This document answers some frequently asked questions concerning gnats, the gnu problem report management system, and related software. The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnats/doc/faq/gnats-faq.html.
The questions and answers have been compiled by Hans-Albert Schneider, mainly using the help-gnats mailing list and the gnats documentation as input. Please report any errors and suggestions to him.
gnats is the gnu problem report management system. Problem report management systems are also known as "bug-tracking systems", though the entries need not be bugs (e.g., think of change requests). The acronym stands for "GNats: A Tracking System".
gnats stores all information about the problem reports at a central site, and enables users to access this site by various means, including e-mail, WWW, and a network daemon. New problem reports can be created, and existing reports can be queried and updated, by most of these means.
gnats is widely customizable: Of course you can define report categories (is the report about tool A or service B?), responsibles (who takes care of this report?), and submitters (is it from customer1 or from the sales department?). You can also define possible states of a report (open, analyzed, closed, etc.) and classes (software bug, documentation bug, change request, ...).
Starting with gnats 4.0, you can define your own custom fields, and customize many of the built-in fields; you can have fields automatically set to a certain value when another field changes its contents (e.g., set a "Closed-Date" field to the current date when the report goes to state "closed", and unset it when it goes back from "closed" to something else), or when the report is changed at all (e.g., to maintain a "Last-Modified" field).
Users enter their problem reports (PRs) via some front-end. This front-end either directly contacts the gnats server, or sends the report via e-mail. (The server is available since about version 3.90 of gnats). For an incomplete list of front-ends see Clients.
Some front-ends (like TkGnats, see TkGnats) are capable of contacting several gnats servers, or several problem report databases managed by the same gnats server.
The server is started by a super-server like inetd or xinetd. It has a built-in access control mechanism based on IP addresses and username/password.
For users sending their PRs via e-mail, some mail addresses must be configured.
Q: So, How can I pronounce "gnats?" Should I pronounce "G"?
It has been reported that the original developers pronounced the "G". (This is unlike the little insect called "gnat" where the "G" is not pronounced.)
See the gnats home page at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnats/.
The current development version is available via CVS only, see the gnu savannah gnats project page for the instructions how to get it.
The version numbers of gnats 3.x is somewhat confusing, because 3.1xx is newer than 3.2.
Version 3.2 was released in 1993 (I never tried it, but it is said to be "really broken"). A lot of new features have been added since 3.2, including multiple database support and customized fields. Among the contributed software are comprehensive WWW and Tk based front-ends.
The latest 3.x release is 3.113.1. It is deprecated due to security concerns and lack of maintenance.
gnats 4.0 was released in August 2003, and 4.1 was released in March 2005. All released versions are available for download at http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gnats/.
Currently, the following gnats mailing lists exist:
Lists that are of interest mainly for the gnats developers:
>Audit-Trail:
field).
Before reporting a bug, make sure it really is a bug, not a simple misunderstanding or a misconfiguration. Please check the manual and this FAQ. You may also ask for help on the help-gnats@gnu.org mailing list (you may want to search the list archive first; it is available from http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnats).
If it is a bug, please report it via the bug tracking system. It resides at http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=gnats. This is a common bug database for gnats, Gnatsweb and TkGnats. (And, yes, of course: It uses gnats and Gnatsweb.)
When you report problems concerning gnats itself, please do not forget to provide especially the following information:
Providing this information in the initial report avoids further unnecessary communication, saves the limited resources of the developers (keep in mind that they are working on gnats and friends in their spare time) and helps to track down and fix the problem soon.
See Upgrading from older versions (Keeping Track) for the upgrade process from 3.x to 4.x.
If you are running a 3.x version, please consider upgrading to 4.0. There are some security concerns about the 3.1xx code that have gone with 4.0. Furthermore, the gnats 3 branch is not maintained anymore due to lack of capacity.
