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Introduction to the bug control and manipulation mailserver
In addition to the mailserver on request@bugs.debian.org which allows
the retrieval of bug data and documentation by email, there is another
server on control@bugs.debian.org which also allows bug reports to be
manipulated in various ways.
The control server works just like the request server, except that it
has some additional commands; in fact, it's the same program. The two
addresses are only separated to avoid users making mistakes and
causing problems while merely trying to request information.
Since the commands specific to the control server actually change the
status of a bug, a notification about processing the commands is sent
to the maintainer of the package(s) the changed bugs are assigned to.
Additionally the mail to the server and the resulting changes are
logged in the bug report and thereby available in the WWW pages.
Please see the introduction to the request server available on the
World Wide Web, in the file bug-log-mailserver.txt, or by sending help
to either mailserver, for details of the basics of operating the
mailservers and the common commands available when mailing either
address.
The reference card for the mailservers is available via the WWW, in
bug-mailserver-refcard.txt or by email using the refcard command.
Commands available at the control mailserver
reassign bugnumber package [ version ]
Records that bug #bugnumber is a bug in package. This can be
used to set the package if the user forgot the pseudo-header,
or to change an earlier assignment. No notifications are sent
to anyone (other than the usual information in the processing
transcript).
If you supply a version, the bug tracking system will note that
the bug affects that version of the newly-assigned package.
reopen bugnumber [ originator-address | = | ! ]
Reopens #bugnumber if it is closed.
By default, or if you specify =, the original submitter is
still as the originator of the report, so that they will get
the ack when it is closed again.
If you supply an originator-address the originator will be set
to the address you supply. If you wish to become the new
originator of the reopened report you can use the ! shorthand
or specify your own email address.
It is usually a good idea to tell the person who is about to be
recorded as the originator that you're reopening the report, so
that they will know to expect the ack which they'll get when it
is closed again.
If the bug is not closed then reopen won't do anything, not
even change the originator. To change the originator of an open
bug report, use the submitter command; note that this will
inform the original submitter of the change.
If the bug was recorded as being closed in a particular version
of a package but recurred in a later version, it is better to
use the found command instead.
found bugnumber [ version ]
Record that #bugnumber has been encountered in the given
version of the package to which it is assigned.
The bug tracking system uses this information, in conjunction
with fixed versions recorded when closing bugs, to display
lists of bugs open in various versions of each package. It
considers a bug to be open when it has no fixed version, or
when it has been found more recently than it has been fixed.
If no version is given, then the list of fixed versions for the
bug is cleared. This is identical to the behaviour of reopen.
This command was introduced in preference to reopen because it
was difficult to add a version to that command's syntax without
suffering ambiguity.
notfound bugnumber version
Remove the record that #bugnumber was encountered in the given
version of the package to which it is assigned.
This differs from closing the bug at that version in that the
bug is not listed as fixed in that version either; no
information about that version will be known. It is intended
for fixing mistakes in the record of when a bug was found.
submitter bugnumber originator-address | !
Changes the originator of #bugnumber to originator-address.
If you wish to become the new originator of the report you can
use the ! shorthand or specify your own email address.
While the reopen command changes the originator of other bugs
merged with the one being reopened, submitter does not affect
merged bugs.
forwarded bugnumber address
Notes that bugnumber has been forwarded to the upstream
maintainer at address. This does not actually forward the
report. This can be used to change an existing incorrect
forwarded-to address, or to record a new one for a bug that
wasn't previously noted as having been forwarded.
notforwarded bugnumber
Forgets any idea that bugnumber has been forwarded to any
upstream maintainer. If the bug was not recorded as having been
forwarded then this will do nothing.
retitle bugnumber new-title
Changes the title of a bug report to that specified (the
default is the Subject mail header from the original report).
Unlike most of the other bug-manipulation commands when used on
one of a set of merged reports this will change the title of
only the individual bug requested, and not all those with which
it is merged.
severity bugnumber severity
Set the severity level for bug report #bugnumber to severity.
No notification is sent to the user who reported the bug.
Severities are critical, grave, serious, important, normal,
minor, and wishlist.
For their meanings please consult the general developers'
documentation for the bug system.
clone bugnumber NewID [ new IDs ... ]
The clone control command allows you to duplicate a bug report.
It is useful in the case where a single report actually
indicates that multiple distinct bugs have occurred. "New IDs"
are negative numbers, separated by spaces, which may be used in
subsequent control commands to refer to the newly duplicated
bugs. A new report is generated for each new ID.
Example usage:
clone 12345 -1 -2
reassign -1 foo
retitle -1 foo: foo sucks
reassign -2 bar
retitle -2 bar: bar sucks when used with foo
severity -2 wishlist
clone 123456 -3
reassign -3 foo
retitle -3 foo: foo sucks
merge -1 -3
merge bugnumber bugnumber ...
Merges two or more bug reports. When reports are merged
opening, closing, marking or unmarking as forwarded and
reassigning any of the bugs to a new package will have an
identical effect on all of the merged reports.
