GNATS

GNATS is a free bug-tracking system. That is, it provides a mechanism to maintain a database of problem reports and the status of resolving each one and produce reports from that database.

Following are a few pros and cons of GNATS:

Strengths:

• Nicely integrated with email.
• Also has a nice Emacs interface.
• Flexible (many fields are free-form, for example).
• Larger set of states than many problem tracking systems (open, analyzed, feedback, closed, suspended). As of GNATS 3.106 or later, states are also configurable (that is, one can add states).
• Client/server protocol enables people scattered throughout the internet to all use a common GNATS database. It also enables setups like running TkGnats on Windows while having the GNATS server run on Unix.

• A certain number of bugs and quirks.
• Web interfaces need work. There are a lot of them out there but no one seems to know which ones are best.
• The Emacs and command line interfaces are not good for tracking telephone calls and other "quickie" support requests (in particular, it takes too long to submit a new problem report into the system).

User Interfaces

The code for the command line and Emacs interfaces is part of the main GNATS distribution mentioned below.

There is also a graphical user interface called TkGnats. Versions 3.0.0 and later run on Windows (talking to a GNATS server running on unix), in addition to Unix.

GNATS and the Year 2000

The output from the "query-pr --sql" command uses a two digit year for GNATS 3.104 and earlier (It may be fixed in 3.106).

In GNATS 3.106 and earlier, user-entered dates do not function after the year 2000. This is fixed in GNATS 3.107.

Where to Get GNATS:

• Although the recent releases like 3.102 and 3.103 are advertised as beta releases, please use them instead of 3.2. Every few weeks someone downloads 3.2, finds the obvious core dump (yes, we know, and it is fixed in 3.102 and friends), sends the fix to bug-gnats, someone suggests a more recent release, and life gets happier.
• If upgrading to GNATS 3.107, you need to run the "gen-index" and "gen-closed-state" programs (the documentation supplied with 3.107 presumably has details).
• GNATS only runs on Unix platforms, as far as we know.

More Information:

• For information on TkGnats, including screen shots, see Rick Macdonald's TkGnats page.
• For general information see Dan Kegel's GNATS page which includes a list of GNATS-related software, patches and other GNATS information.
• Cygnus's GNATS page. They are the current hosts of GNATS maintenance; get the up-to-minute sources via CVSweb or anonymous CVS.

Mailing Lists and Newsgroups:

• There is a mailing list for discussions concerning GNATS; to subscribe send mail to bug-gnats-request@gnu.org.
• The newsgroup for GNATS (and other bug tracking and version control systems) is comp.software.config-mgmt.