The default format of the reports has not changed during the transition from 3.113.1 to 4.0, though you may add more fields to 4.0 reports (and leave out others). The format of the index file is now binary.
However, you have to change the e-mail aliases because the meaning of the -d option to the client programs has changed: It took the directory of the gnats database in 3.1xx, and now takes its name (plus, it is now installed into the libexec directory instead of the lib directory). I.e., you must change the aliases:
# GNATS 3 aliases: ourdb-query: "|/usr/local/lib/gnats/mail-query -d /usr/local/gnats/db2" ourdb-bugs: "|/usr/local/lib/gnats/queue-pr -d /usr/local/gnats/db2 -q"
to
# GNATS 4 aliases: ourdb-query: "|/usr/local/libexec/gnats/mail-query -d ourdb" ourdb-bugs: "|/usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr -d ourdb -q"
Also note that the client/server protocol has changed from 3.1xx to 4.0; you cannot run clients from one version with the server from the other version.
As installation and configuration problems often overlap, please check also Configuration.
Q: I have installed gnats 3.999.x and Gnatsweb 2.9.x, and I cannot get them work together.
Symptoms are that "make test" fails; if Gnatsweb is installed nevertheless, it hangs when trying to login into the gnats server.
A: The versions are incompatible. Gnatsweb 2.9.x is for use with gnats 3.113.1. With gnats 3.999.x, you must use Gnatsweb 3.99.x; it is in the contrib subdirectory of the gnats distribution. (gnats 3.999.x/Gnatsweb 3.99.x were pre-releases of the 4.0 releases. As 4.0 is out now, you may consider to upgrade to the non-pre versions.)
For gnats 4.x, use Gnatsweb 4.0 or greater.
A: (gnats 3.1xx) (Please consider upgrading to gnats 4.0 or greater.)
Note that there must be a category named pending
. It is
used when no category is given in a report, and when a report names an
invalid category.
Also note that each database needs its own mail address for submissions (see also step 8 below), and that you must enter it in the file config.
Run the program gen-index
to create the index file
(see Regenerating the index (Keeping Track)).
Find the greatest report number and put it (or any larger number) into /usr/local/gnats/db2/gnats-adm/current.
Caution: E-mail updates to the PRs you moved to the new database may still arrive at the old database. You may want to contact everybody who knows about these PRs, asking them to use the mail address of the new database when sending a follow-up.
/usr/local/gnats/db2:GreatNewDB
Gnatsd reads it on startup (and as it is started by inetd, this means it becomes effective with the next connection to gnatsd). Gnatsweb (see Gnatsweb) learns the database list from gnatsd, so it will offer you the new database "GreatNewDB" when it is invoked next time.
If you do not know where gnats-db.conf lives, run:
strings /where/ever/gnatsd | grep gnats-db.conf
/usr/local/lib/gnats/queue-pr -d /usr/local/gnats/db2 -r
or, if you prefer the long options,
/usr/local/lib/gnats/queue-pr --directory=/usr/local/gnats/db2 --run
GreatNewDB-bugs: "|/usr/local/lib/gnats/queue-pr -d /usr/local/gnats/db2 -q" GreatNewDB-query: "|/usr/local/lib/gnats/mail-query -d /usr/local/gnats/db2"
If you do not want to allow querying the database by mail, omit the GreatNewDB-query alias.
You usually need the cooperation of a system administrator for this step (if you are not a system administrator yourself, of course).
Make sure that /usr/local/gnats/db2/gnats-adm/config gives the correct mail addresses for GNATS_ADDR (this must be different for each database) and for GNATS_ADMIN (this is probably the same for all databases).
GNATS_ADDR="GreatNewDB-bugs@bugs.example.com" GNATS_ADMIN="gnats-admin@bugs.example.com"
If your gnats sits behind a firewall and needs to exchange mails with the outside world, see also Outgoing mail bounces.
