NAME

bts - developers' command line interface to the BTS

SYNOPSIS

bts [options] command [args] [#comment] [.|, command [args] [#comment]] ...

DESCRIPTION

This is a command line interface to the bug tracking system, intended mainly for use by developers. It lets the BTS be manipulated using simple commands that can be run at the prompt or in a script, does various sanity checks on the input, and constructs and sends a mail to the BTS control address for you.

In general, the command line interface is the same as what you would write in a mail to control@bugs.debian.org, just prefixed with "bts". For example:

 % bts severity 69042 normal
 % bts merge 69042 43233
 % bts retitle 69042 blah blah

A few additional commands have been added for your convenience, and this program is less strict about what constitutes a valid bug number. For example, "severity Bug#85942 normal" is understood, as is "severity #85942 normal". (Of course, your shell may regard "#" as a comment character though, so you may need to quote it!)

Also, for your convenience, this program allows you to abbreviate commands to the shortest unique substring (similar to how cvs lets you abbreviate commands). So it understands things like "bts cl 85942".

It is also possible to include a comment in the mail sent to the BTS. If your shell does not strip out the comment in a command like "bts severity 30321 normal #inflated severity", then this program is smart enough to figure out where the comment is, and include it in the email. Note that most shells do strip out such comments before they get to the program, unless the comment is quoted. (Something like "bts severity #85942 normal" will not be treated as a comment!)

In most cases, adding a comment will cause the generated mail to be CCed to the bug report, in addition to control@bugs.debian.org.

You can specify multiple commands by separating them with a single dot, rather like update-rc.d; a single comma may also be used; all the commands will then be sent in a single mail. For example (quoting where necessary so that bts sees the comment):

 % bts severity 95672 normal , merge 95672 95673 \#they are the same!

The abbreviation "it" may be used to refer to the last mentioned bug number, so you could write:

 % bts severity 95672 wishlist , retitle it "bts: please add a --foo option"

Please use this program responsibly, and do take our users into consideration.

OPTIONS

bts examines the devscripts configuration files as described below. Command line options override the configuration file settings, though.

-o, --offline
Make bts use cached bugs for the 'show' and 'bugs' commands, if a cache is available for the requested data. See the cache command, below for information on setting up a cache.
--online, --no-offline
Opposite of --offline; overrides any configuration file directive to work offline.
-n, --no-action
Do not send emails but print them to standard output.
--cache, --no-cache
Should we attempt to cache new versions of BTS pages when performing show/bugs commands? Default is to cache.
--cache-mode={min|mbox|full}
When running a bts cache command, should we only mirror the basic bug (min), or should we also mirror the mbox version (mbox), or should we mirror the whole thing, including the mbox and the boring attachments to the BTS bug pages and the acknowledgement emails (full)? Default is min.
--cache-delay=seconds
Time in seconds to delay between each download, to avoid hammering the BTS web server. Default is 5 seconds.
--mbox
Open a mail reader to read the mbox corresponding to a given bug number for show and bugs commands.
--mailreader=READER
Specify the command to read the mbox. Must contain a "%s" string (unquoted!), which will be replaced by the name of the mbox file. The command will be split on white space and will not be passed to a shell. Default is 'mutt -f %s'. (Also, %% will be substituted by a single % if this is needed.)
--cc-addr=CC_EMAIL_ADDRESS
Send carbon copies to a list of users. CC_EMAIL_ADDRESS should be a comma-separated list of emails.
--use-default-cc
Add the addresses specified in the configuation file option BTS_DEFAULT_CC to the list specified using --cc-addr. This is the default.
--no-use-default-cc
Do not add addresses specified in BTS_DEFAULT_CC to the carbon copy list.
--sendmail=SENDMAILCMD
Specify the sendmail command. The command will be split on white space and will not be passed to a shell. Default is '/usr/sbin/sendmail'. The -t option will be automatically added if the command is /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/sbin/exim*. For other mailers, if they require a -t option, this must be included in the SENDMAILCMD, for example: --sendmail="/usr/sbin/mymailer -t"
--smtp-host=SMTPHOST

Specify an SMTP host. If given, bts will send mail by talking directly to this SMTP host rather than by invoking a sendmail command.

The host name may be followed by a colon (":") and a port number in order to use a port other than the default. It may also begin with "ssmtp://" or "smtps://" to indicate that SMTPS should be used.

