mullen@itd.nrl.navy.mil (Preston Mullen) (12/02/88)
See Sun Microsystems part number 812-1001-01 Rev. A, "Online Bugs Database Reference Manual". This was sent out to (some? most? all?) customers with software support contracts earlier this year. You're supposed to have a software support agreement with Sun in order to use the database. If you don't have access to the database and think you should, you should probably take it up with your Sun account rep. The only documented access mode is dialup (max 2400 bps), at your expense. The database is implemented with SunUnify. You make queries through a simple forms interface. You can access an entry directly by Sun bug number, or you can search by simple combinations of category, subcategory, and release. The search index terms aren't really adequate. The most glaring problem is that they don't generally include program names. For example, when I was looking for portmap bugs, "portmap" was not a possible search term. I'd rather just FTP the whole database and grep through it offline. Also, the bug report that I found several months back (pertaining to portmap in all 3.X releases) seemed to have disappeared when I went back to check on its status a few weeks ago. That makes me wonder about the integrity and completeness of the database. (To Sun: this is a good idea, but it needs work. Think about posting the database as compressed data for anonymous FTP. Making this information more widely available might even stimulate sales of support contracts and software upgrades. If that can't be done, how about a mail server like the one for NeWS?)