Editing existing Problem Reports

Use edit-pr to make changes to existing PRs in the database. edit-pr is both a shell script and a Lisp program for GNU Emacs. Both implementations are essentially identical, though the Emacs interface provides interactive prompting for some of the fields.

edit-pr first examines the PR you wish to edit and locks it if it is not already locked. This is to prevent you from editing a PR at the same time as another user. If the PR you wish to edit is already in the process of being edited, edit-pr tells you the name of the person who owns the lock.

You may edit any field in the database that you wish. We recommend that you avoid deleting any information in the TEXT and MULTITEXT fields (such as `>Description:' and `>How-To-Repeat:' (see section Problem Report format). We also recommend that you record the final solution to the problem in the `>Fix:' field for future reference.

If you change the `>Responsible:' field, edit-pr prompts you to supply a reason for the change. edit-pr then mails copies of the change message to the previous responsible party, and to the new responsible party. The change is then recorded in the `>Audit-Trail:' section of the PR as follows:

Responsible-Changed-<From>-<To>: The value change, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

Responsible-Changed-By: Your name here, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

Responsible-Changed-When: The current date, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

Responsible-Changed-Why: Your reason for the change; you

are prompted for this.

If you change the `>State:' field, you are prompted to supply a reason for the change. Copies of the change message are then mailed to the responsible party, and to the original submitter of the Problem Report. The change is then recorded in the `Audit-Trail' section of the PR as follows:

State-Changed-<From>-<To>: The value change, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

State-Changed-By: Your name here, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

State-Changed-When: The current date, supplied

automatically by edit-pr.

State-Changed-Why: Your reason for the change; you are

prompted for this.

The PR is then resubmitted to the database, and the index is updated (see section The index file). For information on pr-edit, the main driver for edit-pr, see section Internal utilities.

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