Note that when sending directly via an SMTP host, specifying addresses in --cc-addr or BTS_DEFAULT_CC that the SMTP host will not relay will cause the SMTP host to reject the entire mail.

--smtp-username=USERNAME, --smtp-password=PASSWORD

Specify the credentials to use when connecting to the SMTP server specified by --smtp-host. If the server does not require authentication then these options should not be used.

If a username is specified but not a password, bts will prompt for the password before sending the mail.

-f, --force-refresh
Download a bug report again, even if it does not appear to have changed since the last cache command. Useful if a --cache-mode=full is requested for the first time (otherwise unchanged bug reports will not be downloaded again, even if the boring bits have not been downloaded).
--no-force-refresh
Suppress any configuration file --force-refresh option.
--only-new
Download only new bugs when caching. Do not check for updates in bugs we already have.
--include-resolved
When caching bug reports, include those that are marked as resolved. This is the default behaviour.
--no-include-resolved
Reverse the behaviour of the previous option. That is, do not cache bugs that are marked as resolved.
--no-ack
Suppress acknowledgment mails from the BTS. Note that this will only affect the copies of messages CCed to bugs, not those sent to the control bot.
--ack
Do not suppress acknowledgement mails. This is the default behaviour.
-i, --interactive
Before sending an e-mail to the control bot, display the content and allow it to be edited, or the sending cancelled.
--force-interactive
Similar to --interactive, with the exception that an editor is spawned before prompting for confirmation of the message to be sent.
--no-interactive
Send control e-mails without confirmation. This is the default behaviour.
-q, --quiet
When running bts cache, only display information about newly cached pages, not messages saying already cached. If this option is specified twice, only output error messages (to stderr).
--no-conf, --noconf
Do not read any configuration files. This can only be used as the first option given on the command-line.

COMMANDS

For full details about the commands, see the BTS documentation. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/server-control

show [options] [<bug number> | <package> | <maintainer> | : ] [opt=val ...]
show [options] [src:<package> | from:<submitter>] [opt=val ...]
show [options] [tag:<tag> | usertag:<tag> ] [opt=val ...]
show [release-critical | release-critical/... | RC]

This is a synonym for bts bugs.

bugs [options] [<bug number> | <package> | <maintainer> | : ] [opt=val ..]
bugs [options] [src:<package> | from:<submitter>] [opt=val ..]
bugs [options] [tag:<tag> | usertag:<tag> ] [opt=val ..]
bugs [release-critical | release-critical/... | RC]

Display the page listing the requested bugs in a web browser using sensible-browser(1).

Options may be specified after the "bugs" command in addition to or instead of options at the start of the command line: recognised options at his point are: -o/--offline/--online, --mbox, --mailreader and --[no-]cache. These are described earlier in this manpage. If either the -o or --offline option is used, or there is already an up-to-date copy in the local cache, the cached version will be used.

The meanings of the possible arguments are as follows:

(none)
If nothing is specified, bts bugs will display your bugs, assuming that either DEBEMAIL or EMAIL (examined in that order) is set to the appropriate email address.
<bug number>
Display bug number <bug number>.
<package>
Display the bugs for the package <package>.
src:<package>
Display the bugs for the source package <package>.
<maintainer>
Display the bugs for the maintainer email address <maintainer>.
from:<submitter>
Display the bugs for the submitter email address <submitter>.
tag:<tag>
Display the bugs which are tagged with <tag>.
usertag:<tag>
Display the bugs which are tagged with usertag <tag>. See the BTS documentation for more information on usertags. This will require the use of a users=<email> option.
:
Details of the bug tracking system itself, along with a bug-request page with more options than this script, can be found on http://bugs.debian.org/. This page itself will be opened if the command 'bts bugs :' is used.
release-critical, RC
Display the front page of the release-critical pages on the BTS. This is a synonym for http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/index.html. It is also possible to say release-critical/debian/main.html and the like. RC is a synonym for release-critical/other/all.html.

After the argument specifying what to display, you can optionally specify options to use to format the page or change what it displayed. These are passed to the BTS in the URL downloaded. For example, pass dist=stable to see bugs affecting the stable version of a package, version=1.0 to see bugs affecting that version of a package, or reverse=yes to display newest messages first in a bug log.

