Introduction to the bug control and manipulation mailserver

   Just as request@bugs.debian.org allows the retrieval of bug data and
   documentation by email, control@bugs.debian.org allows bug reports to
   be manipulated in various ways.

   The control server works just like the request server, except that it
   has some additional commands; in fact, it's the same program. The two
   addresses are only separated to avoid users making mistakes and
   causing problems while merely trying to request information.

   Since the commands specific to the control server actually change the
   status of a bug, a notification about processing the commands is sent
   to the maintainer of the package(s) the changed bugs are assigned to.
   Additionally the mail to the server and the resulting changes are
   logged in the bug report and thereby available in the WWW pages.

   Please see the introduction to the request server available on the
   World Wide Web, in the file bug-log-mailserver.txt, or by sending help
   to either mailserver, for details of the basics of operating the
   mailservers and the common commands available when mailing either
   address.

   The reference card for the mailservers is available via the WWW, in
   bug-mailserver-refcard.txt or by email using the refcard command.

Commands available at the control mailserver

                    General     Versioning Duplicates Misc.

   reassign
   severity
   tag
   retitle
   submitter

   found | notfound
   fixed | notfixed
   reopen

   merge | unmerge
   forcemerge
   clone

   thanks
   #
   forwarded | notforwarded
   owner | noowner
   block | unblock
   archive | unarchive

   reassign bugnumber package [ version ]
          Records that bug #bugnumber is a bug in package. This can be
          used to set the package if the user forgot the pseudo-header,
          or to change an earlier assignment. No notifications are sent
          to anyone (other than the usual information in the processing
          transcript).

          If you supply a version, the bug tracking system will note that
          the bug affects that version of the newly-assigned package.

          You can assign a bug to two packages at once by separating the
          package names with a comma. However, you should only do this if
          the bug can be fixed by a change to either package. If this is
          not the case, you should clone the bug and reassign the clone
          to the other package.

   reopen bugnumber [ originator-address | = | ! ]
          Reopens #bugnumber if it is closed.

          By default, or if you specify =, the original submitter is
          still as the originator of the report, so that they will get
          the ack when it is closed again.

          If you supply an originator-address the originator will be set
          to the address you supply. If you wish to become the new
          originator of the reopened report you can use the ! shorthand
          or specify your own email address.

          It is usually a good idea to tell the person who is about to be
          recorded as the originator that you're reopening the report, so
          that they will know to expect the ack which they'll get when it
          is closed again.

          If the bug is not closed then reopen won't do anything, not
          even change the originator. To change the originator of an open
          bug report, use the submitter command; note that this will
          inform the original submitter of the change.

          If the bug was recorded as being closed in a particular version
          of a package but recurred in a later version, it is better to
          use the found command instead.

   found bugnumber [ version ]
          Record that #bugnumber has been encountered in the given
          version of the package to which it is assigned.

          The bug tracking system uses this information, in conjunction
          with fixed versions recorded when closing bugs, to display
          lists of bugs open in various versions of each package. It
          considers a bug to be open when it has no fixed version, or
          when it has been found more recently than it has been fixed.

          If no version is given, then the list of fixed versions for the
          bug is cleared. This is identical to the behaviour of reopen.

          This command will only cause a bug to be marked as not done if
          no version is specified, or if the version being marked found
          is equal to the version which was last marked fixed. (If you
          are certain that you want the bug marked as not done, use
          reopen in conjunction with found.)

          This command was introduced in preference to reopen because it
          was difficult to add a version to that command's syntax without
          suffering ambiguity.

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

          This differs from closing the bug at that version in that the
          bug is not listed as fixed in that version either; no
          information about that version will be known. It is intended
          for fixing mistakes in the record of when a bug was found.

   fixed bugnumber version
          Indicate that bug #bugnumber was fixed in the given version of
          the package to which it is assigned.

          This does not cause the bug to be marked as closed, it merely
          adds another version in which the bug was fixed. Use the
          bugnumber-done address to close a bug and mark it fixed in a
          particular version.

   notfixed bugnumber version
          Remove the record that bug #bugnumber has been fixed in the
          given version.

