Review of Issue Trackers

Current Status

 * Audacity is now using Bugzilla for bugtracking.
 * Here are some canned queries.

The Comparisons
This page was originally created to help us decide on a bugtracker.


 * Wikipedias list of issue trackers
 * Wikimedia developer's page of alternatives

from wikimedia developer digest "Bugzilla is obnoxious and hard to use, but people are familiar with it. From what I've seen of Trac, I'm not a big fan of that either (although I haven't used it much).  My favorite issue tracker packages as a user are Launchpad and Google Issues." Aryeh Gregor

Features of Note

 * FogBugz allows direct integration of automatically sent crash reports.
 * Most bug trackers have mail integration. Most are web based.
 * Debbugs (debians bug tracker) is built entirely around e-mail. Its under-development web front end is written in python and Django.
 * Ability to send confidential bugs (hidden form general view) about security risks.

Launchpad

 * Integrates lists with a wiki, but in a fairly hard coded way.
 * Separates 'blueprints' (new feature design and discussion) from bug issues.
 * Federation of bug reports - can report and track bugs in libraries that you use, and in projects which use your code. (projects must be in Ubuntu).

Semi-closed source.

Bugzilla

 * Sample report


 * Written in Perl. Mozilla public license.
 * Rather rigid in its structure though can add fields.
 * Shareable searches.

Bugzilla + Wikipedia reporting

 * Wikimedia Bugzilla extension


 * This is a bugzilla reports module for wikipedia that promises more flexible formatting and presentation of reports than bugzilla offers. It allows reports to be embedded in a wiki page.

Google Code Hosting

 * Ability to 'star' an issue to indicate interest/vote without adding a comment. Nice.
 * Summary table view with click-to-expand.

Trac

 * Features at a glance
 * Sample reports


 * Written in Python. Modified BSD license.
 * Has its own template system called Genshi
 * Strong on project management features, e.g. timelines, roadmaps etc.
 * Based around a wiki
 * Easy to add custom fields to
 * Lots of formats for data and lots of options for e-mails.
 * Integrated with change logs.

Mantis

 * Long feature list
 * Sample reports


 * Written in Php. GPL License.
 * Categories to break issues into groups.
 * Simple roadmap feature.