If caching has been enabled (that is, --no-cache has not been used, and BTS_CACHE has not been set to "no"), then any page requested by "bts show" will automatically be cached, and be available offline thereafter. Pages which are automatically cached in this way will be deleted on subsequent "bts show|bugs|cache" invocations if they have not been accessed in 30 days.

Any other bts commands following this on the command line will be executed after the browser has been exited.

The desired browser can be specified and configured by setting the BROWSER environment variable. The conventions follow those defined by Eric Raymond at http://www.catb.org/~esr/BROWSER/; we here reproduce the relevant part.

The value of BROWSER may consist of a colon-separated series of browser command parts. These should be tried in order until one succeeds. Each command part may optionally contain the string "%s"; if it does, the URL to be viewed is substituted there. If a command part does not contain %s, the browser is to be launched as if the URL had been supplied as its first argument. The string %% must be substituted as a single %.

Rationale: We need to be able to specify multiple browser commands so programs obeying this convention can do the right thing in either X or console environments, trying X first. Specifying multiple commands may also be useful for people who share files like .profile across multiple systems. We need %s because some popular browsers have remote-invocation syntax that requires it. Unless %% reduces to %, it won't be possible to have a literal %s in the string.

For example, on most Linux systems a good thing to do would be:

BROWSER='mozilla -raise -remote "openURL(%s,new-window)":links'

select [key:value ...]

Uses the SOAP interface to output a list of bugs which match the given selection requirements.

The following keys are allowed, and may be given multiple times.

package
Binary package name.
source
Source package name.
maintainer
E-mail address of the maintainer.
submitter
E-mail address of the submitter.
severity
Bug severity.
status
Status of the bug.
tag
Tags applied to the bug. If users is specified, may include usertags in addition to the standard tags.
owner
Bug's owner.
bugs
List of bugs to search within.
users
Users to use when looking up usertags.
archive
Whether to search archived bugs or normal bugs; defaults to 0 (i.e. only search normal bugs). As a special case, if archive is 'both', both archived and unarchived bugs are returned.

For example, to select the set of bugs submitted by jrandomdeveloper@example.com and tagged wontfix, one would use

bts select submitter:jrandomdeveloper@example.com tag:wontfix

clone <bug> [new IDs]

The clone control command allows you to duplicate a bug report. It is useful in the case where a single report actually indicates that multiple distinct bugs have occurred. "New IDs" are negative numbers, separated by spaces, which may be used in subsequent control commands to refer to the newly duplicated bugs. A new report is generated for each new ID.

reopen <bug> [<submitter>]

Reopen a bug, with optional submitter.

archive <bug>

Archive a bug that has previously been archived but is currently not. The bug must fulfil all of the requirements for archiving with the exception of those that are time-based.

unarchive <bug>

Unarchive a bug that is currently archived.

retitle <bug> <title>

Change the title of the bug.

submitter <bug> [<bug> ...] <submitter-email>

Change the submitter address of a bug or a number of bugs, with `!' meaning `use the address on the current email as the new submitter address'.

reassign <bug> [<bug> ...] <package> [<version>]

Reassign a bug or a number of bugs to a different package. The version field is optional; see the explanation at http://www.debian.org/Bugs/server-control.

found <bug> [<version>]

Indicate that a bug was found to exist in a particular package version.

notfound <bug> <version>

Remove the record that bug was encountered in the given version of the package to which it is assigned.

fixed <bug> <version>

Indicate that a bug was fixed in a particular package version, without affecting the bug's open/closed status.

notfixed <bug> <version>

Remove the record that a bug was fixed in the given version of the package to which it is assigned.

This is equivalent to the sequence of commands "found <bug> <version>", "notfound <bug> <version>".

block <bug> by|with <bug> [<bug> ...]

Note that a bug is blocked from being fixed by a set of other bugs.

unblock <bug> by|with <bug> [<bug> ...]

Note that a bug is no longer blocked from being fixed by a set of other bugs.

merge <bug> <bug> [<bug> ...]

Merge a set of bugs together.

forcemerge <bug> <bug> [<bug> ...]

Forcibly merge a set of bugs together. The first bug listed is the master bug, and its settings (those which must be equal in a normal merge) are assigned to the bugs listed next.

unmerge <bug>

Unmerge a bug.

tag <bug> [+|-|=] tag [tag ..]
tags <bug> [+|-|=] tag [tag ..]

