
-- What is Tk Gnats ??

TkGnats is a set of Tk based front ends for the GNATS bug management system.
Tk is a tcl based X toolkit that uses a interpreted language called Tcl.
If you want to know more about Tk/Tcl check out the FAQ for the comp.lang.tcl
newsgroup. 

    This version of TkGnats uses Tcl7.6 and Tk4.2. It will not
    work with anything older.
    You can get Tcl and Tk from http://sunscript.sun.com/TclTkCore/index.html

-- What is GNATS ??

    Here is a fragment from the gnats info file that describes GNATS
    in a nutshell...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
   This manual documents a suite of utilities called `GNATS', the GNU
Problem Report Management System.  `GNATS' is a bug-tracking tool
designed for use at a central support site.  Software users who
experience problems use electronic mail to communicate these problems
to the maintainers of that software; `GNATS' partially automates the
tracking of these problem reports ("PR"s) by:

   * organizing problem reports into a database and notifying
     responsible parties of suspected bugs;

   * allowing support personnel and their managers to edit and query
     accumulated bugs; and

   * providing a reliable archive of problems with a given program and a
     history of the life of the program by preserving its reported
     problems and their subsequent solutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

--Caveat

I made some effort towards configurability but it still might need a
little work. If you can write shell scripts you should not have too
much trouble getting TkGnats up and running.

I will be happy to answer any questions I can via E-mail. Any bug fixes
will be gratefully accepted. I you have some enhancements or ideas for
enhancements I'm receptive to those too. My e-mail address is at the
bottom of this file.

-- Files 
    The 'Files' file contains a short description of each file
    in this directory.

-- How to get TkGnats Running

    First get gnats-3.101 (beta for 3.4) or newer from an ftp site that
    mirrors the gnu software near you.  It will be called something
    like gnats-3.101.tar.gz.

    Once you get it running and you can send a few bug reports to the
    'test' bug category. Then try installing TkGnats. Here's how...

    o If you are updating a previous TkGnats installation, you might want
      to clean up the old files first. Along the way, I have deleted and
      renamed several TkGnats files.

	- Save a copy of your old tkgnats.config file as a guide when
	  modifying the new tkgnats.config file.
	- In the old tkgnats distribution directory, run: make uninstall

    o Edit the first section of the Makefile.

	This section has things like BIN and LIBDIR. It also needs to
	know where some things in the GNATS system live. These have the
	same names as the variables in the gnats Makefile.

    o Edit "Section 3" of the tkgnats.config tcl script file.

       ( the first section is configured by the Makefile )

	This sets up things needed by the TkGnats scripts like what 
	mail program to use to send mail.

	Yes it's in Tcl, But it should be fairly obvious what you have
	to do. For example, if your mailer is /usr/local/bin/mymailer
	instead of the default you would change:

        	set TkGnats(Mailer) "/usr/lib/sendmail -em -oi -t"
	to:
        	set TkGnats(Mailer) /usr/local/bin/mymailer

	Note: use quotes if the value contains spaces.

        You can override the values in tkgnats.config at several levels.
        TkGnats loads these configuration files in the order below.
        None of these files need exist. Since none come with tkgnats,
        they won't be overwritten when you install tkgnats updates.

                $LIBDIR/tkgnatsrc
                $LIBDIR/tkgnatsrc.<operating_system_name>
        	~/.tkgnats/tkgnatsrc
        	~/.tkgnats/tkgnatsrc.<operating_system_name>

        The <operating_system_name> is the result from the command: uname -s.
        For example, $LIBDIR/tkgnatsrc.SunOS, or $LIBDIR/tkgnatsrc.Linux.

	The operating system specific configuration files are useful for
        external program names and locations such as sendmail and the
        print spoolers and previewers.

        The location of the user directory "~/.tkgnats" can be set in
        tkgnats.config. The default is:

                set TkGnats(UserDir) "[glob ~]/.tkgnats"

        Once you edit tkgnats.config to your liking, you may want to
        copy Section 3 to $LIBDIR/tkgnatsrc so if you get a new
        release of tkgnats sometime later it won't get overwritten.

    o Type 'make'
	this will configure all the files into two temporary directories
	./_tbin and ./_tdir. 
	
    o Type 'make install'
	This will install the files in _tbin and _tdir to wherever
	you defined previously in the first section of the Makefile. 
	
    o Type 'make install_man'
	This will install the man files in to wherever you defined
	previously in the first section of the Makefile.

-- The author

    This version of tkgnats was created by Rick Macdonald <rickm@vsl.com>
    from the original version 1.3 by Mike Hoegeman.

    When I asked Mike if I could release this to the world he said:

        From Mike Hoegeman <mh@aurica.graphon.com>, 26 Oct 1996:

        "you can do whatever you like contribution wise as far as i'm
        concerned although i would like you to explicity indicate that i am 
        not responsible/associated with your version of tkgnats in any way."
