This feature would be great if it included searching by specific issuelink type, not just a blocker. 

SQL for JIRA supports it in an easy and flexible way:

issue in sql("
select i.key
from issuelinks l inner join issues i on l.issueid= i.id and jql='project=MYPROJ'
where l.type='Blocks' and l.direction = 'inward'
")

or maybe you want to perform just the same SQL outside of the Issue Navigator nicely integrated with your corporate reporting tool

If you are open to using an add-on, we made Vivid Trace for JIRA to solve this problem & all problems like it. The following JQL queries address each of your queries, and will make a good starting point for fine-tuning.

A search I would find handy is to be able to pull up all issues that are linked to another as a 'blocker'

To find all issues that block i.e. ABC-123, including those that block the blockers, and so on:
issue IN relations(ABC-123, "issuelinktype = blocks", "direction = inward")

(and in a seperate search, those that are 'blocked')

issue IN relations(ABC-123, "issuelinktype = blocks", "direction = outward")

The JQL functions are fully documented here. And you don't have to memorize any parameter orders, just put in whatever parameters you need in whatever order suits you.

Cheers!

Would be nice to be able to pull up both the blocks & blocked by issue IDs and their statuses & assignee in the same search/filter. This is an important report for us that we will need almost on a daily basis.

I wholeheartedly agree

I echo the users above me. We'd like the ability to search for issues that are blocked or are blockers of ANY issue.

Would be nice to be able to search for all issues that are 'blocking', 'dependant' etc.

Please note that this request was definitely not solved in JIRA 4.0. What was added via JRA-3101 is the ability to search for issues linked to a specific issue. This request is asking for the capability to search for all issues that have a link of a certain type, regardless of the link target.

This is still something being requested by my users, and seems like it should not be complicated.

Brian,
How does one search a project for all issues blocking other issues? The new linkedissues() function in 4.0 doesn't appear to provide this functionality.

We are addressing this request with the upcoming release of JIRA 4.0.

JIRA 4.0 will include a new query language that resolves many search related issues with JIRA.

For more information about JQL, the beta JQL reference guide is available online: http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Advanced+Searching

JIRA 4.0 beta 2 is currently available for download:

http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/beta