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><A
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>1.1. Purpose and Scope of this Guide</A
></H1
><P
> This document was started on September 17, 2000
by Matthew P. Barnson after a great deal of procrastination updating the Bugzilla FAQ,
which I left untouched for nearly half a year.
After numerous complete rewrites and reformatting, it is the document you see today.
</P
><P
> Despite the lack of updates, Bugzilla is simply the best piece of bug-tracking software
the world has ever seen. This document is intended to be the comprehensive guide to
the installation, administration, maintenance, and use of the Bugzilla bug-tracking system.
</P
><P
> This release of the Bugzilla Guide is the <EM
>2.11</EM
> release.
It is so named that it may match the current version of Bugzilla.
The numbering tradition stems from that used for many free software projects,
in which <EM
>even-numbered</EM
> point releases (1.2, 1.14, etc.)
are considered "stable releases", intended for public consumption; on the other
hand, <EM
>odd-numbered</EM
> point releases (1.3, 2.09, etc.)
are considered unstable <EM
>development</EM
> releases intended
for advanced users, systems administrators, developers, and those who enjoy
a lot of pain.
</P
><P
> Newer revisions of the Bugzilla Guide will follow the numbering conventions of
the main-tree Bugzilla releases, available at
<A
HREF="http://www.mozilla.org/bugs/source.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Mozilla.org</A
>, with
the exception that intermediate releases will have a minor revision number
following a period. For instance, if the current version of Bugzilla is 4.2,
the current "stable" version of the Bugzilla guide, in, say, it's fifth revision,
would be numbered "4.2.5". Got it? Good.
</P
><P
> I wrote this in response to the enormous demand for decent Bugzilla documentation.
I have incorporated instructions from the Bugzilla README, Frequently Asked Questions,
Database Schema Document, and various mailing lists to create it.
Chances are, there are glaring errors in this documentation; please contact
<TT
CLASS="EMAIL"
><<A
HREF="mailto:barnboy@trilobyte.net"
>barnboy@trilobyte.net</A
>></TT
> to correct them.
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