Bugzilla:FAQ: Difference between revisions

We think that compared to other bug-tracking systems, 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, greater flexibility, and superior ease-of-use under long-term usage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes. You have to turn on the 'allowbugdeletion' parameter, which is off by default. Note that you cannot delete bug reports one by one. You have to move them in a product or component, e.g. named "Trash", and then delete this product or component. The reason we make it hard is that you generally don't want to delete bug reports; they're supposed to be a permanent historical record.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

No. Bugzilla can send email in plain text, the most compatible mail format on the planet. HTML email is available for people who want it formatted in a more readable fashion. The site admin can choose which format is default, but each user can change it from the default also.

==Does Bugzilla allow data to be imported and exported? (Say, from/to Word or Excel.) ==

Bugzilla can output buglists as HTML (the default), CSV, XML, and Atom. A link for each of these formats can be found at the bottom of your search results. The CSV format can easily be imported into MS Excel or other spreadsheet applications.

Currently the only script included with Bugzilla that can import data is

importxml.pl. It imports bugs as XML. If you want to see the XML format it expects, view a bug and select the "XML" link on the page (it's small, you might have to search for it).

==Has anyone converted Bugzilla to another language to be used in other countries? Is it localizable?==

Yes, Bugzilla is fully localizable, and many languages are already available. For more information including available translated templates, see http://www.bugzilla.org/download/#localizations.

==Are there any backup features provided?==

You should use the commands included with your database software to run the backups of your Bugzilla data.

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-enterprise-backup/en/mysqlbackup.tasks.html for MySQL and at

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/backup.html for PostgreSQL.

==What skills do you need to install and maintain Bugzilla?==

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

For installation or upgrades, it helps to understand Perl, Apache, and MySQL. Also, the installer should have a solid grasp of the platform (Windows, OS X, Linux, etc.) that Bugzilla is being installed on.

==How much time does it take to install and maintain Bugzilla?==

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes! You can edit the file <code>template/en/default/global/variables.none.tmpl</code> to change the word "bug" in all of Bugzilla.

 

 

==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, which means that it warns a user when a commit is about to conflict with commits recently made by another user, and offers the second user a choice of options to deal with the conflict.

 

==Can users be on the system while a backup is in progress?==

Yes. You should use the commands included with your database software to run the backups of your Bugzilla data. You can find strategies for dealing with backup considerations at http://www.mysql.com/doc/B/a/Backup.html for MySQL and at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/backup.html for PostgreSQL.

 

Users can only edit bugs if they are the Assignee, the QA Contact, or are in the '''editbugs''' group. (Certain fields can also be edited by the Reporter. Also, all users can ''always'' comment and CC themselves on bugs.) However, note that by default, '''all users are in the editbugs group'''. If you want to change this default, go to Administration -> Groups, choose "editbugs" and clear the "userregexp" field. Then you can use Administration -> Users to explicitly add back certain users into the "editbugs" group, if you want them to be able to edit every field on every bug in the system. (Also, you can use Administration -> Products -> (select product) -> Group Controls to give groups of users "editbugs" for specific products.)

 

If you want any finer-grained control than that, it requires code changes. You have to edit the <code>check_can_change_field</code> subroutine in the file <tt>Bugzilla/Bug.pm</tt>. The file has many comments to help guide your edits.

 

 

'''Bugzilla 3.6 or later:''' For each product that you want to enable <code>UNCONFIRMED</code> in, visit that product's admin page using editproducts.cgi (Administration > Products) and enable the UNCONFIRMED status using a checkbox there.

 

'''Before Bugzilla 3.6:''' To use the UNCONFIRMED status, you must have the 'usevotes' parameter set to "On". Then, using editproducts.cgi, you have to set the "Number of votes a bug in this product needs to automatically get out of the unconfirmed state" to a non-zero number. You will have to do this for each product that wants to use the UNCONFIRMED state.

