Module Maintenance

To complete your CVS education, you should read the online documentation 

available at http://cvshome.org.

Or, if you'd prefer the details in book form, Open Source Development with CVS

by Fogel and Bar (Coriolis) is an excellent read. As a bonus, it also includes another 

take on many of the topics presented in this chapter. See their site for more details: 

http://cvsbook.red bean.com/.

Bug Tracking

Every piece of software has bugs, and your modules will be no exception. The 

usual way of dealing with bugs is via e mail. A user spots a bug and writes to you or 

to the project mailing list with a description. After some discussion, you verify the 

bug and fix it, or if you're really lucky someone else does and sends you a patch. 

The problem with this approach is that it's all too easy for a bug to slip through the 

cracks. E mail also lacks visibility it's hard for your users to get an accurate picture of 

the status of a bug.

Bug tracking software provides a better solution. Users typically fill out a Web 

based bug submission form describing the bug. The bug enters the bug tracking 

system as a new bug. At some later point you (or another developer with the 

appropriate permissions) verify the bug and move it to an accepted state. If any 

discussion is necessary to verify the bug, then it can be carried out through the bug 

tracker, which automatically e mails the participants. Finally, when the bug is 

fixed, it is marked closed. This makes it exceedingly hard to lose track of a bug, and 

some systems will even remind you of neglected bugs periodically. It also allows 

users to keep track of bugs they care about.

The same software that you use to track bugs can also be used to track other types 

of development feature development and ideas, for example. This can increase the 

visibility of the project and help organize development among developers.

Of course, there are far more bug tracking packages available than I have 

space to list (or even time to learn about!). The following are some of the most 

popular in the open source community and should be on your list when you're 

ready to start tracking your bugs.

CPAN's Request Tracker

CPAN offers a free bug tracking service for all registered CPAN authors. You can log 

in to the system at http://rt.cpan.org.

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