staff.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>AccessA: Contains users of product A and the Support group.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>AccessB: Contains users of product B and the Support group.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>Once these 3 groups are defined, the products group controls
can be set to..</para>
<programlisting>
Product A...
AccessA: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
Product B...
AccessB: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
</programlisting>
<para>Optionally, the support group could be permitted to make
bugs inaccessible to the users and could be permitted to publish
bugs relevant to all users in a common product that is read-only
to anyone outside the support group. That configuration could
be...</para>
<programlisting>
Product A...
AccessA: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
Support: SHOWN/NA
Product B...
AccessB: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
Support: SHOWN/NA
Product Common...
Support: ENTRY, DEFAULT/MANDATORY, CANEDIT
</programlisting>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="upgrading">
<title>Upgrading to New Releases</title>
<para>
Upgrading Bugzilla is something we all want to do from time to time,
be it to get new features or pick up the latest security fix. How easy
it is to update depends on a few factors:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
If the new version is a revision or a new point release
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
How many local changes (if any) have been made
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<section id="upgrading-version-defns">
<title>Version Definitions</title>
<para>
Bugzilla displays the version you are using at the top of the home
page <filename>index.cgi</filename>. It looks something like
'2.20.3', '2.22.1' or '3.0rc1'. The first number in this series is
the Major Version. This does not change very often;
Bugzilla was 1.x.x when it was first created, and went to 2.x.x
when it was re-written in perl in Sept 1998. The major version
3.x.x, released in early 2007, is pretty far from what the 2.x.x
series looked like, both about its UI and its code.
</para>
<para>
The second number in the version is called the 'minor number', and
a release that changes the minor number is called a 'point release'.
An even number in this position (2.18, 2.20, 2.22, 3.0, 3.2, etc.)
represents a stable version, while an odd number (2.19, 2.21, 2.23, etc.)
represents a development version. In the past, stable point releases
were feature-based, coming when certain enhancements had been
completed, or the Bugzilla development team felt that enough
progress had been made overall. As of version 2.18, however,
Bugzilla has moved to a time-based release schedule; current plans
are to create a stable point release every 6 months or so after
2.18 is deployed.
</para>
<para>
The third number in the Bugzilla version represents a bugfix version.
Bugfix Revisions are released only to address security vulnerabilities
and, for a limited period, bug fixes. Once enough of these
bugfixes have accumulated (or a new security vulnerability is
identified and closed), a bugfix release is made. As an
example, 2.20.3 was a bugfix release, and improved on 2.20.2.
</para>
<note>
<para>
When reading version numbers, everything separated by a point ('.')
should be read as a single number. It is <emphasis>not</emphasis>
the same as decimal. 2.22 is newer than 2.8 because minor version
22 is greater than minor version 8. The now unsupported release 2.16.11
was newer than 2.16.9 (because bugfix 11 is greater than bugfix 9. This is
confusing to some people who aren't used to dealing with software.
</para>
</note>
</section>
<section id="upgrading-notifications">
<title>Upgrading - Notifications</title>
<para>
Bugzilla 3.0 introduces the ability to automatically notify
administrators when new releases are available, based on the
<literal>upgrade_notification</literal> parameter, see
<xref linkend="parameters"/>. Administrators will see these
notifications when they access the <filename>index.cgi</filename>
page, i.e. generally when logging in. Bugzilla will check once per
day for new releases, unless the parameter is set to
<quote>disabled</quote>. If you are behind a proxy, you may have to set
the <literal>proxy_url</literal> parameter accordingly. If the proxy
requires authentication, use the
<literal>http://user:pass@proxy_url/</literal> syntax.
</para>
</section>
<section id="upgrading-methods">
<title>Upgrading - Methods and Procedure</title>
<para>
There are three different ways to upgrade your installation.
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Using CVS (<xref linkend="upgrade-cvs"/>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Downloading a new tarball (<xref linkend="upgrade-tarball"/>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Applying the relevant patches (<xref linkend="upgrade-patches"/>)
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Each of these options has its own pros and cons; the one that's
right for you depends on how long it has been since you last
installed, the degree to which you have customized your installation,
and/or your network configuration. (Some discussion of the various
methods of updating compared with degree and methods of local
customization can be found in <xref linkend="template-method"/>.)
</para>
<para>
The larger the jump you are trying to make, the more difficult it
is going to be to upgrade if you have made local customizations.
Upgrading from 2.22 to 2.22.1 should be fairly painless even if
you are heavily customized, but going from 2.18 to 3.0 is going
to mean a fair bit of work re-writing your local changes to use
the new files, logic, templates, etc. If you have done no local
changes at all, however, then upgrading should be approximately
the same amount of work regardless of how long it has been since
your version was released.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
Upgrading is a one-way process. You should backup your database
and current Bugzilla directory before attempting the upgrade. If
you wish to revert to the old Bugzilla version for any reason, you
will have to restore from these backups.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
The examples in the following sections are written as though the
user were updating to version 2.22.1, but the procedures are the
same regardless of whether one is updating to a new point release
or simply trying to obtain a new bugfix release. Also, in the
examples the user's Bugzilla installation is found at
<filename>/var/www/html/bugzilla</filename>. If that is not the
same as the location of your Bugzilla installation, simply
substitute the proper paths where appropriate.
</para>
<section id="upgrade-cvs">
<title>Upgrading using CVS</title>
<para>
Every release of Bugzilla, whether it is a point release or a bugfix,
is tagged in CVS. Also, every tarball that has been distributed since
version 2.12 has been created in such a way that it can be used with
CVS once it is unpacked. Doing so, however, requires that you are able
to access cvs-mirror.mozilla.org on port 2401, which may not be an
option or a possibility for some users, especially those behind a
highly restrictive firewall.
