5fa082b1f8
Currently we have articles.ent and books.ent, and
for example, articles.ent can be used by putting the
following lines in the doctype declaration:
<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC
"-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
%articles.ent;
This pulls all of the necessary entities via share/sgml/articles.ent.
The translation teams can customize these entities by redefining
the articles.ent file in <langcode>/share/sgml. See
ja_JP.eucJP/share/sgml for example.
879 lines
34 KiB
Text
879 lines
34 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
|
|
<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
|
|
%articles.ent;
|
|
]>
|
|
|
|
<article>
|
|
<articleinfo>
|
|
<title>Writing &os; Problem Reports</title>
|
|
|
|
<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
|
|
|
|
<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
|
|
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
|
|
&tm-attrib.cvsup;
|
|
&tm-attrib.ibm;
|
|
&tm-attrib.intel;
|
|
&tm-attrib.sparc;
|
|
&tm-attrib.sun;
|
|
&tm-attrib.general;
|
|
</legalnotice>
|
|
|
|
<abstract>
|
|
<para>This article describes how to best formulate and submit a
|
|
problem report to the &os; Project.</para>
|
|
</abstract>
|
|
|
|
<authorgroup>
|
|
<author>
|
|
<firstname>Dag-Erling</firstname>
|
|
<surname>Smørgrav</surname>
|
|
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
|
|
</author>
|
|
</authorgroup>
|
|
</articleinfo>
|
|
|
|
<indexterm><primary>problem reports</primary></indexterm>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-intro">
|
|
<title>Introduction</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>One of the most frustrating experiences one can have as a
|
|
software user is to submit a problem report only to have it
|
|
summarily closed with a terse and unhelpful explanation like
|
|
<quote>not a bug</quote> or <quote>bogus PR</quote>. Similarly,
|
|
one of the most frustrating experiences as a software developer
|
|
is to be flooded with problem reports that are not really
|
|
problem reports but requests for support, or that contain little
|
|
or no information about what the problem is and how to reproduce
|
|
it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This document attempts to describe how to write good problem
|
|
reports. What, you ask, is a good problem report? Well, to go
|
|
straight to the bottom line, a good problem report is one that
|
|
can be analyzed and dealt with swiftly, to the mutual
|
|
satisfaction of both user and developer.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Although the primary focus of this article is on &os;
|
|
problem reports, most of it should apply quite well to other
|
|
software projects.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Note that this article is organized thematically, not
|
|
chronologically, so you should read through the entire document
|
|
before submitting a problem report, rather than treat it as a
|
|
step-by-step tutorial.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-when">
|
|
<title>When to submit a problem report</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>There are many types of problems, and not all of them should
|
|
engender a problem report. Of course, nobody is perfect, and
|
|
there will be times when you are convinced you have found a bug
|
|
in a program when in fact you have misunderstood the syntax for
|
|
a command or made a typographical error in a configuration file
|
|
(though that in
|
|
itself may sometimes be indicative of poor documentation or poor
|
|
error handling in the application). There are still many cases
|
|
where submitting a problem report is clearly
|
|
<emphasis>not</emphasis> the right
|
|
course of action, and will only serve to frustrate you and the
|
|
developers. Conversely, there are cases where it might be
|
|
appropriate to submit a problem report about something else than
|
|
a bug—an enhancement or a feature request, for
|
|
instance.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>So how do you determine what is a bug and what is not? As a
|
|
simple rule of thumb your problem is <emphasis>not</emphasis> a
|
|
bug if it can be expressed as a question (usually of the form
|
|
<quote>How do I do X?</quote> or <quote>Where can I find
|
|
Y?</quote>). It is not always quite so black and white, but the
|
|
question rule covers a large majority of cases. If you are looking
|
|
for an answer, consider posing your question to the
|
|
&a.questions;.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Some cases where it may be appropriate to submit a problem
|
|
report about something that is not a bug are:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Requests for feature enhancements. It is generally a
|
|
good idea to air these on the mailing lists before
|
|
submitting a problem report.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Notification of updates to externally maintained
|
|
software (mainly ports, but also externally maintained base
|
|
system components such as BIND or various GNU
|
|
utilities).</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>Another thing is that if the system on which you experienced
|
|
the bug is not fairly up-to-date, you should seriously consider
|
|
upgrading and trying to reproduce the problem on an up-to-date
|
|
system before submitting a problem report. There are few things
|
|
that will annoy a developer more than receiving a problem report
|
|
about a bug she has already fixed.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Finally, a bug that can not be reproduced can rarely be
|
|
fixed. If the bug only occurred once and you can not reproduce
|
|
it, and it does not seem to happen to anybody else, chances are
|
|
none of the developers will be able to reproduce it or figure
|
|
out what is wrong. That does not mean it did not happen, but it
|
|
does mean that the chances of your problem report ever leading
|
|
to a bug fix are very slim. To make matters worse, often
|
|
these kinds of bugs are actually caused by failing hard drives
|
|
or overheating processors — you should always try to rule
|
|
out these causes, whenever possible, before submitting a PR.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-prep">
|
|
<title>Preparations</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>A good rule to follow is to always do a background search
|
|
before submitting a problem report. Maybe your problem has
|
|
already been reported; maybe it is being discussed on the
|
|
mailing lists, or recently was; it may even already be fixed in
|
|
a newer version than what you are running. You should therefore
|
|
check all the obvious places before submitting your problem
|
|
report. For &os;, this means:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The &os;
|
|
<ulink URL="&url.books.faq;/index.html">Frequently Asked
|
|
Questions</ulink> (FAQ) list.
