launchpad helpOverview
Launchpad's bug tracker sends you [:Bugs/Subscriptions:email] about the bugs you're interested in. If you see something that requires your attention - for example, you want to comment on a bug - rather than leaving your email client to fire up a web browser, all you need to do is reply to the email.
It's not just limited to replying to bug notifications, though. The bug tracker's email interface allows you to do just about everything you can in the web interface. Within time, you may find that email is the main way you interact with the bug tracker.
Before you start
Launchpad only accepts email that is OpenPGP signed. Read our [:YourAccount/ImportingYourPGPKey:guide on adding your OpenPGP key] to your Launchpad account.
= Anatomy of an email to the bug tracker
Let's look at the elements of a bug report email:
From address: the address from which you send the email must be [https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+editemails registered in your Launchpad account].
To address: new@bugs.launchpad.net or bugnumber@bugs.launchpad.net
Subject: Launchpad uses this as the bug report or comment summary.
Email body: the text of your email forms the bug report or comment detail. This is also where you can supply commands to manipulate the bug.
That last item, the email body, needs a little more explanation. When you want to use one of the email interface's commands, you need to start the line with a space. Everything else is treated as part of your bug report or comment detail.
Getting started with the email interface
Let's take a look at an imaginary scenario, in which someone reports a bug requesting a screen cast to help demonstrate the bug tracker's email interface.
Reporting a bug
Reporting a new bug by email is simple. Send an email to new@bugs.launchpad.net and describe the problem you're having. Tell Launchpad which project, distribution or distribution package the bug affects by using the affects command.
Here's an example bug report email:
From: im-in-yr-emailz@gmail.com To: new@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: Bug tracker email interface needs a screen cast Body: I looked on the Launchpad help wiki for information on using the bug tracker's email interface. I found the user guide helpful but wanted a screen cast to demonstrate it at my local LUG. affects launchpad-documentation
If the bug affects a distribution package, state the distribution name followed by a slash and the package name. For example: `affects ubuntu/firefox".
Similarly, if the bug affects more than project or package, use a new line for each project/package:
affects exaile affects ubuntu/exaile
Commenting on and changing the status of a bug
If you've received a notification about a bug and you want to leave a comment, simply reply to the email. Otherwise, to comment on a bug, send your email to bugnumber@bugs.launchpad.net. For example: 123@bugs.launchpad.net.
Here's an example bug comment email, with a command to change its status to Confirmed:
From: joey@canonical.com To: 123@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: Neat idea Body: What a neat idea! Matt R: can you schedule some time to create a screen cast? We should put the screen cast directly in the bug tracker's interface. status confirmed affects malone
Joey has also marked the bug as affecting the Launchpad bug tracker itself, using its project name malone.
Assigning and targeting the bug
Matthew sees that his boss, Joey, thinks this a good idea, so he assigns it to himself and targets it to a future milestone:
From: matthew.revell@canonical.com To: 123@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: I'll tackle this in September Body: > What a neat idea! Matt R: can you schedule some time to create a screen cast? Yeah, this is a great idea. I'll have time for this in September. assignee matthew.revell milestone 1.2.9 affects launchpad-documentation
Note that Matthew used the affects command. Earlier, Joey marked the bug as also affecting another project. Here, affects lets Matthew ensure the assignee and milestone are applied to the bug as it affects the Launchpad Documentation project.
Matthew could just as easily have left out the affects command and Launchpad would have selected the most likely project that bug is reported against. See the [:Bugs/EmailInterface#affects:affects command reference] for details.
Attaching files to bugs
Once Matthew's started work on the bug, he can attach an image from the screen cast to the bug report to show how he's getting on.
In most cases, file attachments are useful for screen shots that demonstrate the bug or for log files.
You can attach a file to a bug report by attaching the file to the email you send to Launchpad.
The attachment must have its content-disposition set to "attachment" and not "inline". Images pasted into emails in Mozilla Thunderbird have a content-disposition of "inline", so attach them rather than paste them into the email body.
To help prevent unwanted files being attached to bug reports, Launchpad filters files that are unlikely to be intended for the bug report, including:
- signatures
- VCards
- MacOS resource forks.
Filtering bug mail
If you deal with a large number of bug reports by email, you may find that you want to filter them to stop them cluttering your in-box. Launchpad appends custom headers to bug emails to help you filter them.
You can find out [:Bugs/Subscriptions#headers:more about the headers] that Launchpad uses in our article on bug subscriptions.
Commands reference
You must write one email command per line.
For example:
status confirmed assignee foobar
You can mix commands with non-command text, such as the description when filing a bug, or comment text when replying to a bug notification.
For example:
This is an example bit of bug description. affects ubuntu/firefox And this is some more description. assignee bradb
affects
affects [distribution|package|product]
When filing a bug, affects $target marks the bug as affecting $target.
