8 Bugs Everywhere (BE) is a bugtracker built on distributed revision
9 control. The idea is to package the bug information with the source
10 code, so that developers working on the code can make appropriate
11 changes to the bug repository as they go. For example, by marking a
12 bug as "fixed" and applying the fixing changes in the same commit.
13 This makes it easy to see what's been going on in a particular branch
14 and helps keep the bug repository in sync with the code.
16 However, there are some differences compared to centralized
17 bugtrackers. Because bugs and comments can be created by several
18 users in parallel, they have globally unique :mod:`IDs
19 <libbe.util.id>` rather than numbers. There is also a
20 developer-friendly command-line_ interface to compliment the
21 user-friendly :doc:`web </http>` and :doc:`email </email>` interfaces.
22 This tutorial will focus on the command-line interface as the most
23 powerful, and leave the web and email interfaces to other documents.
25 .. _command-line: `Command-line interface`_
30 If your distribution packages BE, it will be easiest to use their package.
31 For example, most Debian-based distributions support::
33 $ apt-get install bugs-everywhere
35 See :doc:`the install page <install>` for more information and
41 If you have any problems with BE, you can look for matching bugs::
43 $ be --repo http://bugs.bugseverywhere.org/ list
45 If your bug isn't listed, please open a new bug::
47 $ be --repo http://bugs.bugseverywhere.org/ new 'bug'
48 Created bug with ID bea/abc
49 $ be --repo http://bugs.bugseverywhere.org/ comment bea/def
50 <editor spawned for comments>
53 Command-line interface
54 ======================
59 All of the following information elaborates on the command help text,
60 which is stored in the code itself, and therefore more likely to be up
61 to date. You can get a list of commands and topics with::
65 Or see specific help on ``COMMAND`` with
73 will give help on the ``init`` command.
78 You're happily coding in your Arch_ / Bazaar_ / Darcs_ / Git_ /
79 Mercurial_ / Monotone_ versioned project and you discover a bug.
80 "Hmm, I'll need a simple way to track these things", you think. This
81 is where BE comes in. One of the benefits of distributed versioning
82 systems is the ease of repository creation, and BE follows this trend.
86 Using <VCS> for revision control.
87 BE repository initialized.
89 in your project's root directory. This will create a ``.be``
90 directory containing the bug repository and notify your VCS so it will
91 be versioned starting with your next commit. See::
95 for specific details about where the ``.be`` directory will end up
96 if you call it from a directory besides your project's root.
98 .. _Arch: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/
99 .. _Bazaar: http://bazaar.canonical.com/
100 .. _Darcs: http://darcs.net/
101 .. _Git: http://git-scm.com/
102 .. _Mercurial: http://mercurial.selenic.com/
103 .. _Monotone: http://www.monotone.ca/
105 Inside the ``.be`` directory (among other things) there will be a long
106 UUID_ directory. This is your bug directory. The idea is that you
107 could keep several bug directories in the same repository, using one
108 to track bugs, another to track roadmap issues, etc. See :mod:`IDs
109 <libbe.util.id>` for details. For BE itself, the bug directory is
110 ``bea86499-824e-4e77-b085-2d581fa9ccab``, which is why all the bug and
111 comment IDs in this tutorial will start with ``bea/``.
113 .. _UUID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_Unique_Identifier
119 Create new bugs with::
125 $ be new 'Missing demuxalizer functionality'
126 Created bug with ID bea/28f
128 If you are entering a bug reported by another person, take advantage
129 of the ``--reporter`` option to give them credit::
131 $ be new --reporter 'John Doe <jdoe@example.com>' 'Missing whatsit...'
132 Created bug with ID bea/81a
134 See ``be help new`` for more details.
136 While the bug summary should include the appropriate keywords, it
137 should also be brief. Unlike other bug trackers, the bug itself cannot
138 contain a multi-line description. So you should probably add a comment
139 immediately giving a more elaborate explanation of the problem so that
140 the developer understands what you want and when the bug can be
146 Bugs are like little mailing lists, and you can comment on the bug
147 itself or previous comments, attach files, etc. For example
149 $ be comment abc/28f "Thoughts about demuxalizers..."
150 Created comment with ID abc/28f/97a
151 $ be comment abc/def/012 "Oops, I forgot to mention..."
152 Created comment with ID abc/28f/e88
154 Usually comments will be long enough that you'll want to compose them
155 in a text editor, not on the command line itself. Running ``be
156 comment`` without providing a ``COMMENT`` argument will try to spawn
157 an editor automatically (using your environment's ``VISUAL`` or
158 ``EDITOR``, see `Guide to Unix, Environmental Variables`_).
160 .. _Guide to Unix, Environmental Variables:
161 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guide_to_Unix/Environment_Variables
163 You can also pipe the comment body in on stdin, which is especially
164 useful for binary attachments, etc.::
166 $ cat screenshot.png | be comment --content-type image/png bea/28f
167 Created comment with ID bea/28f/35d
169 It's polite to insert binary attachments under comments that explain
170 the content and why you're attaching it, so the above should have been
172 $ be comment bea/28f "Whosit dissapears when you mouse-over whatsit."
