1 $gDeveloperHtml = <<HTML_END
2 <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
5 <title>$gProject - Developers' information</title>
6 <link rev="made" href="mailto:$gMaintainerEmail">
10 <h1><A name="developers">Developers' information regarding the $gBug processing system</a></h1>
12 <p>Initially, a $gBug report is submitted by a user as an ordinary mail
13 message to <code>submit\@$gEmailDomain</code>. This will then be
14 given a number, acknowledged to the user, and forwarded to a mailing
15 list (if configured). If the submitter included a <code>Package</code>
16 line listing a package with a known maintainer the maintainer will get
19 <p>The <code>Subject</code> line will have
20 <code>$gBug#</code><var>nnn</var><code>:</code> added, and the
21 <code>Reply-To</code> will be set to include both the submitter of the
22 report and <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code>.
24 <h2>Closing $gBug reports</h2>
26 <p>A developer who receives a $gBug from the tracking system, or sees it on
27 the mailing list, and takes responsibility for it should hit Reply in
28 their favourite mailreader,
29 and then edit the <code>To</code> field to say
30 <var>nnn</var><code>-done\@$gEmailDomain</code> instead of
31 <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code>
32 (<var>nnn</var><code>-close</code> is provided as an alias for
33 <var>nnn</var><code>-done</code>).
35 <p>The address of the original submitter of the $gBug report will be
36 included in the default <code>To</code> field, because the $gBug system
37 included it in the <code>Reply-To</code>.
39 <p>`Done' messages are automatically forwarded to the <code>$gDoneList</code>
40 mailing list, if the mailing list has been set up.
42 <p>The person closing the $gBug and the person who submitted it will each
43 get a notification about the change in status of the report.
45 <h2>Followup messages</h2>
47 <p>If a developer wishes to reply to a $gBug report they may simply reply
48 to the message (that will <b>not</b> mark the bug as done). Their reply will
49 (by default, if they respect the Reply-To: header) go to
50 <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code>, and to the original submitter of
51 the $gBug report (note: this is two distinct addresses). The $gBug tracking
52 system will receive the message at <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code>,
53 pass it on to the package maintainer, file the reply with the rest of the
54 logs for that bug report and forward it to a designated mailing list
55 (<code>$gSubmitList\@$gEmailDomain</code>).
57 <p>A developer may explicitly mail the bug's submitter with an email to
58 <var>nnn</var><code>-submitter\@$gEmailDomain</code>.
60 <p>If you wish to send a followup message which is not appropriate for
61 any mailing list you can do so by sending it to
62 <var>nnn</var><code>-quiet\@$gEmailDomain</code> or
63 <var>nnn</var><code>-maintonly\@$gEmailDomain</code>.
64 Mail to <var>nnn</var><code>-quiet\@$gEmailDomain</code> is filed in the
65 $gBug Tracking System but is not delivered to any individuals or mailing
66 lists. Mail to <var>nnn</var><code>-maintonly\@$gEmailDomain</code> is
67 filed in the $gBug Tracking System and is delivered only to the maintainer
68 of the package in question.
70 <p>Do <em>not</em> use the `reply to all recipients' or `followup'
71 feature of your mailer unless you intend to edit down the recipients
72 substantially. In particular, see that you don't send followup messages
73 both to <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code> and to
74 <code>submit\@$gEmailDomain</code>, because the $gBug system will then
75 get two copies of it and each one will be forwarded to the designated
76 mailing list separately.
78 <h2><A name="severities">Severity levels</a></h2>
80 <p>The $gBug system records a severity level with each $gBug report. This
81 is set to <code>$gDefaultSeverity</code> by default, but can be overridden
82 either by supplying a <code>Severity</code> line in the pseudo-header when
83 the $gBug is submitted (see the
84 <a href="Reporting.html#pseudoheader">instructions for reporting $gBugs</a>),
85 or by using the <code>severity</code> command with the
86 <a href="#requestserv">control request server</a>.
88 <p>The severity levels are:
94 <h2><A name="forward">Recording that you have passed on a $gBug report</a></h2>
96 <p>When a developer forwards a $gBug report to the developer of the
97 upstream source package from which the $gProject package is derived,
98 they should note this in the $gBug tracking system as follows:
100 <p>Make sure that the <code>To</code> field of your message to the author
101 to has only the author(s) address(es) in it; put both the person who
102 reported the $gBug and
103 <var>nnn</var><code>-forwarded\@$gEmailDomain</code> in the
104 <code>CC</code> field.
106 <p>Ask the author to preserve the <code>CC</code> to
107 <var>nnn</var><code>-forwarded\@$gEmailDomain</code> when they reply, so that
108 the $gBug tracking system will file their reply with the original
111 <p>When the $gBug tracking system gets a message at
112 <var>nnn</var><code>-forwarded</code> it will mark the relevant $gBug as
113 having been forwarded to the address(es) in the <code>To</code> field
114 of the message it gets.
116 <p>You can also manipulate the `forwarded to' information by sending
117 messages to <a href="server-control.html"><code>control\@$gEmailDomain</code></a>.
119 <h2>Summary postings</h2>
121 <p>Every Friday, a list of outstanding $gBug reports is posted to a summary
122 mailing list (if set up), sorted by age of report. Every Tuesday, a list of
123 $gBug reports that have gone unanswered too long is posted, sorted by
128 <h2><A name="requestserv">Reopening, reassigning and manipulating $gBugs</a></h2>
130 <p>It is possible to reassign $gBug reports to other packages, to reopen
131 erroneously-closed ones, to modify the information saying to where, if
132 anywhere, a $gBug report has been forwarded, to change the severities
133 and titles of reports and to merge and unmerge $gBug reports. This is
134 done by sending mail to <code>control\@$gEmailDomain</code>.
136 <p>The <a href="server-control.html">format of these messages</a> is
137 described in another document available on the World Wide Web or in
138 the file <code>bug-maint-mailcontrol.txt</code>. A plain text version
139 can also be obtained by mailing the word <code>help</code> to the
140 server at the address above.
142 <h2>More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature</h2>
144 <!-- (this is likely to be removed the next version?) -->
146 <p>Messages that arrive at <code>submit</code> or <code>$gBugs</code> whose
147 Subject starts <code>Bug#</code><var>nnn</var> will be treated as
148 having been sent to <var>nnn</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code>. This is both
149 for backwards compatibility with mail forwarded from the old
150 addresses, and to catch followup mail sent to <code>submit</code> by
151 mistake (for example, by using reply to all recipients).
153 <p>A similar scheme operates for <code>maintonly</code>,
154 <code>done</code>, <code>quiet</code> and <code>forwarded</code>,
155 which treat mail arriving with a Subject tag as having been sent to
156 the corresponding <var>nnn-whatever</var><code>\@$gEmailDomain</code> address.
158 <p>Messages arriving at plain <code>forwarded</code> and
159 <code>done</code> - ie, with no $gBug report number in the address - and
160 without a $gBug number in the Subject will be filed under `junk' and
161 kept for a few weeks, but otherwise ignored.
167 <li><a href="./">$gBug tracking system main contents page.</a>
168 <li><a href="Reporting.html">Instructions for reporting $gBugs.</a>
169 <li><a href="Access.html">Accessing the $gBug tracking logs other than by WWW.</a>
170 <li><a href="server-refcard.html">Mailservers' reference card.</a>
171 <li><a href="db/ix/full.html">Full list of outstanding and recent $gBug reports.</a>
172 <li><a href="db/ix/packages.html">Packages with $gBug reports.</a>
173 <li><a href="db/ix/maintainers.html">Maintainers of packages with $gBug reports.</a>