Before bugs can be merged they must be in exactly the same
state: either all open or all closed, with the same
forwarded-to upstream author address or all not marked as
forwarded, all assigned to the same package or package(s) (an
exact string comparison is done on the package to which the bug
is assigned), and all of the same severity. If they don't start
out in the same state you should use reassign, reopen and so
forth to make sure that they are before using merge. Titles are
not required to match, and will not be affected by the merge.
Tags are not required to match, either, they will be joined.
If any of the bugs listed in a merge command is already merged
with another bug then all the reports merged with any of the
ones listed will all be merged together. Merger is like
equality: it is reflexive, transitive and symmetric.
Merging reports causes a note to appear on each report's logs;
on the WWW pages this is includes links to the other bugs.
Merged reports are all expired simultaneously, and only when
all of the reports each separately meet the criteria for
expiry.
forcemerge bugnumber bugnumber ...
Forcibly merges two or more bug reports. The first bug listed
is the master bug, and its settings (the settings which must be
equal in a normal merge) are assigned to the bugs listed next.
To avoid typos erroneously merging bugs, bugs must be in the
same package. See the text above for a description of what
merging means.
Note that this makes it possible to close bugs by merging; you
are responsible for notifying submitters with an appropriate
close message if you do this.
unmerge bugnumber
Disconnects a bug report from any other reports with which it
may have been merged. If the report listed is merged with
several others then they are all left merged with each other;
only their associations with the bug explicitly named are
removed.
If many bug reports are merged and you wish to split them into
two separate groups of merged reports you must unmerge each
report in one of the new groups separately and then merge them
into the required new group.
You can only unmerge one report with each unmerge command; if
you want to disconnect more than one bug simply include several
unmerge commands in your message.
tags bugnumber [ + | - | = ] tag [ tag ... ]
Sets tags for the bug report #bugnumber. No notification is
sent to the user who reported the bug. Setting the action to +
means to add each given tag, - means to remove each given tag,
and = means to ignore the current tags and set them afresh to
the list provided. The default action is adding.
Example usage:
# same as 'tags 123456 + patch'
tags 123456 patch
# same as 'tags 123456 + help security'
tags 123456 help security
# add 'fixed' and 'pending' tags
tags 123456 + fixed pending
# remove 'unreproducible' tag
tags 123456 - unreproducible
# set tags to exactly 'moreinfo' and 'unreproducible'
tags 123456 = moreinfo unreproducible
Available tags currently include patch, wontfix, moreinfo,
unreproducible, help, pending, fixed, fixed-in-experimental,
fixed-upstream, security, upstream, confirmed, d-i, ipv6, lfs,
l10n, potato, woody, sarge, sarge-ignore, etch, etch-ignore,
sid, and experimental.
For their meanings please consult the general developers'
documentation for the bug system.
block bugnumber by bug ...
Note that the fix for the first bug is blocked the the other
listed bugs.
unblock bugnumber by bug ...
Note that the fix for the first bug is no longer blocked the
the other listed bugs.
close bugnumber [ fixed-version ] (deprecated)
Close bug report #bugnumber.
A notification is sent to the user who reported the bug, but
(in contrast to mailing bugnumber-done@bugs.debian.org) the
text of the mail which caused the bug to be closed is not
included in that notification. The maintainer who closes a
report needs to ensure, probably by sending a separate message,
that the user who reported the bug knows why it is being
closed. The use of this command is therefore deprecated. See
the developer's information about how to close a bug properly.
If you supply a fixed-version, the bug tracking system will
note that the bug was fixed in that version of the package.
package [ packagename ... ]
Limits the following commands so that they will only apply to
bugs filed against the listed packages. You can list one or
more packages. If you don't list any packages, the following
commands will apply to all bugs. You're encouraged to use this
as a safety feature in case you accidentally use the wrong bug
numbers.
Example usage:
package foo
reassign 123456 bar 1.0-1
package bar
retitle 123456 bar: bar sucks
severity 123456 normal
package
severity 234567 wishlist
owner bugnumber address | !
Sets address to be the "owner" of #bugnumber. The owner of a
bug claims responsibility for fixing it and will receive all
mail regarding it. This is useful to share out work in cases
where a package has a team of maintainers.
If you wish to become the owner of the bug yourself, you can
use the ! shorthand or specify your own email address.
noowner bugnumber
Forgets any idea that the bug has an owner other than the usual
maintainer. If the bug had no owner recorded then this will do
nothing.
#...
One-line comment. The # must be at the start of the line. The
text of comments will be included in the acknowledgement sent
to the sender and to affected maintainers, so you can use this
to document the reasons for your commands.
quit
stop
thank...
--...
Tells the control server to stop processing the message; the
remainder of the message can include explanations, signatures
or anything else, none of it will be detected by the control
server.
_________________________________________________________________
Debian BTS administrators <owner@bugs.debian.org>
Debian bug tracking system
Copyright © 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997, 2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-1997 Ian Jackson.
_________________________________________________________________
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