BUGFILER(8)BUGFILER(8)NAMEbugfiler - file bug reports in folders automatically
SYNOPSISbugfiler [ -ar ] [-v version]
DESCRIPTION
Bugfiler is a program to automatically intercept, acknowledge, redis‐
tribute and store bug reports. Bugfiler is normally invoked by the
mail delivery program with a line similar to the following in
/etc/aliases.
bugs: "|bugfiler"
It should be noted that the login ``bugs'' must exist for the bugfiler
to run. Unless otherwise noted all paths used by bugfiler are relative
to the home directory of this login. Bugfiler also expects all of its
files and directories to be owned by ``bugs''.
For the bug report to be correctly filed, it must contain a line in the
following format:
Index: folder version
The directories ~bugs/version and ~bugs/version/folder must exist
before bugfiler attempts to store the bug report. Bug reports will be
stored in files named by the concatenation of version, folder, and
sequential numbers, i.e. if version is ``4.3BSD'' and folder is ``ucb''
the first bug report will be placed in ~bugs/4.3BSD/ucb/1. If folder
contains more than one component only the first one will be used, e.g.
if folder is ``bin/from.c'' or ``bin/adb/con.c'' it will be treated as
if it were simply ``bin''. The -v flag is provided as a means to over‐
ride the version provided within the bug report itself.
A mail acknowledgement is automatically sent to the bug report filer
unless the -a flag is supplied. The file ~bugs/version/bug:ack is
appended to this acknowledgement.
If the -r flag is not supplied, redistribution of the bug reports is
done as specified in the file ~bugs/version/bug:redist. This file is
in the format of the aliases(5) file, including comments and entries
requiring multiple lines, with the single exception that the folder
component of the ``Index:'' line replaces the name to alias. The spe‐
cial folder ``all:'' receives a redistribution of all bug reports sent
to this version. For example, the bug:redist file
# bigbug gets a copy of everything
all: bigbug
# ucb folder redistribution list
ucb: karels, kjd@coke.berkeley.edu
ra@beno.css.gov
will send copies of all bug reports with ``ucb'' as the folder to big‐
bug, karels, kjd, and ra.
Reports that cannot be filed, due to an invalid ``Index:'' line or some
other error, are placed in the directory ~bugs/errors. The bugfiler
maintainer should correct these bug reports and then run bugfiler, with
the corrected report as its standard input, as bug reports with errors
are neither acknowledged or redistributed. All reports that bugfiler
handles are logged in ~bugs/log.
Valid bugs are also logged in the file ~bugs/version/summary. This
file has an entry for each bug report for version in the format:
Filename Date
Subject:
Index:
Owner: Bugs Bunny
Status: Received
Filename is the concatenation of version, folder, and a number as
described above. Date is the date as reported by the system clock,
using ctime(3). The Subject: and Index: lines are copies of the ``Sub‐
ject:'' and ``Index:'' lines contained in the bug report. The Owner
and Status fields are intended to provide a rudimentary method of
tracking the status of bug reports.
The file ~bugs/bug:lock is the focus of all locking for bugfiler. If
you wish to manipulate any of the log or error files, rename or remove
it and bugfiler will treat all bug reports that it receives as if they
were incorrectly formatted, i.e. it will place them in the directory
~bugs/errors, for later recovery by the bugfiler maintainer. Obvi‐
ously, this file must be created when you first install bugfiler.
All errors that occur before ~bugs/log is found are logged into the
system log file, using syslog(8).
FILES
~bugs/bug:ack the acknowledgement message
~bugs/bug:redist the redistribution list
~bugs/bug:lock the locking file
~bugs/errors/BUG_?????? bug reports with format errors
~bugs/log the log file
~bugs/folder/summary the summary files
/usr/sbin/sendmail the mail delivery program
/usr/share/misc/bugformat
a sample bug report format
SEE ALSOsendbug(1), aliases(5), syslog(8)BUGS
Since mail can be forwarded in a number of different ways, bugfiler
does not recognize forwarded mail and will acknowledge to the forwarder
instead of the original sender unless there is a `Reply-To' field in
the header.
This version of the bugfiler is not compatible with the version
released with 4.3BSD in that it doesn't complain to the sender about
incorrectly formatted bug reports. Frankly, we got tired of the pro‐
fanity, not to mention the extended conversations bugfiler was holding
with vacation(1).
4.2 Berkeley Distribution June 24, 1990 BUGFILER(8)