          This command is equivalent to found followed by notfound (the
          found removes the fixed at a particular version, and notfound
          removes the found.)

   submitter bugnumber originator-address | !
          Changes the originator of #bugnumber to originator-address.

          If you wish to become the new originator of the report you can
          use the ! shorthand or specify your own email address.

          While the reopen command changes the originator of other bugs
          merged with the one being reopened, submitter does not affect
          merged bugs.

   forwarded bugnumber address
          Notes that bugnumber has been forwarded to the upstream
          maintainer at address. This does not actually forward the
          report. This can be used to change an existing incorrect
          forwarded-to address, or to record a new one for a bug that
          wasn't previously noted as having been forwarded.

   notforwarded bugnumber
          Forgets any idea that bugnumber has been forwarded to any
          upstream maintainer. If the bug was not recorded as having been
          forwarded then this will do nothing.

   retitle bugnumber new-title
          Changes the title of a bug report to that specified (the
          default is the Subject mail header from the original report).

          Unlike most of the other bug-manipulation commands when used on
          one of a set of merged reports this will change the title of
          only the individual bug requested, and not all those with which
          it is merged.

   severity bugnumber severity
          Set the severity level for bug report #bugnumber to severity.
          No notification is sent to the user who reported the bug.

          Severities are critical, grave, serious, important, normal,
          minor, and wishlist.

          For their meanings please consult the general developers'
          documentation for the bug system.

   clone bugnumber NewID [ 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.

          Example usage:

          clone 12345 -1 -2
          reassign -1 foo
          retitle -1 foo: foo sucks
          reassign -2 bar
          retitle -2 bar: bar sucks when used with foo
          severity -2 wishlist
          clone 123456 -3
          reassign -3 foo
          retitle -3 foo: foo sucks
          merge -1 -3

   merge bugnumber bugnumber ...
          Merges two or more bug reports. When reports are merged
          opening, closing, marking or unmarking as forwarded and
          reassigning any of the bugs to a new package will have an
          identical effect on all of the merged reports.

          Before bugs can be merged they must be in exactly the same
          state: either all open or all closed, with the same
          forwarded-to upstream author address or all not marked as
          forwarded, all assigned to the same package or package(s) (an
          exact string comparison is done on the package to which the bug
          is assigned), and all of the same severity. If they don't start
          out in the same state you should use reassign, reopen and so
          forth to make sure that they are before using merge. Titles are
          not required to match, and will not be affected by the merge.
          Tags are not required to match, either, they will be joined.

          If any of the bugs listed in a merge command is already merged
          with another bug then all the reports merged with any of the
          ones listed will all be merged together. Merger is like
          equality: it is reflexive, transitive and symmetric.

          Merging reports causes a note to appear on each report's logs;
          on the WWW pages this is includes links to the other bugs.

          Merged reports are all expired simultaneously, and only when
          all of the reports each separately meet the criteria for
          expiry.

   forcemerge bugnumber bugnumber ...
          Forcibly merges two or more bug reports. The first bug listed
          is the master bug, and its settings (the settings which must be
          equal in a normal merge) are assigned to the bugs listed next.
          To avoid typos erroneously merging bugs, bugs must be in the
          same package. See the text above for a description of what
          merging means.

          Note that this makes it possible to close bugs by merging; you
          are responsible for notifying submitters with an appropriate
          close message if you do this.

   unmerge bugnumber
          Disconnects a bug report from any other reports with which it
          may have been merged. If the report listed is merged with
          several others then they are all left merged with each other;
          only their associations with the bug explicitly named are
          removed.

          If many bug reports are merged and you wish to split them into
          two separate groups of merged reports you must unmerge each
          report in one of the new groups separately and then merge them
          into the required new group.