|
|
The FAQ attempts to provide answers for a wide range of questions,
|
|
such as those concerning
|
|
<ulink URL="&url.books.faq;/hardware.html">hardware
|
|
compatibility</ulink>,
|
|
<ulink URL="&url.books.faq;/applications.html">user
|
|
applications</ulink>,
|
|
and <ulink URL="&url.books.faq;/kernelconfig.html">kernel
|
|
configuration</ulink>.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The
|
|
<ulink
|
|
URL="&url.books.handbook;/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL">mailing
|
|
lists</ulink>—if you are not subscribed, use
|
|
<ulink
|
|
URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">the
|
|
searchable archives</ulink> on the &os; web site. If your
|
|
problem has not been discussed on the lists, you might try
|
|
posting a message about it and waiting a few days to see if
|
|
someone can spot something you have overlooked.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Optionally, the entire web—use your favorite
|
|
search engine to locate any references to your problem. You
|
|
may even get hits from archived mailing lists or newsgroups
|
|
you did not know of or had not thought to search
|
|
through.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Next, the searchable
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query">
|
|
&os; PR database</ulink> (GNATS). Unless your problem
|
|
is recent or obscure, there is a fair chance it has already
|
|
been reported.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Most importantly, you should attempt to see if existing
|
|
documentation in the source base addresses your problem.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>For the base &os; code, you should
|
|
carefully study the contents of the
|
|
<filename>/usr/src/UPDATING</filename> file on your system
|
|
or its latest version at
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/UPDATING"></ulink>.
|
|
(This is vital information
|
|
if you are upgrading from one version to
|
|
another—especially if you are upgrading to the
|
|
&os.current; branch).</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>However, if the problem is in something that was installed
|
|
as a part of the &os; Ports Collection, you should refer to
|
|
<filename>/usr/ports/UPDATING</filename> (for individual ports)
|
|
or <filename>/usr/ports/CHANGES</filename> (for changes
|
|
that affect the entire Ports Collection).
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/UPDATING"></ulink>
|
|
and
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/CHANGES"></ulink>
|
|
are also available via CVSweb.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>Next, you need to make sure your problem report goes to the
|
|
right people.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The first catch here is that if the problem is a bug in
|
|
third-party software (a port or a package you have installed), you
|
|
should report the bug to the original author, not to the &os;
|
|
Project. There are two exceptions to this rule: the first is if
|
|
the bug does not occur on other platforms, in which case the
|
|
problem may lie in how the software was ported to &os;; the
|
|
second is if the original author has already fixed the bug and
|
|
released a patch or a new version of his software, and the
|
|
&os; port has not been updated yet.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The second catch is that &os;'s bug tracking system sorts
|
|
problem reports according to the category the originator
|
|
selected. Therefore, if you select the wrong category when you
|
|
submit your problem report, there is a good chance that it will
|
|
go unnoticed for a while, until someone re-categorizes it.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-writing">
|
|
<title>Writing the problem report</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Now that you have decided that your issue merits a problem
|
|
report, and that it is a &os; problem, it is time to write
|
|
the actual problem report. Before we get into the mechanics
|
|
of the program used to generate and submit PRs, here are some
|
|
tips and tricks to help make sure that your PR will be most
|
|
effective.</para>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Tips and tricks for writing a good problem report</title>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Do not leave the <quote>Synopsis</quote>
|
|
line empty.</emphasis> The PRs go both onto a mailing list
|
|
that goes all over the world (where the <quote>Synopsis</quote>
|
|
is used
|
|
for the <literal>Subject:</literal> line), but also into a
|
|
database. Anyone who comes along later and browses the
|
|
database by synopsis, and finds a PR with a blank subject
|
|
line, tends just to skip over it. Remember that PRs stay
|
|
in this database until they are closed by someone; an
|
|
anonymous one will usually just disappear in the
|
|
noise.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Avoid using a weak <quote>Synopsis</quote>
|
|
line.</emphasis> You should not assume that anyone reading
|
|
your PR has any context for your submission, so the more
|
|
you provide, the better. For instance, what part of the
|
|
system does the problem apply to? Do you only see the
|
|
problem while installing, or while running? To
|
|
illustrate, instead of <literal>Synopsis: portupgrade is
|
|