173 Created comment with ID bea/28f/41d
174 $ cat screenshot.png | be comment --content-type image/png bea/28f/41d
175 Created comment with ID bea/28f/35d
177 For more details, see ``be help comment``.
182 Ok, you understand how to enter bugs, but how do you get that
183 information back out? If you know the ID of the item you're
184 interested in (e.g. bug bea/28f), try::
187 ID : 28fb711c-5124-4128-88fe-a88a995fc519
195 Missing demuxalizer functionality
196 --------- Comment ---------
201 Thoughts about demuxalizers...
202 --------- Comment ---------
207 Thoughts about demuxalizers...
208 --------- Comment ---------
213 Whosit dissapears when you mouse-over whatsit.
214 --------- Comment ---------
219 Content type image/png not printable. Try XML output instead
221 You can also get a single comment body, which is useful for extracting
224 $ be show --only-raw-body bea/28f/35d > screenshot.png
226 There is also an XML output format, which can be useful for emailing
227 entries around, scripting BE, etc.
229 $ be show --xml bea/35d
230 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
237 If you *don't* know which bug you're interested in, you can query
238 the whole bug directory::
241 bea/28f:om: Missing demuxalizer functionality
242 bea/81a:om: Missing whatsit...
244 There are a whole slew of options for filtering the list of bugs. See
245 ``be help list`` for details.
250 Often you will want to see what's going on in another dev's branch or
251 remind yourself what you've been working on recently. All VCSs have
252 some sort of ``diff`` command that shows what's changed since revision
253 ``XYZ``. BE has it's own command that formats the bug-repository
254 portion of those changes in an easy-to-understand summary format. To
255 compare your working tree with the last commit::
259 bea/01c:om: Need command output abstraction for flexible UIs
261 bea/343:om: Attach tests to bugs
262 Changed bug settings:
263 creator: None -> W. Trevor King <wking@drexel.edu>
265 Compare with a previous revision ``480``::
270 Compare your BE branch with the trunk::
272 $ be diff --repo http://bugs.bugseverywhere.org/
277 There are several commands that allow to to set bug properties. They
278 are all fairly straightforward, so we will merely point them out here,
279 and refer you to ``be help COMMAND`` for more details.
281 * ``assign``, Assign an individual or group to fix a bug
282 * ``depend``, Add/remove bug dependencies
283 * ``due``, Set bug due dates
284 * ``status``, Change a bug's status level
285 * ``severity``, Change a bug's severity level
286 * ``tag``, Tag a bug, or search bugs for tags
287 * ``target``, Assorted bug target manipulations and queries
289 You can also remove bugs you feel are no longer useful with
290 ``be remove``, and merge duplicate bugs with ``be merge``.
295 Since BE bugs act as mini mailing lists, we provide ``be subscribe``
296 as a way to manage change notification. You can subscribe to all
299 $ be subscribe --types all DIR
301 Subscribe only to bug creaton on bugseverywhere.org with::
303 $ be subscribe --server bugseverywhere.org --types new DIR
305 Subscribe to get all the details about bug ``bea/28f``::
307 $ be subscribe --types new bea/28f
309 To unsubscribe, simply repeat the subscription command adding the
310 ``--unsubscribe`` option, but be aware that it may take some time for
311 these changes to propogate between distributed repositories. If you
312 don't feel confident in your ability to filter email, it's best to
313 only subscribe to the repository for which you have direct write
316 Managing bug directories
317 ------------------------
319 ``be set`` lets you configure a bug directory. You can set
322 The allowed active bug states and their descriptions.
323 * ``inactive_status``
324 The allowed inactive bug states and their descriptions.
326 The allowed bug severities and their descriptions.
328 The current project development target (bug UUID).
330 Space for an array of extra strings. You usually won't bother with
333 For example, to set the current target to '1.2.3'::
335 $ be set target $(be target --resolve '1.2.3')
340 For serializing bug information (e.g. to email to a mailing list), use::
342 $ be show --xml bea/28f > bug.xml
344 This information can be imported into (another) bug directory via
346 $ be import-xml bug.xml
348 Also distributed with BE are some utilities to convert mailboxes
349 into BE-XML (``be-mail-to-xml``) and convert BE-XML into mbox_
350 format for reading in your mail client.
352 .. _mbox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
357 To create a static dump of your bug directory, use::
361 This is a fairly flexible command, see ``be help html`` for details.
362 It works pretty well as the browsable part of a public interface using
363 the :doc:`email` for interactive access.
368 Besides using BE to work directly with local VCS-based repositories,
373 To serve a repository over HTTP. For example::
375 $ be serve-storage > server.log 2>&1 &
376 $ be --repo http://localhost:8000 list
378 Of course, be careful about serving over insecure networks, since
379 malicous users could fill your disk with endless bugs, etc. You can
380 disabled write access by using the ``--read-only`` option, which would
381 make serving on a public network safer.
383 Serving the storage interface is flexible, but it can be inefficient.
384 For example, a call to ``be list`` against a remote backend requires
385 all bug information to be transfered over the wire. As a faster
386 alternative, you may want to serve your repository at the command
389 $ be serve-commands > server.log 2>&1 &
390 $ be --server http://localhost:8000 list
392 Take a look at the server logs to get a feel for the bandwidth you're
393 saving! Serving commands over insecure networks is at least as
394 dangerous as serving storage. Take appropriate precautions for your
397 Driving the VCS through BE
398 --------------------------
400 Since BE uses internal storage drivers for its various backends, it
401 seemed useful to provide a uniform interface to some of the common
402 functionality. These commands are not intended to replace the usually
403 much more powerful native VCS commands, but to provide an easy means
404 of simple VCS-agnostic scripting for BE user interfaces, etc.
409 Currently, we only expose ``be commit``, which commits all currently