A: (gnats 4.x) With version 4, this has become much easier (see Adding another database (Keeping Track)):
GreatNewDB:Our great tools:/usr/local/gnats/db2
Then, as the gnats user, run mkdb GreatNewDB to create the database. Make sure that the directory (in our example, /usr/local/gnats/db2) can be created by the gnats user.
(Note that there must be a database named default
. It
is used as a fallback by some tools if no database is specified. You
need not use it actively, but you should have run mkdb default.)
Gnatsd reads the file databases on startup (and as it is started by inetd, this means it becomes effective with the next connection to gnatsd). Gnatsweb (see Gnatsweb) learns the database list from gnatsd, so it will offer you the new database "GreatNewDB" when it is invoked next time.
If you do not know where databases lives, run:
strings /where/ever/gnatsd | grep databases
mkcat
anymore in order to
create new category directories in your database—gnats 4
creates them automatically when they are missing. See The dbconfig
file (Keeping Track), for details.
/usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr -d GreatNewDB -r
or, if you prefer the long options,
/usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr --database=GreatNewDB --run
GreatNewDB-bugs: "|/usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr -d GreatNewDB -q" GreatNewDB-query: "|/usr/local/libexec/gnats/mail-query -d GreatNewDB"
If you are updating from gnats 3.1xx, note that the -d option has changed its meaning: it does not give the directory of the database, but its name. (In case you prefer the long form of the option, it is now --database instead of --directory.)
If your gnats sits behind a firewall and needs to exchange mails with the outside world, see also Outgoing mail bounces.
Renaming a category requires to touch every PR in that category, because each report contains the name of its category.
To rename category A
to B
, proceed as follows:
B
.
A
, changing its category to
B
.
This can be done with any gnats client; check the archives
of the help-gnats mailing list for hints about automating
this step.
gen-index
(see Regenerating the index (Keeping Track)) to refresh the index file.
A
. When a follow-up to an
existing PR arrives via e-mail, gnats 4.x checks that both
the category and the PR number indicated in the mail exist (this
is a sanity check).
To reduce the risk of new reports being filed to category
A
, change its description in the categories file to
something like obsolete, use category B
instead.
A: (gnats 3.1xx) The fields and their names are fixed in gnats 3.1xx, so this is not possible.
A: (gnats 4.x) Edit the file dbconfig to reflect your changes.
Note that the PR fields with the builtin-names severity
,
priority
and state
are required if you want automatic
reminders (notify-about-expired-prs = true
). In this case, the
file submitters must also contain a response time.
The severity
field is checked for values critical
and
serious
, and priority
for value high
.
This is currently not configurable.
In 3.xxx versions, gnatsd uses port 1529 by default; as this port is officially assigned to another application (see the list of port numbers maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) it will probably change in 4.x.
If you want/need to run gnatsd on another port, you can change the
default port at compile time (call configure --help
to learn
about compile time configuration options). Most clients also accept
an option or configuration variable to change the port. Don't forget
to tell inetd (or xinetd, or whatever super-server you use) to start
gnatsd on the other port.
Gnatsd is intended to be started by some "super server", like
inetd
or xinetd
. ("Super servers" are sometimes also
called "super daemons".)
This is also described in the gnats manual; see Installing the daemon (Keeping Track).
If your gnatsd will be started by inetd (the "internet daemon"), add the following entry to your /etc/inetd.conf:
# port userid program support stream tcp nowait gnats /usr/local/libexec/gnats/gnatsd gnatsd
and to /etc/services:
support 1529/tcp # GNATS
(You may need to use tabulator characters to separate the fields of
/etc/services.) Then send inetd a hangup signal
(kill -HUP
pid-of-inetd).
You may want to use another port instead of 1529 (see Port Number).
If your gnatsd will be started by xinetd (the "extended internet daemon"), create a file /etc/xinetd.d/support with the following lines (see Installing the daemon (Keeping Track)):
service support { disable = no socket_type = stream protocol = tcp wait = no user = gnats server = /usr/local/libexec/gnats/gnatsd server_args = gnatsd } |
or add theses lines to your xinetd.conf file, whatever is appropriate. The equal signs seem to need spaces around them with some versions of xinetd.
