In the background, it constantly runs the code, checking the code tree. If the tree breaks, it sends up a red flag, stopping further checkins until the problem can be identified. Logs can be pulled and problems traced to a particular time period. Previously used by Netscape developers in-house, it was erected on mozilla.org for use by developers around the world and could be used directly through the browser on any platform. If you get more than ten developers together without tools, there is going to be an explosion.
Tinderbox is a detective tool.
It allows you to see what is happening in the source tree.