Writing clue files

As described in the introductory documentation you can create simple cluefiles with bugxml -a. For more complex search criteria you need to edit the XML files as described here.

The basic clue file created with bugxml has this header:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<clues version="0.1">

and contains a single clue on the form:

  <clue>
    <contains>
      <op>crash</op>
    </contains>
    <info>A CRASHER BUG</info>
  </clue>

and finally closes with:

</clues>

You can add a long list of clues with the <clues> </clues> tag, each with a list of search strings within <op> </op> tags. Each clue also requires an <info> tag to hold a brief description of the bug type. If the clue describes a duplicate then this description would typically be the title of the original bug.

Optional elements

Declaring duplicates: If you create a clue that searches for duplicates of bug #X you can note that specifically in the clue file. Bughelper will then refrain from listing this bug in these searches.

  <dontlist>
    <bug>48355</bug>
  </dontlist>

Inheritance: Clues can be inherited from other clue files. totem can for example inherit clues from gnome and gstreamer:

    <inherits>
        <inherit>gnome</inherit>
        <inherit>gstreamer</inherit>
    </inherits>

Logical operators: You can also combine the logical opperators AND, OR and NOT to create detailed bug searches. Example:

  <clue>
    <contains>
      <and>
        <op>apples</op>
          <or>
            <op>oranges</op>
            <op>pears</op>
          </or>
          <bin=not op>bananas</op>
      </and>
    </contains>
    <info>Bug description must contain 'apples' AND either 'oranges' OR 'pears'. It may not contain 'bananas'.</info>
  </clue>

Examples

Real-life examples from packages/ubiquity.info:

<clues>
    <clue>
        <dontlist>
            <bug>48355</bug>
        </dontlist>
        <contains>
           <and>
                <op>IOError: [Errno 28] No space left on device</op>
                <op>copy_all</op>
                <op bin="not">stepPartAdvanced</op>
               </and>
        </contains>
        <info>This is a dupe of 48355 if the system partitions are big enough</info>
    </clue>
    <clue>
        <dontlist>
            <bug>48856</bug>
        </dontlist>
        <contains>
             <and>
                <op>AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'stdin'</op>
                <op>print >>self.gparted_subp.stdin, "apply"</op>
             </and>
        </contains>
        <info>This is a duplicate of 48856, which was fixed in 1.0.13 and 1.1.1</info>
    </clue>
</clues>

Sharing clue files

The real benefits of bughelper become apparent when bug triagers and developers share their knowledge of the through common clue files.

Preliminaries

1. Get a Launchpad Account at https://launchpad.net/

2. Add your SSH keys to https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+editsshkeys

3. Install bzr, it's a nice and handy tool. We use it for developing BugHelper:

   sudo apt-get install bzr

   (if you installed bughelper on feisty, bzr will already be installed.

4. edit ~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf and add something along the lines of:

   [DEFAULT]
   email=Daniel Holbach <daniel.holbach@ubuntu.com>

   so that your commit will be identified.

5. Create a directory for your local bzr branches

   mkdir ~/bzr; cd ~/bzr

Get the latest copy of bughelper-data

1. To start sharing clue files you must first check out the latest a copy of the shared repository as a local bzr branch:

   bzr checkout lp:~bugsquad/bughelper-data/main bughelper-data

   • This is actually the same repository that bughelper updates its clue files from normally, but with this format you can make changes and upload them again with bzr.

2. Generate default bughelper config:

   bughelper --gen-config

3. Edit ~/.bughelper/config to contain the path to bughelper-data (you just checked out) in the Local-Packages-Dir: line.

Editing and uploading

Add a new clue with bugxml -a or simply edit the .info for a given package. From the bughelper-data directory, run

 bzr unknowns

to see if your clue file is listed as a new file. If so, you first have to add it with

 bzr add <filename>

If you have simply edited an existing file you can go directly to the commit step:

 bzr commit -m "added a totem clue"

Optionally, you can edit the Local-Packages-Dir: line of ~/.bughelper/config to contain the path to the bughelper-data bzr directory. The directory you created with the bzr then becomes you local working directory. Make changes there as you experiment with new clues and commit the ones that work well.

Go back to BugHelper/doc.
CategoryBugSquad
CategoryBugHelper