An Introduction to Bugzilla

1. Aideen NasiriShargh (Aug 10, 2008) Software Engineering Laboratory An Introduction toBugzilla

2. What is a “Bug”! • Unexpected Problem! • Technically, a software defect • Where from? • Programmer’s mistake • Tired! • Misunderstanding problem definition (user request) • Low Quality Software!

3. Meet the Bug

4. How a bug is found? • Before Final Release (TESTING!) • Bug is one of the result of testing • Alpha Release • Developers inside • Beta Release • Testers (volunteers) • Let is hurt! (exit(-1)) • After Final Release • Don’t let it crash the system! (try {} catch())

5. A Bug’s Life

6. A Bug’s LifeCycle

7. How to report a bug? • Traditionally • Manual – see developer in the street and tell him or SMS him when he is at cinema! • Face to face Communication • Result: No Recording • Official report : ( • Email, email group • Not formatted, Not traceable, Not referable (lose of the topic in gmail-thread!)

8. Developer’s unclear Response • Feel uncomfortable, even angry! • Why don’t you try to write some codes? • I don’t believe you can do better than me. • QA or Tester is trouble maker • No one will use my system in this way • Can you speak English? • I will response to User directly, no QA

9. Better Solution: Manage Bugs • Manage, rather than kill! • Why to manage? • Clear communication • Be sure that everything is reported • Remembers issues long after they've been fixed • Referable • Keeps track of what you need to do • Comments in the bug report record all the reasoning, experimentation, and discussion that went into fixing a bug • Search for bugs • Bugs can be searched by keyword, package, dates, names of the people involved • Users contribution is logged (motivation!)

10. Meet Bugzilla

11. A World’s Pick BugManager • Bugzilla! • Web (http) interface (CGI and Perl) • Free & open source • MySQL back end • Used by many major projects • Mozilla, Linux kernel, Gentoo, Apache, many others: http://bugzilla.org/installation-list/ • bugzilla can also track enhancements, todo items, etc.

12. What is Bugzilla? Bugzilla is a “defect tracking system” that allows individuals or groups of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs in their product effectively. It was developed using free open source tools and is itself free. Despite being free, Bugzilla has many features its expensive counterparts lack. Currently in use by Mozilla, Gnome, Open Office, Apache, Eclipse, Red Hat, Nasa, AMD and many more!

13. More of Bugzilla Users • Free Software Projects • Mozilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ • Linux Kernel: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/ • Gnome: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/ • KDE: http://bugs.kde.org/ • Apache Project: http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/ • Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi • Eclipse: http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/ • Linux Distributions • Red Hat: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/ • Mandriva: http://qa.mandriva.com/ • Gentoo: http://bugs.gentoo.org/ • TurboLinux: https://bts.turbolinux.co.jp/bugtraq/ • Novell: https://bugzilla.novell.com/ • Companies • NASA: http://itos.gsfc.nasa.gov/~bugzilla/ • Facebook: http://bugs.developers.facebook.com/ • Plus Akamai, Nokia, The New York Times, Yahoo! and many more...

14. What does Bugzilla do? Track bugs and code changes. Communication with teammates. Submit and review patches. Manage quality assurance. “Bugzilla can help you get a handle on the software development process. Successful projects often are the result of successful organization and communication. Bugzilla is a powerful tool that will help your team get organized and communicate effectively.”

15. What sorts of things can get filed as bugs? • Broken code: a traditional bug • feature requests • redesign/rearchitecting requests • JavaNLP todo items • your own personal todo items (for things you don't mind other people seeing)

16. Features Advanced Search Capabilities- New users can use a simple Google-like search for bugs while more advanced users can filter searched for very specific queries. Email Notifications- Users can choose to be notified by email about any changes made to any bugs in bugzilla. File/Modify Bugs By Email - Users can send Bugzilla an email that will create a new bug, or will modify an existing bug. Time Tracking- Users can display the time they think they will need to fix a bug, time spent on a bug, and deadline to fix the bug.

17. Features (continued)‏ Strong Security- Bugzilla runs under Perl's "taint" mode to prevent SQL Injection, and has a very careful system in place to prevent Cross-Site Scripting. Customization- Everything in Bugzilla is done using templates, from emails to the user interface. These templates are written in HTML, CSS, and Java Script so they are easy to edit. Localization- Depending on the browser and language a user is connecting to Bugzilla from, they will be served in their language. This is great for global open source projects.

18. Bugzilla counts features For Users For Administrators Excellent Security Highly Customizable Custom Fields Full Unicode Support Localization mod_perl Support for Excellent Performance Webservices (XML-RPC) Interface Control Bug Visibility/Editing with Groups Impersonate Users Multiple Authentication Methods Support for Multiple Database Engines Sanity Check • Advanced Search Capabilities • Email Notifications Controlled By User Preferences • Bug Lists in Multiple Formats (Atom, iCal, etc.) • Scheduled Reports (Daily, Weekly, Hourly, etc.) by Email • Reports and Charts • File/Modify Bugs By Email • Time Tracking • Request System • Private Attachments and Comments • Automatic Username Completion or Drop-Down User Lists • Patch Viewer • "Watch" Other Users • Move Bugs Between Installs • Save and Share Searches

19. Is Bugzilla better than SourceForge.Net Trackers? • SourceForge.Net is often slow • Bugzilla on our own server offers: • More customization • More control of database • Ability to make corrections • Many other benefits

20. Bugzilla and CVS • Cross-reference bugs with cvs log entries • In the bug: What changes were made to the source code to fix this bug? • In the CVS log: Why was this change made? • Reference bug number (and summary) in the CVS log • Paste the CVS revision list into the bug comments

21. Report a Bug!

22. A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0

23. A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0 • NEW • ASSIGNED (ACCEPTED) • Dev. Accept bug • Dev. Lead assigned to some Dev. • RESOLVED • FIXEDINVALID WONTFIX LATER • REMIND DUPLICATE WORKFORME • VERIFIED

24. A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0 • FIXED • A fix for this bug is checked into the tree and tested. • INVALID • The problem described is not a bug • WONTFIX • The problem described is a bug which will never be fixed. • LATER • The problem described is a bug which will not be fixed in this version of the product.

25. A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0 • REMIND • The problem described is a bug which will probably not be fixed in this version of the product, but might still be. • DUPLICATE • The problem is a duplicate of an existing bug. Marking a bug duplicate requires the bug# of the duplicating bug and will at least put that bug number in the description field. • WORKSFORME • All attempts at reproducing this bug were futile, reading the code produces no clues as to why this behavior would occur. If more information appears later, please re-assign the bug, for now, file it.

26. Severity: impact of a bug • Blocker • Blocks development and/or testing work • Critical (S2 fatal error) • crashes, loss of data, severe memory leak • Major (S3 error) • major loss of function • Minor (S4 Warning) • minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present • Trivial (S5 Light Warning) • cosmetic problem like misspelled words or misaligned text • Enhancement (S6 it’s better if…) • Request for enhancement

27. An Example Bug Page

28. Any Question? • Thanks for your attention!