          You can only unmerge one report with each unmerge command; if
          you want to disconnect more than one bug simply include several
          unmerge commands in your message.

   tags bugnumber [ + | - | = ] tag [ tag ... ]
          Sets tags for the bug report #bugnumber. No notification is
          sent to the user who reported the bug. Setting the action to +
          means to add each given tag, - means to remove each given tag,
          and = means to ignore the current tags and set them afresh to
          the list provided. The default action is adding.

          Example usage:

          # same as 'tags 123456 + patch'
          tags 123456 patch

          # same as 'tags 123456 + help security'
          tags 123456 help security

          # add 'fixed' and 'pending' tags
          tags 123456 + fixed pending

          # remove 'unreproducible' tag
          tags 123456 - unreproducible

          # set tags to exactly 'moreinfo' and 'unreproducible'
          tags 123456 = moreinfo unreproducible

          Available tags currently include patch, wontfix, moreinfo,
          unreproducible, help, pending, fixed, fixed-in-experimental,
          fixed-upstream, security, upstream, confirmed, d-i, ipv6, lfs,
          l10n, potato, woody, sarge, sarge-ignore, etch, etch-ignore,
          sid, and experimental.

          For their meanings please consult the general developers'
          documentation for the bug system.

   block bugnumber by bug ...
          Note that the fix for the first bug is blocked by the other
          listed bugs.

   unblock bugnumber by bug ...
          Note that the fix for the first bug is no longer blocked by the
          other listed bugs.

   close bugnumber [ fixed-version ] (deprecated)
          Close bug report #bugnumber.

          A notification is sent to the user who reported the bug, but
          (in contrast to mailing bugnumber-done@bugs.debian.org) the
          text of the mail which caused the bug to be closed is not
          included in that notification. The maintainer who closes a
          report needs to ensure, probably by sending a separate message,
          that the user who reported the bug knows why it is being
          closed. The use of this command is therefore deprecated. See
          the developer's information about how to close a bug properly.

          If you supply a fixed-version, the bug tracking system will
          note that the bug was fixed in that version of the package.

   package [ packagename ... ]
          Limits the following commands so that they will only apply to
          bugs filed against the listed packages. You can list one or
          more packages. If you don't list any packages, the following
          commands will apply to all bugs. You're encouraged to use this
          as a safety feature in case you accidentally use the wrong bug
          numbers.

          Example usage:

          package foo
          reassign 123456 bar 1.0-1

          package bar
          retitle 123456 bar: bar sucks
          severity 123456 normal

          package
          severity 234567 wishlist

   owner bugnumber address | !
          Sets address to be the "owner" of #bugnumber. The owner of a
          bug claims responsibility for fixing it. This is useful to
          share out work in cases where a package has a team of
          maintainers.

          If you wish to become the owner of the bug yourself, you can
          use the ! shorthand or specify your own email address.

   noowner bugnumber
          Forgets any idea that the bug has an owner other than the usual
          maintainer. If the bug had no owner recorded then this will do
          nothing.

   archive bugnumber
          Archives a bug that had been archived at some point in the past
          but is currently not archived if the bug fulfills the
          requirements for archival, ignoring time.

   unarchive bugnumber
          Unarchives a bug that was previously archived. Unarchival
          should generally be coupled with reopen and found/fixed as
          appropriate. Bugs that have been unarchived can be archived
          using archive assuming the non-time based archival requirements
          are met.

   #...
          One-line comment. The # must be at the start of the line. The
          text of comments will be included in the acknowledgement sent
          to the sender and to affected maintainers, so you can use this
          to document the reasons for your commands.

   quit
   stop
   thank
   thanks
   thankyou
   thank you
   --
          On a line by itself, in any case, possibly followed by
          whitespace, tells the control server to stop processing the
          message; the remainder of the message can include explanations,
          signatures or anything else, none of it will be detected by the
          control server.
     _________________________________________________________________

    Debian BTS administrators <owner@bugs.debian.org>

   Debian bug tracking system
   Copyright © 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997, 2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
   1994-1997 Ian Jackson.
     _________________________________________________________________

