B.8. DBTS

The Debian Bug Tracking System is unusual in that all input and manipulation of issues is done via email: each issue gets its own dedicated email address. The DBTS scales pretty well: http://bugs.debian.org/ has 277,741 issues, for example.

Since interaction is done via regular mail clients, an environment that is familiar and easily accessible to most people, the DBTS is good for handling high volumes of incoming reports that need quick classification and response. There are disadvantages too, of course. Developers must invest the time needed to learn the email command system, and users must write their bug reports without a web-form to guide them in choosing what information to write. There are tools available to help users send better bug reports, such as the command-line reportbug program or the debbugs-el package for Emacs. But most people won't use these tools, they'll just write email manually, and they may or may not follow the bug reporting guidelines posted by your project.

The DBTS has a read-only web interface, for viewing and querying issues.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/debbugs/