4. Client Software

Several client applications can be found in the GNATS distribution. The most important are Gnatsweb (a WWW interface to GNATS), TkGnats (a Tcl/Tk based interface), a GNATS mode for Emacs and XEmacs, and send-pr (the traditional command line interface that sends a PR by e-mail).

4.1 Gnatsweb		a WWW interface to GNATS
4.2 TkGnats		a Tcl/Tk based client
4.3 GNATS Mode for Emacs		for (X)Emacs enthusiasts
4.4 send-pr		traditional command line interface

4.1 Gnatsweb

See also 2.1 Gnatsweb and GNATS do not like each other. in the chapter on 2. Problems during Installation.

4.1.1 Login Questions

Problems logging in to Gnatsweb

4.1.1 Login Questions

What should be entered as login information?		What to enter at login
Login data are not remembered		Reasons why Gnatsweb forgets your login
Gnatsweb and Cookies		What Gnatsweb stores in its cookies

What should be entered as login information?

A: If you get an HTML form asking you to enter username, password, and database, use what your gnats administrator has told you. In this case, your authentication data is checked with gnatsd's own user database.

If your browser gives you a window asking for username and password (or for "credentials"), the authentication is done by the WWW server. You should have got the necessary data either from your gnats administrator, or from the webmaster of the site offering Gnatsweb access.

Login data are not remembered

Q: After logging in via Gnatsweb, the main screen is displayed, but whatever action is selected (whatever button is clicked), the login screen gets displayed again.

A: This is usually a problem of cookies getting ignored. Gnatsweb uses cookies to store the login information (see "Gnatsweb and Cookies" below). Configure your web browser to allow the cookies Gnatsweb tries to set.

Q: There is not even the main screen, the user immediately gets the login screen when trying to log in. The login data entered is correct. It works fine on another machine and for other users.

A: This has actually been reported only once; but as the effect is similar to the previous one, it is included in the FAQ. It apparently was related to very strict security settings, but has not been investigated in detail.

Gnatsweb and Cookies

Q: Wait a moment! Cookies? Can I eat them?

A: No, not these. The cookies about which we are talking here are little data packages that a web-server sends to your browser (in our case, on behalf of Gnatsweb) and your browser sends them back to the server next time. Modern browsers give you the option to generally accept or reject cookies, or to be asked whenever a cookie arrives (some even can make this decision based on the web-server). To learn more about cookies, visit, e.g., the Cookie Central.

Q: So, which cookies does Gnatsweb send, and why?

A: Gnatsweb uses a cookie gnatsweb-db-database_name to store your login information (username, password), and a cookie gnatsweb-global to store the GNATS database you are working on, your e-mail address (to fill it in for you when you create a new report or reply to an existing report), a default list of fields to display in search results, and defaults for Submitter-Id and Originator fields.

Gnatsweb also sets a cookie for each "saved query" (named gnatsweb-query-queryname).

It is therefore essential that you allow Gnatsweb to set its cookies. For a typical effect of rejecting them, see Login data are not remembered.

4.2 TkGnats

To be completed.

4.3 GNATS Mode for Emacs

The Emacs mode is in the file gnats.el

Does it also work for XEmacs?

Does it also work for XEmacs?

A: (GNATS 3.1xx) Yes.

A: (GNATS 4.x) Still to be tested.

4.4 send-pr

A simple command line tool that sends a report via electronic mail. This is not contributed software, but part of GNATS itself.

The 3.xxx versions do not support multiple databases.

To be completed.