
<h1><a name="introduction">Introduction to the bug system request server</a></h1>

<p>There is a mailserver which can send the bug reports and
indices as plain text on request.</p>

<p>To use it you send a mail message to
<a href="mailto:request@bugs.debian.org"><code>request@bugs.debian.org</code></a>.
The <code>Subject</code> of the message is ignored, except
for generating the <code>Subject</code> of the reply.</p>

<p>The body you send should be a series of commands, one per line.
You'll receive a reply which looks like a transcript of your message
being interpreted, with a response to each command. No notifications
are sent to anyone for the commands listed here and the mail isn't
logged anywhere publicly available.</p>

<p>Any text on a line starting with a hash sign <code>#</code> is
ignored; the server will stop processing when it finds a line with
a <a href="#stopprocessing">control terminator</a> (
<code>quit</code>, <code>thank you</code>, or two
hyphens are common examples).  It will also stop if it
encounters too many unrecognised or badly-formatted commands.  If no
commands are successfully handled it will send the help text for the
server.</p>

<h1>Commands available</h1>

<dl>
<dt><code>send</code> <var>bugnumber</var></dt>
<dt><code>send-detail</code> <var>bugnumber</var></dt>
<dd>
Requests the transcript for the bug report in question.
<code>send-detail</code> sends all of the <q>boring</q> messages in the
transcript as well, such as the various auto-acks.
</dd>

<dt><code>index</code> [<code>full</code>]</dt>
<dt><code>index-summary by-package</code></dt>
<dt><code>index-summary by-number</code></dt>
<dd>
Request the full index (with full details, and including done and
forwarded reports), or the summary sorted by package or by number,
respectively.
</dd>

<dt><code>index-maint</code></dt>
<dd>
Requests the index page giving the list of maintainers with bugs (open
and recently-closed) in the tracking system.
</dd>

<dt><code>index maint</code> <var>maintainer</var></dt>
<dd>
Requests the index pages of bugs in the system for the maintainer
<var>maintainer</var>. The search term is an exact match.
The bug index will be sent in a separate message.
</dd>

<dt><code>index-packages</code></dt>
<dd>
Requests the index page giving the list of packages with bugs (open
and recently-closed) in the tracking system.
</dd>

<dt><code>index packages</code> <var>package</var></dt>
<dd>
Requests the index pages of bugs in the system for the package
<var>package</var>.  The search term is an exact match.
The bug index will be sent in a separate message.
</dd>

<dt><code>send-unmatched</code> [<code>this</code>|<code>0</code>]</dt>
<dt><code>send-unmatched</code> <code>last</code>|<code>-1</code></dt>
<dt><code>send-unmatched</code> <code>old</code>|<code>-2</code></dt>
<dd>
Requests logs of messages not matched to a particular bug report, for
this week, last week and the week before.  (Each week ends on a
Wednesday.)
</dd>

<dt><code>getinfo</code> <var>filename</var></dt>
<dd>
<p>
Request a file containing information about package(s) and or
maintainer(s) - the files available are:
</p>

  <dl>
  <dt><code>maintainers</code></dt>
  <dd>
  The unified list of packages' maintainers, as used by the tracking
  system.
  This is derived from information in the <code>Packages</code>
  files, override files and pseudo-packages files.
  </dd>
  
  <dt><code>override.</code><var>distribution</var></dt>
  <dt><code>override.</code><var>distribution</var><code>.non-free</code></dt>
  <dt><code>override.</code><var>distribution</var><code>.contrib</code></dt>
  <dt><code>override.experimental</code></dt>
  <dd>
  Information about the priorities and sections of packages and
  overriding values for the maintainers.  This information is used by
  the process which generates the <code>Packages</code> files in the FTP
  archive.  Information is available for each of the main distribution
  trees available, by their codewords.
  </dd>
  
  <dt><code>pseudo-packages.description</code></dt>
  <dt><code>pseudo-packages.maintainers</code></dt>
  <dd>
  List of descriptions and maintainers respectively for pseudo-packages.
  </dd>
  </dl>
</dd>

<dt><code>refcard</code></dt>
<dd>
Requests that the mailservers' reference card be sent in plain ASCII.
</dd>

<dt><code>help</code></dt>
<dd>
Requests that this help document be sent by email in plain ASCII.
</dd>

<dt><a name="stopprocessing"></a><code>quit</code></dt>
<dt><code>stop</code></dt>
<dt><code>thank</code></dt>
<dt><code>thanks</code></dt>
<dt><code>thankyou</code></dt>
<dt><code>thank you</code></dt>
<dt><code>--</code></dt>
<!-- #366093, I blame you! -->
<!-- <dt><code>kthxbye</code></dt> -->
<!-- See... I documented it! -->
<dd>
Stops processing at this point of the message.  After this you may
include any text you like, and it will be ignored.  You can use this
to include longer comments than are suitable for <code>#</code>, for
example for the benefit of human readers of your message (reading it
via the tracking system logs or due to a <code>CC</code> or
<code>BCC</code>).
</dd>

<dt><code>#</code>...</dt>
<dd>
One-line comment.  The <code>#</code> must be at the start of the
line.
</dd>

<dt><code>debug</code> <var>level</var></dt>
<dd>
Sets the debugging level to <var>level</var>, which should be a
nonnegative integer.  0 is no debugging; 1 is usually sufficient.  The
debugging output appears in the transcript.  It is not likely to be
useful to general users of the bug system.
</dd>

</dl>

<p>There is a <a href="server-refcard">reference card</a> for the
mailservers, available via the WWW, in
<code>bug-mailserver-refcard.txt</code> or by email using the
<code>refcard</code> command (see above).</p>

<p>If you wish to manipulate bug reports you should use the
<code>control@bugs.debian.org</code> address, which understands a
<a href="server-control">superset of the commands listed
above</a>.  This is described in another document, available on the
<a href="server-control">WWW</a>,
in the file <code>bug-maint-mailcontrol.txt</code>, or by
sending <code>help</code> to <code>control@bugs</code>.</p>

<p>In case you are reading this as a plain text file or via email: an
HTML version is available via the bug system main contents page
<code>http://www.debian.org/Bugs/</code>.</p>

<hr />


