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Maybe I'm just blind, but I can't find documentation about how to format text in Bugzilla. Does Bugzilla support Markdown, Textile or some sort of markup language out of the box?

-- EDIT --

Half interesting news: there is an open P3 enhancement [1] for adding optional support for Markdown [2] and it is possible to voteup. Though it doesn't seem there is too much enthusiasm around it.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330707

[2] http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

Paolo
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  • I'm curious as to what problem introducing this feature would solve. Is Bugzilla really hindered by the inability to do bold and italics? – eaolson Apr 20 '11 at 00:57
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    @eaolson Bugzilla is not hindered by this, as a lot of people use it (myself too) every day with success. But considering that usually markup languages offer more than "bold and italics", many **readability problems** would disappear. For pepole not using it, to get an idea about how Bugzilla looks like try imagine StackOverflow without text formatting capability. Hardly acceptable, you can't even write `[This is a link](http://example.com/)`. Come on! – Paolo Apr 20 '11 at 07:11
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    @Guandalino: It's better when the URL is written out in full (at which point BZ auto-hyperlinks it for you), so that it is readable in _all_ forms, including when printed. Bugzilla may be implemented as a web application, but it is not really a _website_ per se. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 28 '13 at 15:07
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit I'm wondering if you still print anything in 2022 – Ruan Mendes May 26 '22 at 18:15

2 Answers2

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Edit: Bugzilla 6.0 will include optional markdown support; it was implemented as a GSoC project in the bug linked in the question. Docs.

Before 6.0, the only thing it supports is the > prefix on lines, which makes them purple and not wrap.

Matt McHenry
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    Long plain links are ugly distractions; shortened links can be abused. Simple link production, like Markdown system, would be a worthwhile enhancement. IMO. :) – Dɑvïd Jun 23 '13 at 19:27
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    I would prefer some simple formatting capabilities. This is not an either/or situation. Markdown is designed to be readable and good looking with and without being rendered. You can have your simplicity, printability, *and* the ability to have code blocks, hyperlinks and more, all at the same time. Markdown also happens to be insanely easy to implement in web applications written in modern languages. – Christopher Maujean Aug 06 '13 at 23:21
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    I think they [pulled Markdown from 5.0](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330707#c51). [5.1 docs](https://bugzilla.readthedocs.org/en/latest/using/tips.html?highlight=markdown#markdown) do mention markdown, though. – muru Sep 19 '15 at 03:16
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    This is a fairly new answer. Does anyone know when Mozilla will release Bugzilla 6.0 in its bugtracker for Firefox? To me, markdown in BZ is not critical, but it would be nice. – Bulrush Feb 17 '16 at 12:09
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At this moment, Markdown formatting is supported on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ based on my own testing just now. There's a small link that says "Markdown styling now supported"

However, Mozilla's bugzilla instance appears to be running one of several Markdown Bugzilla extensions listed on GitHub, since Markdown doesn't seem to be mentioned in the bugzilla code repository.

As for version history, bugzilla.mozilla.org links to documentation indicating they are running Bugzilla 4.2. Markdown was introduced in the Bugzilla 4.5.6 development snapshot, but reverted from 5.0. Then, Markdown support was included in the Bugzilla 5.1.2 documentation.

I can't find current plans. There was discussion here without clarity about what happened:

Conclusion

Any given Bugzilla installation may or may not support Markdown right now, but Markdown was designed to be readable, so go ahead and use it. It seems likely it will be rendered as HTML in the near future even if it isn't right now.

sondra.kinsey
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