Online bug list

[Preston Mullen]

See Sun Microsystems part number 812-1001-01 Rev. A, "Online Bugs Database
Reference Manual".  This was sent out to (some? most? all?) customers with
software support contracts earlier this year.

You're supposed to have a software support agreement with Sun in order to
use the database.  If you don't have access to the database and think you
should, you should probably take it up with your Sun account rep.

The only documented access mode is dialup (max 2400 bps), at your expense.
The database is implemented with SunUnify.  You make queries through a
simple forms interface.  You can access an entry directly by Sun bug
number, or you can search by simple combinations of category, subcategory,
and release.

The search index terms aren't really adequate.  The most glaring problem
is that they don't generally include program names.  For example, when I
was looking for portmap bugs, "portmap" was not a possible search term.
I'd rather just FTP the whole database and grep through it offline.

Also, the bug report that I found several months back (pertaining to
portmap in all 3.X releases) seemed to have disappeared when I went back
to check on its status a few weeks ago.  That makes me wonder about the
integrity and completeness of the database.

(To Sun: this is a good idea, but it needs work.  Think about posting the
database as compressed data for anonymous FTP.  Making this information
more widely available might even stimulate sales of support contracts and
software upgrades.  If that can't be done, how about a mail server like
the one for NeWS?)