Making Bugzilla Read-only

I finally got this working after a few frustrating attempts. So, what not to do first.

Change database-level user permissions

I actually got this working once but it took three or four iterations since Bugzilla needs to be able to write to some tables to let you log in. Also, once you have messed with the permissions, I find restoring them to the prior state to be fiddly. This approach is really at the wrong level.


The editbugs group

There's a system level group in Bugzilla named "editbugs" that is apparently related to allowing a user to edit bugs. However removing a user from the group does nothing that I could see.

What Worked For Me

1. For each product, check the Closed checkbox so that the product does not appear in the list of products where bugs can be created. This effectively stops new bugs from being created, though perhaps using the right URL might still work.

2. Define a new group named something like "CanStillEdit" that can be used for bugs and add it to all products. Don't add anyone to the new group yet.

3. For each product, edit the group memberships at the end of the configuration page and set the "Can Edit" checkbox for just the CanStillEdit group. Leave all of the other groups unchanged. Now only members of the CanStillEdit group can edit bugs. It took a few passes through the documentation about this feature to see what they meant.

If all goes well then trying to save a change to a bug will produce a big red box with an error message in it. Usually the error message is helpful ("you do not have permission to do that"), but sometimes it says things like "you tried to update X from to 123" which is confusing but harmless. Search works just as before.

Other details:

1. The other settings for the groups I was working with were Shown/NA.
2. Administrators can also still edit issues.
3. All this is for Bugzilla 2.x - I would hope that there are better ways to do this in the latest versions.

Big Red Button as a Psych Test

In a recent post Raymond Chen talks about Big Red Switches and various people weigh in with recollections about pressing such things. Well, I have in my possession a Big Red Button that I found at the excellent Triangle Machinery & Tool Co in San Jose. When I had a desk, I used to have it mounted with a thick cable running from it to under my desk. It wasn't connected to anything but it told me lots about the people around me.

Most people would ask "what's that for?" or "is it connected?", but occasionally there would be someone who would press the button and then ask the same questions. Those are the people you should never let into a server room!

Emacs, OS X and the EDITOR variable

This took a bit of fiddling to get right, so I offer it up to the Great Google Index with the hope that it may save someone else some time. The EDITOR environment variable is what is used by Unix applications (such as Subversion and git) when they want to start an editor for input. Starting emacs from the command line in OS X uses the open command.

To get this working with emacs and OS X Leopard I had to make the file /usr/bin/emacs contain:

#!/bin/sh
open -nWa /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs "$@"

This opens a file using a new instance of emacs and waits until emacs exits.

Three Hard Lessons in Consulting

1. Don't start the project until everything is ready. If a machine needs more memory to run the next version of an application, wait for the memory.

2. Stop working after the agreed period of time. It's better to disappoint a client and renegoiate than to surprise them with unexpected billable hours.

3. Windows infrastructure has a price. Locked directories, having to use Notepad, Wordpad or install Emacs, debugging complex service configurations: all of these things add up to about 25% more time taken during major tasks such as upgrades.

I'm officially and practically platform-independent in the services I provide. Linux, Unix, Windows, OS X, I do them all. But from now on I'm going to start charging different rates for Windows environments. Not a lot, just enough to offset the extra time and effort that they require.

My Dash Express

Funnily enough, I'm not much a tech fan-boy. Generally what happens is that our friends are first adopters, and then we use their cast offs a few years later. I wrote a book on a discarded laptop and I watch films on a second-hand screen, while sitting on a pre-loved sofa. It's not just that I'm cheap, it's also a green thing.

So what on earth persuaded me to spend $400 last month on a new GPS, the Dash Express? That's just what my dearest wife wanted to know as well. Now, she has no use for such navigation devices having spent most of her life in the Bay Area. But now that I travel to different clients for work I was getting lost more often than seemed sensible, even for my relaxed approach to navigation.

The attractions of the Dash over other GPS systems for me are:

- GPS, cellphone and wifi antennae are all used. The GPS is for positioning, the cellphone for traffic information and internet connections while on the road, and wifi for updates at home
- I can right click on an address in a web page and send it to my car. No more typing on tiny screens. This is great.
- I can search while I'm on the road. For example, when I get near my destination I realize I have to park somewhere, so I can search for parking right then.

The downsides are:

- $10/month subscription fee, though the first three months are free
- Routing is slow and favors highways
- I had to screw a bracket onto my dash to secure it since CA doesn't allow anything to be mounted on the windscreen.


So far I've been happy with it, though I'm expecting great things from the first few software updates later this year. It has certainly saved me from some major blunders since I've been using it. And my wife refers to the Dash as my mistress!

Atlassian User Group, Palo Alto

Well, I enjoyed the Atlassian User Group yesterday at Stanford. I'd forgotten just how complex getting a parking spot can be there, but I made it with only a few surprised comments from my new mistress. I gave a summary of my JIRA MultiSite post, but the things that I enjoyed most were:

- seeing what's coming up in JIRA 4.0 (nice work from Nick Menere and others)

- asking Mike (CEO) both technical and business questions and seeing him handle both well

- meeting lots of smart people using JIRA, with an eye to new clients of course.

The sponsors Stanford and WANdisco provided a good spread of food, which always helps such things. I'd recommend any JIRA administrators in the Bay Area come to the next one.