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

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 : (
, 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:
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 Linux Distributions Free Software Projects
Red Hat:
Mandriva:
Gentoo:
TurboLinux:
Novell:
Companies
NASA:
Facebook:
Plus Akamai, Nokia, The New York Times, Yahoo! and many more...
Free Software Projects
Mozilla:
Linux Kernel:
Gnome:
KDE:
Apache Project:
Open Office:
Eclipse:

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.
Notifications - Users can choose to be notified by about any changes made to any bugs in bugzilla.
File/Modify Bugs By - Users can send Bugzilla an 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 s 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
Notifications Controlled By User Preferences
Bug Lists in Multiple Formats (Atom, iCal, etc.)
Scheduled Reports (Daily, Weekly, Hourly, etc.) by
Reports and Charts
File/Modify Bugs By
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 RESOLVED VERIFIED ASSIGNED (ACCEPTED)
Dev. Accept bug
Dev. Lead assigned to some Dev.
RESOLVED
FIXED INVALID WONTFIX LATER
REMIND DUPLICATE WORKFORME
VERIFIED

24. A Bugs Life by Bugzilla 3.0 FIXED INVALID WONTFIX LATER
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 DUPLICATE WORKSFORME
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!