NAME

bif - distributed bug tracking tool

VERSION

0.1.5_7 (2015-11-25)

SYNOPSIS

bif COMMAND [...]

DESCRIPTION

Bif is a distributed bug tracker with a command-line interface. It helps you manage tasks and issues locally, exchanging updates with hub databases on demand. The tool has several features of interest to distributed project teams:

Offline Operation

Many bif actions work offline; you can create and update tasks and issues while disconnected from the network.

Inter-project Cooperation

Bif issues (and tasks) can be linked with (or copied to) multiple projects, mirroring the inter-project relationships that exist in the real world.

Timesheet Management

Those who need to accurately report their project efforts can take advantage of bif's build-in time-tracking functionality.

This document is the bif reference manual. Other reference documents for bif commands have titles like bif-command-name. If you are new to bif you will probably find one of the following a more helpful starting point:

bif-doc

The table of contents for all bif documentation.

bif-doc-intro

A hands-on introduction to bif.

bif-doc-faq

A list of common questions and answers.

Command Structure

Top-level bif commands are as follows:

check             check all changeset UUIDs
drop              remove an item from the database
init              initialize a new repository
list              list topics in the repository
log               view comments and status history
new               create a new topic
pull              import topics from elsewhere
push              export topics to somewhere else
show              display a topic's current status
signup            sign up with a hub provider
sql               run an SQL command against the database
sync              exchange changes with a hub
update            comment on or modify a topic
upgrade           upgrade a repository
wlog              review entries in the work buffer
work              work on a topic

Not all of the above commands result in an action on their own. Sometimes a second-level bif command (usually bif-ACTION-TYPE) is required, for example bif-push-issue.

In addition, a couple of useful aliases are created by default:

ls              list topics --status open --project-status run
lsi             list identities
lsp             list projects define plan run
lss             list topics --status stalled --project-status run

Global Options

The following options are common to all commands:

--debug, -D

Turn on debugging statements, which are included in the stdout stream.

--help, -h

Print a full usage message and exit. Some arguments and options are only shown when this option is used; a normal usage/error message may keep some rarely used options hidden.

--no-pager

Do not pipe a command's output to a pager.

--user-repo

Run commands against the user repository instead of the current repository.

A boolean option can be negated by prefixing it with "no-" as in "--no-bill"

Command Interaction

Input

Some arguments and options not supplied on the command line are prompted for. An editor based on the $EDITOR or $VISUAL environment variables may also be invoked for certain types of input.

Output

Normal output is printed to stdout or sometimes paged with less(1) when stdout is connected to a terminal. Error messages are sent to stderr.

Connectivity

The only commands that (may) involve network communication are bif-pull, bif-push, and bif-sync. Everything else is a local action.

Exit Status

An exit value of zero indicates success.

FILES

$HOME/.bifu/db.sqlite3

User repository datatbase.

$HOME/.bifu/config

User configuration file.

$PWD/.bif/config

Curent repository configuration file.

$PWD/.bif/db.sqlite3

Current repository database.

SEE ALSO

bifsync(1)

SUPPORT

Bif is community supported software, and the community expects (and should offer) respectful communication with all of its members.

Website:

http://bifax.org/bif/

Code Repository:

git://bifax.org/bif.git/

Issue Tracker:

Doesn't exit yet.

Mailing List:

Subscribe via http://www.freelists.org/list/bif-devel and then send mail to <bif-devel@freelists.org>.

If you have an issue with bif please first make the effort to read the documentation and/or search for an answer to your issue in the internet. If you are still stuck send us a message as if you were answering the following questions:

  • What does bif show version print?

  • What are goal you trying to achieve?

  • What commands are you running?

  • What (output) did you expect (to see)?

  • What (output) actually occured?

We will most likely need to ask for more information from you. You can possibly speed things along by already running your commands with the --debug flag turned on.

AUTHOR

Mark Lawrence <nomad@null.net>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2013-2015 Mark Lawrence <nomad@null.net>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.