.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\" @(#)bugfiler.8 6.5 (Berkeley) %G%
bugfiler \- file bug reports in folders automatically
\fIBugfiler\fP is a program to automatically intercept, acknowledge,
redistribute and store bug reports. \fIBugfiler\fP is normally invoked
by the mail delivery program with a line similar to the following in
It should be noted that the login ``bugs'' must exist for the bugfiler
to run. Unless otherwise noted all paths used by \fIbugfiler\fP are
relative to the home directory of this login. \fIBugfiler\fP also
expects all of its files and directories to be owned by ``bugs''.
A mail acknowledgement is automatically sent to the bug report filer
unless the \fB-a\fP flag is supplied. The file ~bugs/bug:ack is appended
For the bug report to be correctly filed, it must contain a line
Index: \fIfolder\fP \fIversion\fP
The directories ~bugs/\fIversion\fP and ~bugs/\fIversion\fP/\fIfolder\fP
must exist before \fIbugfiler\fP attempts to store the bug report. Bug
reports will be stored in files named by the concatenation of \fIversion,
folder,\fP and sequential numbers, i.e. if \fIversion\fP is ``4.3BSD'' and
\fIfolder\fP is ``ucb'' the first bug report will be placed in
~bugs/4.3BSD/ucb/1. If \fIfolder\fP contains more than one component only
the first one will be used, e.g. if \fIfolder\fP is ``bin/from.c'' or
``bin/adb/con.c'' it will be treated as if it were simply ``bin''. The
\fI-v\fP flag is provided as a means to override the \fIversion\fP
provided within the bug report itself.
If the \fB-r\fP flag is not supplied, redistribution of the bug reports
is done as specified in the file ~bugs/\fIversion\fP/bug:redist. This file
file, including comments and entries requiring multiple lines, with
the single exception that the \fIfolder\fP component of the ``Index:''
line replaces the name to alias. For example, the \fIbug:redist\fP file
# ucb folder redistribution list
ucb: karels, kjd@coke.berkeley.edu
will send copies of all bug reports with ``ucb'' as the \fIfolder\fP
Reports that cannot be filed, due to an invalid ``Index:'' line or
some other error, are placed in the directory ~bugs/errors. The
\fIbugfiler\fP maintainer should correct these bug reports and then
run \fIbugfiler\fP, with the corrected report as its standard input,
as bug reports with errors are neither acknowledged or redistributed.
All reports that \fIbugfiler\fP handles are logged in ~bugs/log.
Valid bugs are also logged in the file ~bugs/\fIversion\fP/summary.
This file has an entry for each bug report for \fIversion\fP in the
\fIFilename\fP is the concatenation of \fIversion, folder,\fP and a number
as described above. \fIDate\fP is the date as reported by the system
clock, using ctime(3). The \fISubject:\fP and \fIIndex:\fP lines are
copies of the ``Subject:'' and ``Index:'' lines contained in the bug
report. The \fIOwner\fP and \fIStatus\fP 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 \fIbugfiler.\fP
If you wish to manipulate any of the log or error files, remove it and
\fIbugfiler\fP 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,
where they should recovered by the \fIbugfiler\fP maintainer.
All errors that occur before ~bugs/log is found are logged into the system
the acknowledgement message
bug reports with format errors
the mail delivery program
a sample bug report format
sendbug(1), aliases(5), syslog(8)
Since mail can be forwarded in a number of different ways, \fIbugfiler\fP
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
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 profanity, not to mention the extended