broken</literal>, see how much more informative this
|
|
seems: <literal>Synopsis: port sysutils/portupgrade
|
|
coredumps on -current</literal>. (In the case of ports,
|
|
it is especially helpful to have both the category and
|
|
portname in the <quote>Synopsis</quote> line.)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>If you have a patch, say so.</emphasis>
|
|
A PR with a patch included is much more likely to be
|
|
looked at than one without. If you are including one,
|
|
put the string <literal>[patch]</literal> at the
|
|
beginning of the <quote>Synopsis</quote>. (Although it is
|
|
not mandatory to use that exact string, by convention,
|
|
that is the one that is used.)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>If you are a maintainer, say so.</emphasis>
|
|
If you are maintaining a part of the source code (for
|
|
instance, a port), you might consider adding the string
|
|
<literal>[maintainer update]</literal> at the beginning of
|
|
your synopsis line, and you definitely should set the
|
|
<quote>Class</quote> of
|
|
your PR to <literal>maintainer-update</literal>. This way
|
|
any committer that handles your PR will not have to check.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Be specific.</emphasis>
|
|
The more information you supply about what problem you
|
|
are having, the better your chance of getting a response.</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Include the version of &os; you are running (there
|
|
is a place to put that, see below) and on which architecture.
|
|
You should include whether you are running from a release
|
|
(e.g. from a CDROM or download), or from
|
|
a system maintained by &man.cvsup.1; (and, if so, how
|
|
recently you updated). If you are tracking the
|
|
&os.current; branch, that is the very first thing someone
|
|
will ask, because fixes (especially for high-profile
|
|
problems) tend to get committed very quickly, and
|
|
&os.current; users are expected to keep up.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Include which global options you have specified in
|
|
your <filename>make.conf</filename>. Note: specifying
|
|
<literal>-O2</literal> and above to &man.gcc.1; is
|
|
known to be buggy in many situations. While the
|
|
&os; developers will accept patches, they are
|
|
generally unwilling to investigate such issues due
|
|
to simple lack of time and volunteers, and may
|
|
instead respond that this just is not supported.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>If this is a kernel problem, then be prepared to
|
|
supply the following information. (You do not
|
|
have to include these by default, which only tends to
|
|
fill up the database, but you should include excerpts
|
|
that you think might be relevant):</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>your kernel configuration (including which
|
|
hardware devices you have installed)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>whether or not you have debugging options enabled
|
|
(such as <literal>WITNESS</literal>), and if so,
|
|
whether the problem persists when you change the
|
|
sense of that option</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>a backtrace, if one was generated</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>the fact that you have read
|
|
<filename>src/UPDATING</filename> and that your problem
|
|
is not listed there (someone is guaranteed to ask)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>whether or not you can run any other kernel as
|
|
a fallback (this is to rule out hardware-related
|
|
issues such as failing disks and overheating CPUs,
|
|
which can masquerade as kernel problems)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>If this is a ports problem, then be prepared to
|
|
supply the following information. (You do not
|
|
have to include these by default, which only tends to
|
|
fill up the database, but you should include excerpts
|
|
that you think might be relevant):</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>which ports you have installed</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>any environment variables that override the
|
|
defaults in <filename>bsd.port.mk</filename>, such
|
|
as <makevar>PORTSDIR</makevar></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>the fact that you have read
|
|
<filename>ports/UPDATING</filename> and that your problem
|
|
is not listed there (someone is guaranteed to ask)</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Avoid vague requests for features.</emphasis>
|
|
PRs of the form <quote>someone should really implement something
|
|
that does so-and-so</quote> are less likely to get results than
|
|
very specific requests. Remember, the source is available
|
|
to everyone, so if you want a feature, the best way to
|
|
ensure it being included is to get to work! Also consider
|
|
the fact that many things like this would make a better
|
|
topic for discussion on <literal>freebsd-questions</literal>
|
|
than an entry in the PR database, as discussed above.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Make sure no one else has already submitted
|
|
a similar PR.</emphasis> Although this has already been
|
|
mentioned above, it bears repeating here. It only take a
|
|
minute or two to use the web-based search engine at
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query"></ulink>.
