Slashdot Mirror
Linux Kernel Bugzilla Launched
paskie writes "Martin J. Bligh of IBM announced
launch of a Bugzilla bug tracking
database for 2.5 linux kernel series - it's at bugme.osdl.org. Finally there will be
some possibility to easily keep track of known bugs without being subscribed to
thousand of mailing lists or googling to death. According to the relevant lkml
thread, kernel developers will still prefer discussions to happen on the
mailing lists, though. The Bugzilla server
and connection is donated by OSDL and IBM
folks administer the database."
"Please let me or the supplied mailto URLs know of any problems you encounter, but please be patient with any inital teething problems ;-)"
and don't tell slashdot just yet
Another server bites the dust.
Yeah... easily searchable, centralised sources of information suck.
I'm impressed. The Mozilla bugzilla normally falls over the moment /. looks it's way, which is why it denies a slashdot referral now (if I remember correctly).
:)
Either it's just the fact this one's basically empty at the moment, or he may have some advice for the mozilla folks on properly setting up bugzilla.
Time and materials are being donated. What possible problem could you have with that?
Does it honestly matter how the bugs are being tracked, just as long as they are tracked?
None of the links on the /. page or OSDL seem to indicate that the database is IBM's software, just that they're providing the bug database admin labor. Where did you read that IBM's proprietary DB software is being used?
Even if your statement is true, perhaps part of IBM's return on investment is a real-world application study with this bug-tracker as a test case?
Bug 30 Owner: mbligh@aracnet.com (Martin J. Bligh)
Please enter
Exact Kernel version: 2.5.7
Distribution: red hat
Hardware Environment: pc
Software Environment: linux
Problem Description: RMS is too smelly - What do I do?
Steps to reproduce: No god no!!!
The other day Slashdot had a story about the Lightest of the Linux that were hosted and managed by IBM. There were not even a slight delay in getting the story at any time. Same here. IBM knows how to do these things.
Help fight continental drift.
After all, these are the days of corporate accounting fiascos. In the current clime, transparency is a thing to be admired, and this is about as transparent as you can get.
Feature it, it's the timely thing to do, as well as the right thing to do.
For that matter, Microsoft doesn't have much room to cast stones, and if transparency becomes an issue, one can always bring up their stock dilution through options, non-payment of dividends that stockholders are requesting while sitting on $40e9 of cash, and sometimes-questionable donations to charity that look like they generate more revenue than the donation.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
So someone says "please don't slashdot us" and we slashdot them on the same day. That's just low. Come on editors, we need a little responsibility!
Awwww, come on, it's been a DAY already! That's like, MONTHS in the real world!
/* Linus is The One
This seems to me that IBM wants to get closer to the kernel bug-tracking which is very important for them to adopt and support Linux on their products, especially on the high-end side. They've got to know the kernel inside out in order to introduce Linux and provide top quality service to prestigious customers.
Yeah, but hink about it this way...
Bug open: 11:54 EST 15/11/2002
Status: Serious
Bug Closed: 17:16 EST 15/11/2002
By: Linus T
How's Microsoft gonna FUD that?!
Hey, right now all MS has to do to compile a page of reasons to switch is type "linux bugs" into Google:
(Yeah, I know this is a troll - but hey, I'm bored).
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
Its great that the kernel is getting a bugzilla.
However, attention must be drawn to the plight of the poor, unfortunate GCC hackers, who are still having to put up with an inferior bug tracking system, despite a flurry of activity earlier in the year, it seems that little progress has been made on implementation. Lets all hope that GCC hackers don't have to continue to suffer the pain of crappy bug tracking for too much longer.
This is too funny. IBM doing something good for the community and for themselves at the same time? Nothing wrong with at. Altruism and capitlism can go hand and hand. And I am not one to look a gift server in the mouth.
First we have people talking about IBM doing this to control kernel developlemt. This is nuts. IBM understands that Linux is big in the cards for them and they also understand the Free As in Beer Developmental community needs to really have a central repository for this sorta thing.
So IBM cuts loose the space and the DB for it. Throws in an admin or two. Why? Cause they got big money on Linux, they want to move the big corps over to it. So they need the assurance that bugfixes, patches, what have you, is on a reliable server somewhere that will always be around.
Yeah it does benefit them and benefit us. More power to em. OR what we are gonna round robin the server costs every month? We are gonna set up a Paypal Account and each chip in our own unlimited funds in this street paved of gold IT industry we have now?
IBM is a business and it sees that helping the community can help itself. QUID PRO QUO my friends.
IBM was a monopoly, but they also make damn good equipment. Always have. You can go on about a failed run of hard drives, or some bad workstations. But hey happends to all of them...
And this busines that IBM needs to know the kernel inside and out. Ahhh, I do not think anyone needs to be talking out there ass about us teaching IBM anything about operating systems. Much less one ending in *NIX.
