gnats2w Editing

The editing form is for changing problem reports. In the above part there is a change form, in the bottom part current values of the problem report are displayed.

You change the problem simply by changing appropriate values and pressing the Submit button. For description of most field values see the Submitting help. There are some special things about editing as described in the following sections.

The Changer field

It is necessary to select, who is changing the report. If you are registered in the bug tracking system, just select your identity. If not, select either submitter (if you are the one, who submitted the problem report), or unknown (otherwise).

Subject

Though you can change the subject field, it is often not a good idea to do so. Subjects are important for easy orientation in the problems and their changes usually make the orientation harder. So it is good to change them only if it improves the arrangement.

Class

There are more classes offered in editing than in submitting. Class field includes the following values in editing:

sw-bug
A general product problem.
doc-bug
A problem with the documentation.
change-request
A request for a change in behavior, etc.
support
A support problem or question.
duplicate
Duplicate problem report. When changing to this, the reason should include number of the original problem report.
mistaken
No problem, user error or misunderstanding.

Responsible

You can change the person responsible for the problem here. It is usually not a good idea to change this without previously contacting both the old and new responsible person.

State

All submitted problem reports are in the open state initially. When they are solved, their state is changed. Possible state values are:

open
The initial state of a Problem Report. This means the PR has been filed and the responsible person(s) notified.
analyzed
The responsible person has analyzed the problem. The analysis should contain a preliminary evaluation of the problem and an estimate of the amount of time and resources necessary to solve the problem. It should also suggest possible workarounds.
feedback
The problem has been solved, and the originator has been given a patch or other fix. The PR remains in this state until the originator acknowledges that the solution works.
closed
A Problem Report is closed ("the bug stops here") only when any changes have been integrated, documented, and tested, and the submitter has confirmed the solution.
suspended
Work on the problem has been postponed. This happens if a timely solution is not possible or is not cost-effective at the present time. The Problem Report continues to exist, though a solution is not being actively sought. If the problem cannot be solved at all, it should be closed rather than suspended.

Changing Responsible or State

If you change one of these fields, you must describe the reason for doing this. This information is sent to all interested parties. When changing the state to feedback or closed, it is often good idea to describe how the problem was fixed, it can be useful in future.

Changing description, etc.

When you edit one of Description, How To Repeat, How To Fix, or Environment fields, the edited text is appended to the current text of the field. This means no previous information in these fields is lost.

Do not make new proposals not related directly and very closely to the edited problem when editing it. Submit new problem report instead, which will be solved separately.