An Introduction to Bugzilla

1
An Introduction toBugzilla

• Software Engineering Laboratory

2
What is a Bug!

• Unexpected Problem!
• Technically, a software defect
• Where from?
• Programmers 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
• Dont let it crash the system! (try catch())

5
A Bugs Life
6
A Bugs LifeCycle
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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
Developers unclear Response

• Feel uncomfortable, even angry!
• Why dont you try to write some codes?
• I dont 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 Worlds 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.

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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!

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More of Bugzilla Users

• 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...

• 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/quer
  y.cgi
• Eclipse http//bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/

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History of Bugzilla

• When Mozilla first came online in 1998, one of
  the first products that was released was
  Bugzilla, an open source bug system implemented
  using freely available open source tools.
• Bugzilla was originally for use at Mozilla to
  replace the in-house system then in use at
  Netscape.
• Before Mozilla released it as open source, they
  decided to port Bugzilla to Perl, with the hopes
  that more people would be able to contribute to
  it, since Perl seemed to be a more popular
  language. Bugzilla 2.0 was the result of that
  port to Perl, and the first version released to
  the public via anonymous CVS.
• Since then a large number of projects, both
  commercial and free have adapted it as their
  primary method of tracking software defects.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Report a Bug!
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A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0
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A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0

• NEW
• ASSIGNED (ACCEPTED)
• Dev. Accept bug
• Dev. Lead assigned to some Dev.
• RESOLVED
• FIXED INVALID WONTFIX LATER
• REMIND DUPLICATE WORKFORME
• VERIFIED

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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.

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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.

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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 its better if)
• Request for enhancement

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An Example Bug Page
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Any Question?

• Thanks for your attention!