 

If you do not actually want users to be able to vote for bugs entered

 

 

 

== I restricted a product to be visible to more than one group, and now only users who are members of all of those groups can see it.  How do I make it visible to someone who's a member of any of those groups (but not all of them)? ==

 

Bugzilla treats all of the group restrictions on a product as an AND comparison.  That is, if you put group controls for more than one group on the same product, then users must be a member of ALL of those groups to be able to perform the restricted action.

 

If you want OR groups (a member of any of the groups can do it), all is not lost.  The way to do this is to create two different sets of groups.

 

The first set of groups defines groups of people.  These groups are not used for group controls on products.  In fact, you can leave the "use for bugs" setting turned off on them.  These are the groups you will make users be members of.  Groupings such as "engineering" or "QA" or "security-team" or "marketing" or similar.

 

The second set of groups has no users in its membership.  You use these groups to define things you want to use group restrictions on, and these will be the groups that you set up in the Group Controls in the product editor.  For example, if you have a product (or a set of 3 or 4 products) that you wish to secure to the same set of people, create a group for it.  These groups will need to have "use for bugs" checkmarked.  Then in the "Groups That Are a Member of This Group" section, add the people groups you created above that you want to be able to access things secured with this group.

 

 

 

The user can stop Bugzilla from sending any mail by clicking "Disable All Mail" on the Preferences > Email Preferences page, and then submitting the form.

 

Alternately, an administrator can disable all bugmails for a user from the Administration > Users page. This will override that user's personal preferences, and they will never be sent mail again.

 

==I'm evaluating/testing Bugzilla, and don't want it to send email to anyone. How do I do it?==

 

Go to Administration > Parameters. In the "Email" section of the parameters, set <code>mail_delivery_method</code> to "Test". Then all emails will go to a file on the disk (<code>data/mailer.testfile</code> in the Bugzilla directory) instead of being sent out.

 

 

 

Yes, Bugzilla can run on Windows. See the [[Bugzilla:Win32Install]] page for information about how to install and configure Bugzilla on 32-bit Windows. See the [[Bugzilla:WindowsServer2008Install]] page for information about how to install on configure Bugzilla on Windows Server 2008 64-bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can, but ''all'' the bugs in your search results have to be in a status that can validly change to CLOSED. In Bugzilla 3.2 and later, this means that you have to have set a valid transition to CLOSED from the bugs' statuses, using Administration > Status Workflow. For versions of Bugzilla before 3.2, only VERIFIED bugs can transition to CLOSED.

==How do I search for public bugs (bugs that aren't restricted to a group)?==

You can search for bugs without a group by using Boolean Charts at the bottom of the Advanced Search page: "Not (negate this whole chart)" + "Group" + "matches regular expression" + "."

==Bugzilla can't connect to the database==

==I tried to move my Bugzilla from one machine to another, and now there's something wrong with the data.==

Make sure that you followed the instructions on [[Bugzilla:Move Installation]]. In particular, when you import a database dump, your database has to be '''totally empty''', meaning that it must have no tables in it at all.

==I get the error "MySQL server has gone away"==

This usually means that the <tt>max_allowed_packet</tt> setting in your MySQL configuration is too small. It needs to be set larger than the largest piece of data you're trying to insert in to the database. (Usually, this means it has to be larger than your <tt>maxattachmentsize</tt> parameter.) The MySQL configuration is usually in <tt>/etc/my.cnf</tt>.

==I have Apache's mod_security installed, and Bugzilla is not functioning.==

Bugzilla is not compatible with mod_security. You will have to uninstall mod_security or disable it for Bugzilla.

==My parameters don't update when using editparams.cgi, what am I doing wrong?==

Bugzilla's parameters are stored in the <tt>data/params</tt> file.

In order to update parameters, the '''user that your web server runs Bugzilla's scripts as''' needs permission to:

* create, alter and delete files in Bugzilla's <tt>data/</tt> directory

==My problem isn't listed here==

If all else fails, check out places you can get [http://www.bugzilla.org/support/ support for Bugzilla].