Set or unset a tag on a bug. The tag may either be the exact tag name or it may be abbreviated to any unique tag substring. (So using "fixed" will set the tag "fixed", not "fixed-upstream", for example, but "fix" would not be acceptable.) Multiple tags may be specified as well. The two commands (tag and tags) are identical. At least one tag must be specified, unless the '=' flag is used, where the command

  bts tags <bug> =

will remove all tags from the specified bug.

user <email>

Specify a user email address before using the usertags command.

usertag <bug> [+|-|=] tag [tag ..]
usertags <bug> [+|-|=] tag [tag ..]

Set or unset a user tag on a bug. The tag must be the exact tag name wanted; there are no defaults or checking of tag names. Multiple tags may be specified as well. The two commands (usertag and usertags) are identical. At least one tag must be specified, unless the '=' flag is used, where the command

  bts usertags <bug> =

will remove all user tags from the specified bug.

claim <bug> [<claim>]

Record that you have claimed a bug (e.g. for a bug squashing party).

If no claim is specified, the environment variable DEBEMAIL or EMAIL (checked in that order) is used.

unclaim <bug> [<claim>]

Remove the record that you have claimed a bug.

If no claim is specified, the environment variable DEBEMAIL or EMAIL (checked in that order) is used.

severity <bug> <severity>

Change the severity of a bug. Available severities are: wishlist, minor, normal, important, serious, grave, critical. The severity may be abbreviated to any unique substring.

forwarded <bug> <address>

Mark the bug as forwarded to the given address (usually an email address or a URL for an upstream bug tracker).

notforwarded <bug>

Mark a bug as not forwarded.

package [ <package> ... ]

The following commands will only apply to bugs against the listed packages; this acts as a safety mechanism for the BTS. If no packages are listed, this check is turned off again.

owner <bug> <owner-email>

Change the "owner" address of a bug, with `!' meaning `use the address on the current email as the new owner address'.

The owner of a bug accepts responsibility for dealing with it. Note that the "owner" of a bug does not automatically receive all of the email corresponding to it; use "subscribe" to achieve that.

noowner <bug>

Mark a bug as having no "owner".

subscribe <bug> <email>

Subscribe the given email address to the specified bug report. If no email address is specified, the environment variable DEBEMAIL or EMAIL (in that order) is used. If those are not set, or `!' is given as email address, your default address will be used.

After executing this command, you will be sent a subscription confirmation to which you have to reply. When subscribed to a bug report, you receive all relevant emails and notifications. Use the unsubscribe command to unsubscribe.

unsubscribe <bug> <email>

Unsubscribe the given email address from the specified bug report. As with subscribe above, if no email address is specified, the environment variables DEBEMAIL or EMAIL (in that order) is used. If those are not set, or `!' is given as email address, your default address will be used.

After executing this command, you will be sent an unsubscription confirmation to which you have to reply. Use the subscribe command to, well, subscribe.

reportspam <bug> ...

The reportspam command allows you to report a bug report as containing spam. It saves one from having to go to the bug web page to do so.

spamreport <bug> ...

spamreport is a synonym for reportspam.

cache [options] [<maint email> | <pkg> | src:<pkg> | from:<submitter>]
cache [options] [release-critical | release-critical/... | RC]

Generate or update a cache of bug reports for the given email address or package. By default it downloads all bugs belonging to the email address in the DEBEMAIL environment variable (or the EMAIL environment variable if DEBEMAIL is unset). This command may be repeated to cache bugs belonging to several people or packages. If multiple packages or addresses are supplied, bugs belonging to any of the arguments will be cached; those belonging to more than one of the arguments will only be downloaded once. The cached bugs are stored in ~/.devscripts_cache/bts/

You can use the cached bugs with the -o switch. For example:

  bts -o bugs
  bts -o show 12345

Also, bts will update the files in it in a piecemeal fashion as it downloads information from the BTS using the 'show' command. You might thus set up the cache, and update the whole thing once a week, while letting the automatic cache updates update the bugs you frequently refer to during the week.

Some options affect the behaviour of the cache command. The first is the setting of --cache-mode, which controls how much bts downloads of the referenced links from the bug page, including boring bits such as the acknowledgement emails, emails to the control bot, and the mbox version of the bug report. It can take three values: min (the minimum), mbox (download the minimum plus the mbox version of the bug report) or full (the whole works). The second is --force-refresh or -f, which forces the download, even if the cached bug report is up-to-date. The --include-resolved option indicates whether bug reports marked as resolved should be downloaded during caching.

