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Keeping Track

4.4.3 The submitters file

This is a database of sites which submit bugs to your support site. It contains six fields delineated by colons. Lines beginning with `#' will be ignored.

Entries are of the format:

submitter-id:name:type:resp-time:contact:notify

submitter-id

A unique identifier for a specific site or other entity who submits Problem Reports. The first submitter-id listed in the file will be the default for PRs that arrive with invalid or empty submitter fields.

name

The full name or a description of this entity.

type

Optional description for the type of relationship of this submitter to your support site. This could indicate a contract type, a level of expertise, etc., or it can remain blank.

resp-time

Optional quoted response time in business hours. If the database `dbconfig' file has the notify-about-expired-prs entry set to true (see section Overall database configuration, GNATS will use this field to schedule when it should notify the gnats-admin, responsible person and submitter contact that the PR wasn't analyzed within the agreed response time. Business hours and business-week days are set in the `dbconfig' file. For information on at-pr, the program which sends out this reminder, see Timely Reminders.

contact

The name tag of the main contact at the Support Site for this submitter. This contact should be in the `responsible' file (see section The responsible file). Incoming bugs from submitter are sent to this contact. Optionally, this field can be left blank.

notify

Any other parties who should receive copies of Problem Reports sent in by submitter. They need not be listed in the `responsible' file.

A few example entries in the `submitters' file:

univ-hell:University of Hades:eternal:3:beelzebub:lucifer tta:Telephones and Telegraphs of America:support:720:dave:

In this example, when a PR comes in from the University of Hades (who has an eternal contract), it should have `univ-hell' in its Submitter-Id field. This Problem Report goes to beelzebub (who should be in the `responsible' file), and if it is not analyzed within three business hours a reminder message is sent. lucifer also receives a copy of the bug, and a copy of the reminder message as well (if it is sent). When Telephones and Telegraphs of America utilizes their support contract and submits a bug, a copy is sent only to dave, who has 720 business hours to return an analysis before a reminder is sent.

To disable the feature of GNATS which tracks the Submitter-Id, simply alter the `submitters' file to only contain one submitter-id value, and instruct your submitters to ignore the field.