Methods of accessing the bug tracking system logs
Accessing active bug reports
Each message received at or sent by the bug processing system is logged and made available in a number of ways.
The primary access method is to use the web pages. See the
forms on the main BTS page at
https://bugs.debian.org/
There is a mailserver which can send
bug reports as plain text on request. To use it send the word
help
as the sole contents of an email to
[email protected]
(the Subject
of the
message is ignored), or read the instructions on
the World Wide Web or in the file bug-log-mailserver.txt
.
Accessing archived bug reports
Each closed bug report is archived 28 days after the last message
relating to it is received and filed. This means that it is no longer
possible to access it or change anything about it using the
control
and service
bots. However, the
reports are still accessible for viewing.
You can search the bug report archive using the WWW
forms at https://bugs.debian.org/
, simply select the
archived bugs
option.
Note that it doesn't contain the oldest closed bug reports, only those after #40000, approximately.
Accessing the raw bug data
If you need to get hold of the raw data used by the bug tracking system, you can mirror it using rsync from bugs-mirror.debian.org. The relevant modules are bts-spool-db (for the active bug spool), bts-spool-archive (for bugs that have been closed for a while and thus archived), and bts-spool-index (for the bug index files).
As of July 2023, the active spool is about 21GB and the archived spool is about 124GB. If you only need a sample for testing purposes, please consider downloading only part of the active spool rather than the whole thing.
Please do not rely on *.status files in the bug spools, as they are obsolete, for compatibility purposes only, and will be removed at some point in the future. Use the *.summary files instead.
Other BTS pages:
- Bug tracking system main contents page.
- Instructions for reporting bugs.
- Accessing the bug tracking system logs.
- Information for developers on the bug tracking system.
- Developers' information on manipulation of bugs using the e-mail control interface.
- Mailservers' reference card.
- Requesting bug reports by e-mail.
Debian BTS administrators <[email protected]>
Debian bug tracking system
Copyright © 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997, 2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-1997 Ian Jackson.