</para>
<tip>
<para>
If you can, updating using CVS is probably the most painless
method, especially if you have a lot of local changes.
</para>
</tip>
<para>
The following shows the sequence of commands needed to update a
Bugzilla installation via CVS, and a typical series of results.
</para>
<programlisting>
bash$ <command>cd /var/www/html/bugzilla</command>
bash$ <command>cvs login</command>
Logging in to :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:2401/cvsroot
CVS password: <emphasis>('anonymous', or just leave it blank)</emphasis>
bash$ <command>cvs -q update -r BUGZILLA-2_22_1 -dP</command>
P checksetup.pl
P collectstats.pl
P docs/rel_notes.txt
P template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl
<emphasis>(etc.)</emphasis>
</programlisting>
<caution>
<para>
If a line in the output from <command>cvs update</command> begins
with a <computeroutput>C</computeroutput>, then that represents a
file with local changes that CVS was unable to properly merge. You
need to resolve these conflicts manually before Bugzilla (or at
least the portion using that file) will be usable.
</para>
</caution>
</section>
<section id="upgrade-tarball">
<title>Upgrading using the tarball</title>
<para>
If you are unable (or unwilling) to use CVS, another option that's
always available is to obtain the latest tarball from the <ulink
url="http://www.bugzilla.org/download/">Download Page</ulink> and
create a new Bugzilla installation from that.
</para>
<para>
This sequence of commands shows how to get the tarball from the
command-line; it is also possible to download it from the site
directly in a web browser. If you go that route, save the file
to the <filename class="directory">/var/www/html</filename>
directory (or its equivalent, if you use something else) and
omit the first three lines of the example.
</para>
<programlisting>
bash$ <command>cd /var/www/html</command>
bash$ <command>wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/webtools/bugzilla-2.22.1.tar.gz</command>
<emphasis>(Output omitted)</emphasis>
bash$ <command>tar xzvf bugzilla-2.22.1.tar.gz</command>
bugzilla-2.22.1/
bugzilla-2.22.1/.cvsignore
<emphasis>(Output truncated)</emphasis>
bash$ <command>cd bugzilla-2.22.1</command>
bash$ <command>cp ../bugzilla/localconfig* .</command>
bash$ <command>cp -r ../bugzilla/data .</command>
bash$ <command>cd ..</command>
bash$ <command>mv bugzilla bugzilla.old</command>
bash$ <command>mv bugzilla-2.22.1 bugzilla</command>
</programlisting>
<warning>
<para>
The <command>cp</command> commands both end with periods which
is a very important detail, it tells the shell that the destination
directory is the current working directory.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
This upgrade method will give you a clean install of Bugzilla with the
same version as the tarball. That's fine if you don't have any local
customizations that you want to maintain, but if you do then you will
need to reapply them by hand to the appropriate files.
</para>
<para>
It's worth noting that since 2.12, the Bugzilla tarballs come
CVS-ready, so if you decide at a later date that you'd rather use
CVS as an upgrade method, your code will already be set up for it.
</para>
</section>
<section id="upgrade-patches">
<title>Upgrading using patches</title>
<para>
If you are doing a bugfix upgrade -- that is, one where only the
last number of the revision changes, such as from 2.22 to 2.22.1
-- then you have the option of obtaining and applying a patch file
from the <ulink
url="http://www.bugzilla.org/download/">Download Page</ulink>.
This file is made available by the <ulink
url="http://www.bugzilla.org/developers/profiles.html">Bugzilla
Development Team</ulink>, and is a collection of all the bug fixes
and security patches that have been made since the last bugfix
release. If you are planning to upgrade via patches, it is safer
to grab this developer-made patch file than to read the patch
notes and apply all (or even just some of) the patches oneself,
as sometimes patches on bugs get changed before they get checked in.
</para>
<para>
As above, this example starts with obtaining the file via the
command line. If you have already downloaded it, you can omit the
first two commands.
</para>
<programlisting>
bash$ <command>cd /var/www/html/bugzilla</command>
bash$ <command>wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/webtools/bugzilla-2.22-to-2.22.1.diff.gz</command>
<emphasis>(Output omitted)</emphasis>
bash$ <command>gunzip bugzilla-2.22-to-2.22.1.diff.gz</command>
bash$ <command>patch -p1 < bugzilla-2.22-to-2.22.1.diff</command>
patching file checksetup.pl
patching file collectstats.pl
<emphasis>(etc.)</emphasis>
</programlisting>
<warning>
<para>
Be aware that upgrading from a patch file does not change the
entries in your <filename class="directory">CVS</filename> directory.
This could make it more difficult to upgrade using CVS
(<xref linkend="upgrade-cvs"/>) in the future.
</para>
</warning>
</section>
</section>
<section id="upgrading-completion">
<title>Completing Your Upgrade</title>
<para>
Regardless of which upgrade method you choose, you will need to
run <command>./checksetup.pl</command> before your Bugzilla
upgrade will be complete.
</para>
<programlisting>
bash$ <command>cd bugzilla</command>
bash$ <command>./checksetup.pl</command>
</programlisting>
<warning>
<para>
The period at the beginning of the command
<command>./checksetup.pl</command> is important and can not
be omitted.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
If you have done a lot of local modifications, it wouldn't hurt
to run the Bugzilla Testing suite. This is not a required step,
but it isn't going to hurt anything, and might help point out
some areas that could be improved. (More information on the
test suite can be had by following this link to the appropriate
section in the <ulink
url="http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/developer.html#testsuite">Developers'
Guide</ulink>.)
</para>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
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