You need to add
support 1529/tcp # GNATS
to /etc/services (it may be necessary to use tabulator
characters to separate the fields), and to tell xinetd to reread its
configuration (kill -HUP
pid-of-xinetd).
Q: When starting gnatsd manually (on the command line), I get 520 You are not on the host access list: stdin (stdin).
A: (gnats 3.1xx) Gnatsd is not intended to be started manually, but via inetd, xinetd, or a similar "super server". When gnatsd is started this way, its stdin and stdout (standard input and standard output streams) are connected to a so called "TCP socket" (one end of the network connection), and from this socket gnatsd learns the IP address of the remote end (and from this it derives the remote host name). When you start gnatsd from the command line, its stdin and stdout are connected to the terminal, and thus gnatsd gets a nonsense value.
You usually need root privileges in order to change the configuration of your "super server". If you don't have them, contact your system administrator.
See Starting gnatsd for inetd and xinetd configuration.
A: (gnats 4.0) This error message should not occur with gnatsd 4.0 anymore, because gnatsd can be started from the command line. However, this probably only makes sense for debugging and diagnosing problems. Furthermore, you need to play the part of the client program yourself (i.e., you must "speak" the gnatsd client protocol).
Q: Gnatsd rejects connections from a remote host with the error message 520 You are not on the host access list.
A: Check the file gnatsd.host_access; if you are using the default locations, this is /usr/local/etc/gnats/gnatsd.host_access. (If you are still using gnats 3.xxx, the file is named gnatsd.conf; its default place is /usr/local/etc/gnatsd.conf.)
Each line of the file names a host and its access level, separated by colons. Gnatsd tries the lines in turn to match the remote host, and the first line that matches wins.
The first field specifies the host(s); it may be a host name (like goedel.example.com), a partial domain (like *.example.com), an IP address (like 192.168.1.5), or a partial IP address (like 192.168.*). If it is only *, it matches all hosts.
Depending on how IP addresses are mapped to hostnames on your gnatsd machine, you may be able to omit the domain (like in goedel). You may even need to omit the domain for some hosts.
The second field is the access level granted to the remote host. This is usually increased by the access level granted to the user as soon as (s)he logs in.
The third field is currently not used; just leave it empty (but supply the colon between the second and the third field).
Example:
# # This is a comment # # Grant view access to all hosts with IP addresses # ranging from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255: 192.168.*:view: # Users on host goedel.example.com get (at least) edit access: goedel.example.com:edit: # Users from escher.example.com may view all reports, even # confidential ones: escher.example.com:viewconf: # Users from bach.example.com may only view all non-confidential # reports: bach.example.com:view: # Users from other example.com hosts # only get the access specified for them in gnatsd.user_access: *.example.com:none: # Same for domain our-users.example: *.our-users.example:none: # All other hosts are rejected # without even asking for username and password: *:deny: |
The format is described in detail in the comments at the beginning of the file.
Your sendmail installation uses smrsh to check programs that are invoked from a mail alias. smrsh only allows the execution of programs of which it is told that they are save. To tell it that queue-pr is save, create a symbolic link in the directory /etc/smrsh to queue-pr, like this:
mkdir /etc/smrsh # if it does not yet exist
cd /etc/smrsh
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr queue-pr
Replace /usr/local/libexec/gnats/queue-pr by the real path to queue-pr.
You are getting bounce mails like this:
----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to mail.example.com.: >>> MAIL From:<gnats@mymachine.subdomain.example.com> SIZE=334 <<< 501 5.1.8 <gnats@mymachine.subdomain.example.com>... Domain of sender address gnats@mymachine.subdomain.example.com does not exist
Probably your gnats sits behind a firewall, but it needs to exchange mails with the world outside the firewall. Make sure that GNATS_ADDR is valid outside.
