Introduction to the bug control and manipulation mailserver
In addition to the mailserver on request@bugs.kde.org which allows the
retrieval of bug data and documentation by email, there is another
server on control@bugs.kde.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.
Please see the introduction to the request server available on the
World Wide Web, in the file bug-maint-mailcontrol.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 only at the control mailserver
close bugnumber
Close bug report #bugnumber.
A notification is sent to the user who reported the bug, but
(in contrast to mailing bugnumber-done@bugs) the text of the
mail which caused the bug to be closed is not included in that
notification. The maintainer who closes a report should ensure,
probably by sending a separate message, that the user who
reported the bug knows why it is being closed.
reassign bugnumber package
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).
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. There is no way to change the
originator of an open bug report (this is deliberate, so that
you can't have a bug be closed and then deleted 28 days later
without someone being told about it).
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, normal and wishlist. For their
meanings please consult the general developers' documentation
for the bug system.
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, and all assigned to the same package or package(s)
(an exact string comparison is done on the package to which the
bug is assigned). 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.
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.
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.
_________________________________________________________________
Andreas Jellinghaus / owner@bugs.kde.org. 12 Nov 1998.
Debian bug tracking system copyright 1994-1997 Ian Jackson,
copyright 1997 nCipher Corporation Ltd, copyright 1995 Steven
Brenner. Available under the GPL.