IBM is one of the best things to happen to our community. They are making the inroads in the corporate road for us.
JEEZ. Get off the high horse people.
TheFlatline
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Actually, there's a story behind Zarro Boogs. It is a Mozilla.org (or probably Netscape) term "yeah, we think there are no bugs, but we won't say it so that you don't hold us to it." For example, a milestone reaches "zarro boogs".
Unfortunately, the dot-com crash ensued just as I was getting started, and things have been a little too hectic since then for me to do much about it.
A number of people suggested I use bugzilla, and I thought a lot about it, but didn't want to use it, at least not in its current form, because it lacks a feature that I feel is critical for a bug database that is to be used to track operating system development: storage of preset machine configurations.
Perhaps the people with the new kernel bugzilla can put this in.
What I envisisioned was a way for the user to specify the hardware configuration of their machines by drawing on a database of all known hardware. (Just making that database would be a big job in itself). The user could give a name to each configuration.
Then when reporting a bug, the user would be presented with a popup menu or scrolling list of their configuration presets. There would be a way to make variations for a particular bug report, to indicate that a board had been added or removed from the stored preset.
Then the user would upload their kernel .config file.
This would allow the kernel developers to search for combinations of hardware that is or isn't installed along with kernel config options that are selected or not set.
This would help a lot to identify situations where FooBar Corp's ethernet board doesn't work when you've got a WhizzyVideo card installed.
I would also encourage people to report the configurations for successful kernel tests. That would help to build confidence as well as to identify untested areas so more attention could be paid to them.
Unfortunately, I'm just a guy working alone and although some have offerred to help, I have been working too hard just to survive to even coordinate the development of such a database.
However, I have found some time to write some articles on various aspects of Linux and web software quality and post them at the site. Writing is what I like to do to relax when I'm not programming - I write articles like these whenever I can, despite despite what the anklebiters have to say about them.
The OSDL was kind enough to mirror my two kernel testing articles and even translate them into Japanese. You can mirror or translate them if you like, as they are under the GNU Free Documentation License. I would be particularly pleased if any of my articles were translated into more languages.
The two kernel testing articles are:
-
Why We Should All Test the New Linux Kernel
(
Japanese translation)
- Using Test Suites to Validate the Linux Kernel
(
Japanese translation)
I should point out that I asked a couple of the larger commercial Linux vendors to contribute to the Linux Quality Database, which would have enabled me to feed myself while developing it, but I got turned down. I find that hard to understand, as it would have benefited them tremendously. I don't want to say who it was that turned me down, as I don't think negative publicity would be productive.But I found the OSDL's interest in my articles quite encouraging.
A lot of people are griping about not being able to file bugs anonymously with bugzilla. I had always intended to allow anonymous bug reports, although I would encourage users to log in so we could follow up with them.
Also some people are saying in other comments that bug reports that aren't emailed to the linux-kernel mailing lists won't be as good as the traditional ones. But I'd like to point out that linux-kernel is one of the highest traffic mailing lists around, and the discussions are extremely technical and often heated. Patches also fall on the floor all the time, as I found when someone posted a patch that fixed the problem I reported when I first subscribed.
I felt then and still feel that linux-kernel is too intimidating for the average linux user, so most will choose not to partipate in kernel QA. A bug database with a nice web interface where the reporter doesn't have to participate in the mailing list traffic can only encourage more people to post bugs. And a bug database would make it possible to log successes without overwhelming the list.
It would also be possible to publish an XML interface to the database, so people could log reports programmatically. That would help for identifying configuration information, for example you could run a program that would do what lspci does and upload it to your account at the bugbase.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
> and people that write buggy browsers will somehow write a non-buggy
> bug tracking system?
Mozilla is written in C, C++, XUL, and JavaScript, and has to run
on innumerable platforms and display under innumerable GUIs.
Bugzilla is written in Perl and HTML and has to run under Linux
and display on the web. It's an easier thing.
That said, Bugzilla is extremely useful and convenient, _much_ more
functional than other competing issue-tracking systems. There's a
reason other large projects (OpenOffice, Gnome, and now maybe the
Linux kernel) are adopting it: it's best-of-breed issue-tracking
software.
Did anyone else notice that the version over at ODSL (for the Linux
kernel) has an added feature that b.m.o. doesn't have, where you
can set a pref so that after changing a bug you view that bug again
instead of going on to the next bug that matches your most recent
search criteria? That's quite cool; I hope b.m.o. gets that too.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
- Charsets. We can't specify one, because people enter data into Bugzilla in a variety of charsets, and rely on browser auto-detection to Do The Right Thing. The validator doesn't accept this.
- Backwards compatibility. We have to work on version 4 browsers
- Lack of support in standards. For example, we use <textarea wrap=hard> because there's no way to do that in CSS, and it's what is needed.
Gerv