This is what probably happens behind the scenes: On its way to the
outside world, the sender address of the mail gets rewritten to
something "official" (like Hans-Albert.Schneider@example.com
, as
opposed to me@mymachine.subdomain.example.com
). This is
especially necessary if the internal hosts are not visible outside. If
your outgoing mail gateway still sees the internal address, it complains
with a message like the above (it has probably checked
mymachine.subdomain.example.com
with your organization's external
DNS server, which does not know mymachine
).
To solve this problem, get an "official" address for your gnats system, e.g., tool-bugs@example.com, and use that one for GNATS_ADDR.
Q: When entering a new PR, I want to assign a value to some field
(e.g., Responsible
) which is normally assigned by gnats.
A: (gnats 3.1xx) This is not possible in gnats 3.1xx.
A: (gnats 4.x) This is done by adding the field name (in this
example, Responsible
) to the initial-entry
item at
the very end of the dbconfig file. Gnatsweb will pick this up
and add a Responsible
field to the Create PR form.
Several client applications can be found in the gnats distribution. The most important are Gnatsweb (a WWW interface to gnats), TkGnats (a Tcl/Tk based interface), a gnats mode for Emacs and XEmacs, and send-pr (the traditional command line interface that sends a PR by e-mail).
See also Gnatsweb and GNATS in the chapter on Installation.
A: If you get an HTML form asking you to enter username, password, and database, use what your gnats administrator has told you. In this case, your authentication data is checked with gnatsd's own user database.
If your browser gives you a window asking for username and password (or for "credentials"), the authentication is done by the WWW server. You should have got the necessary data either from your gnats administrator, or from the webmaster of the site offering Gnatsweb access.
Q: After logging in via Gnatsweb, the main screen is displayed, but whatever action is selected (whatever button is clicked), the login screen gets displayed again.
A: This is usually a problem of cookies getting ignored. Gnatsweb uses cookies to store the login information (see "Gnatsweb and Cookies" below). Configure your web browser to allow the cookies Gnatsweb tries to set.
Q: There is not even the main screen, the user immediately gets the login screen when trying to log in. The login data entered is correct. It works fine on another machine and for other users.
A: This has actually been reported only once; but as the effect is similar to the previous one, it is included in the FAQ. It apparently was related to very strict security settings, but has not been investigated in detail.
Q: Wait a moment! Cookies? Can I eat them?
A: No, not these. The cookies about which we are talking here are little data packages that a web-server sends to your browser (in our case, on behalf of Gnatsweb) and your browser sends them back to the server next time. Modern browsers give you the option to generally accept or reject cookies, or to be asked whenever a cookie arrives (some even can make this decision based on the web-server). To learn more about cookies, visit, e.g., the Cookie Central.
Q: So, which cookies does Gnatsweb send, and why?
A: Gnatsweb uses a cookie gnatsweb-db-
database_name to
store your login information (username, password), and a cookie
gnatsweb-global
to store the gnats database you are working on,
your e-mail address (to fill it in for you when you create a new report
or reply to an existing report), a default list of fields to display in
search results, and defaults for Submitter-Id
and
Originator
fields.
Gnatsweb also sets a cookie for each "saved query" (named
gnatsweb-query-
queryname).
It is therefore essential that you allow Gnatsweb to set its cookies. For a typical effect of rejecting them, see Login Not Remembered.
To be completed.
The Emacs mode is in the file gnats.el
A: (gnats 3.1xx) Yes.
A: (gnats 4.x) Still to be tested.
A simple command line tool that sends a report via electronic mail. This is not contributed software, but part of gnats itself.
The 3.xxx versions do not support multiple databases.
To be completed.
The most common super servers are inetd
(the "InterNET Daemon"
that comes with many UNIX installations) and
xinetd (the "eXtended InterNET Daemon").