Tips and tricks on how bugzilla works
Here are some quick tips and tricks on how to use bugzilla. Bugzilla
may do some things from time to time that help or hinder, so knowing
what they are when they happen can be useful.
- Who can add comments
Anyone can add a comment to a bug in the "Additional Comments"
box, so long as they have created a bugzilla
account.
- What the reporter can do
The reporter of a bug can modify any aspect of their own bug
(e.g. close it, reopen it, etc.), unless the bug was reassigned
to unknown@bugzilla.gnome.org (which means that the reporter
didn't first register their email address with bugzilla)
- Automatic changes bugzilla makes to comments
- The text "bug xxxxxx" (where xxxxxx is the number of some bug
report) is transformed to a hyperlink to the appropriate bug
report.
- Any text starting with "http://" in it is transformed
into a hyperlink to the listed website.
- Comments that bugzilla automatically adds to reports
When one bug is marked as a duplicate of another, both bugs get
an extra comment:
- The duplicate gets a comment that looks like "This has been
marked as a duplicate of bug xxxxxx"
- The duplicated bug gets a comment that looks like "Bug
xxxxxx has been marked as a duplicate of this bug."
- Mid-air Collisions
If you and someone else both try to modify the same bug, the
second person to submit their changes will be notified of a
"Mid-air collision". You will be given the option to erase the
other person's changes and keep your own, or to throw away your
changes and revisit the bug. Unless you have an extremely good
reason to do so, you should not erase the other person's
changes. There are two ways that I handle these. If the first
person's comments and changes make mine unnecessary, then I'll
just throw my changes away; otherwise, I hit the back button on
the browser, hit the reload button (which will update the bug
but leave the boxes filled in with my comments), double check
to make sure everything is updated correctly, and then submit
again.
- Reassigning bugs
When you change the product for a bug in bugzilla and push the
"Save Changes" button, bugzilla will bring up another screen
prompting you to change the component, target milestone, and
version instead of immediately processing your changes. Look
here for an
examples of what this screen looks like.
- Bug report history
The "View Bug Activity" link at the end of each bug report
often contains some useful information about the history of the
bug and how different fields have changed.
- Bug Buddy's frequently reported list
To get a bug to appear in Bug Buddy's frequently reported bug
list, add the bugbuddy
keyword to a bug.
