GNU GNATS is a set of tools for tracking bugs reported by users to a central site. This includes command line, e-mail, Emacs, and a network daemon, which can be used with a web interface. GNATS databases and configuration are stored in plain text files and can be customized to incorporate unique fields and workflows.

Current stable version: GNATS 4.2.0
released on 26 February 2015.
(Details of recent changes can be found in the NEWS file.)

• Downloading GNATS
• Documentation
• Mailing Lists
• Development
• Other GNATS Resources

Downloading GNATS

Stable releases can be found in the gnats subdirectory on

• your nearest GNU mirror, or
• the main GNU FTP site.

For other ways to obtain GNATS, please read How to get GNU Software.

Installation instructions can be found in the included README and INSTALL files.

Precompiled binary packages are included in most GNU/Linux distributions.

Documentation

The official manuals are distributed with the source code and available under the doc subdirectory. The following documentation versions are available: 4.2.0.

There is also an FAQ compiled by Hans-Albert Schneider, also available under the doc subdirectory. The following document versions are available: 4.2.0.

Reporting GNATS Bugs

Please report bugs through the email list. [email protected].

When you report problems related GNATS itself, do not forget to provide the following information:

• The GNATS version you are using.
• The exact steps involved to reproduce the bug.
• Your configuration.
• If you encounter a compilation or build problem, it is especially important to mention the operating system, compiler and possibly other build utilities you use.

All PR transactions/additions/changes are recorded on the gnats-prs mailing list.

GNATS Mailing Lists

Follow the links to the individual mailing lists below to subscribe or view the list archives:

• Bug-gnats <[email protected]> mailing list -- bug reports for the GNU GNATS should be sent here
• Help-gnats <[email protected]> users mailing list -- for questions about installation, how GNATS works and how it is used, or general questions concerning GNATS.
• Info-gnats &[email protected]> mailing list -- announcements of new releases are made here.

You can also follow announcements via the Savannah GNATS RSS feed.

Archives and instructions for subscribing to the the different GNATS-related mailing lists are available at the Savannah GNATS site.

Getting Involved in GNATS Development

We are always on the lookout for people willing to contribute to the project. We need more active developers. Besides, patches for existing problems, contributions to documentation, answers to frequently asked questions or ideas for future development are all very welcome. And, if you aren't a developer or feel able to write good documentation, there is still something you can do: Simply use GNATS and report any bugs and quirks you may find.

The latest stable branch can be checked out with:

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:[email protected]:/sources/gnats co -r gnats-4_2-branch gnats

The latest development branch can be checked out with:

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:[email protected]:/sources/gnats co gnats

or with:

# remove sticky tags and retrieve latest cvs update -A

To get involved, sign up for a Savannah account and request to join the GNATS project. For more information on how to use CVS, refer to the manual.

Other GNATS Resources

• Handling MIME e-mail messages in GNATS
• GNU Savannah GNATS project page contains links to the GNATS news, CVS and FTP archives, mailing lists and other development resources.
• Gnatsweb, a web-based CGI interface to GNATS. GNU Savannah Gnatsweb project page contains links to the Gnatsweb news, CVS and FTP archives.
• gnatsperl, a collection of perl modules proving an interface to the GNATS daemon written by Mike Hoolehan.
• GnatsVw is a Python rewrite of Gnatsweb by Pankaj K Garg of Zee Source (link).
• GTK+ send-pr is a GTK+ rewrite of the send-pr shell script.
• TkGNATS is a real nifty front-end to GNATS which is written in Tcl/Tk. The contrib directory in the GNATS tarball contains the older, unmaintained version 3.0.14.
• Problem Management Tools Survey entry for GNATS. This page has a lot of information about other bug tracking systems that are available. It is a good resource.
• Search Freshmeat for GNATS-related projects.
• Search SourceForge for GNATS-related projects.