Each of these is configurable from the configuration file, as described below. They may also be specified after the "cache" command as well as at the start of the command line.

Finally, -q or --quiet will suppress messages about caches being up-to-date, and giving the option twice will suppress all cache messages (except for error messages).

Beware of caching RC, though: it will take a LONG time! (With 1000+ RC bugs and a delay of 5 seconds between bugs, you're looking at a minimum of 1.5 hours, and probably significantly more than that.)

cleancache <package> | src:<package> | <maintainer>
cleancache from:<submitter> | tag:<tag> | usertag:<tag> | <number> | ALL

Clean the cache for the specified package, maintainer, etc., as described above for the "bugs" command, or clean the entire cache if "ALL" is specified. This is useful if you are going to have permanent network access or if the database has become corrupted for some reason. Note that for safety, this command does not default to the value of DEBEMAIL or EMAIL.

version

Display version and copyright information.

help

Display a short summary of commands, suspiciously similar to parts of this man page.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

DEBEMAIL
If this is set, the From: line in the email will be set to use this email address instead of your normal email address (as would be determined by mail).
DEBFULLNAME
If DEBEMAIL is set, DEBFULLNAME is examined to determine the full name to use; if this is not set, bts attempts to determine a name from your passwd entry.
BROWSER
If set, it specifies the browser to use for the 'show' and 'bugs' options. See the description above.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

The two configuration files /etc/devscripts.conf and ~/.devscripts are sourced by a shell in that order to set configuration variables. Command line options can be used to override configuration file settings. Environment variable settings are ignored for this purpose. The currently recognised variables are:

BTS_OFFLINE
If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the --offline command line parameter being used. Only has an effect on the show and bugs commands. The default is no. See the description of the show command above for more information.
BTS_CACHE
If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-cache command line parameter being used. Only has an effect on the show and bug commands. The default is yes. Again, see the show command above for more information.
BTS_CACHE_MODE={min,mbox,full}
How much of the BTS should we mirror when we are asked to cache something? Just the minimum, or also the mbox or the whole thing? The default is min, and it has the same meaning as the --cache-mode command line parameter. Only has an effect on the cache. See the cache command for more information.
BTS_FORCE_REFRESH
If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the --force-refresh command line parameter being used. Only has an effect on the cache command. The default is no. See the cache command for more information.
BTS_MAIL_READER
If this is set, specifies a mail reader to use instead of mutt. Same as the --mailreader command line option.
BTS_SENDMAIL_COMMAND
If this is set, specifies a sendmail command to use instead of /usr/sbin/sendmail. Same as the --sendmail command line option.
BTS_ONLY_NEW
Download only new bugs when caching. Do not check for updates in bugs we already have.
BTS_SMTP_HOST

If this is set, specifies an SMTP host to use for sending mail rather than using the sendmail command. Same as the --smtp-host command line option.

Note that this option takes priority over BTS_SENDMAIL_COMMAND if both are set, unless the --sendmail option is used.

BTS_SMTP_AUTH_USERNAME, BTS_SMTP_AUTH_PASSWORD
If these options are set, then it is the same as the --smtp-username and --smtp-password options being used.
BTS_INCLUDE_RESOLVED
If this is set to no, then it is the same as the --no-include-resolved command line parameter being used. Only has an effect on the cache command. The default is yes. See the cache command for more information.
BTS_SUPPRESS_ACKS
If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the --no-acks command line parameter being used. The default is no.
BTS_INTERACTIVE
If this is set to yes or force, then it is the same as the --interactive or --force-interactive command line parameter being used. The default is no.
BTS_DEFAULT_CC
Specify a list of e-mail addresses to which a carbon copy of the generated e-mail to the control bot should automatically be sent.

SEE ALSO

Please see http://www.debian.org/Bugs/server-control for more details on how to control the BTS using emails and http://www.debian.org/Bugs/ for more information about the BTS.

reportbug(1), querybts(1)

COPYRIGHT

This program is Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>. Many modifications have been made, Copyright (C) 2002-2005 Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org> and Copyright (C) 2007 Josh Triplett <josh@freedesktop.org>.

It is licensed under the terms of the GPL, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.