[ For the benefit of some of our newer -current-users, enclosed is a
  (slightly edited) copy of the USENET posting I made annoucing the
  introduction of the GNATS bug tracking systems.
	--jtc
]


NetBSD switching to the GNATS bug tracking system.

NetBSD has switched from the BSD bugfiler to GNU GNATS to maintain our
bug database.  This change will allow NetBSD developers to track bugs
throughout their life cycle ("open", "analyzed", ... "closed"), assign
them to the appropriate people to fix, and provide an reliable archive
of bugs and their fixes.

It is hoped that a better bug tracking system will allow the "core"
developers to make NetBSD even better than it is today.


What does the switch mean to users?

* Bug reports should now submitted with the "send-pr" program.

  Although we appreciate bug reports sent posted in the news or 
  sent to netbsd-bugs@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu, sometimes they
  are accidentally overlooked.  By using send-pr, you can be
  sure that the bug reports will be availible to the developers.
  Send-pr is distributed in NetBSD-current.

* Bug reports will be automatically filed into the appropriate database
  category, and the appropriate people working on that area will be notified
  about the new bug.

* Access to the bug database is a lot easier than with the bugfiler.
  Hopefully, convienent access will encourage NetBSD developers to
  keep up to date with the current bug list.  If this occurs, the 
  bugs you submit may be fixed faster.

At the present time, there are only a few categories of bugs: "lib",
for library bugs; "bin", for userlevel bugs; and "kern", for kernel
bugs.  More categories will be added as needed.


How can I see if my bug has been fixed?

* There is a email interface to our database.  To query the database
  send mail to "query-pr@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu".  The mail server
  will send a bug database listing back to the user.

* There are several flags that are useful to send to the mail server.
  The flags are entered in the "Subject" line:
  --summary	Display an one-line entry for each bug
  --full 	Display the full entry for each bug	
  --help	Display a help string containing the rest of the flags.
  PR		The Problem Report number of a particular bug

For example, to send a query about all the bugs:
  $ Mail -s "--summary" query-pr@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu < /dev/null

If you want to know more about a particular bug, let's say bug 40:
  $ Mail -s "--full 40" query-pr@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu < /dev/null

--
J.T. Conklin
NetBSD Bug Database Administrator

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