You can also, optionally, use affects when you're editing a bug. For example, if you want to set the status of a bug as it affects Zope 3, you'd use affects zope3.
If you leave out affects, Launchpad will make your changes to the bug the following context:
- the project, distribution or package for which you are a bug supervisor
- the distribution of which you're a member
If Launchpad can't determine the context in which to make your changes, it will email you with an error message.
The affects target can take the following forms:
affects ubuntu/$packagename
affects $distroname
affects $productname
summary
summary "$summary"
Change the one-line summary of the bug. Quotes are required.
summary "A better summary"
assignee
assignee [name|email|nobody]
Assign a bug to someone.
assignee bradb
assignee brad.bollenbach@ubuntu.com
Unassign the bug.
assignee nobody
status
status [new|incomplete|invalid|wontfix|confirmed|triaged|inprogress|fixcommitted|fixreleased]
Change the status of a bug.
status fixreleased
importance
importance [wishlist|low|medium|high|critical]
Change the importance of a bug.
importance high
milestone $milestone
Sets or clears the milestone of the bug. The milestone must already exist in Launchpad (see [:FeatureHighlights/MilestoneUsage: MilestoneUsage]).
milestone 1.1.10
You can clear the milestone by sending a hyphen:
milestone -
private [yes|no]
Changes the visibility of the bug.
private yes
subscribe [name|email]
Subscribes yourself or someone else to the bug. If you don't specify a name or email, the sender of the email will be subscribed.
Subscribe yourself to the bug:
subscribe
Subscribe Foo Bar to the bug:
subscribe foo.bar@canonical.com
Subscribe Bjorn to the bug.
subscribe bjornt
unsubscribe [name|email]
The opposite of the subscribe command.
duplicate $bugid
Mark the bug as a duplicate of another bug.
duplicate 42
To unmark the bug as a duplicate, specify 'no' as the bug id.
duplicate no
bug $bugid
The bug command is intended for users who want to generate batch change emails. The batch change address is edit@bugs.launchpad.net.
From: me@example.com To: edit@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: <whatever> bug 42 status confirmed bug 49 status confirmed
tag $tag
The tag command can be used to assign a tag to a bug. Multiple tags can be specified with a single command.
tag foo tag foo bar
Tags can also be removed by prefixing the tag name with -.
tag -foo
done
done tells Launchpad not to process any further commands.
For example:
tag foo status confirmed done affects everyone using version 1.0.1
The line below done looks like an affects command but Launchpad will ignore it.
Editing a bug that affects multiple packages
Every package or product affected by a bug has its own fix status, assignee, milestone, etc. Use the [#affects affects command] to edit a specific fix status, assignee, etc., when a bug affects more than one package.
For example, [https://launchpad.net/bugs/29760 bug 29760] affects flash-player and flashplugin-nonfree. To mark the bug fixed in flash-player you would send this email:
From: you@example.com To: 29760@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: <whatever> affects ubuntu/flash-player status fixreleased
When a bug affects only one package or product, the affects command is unnecessary.
What to expect when you submit an email
Malone processes incoming mail every three minutes, so a slight delay between sending a mail and receiving a response is normal.
On success
If your email was processed successfully, you will receive a standard bugmail change notification, identical to the bugmail that would get sent if you made the same changes via the web UI. For example, if you send an email like:
From: you@example.com To: 28919@bugs.launchpad.net Subject: Re: [Bug 28919] error signing code of conduct: "str: No public key" status incomplete
You'll receive a response like:
From: you@example.com
To: launchpad-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: [Bug 28919] error signing code of conduct: "str: No public key"
Public bug report changed:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/28919
Changed in: Launchpad (upstream)
Status: Unconfirmed => Incomplete
--
launchpad-bugs mailing list
launchpad-bugs@lists.canonical.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/launchpad-bugs
On failure
If an error occurs while processing your email, you should receive a failure message from Malone. For example, if you forget to GPG-sign a filebug email, you'll receive an error message like:
From: noreply@bugs.launchpad.net To: you@example.com Subject: Submit Request Failure An error occurred while processing a mail you sent to Malone's email interface. Error message: In order to submit bugs via email you have to sign the message with a GPG key that is registered in Launchpad. -- For more information about using Malone's email interface, please see https://wiki.launchpad.canonical.com/MaloneEmailInterfaceUserDoc.
If you've waited several minutes and still not received either a bugmail change notification or an error message, please refer to the [#support support channels] mentioned at the beginning of this document.
Known issues
Requiring GPG-signed mail is probably too restrictive.
Requiring indentation for the commands makes it easy to get it wrong.
Being able to [#intersperse intersperse command and non-command text] is [https://launchpad.net/products/malone/+bug/29572 unnecessary and confusing].