|
|
(Of course, everyone is guilty of forgetting to do this
|
|
now and then.)</para> </listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Avoid controversial requests.</emphasis>
|
|
If your PR addresses an area that has been controversial
|
|
in the past, you should probably be prepared to not only
|
|
offer patches, but also justification for why the patches
|
|
are <quote>The Right Thing To Do</quote>. As noted above,
|
|
a careful search of the mailing lists using the archives
|
|
at <ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists"></ulink>
|
|
is always good preparation.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Be polite.</emphasis>
|
|
Almost anyone who would potentially work on your PR is a
|
|
volunteer. No one likes to be told that they have to do
|
|
something when they are already doing it for some
|
|
motivation other than monetary gain. This is a good thing
|
|
to keep in mind at all times on Open Source
|
|
projects.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Before you begin</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Before running the &man.send-pr.1; program, make sure your
|
|
<envar>VISUAL</envar> (or <envar>EDITOR</envar> if
|
|
<envar>VISUAL</envar> is not set) environment variable is set
|
|
to something sensible.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>You should also make sure that mail delivery works fine.
|
|
&man.send-pr.1; uses mail messages for the submission and
|
|
tracking of problem reports. If you cannot post mail messages
|
|
from the machine you're running &man.send-pr.1; on, your
|
|
problem report will not reach the GNATS database. For details
|
|
on the setup of mail on &os;, see the <quote>Electronic
|
|
Mail</quote> chapter of the &os; Handbook at
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mail.html"></ulink>.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Attaching patches or files</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>The &man.send-pr.1; program has provisions for attaching
|
|
files to a problem report. You can attach as many files as
|
|
you want provided that each has a unique base name (i.e. the
|
|
name of the file proper, without the path). Just use the
|
|
<option>-a</option> command-line option to specify the names
|
|
of the files you wish to attach:</para>
|
|
|
|
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>send-pr -a /var/run/dmesg -a /tmp/errors</userinput></screen>
|
|
|
|
<para>Do not worry about binary files, they will be automatically
|
|
encoded so as not to upset your mail agent.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If you attach a patch, make sure you use the
|
|
<option>-c</option> or <option>-u</option> option to
|
|
&man.diff.1; to create a context or unified diff (unified is
|
|
preferred), and make
|
|
sure to specify the exact CVS revision numbers of the files
|
|
you modified so the developers who read your report will be
|
|
able to apply them easily. For problems with the kernel or the
|
|
base utilities, a patch against &os.current; (the HEAD
|
|
CVS branch) is preferred since all new code should be applied
|
|
and tested there first. After appropriate or substantial testing
|
|
has been done, the code will be merged/migrated to the &os.stable;
|
|
branch.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If you attach a patch inline, instead of as an attachment,
|
|
note that the most common problem by far is the tendency of some
|
|
email programs to render tabs as spaces, which will completely
|
|
ruin anything intended to be part of a Makefile.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Also note that while including small patches in a PR is
|
|
generally all right—particularly when they fix the problem
|
|
described in the PR—large patches and especially new code
|
|
which may require substantial review before committing should
|
|
be placed on a web or ftp server, and the URL should be
|
|
included in the PR instead of the patch. Patches in email
|
|
tend to get mangled, especially when GNATS is involved, and
|
|
the larger the patch, the harder it will be for interested
|
|
parties to unmangle it. Also, posting a patch on the web
|
|
allows you to modify it without having to resubmit the entire
|
|
patch in a followup to the original PR.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>You should also take note that unless you explicitly
|
|
specify otherwise in your PR or in the patch itself, any
|
|
patches you submit will be assumed to be licensed under the
|
|
same terms as the original file you modified.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Filling out the template</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>When you run &man.send-pr.1;, you are presented with a
|
|
template. The template consists of a list of fields, some of
|
|
which are pre-filled, and some of which have comments explaining
|
|
their purpose or listing acceptable values. Do not worry
|
|
about the comments; they will be removed automatically if you
|
|
do not modify them or remove them yourself.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>At the top of the template, below the
|
|
<literal>SEND-PR:</literal> lines, are the email headers. You
|
|
do not normally need to modify these, unless you are sending
|
|
the problem report from a machine or account that can send but
|
|
not receive mail, in which case you will want to set the
|
|
<literal>From:</literal> and <literal>Reply-To:</literal> to
|
|
your real email address. You may also want to send yourself
|
|
(or someone else) a carbon copy of the problem report by
|
|
adding one or more email addresses to the
|
|
<literal>Cc:</literal> header.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Next comes a series of single-line fields:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Submitter-Id:</emphasis> Do not change this.
|
|
The default value of <literal>current-users</literal> is
|
|
correct, even if you run &os.stable;.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Originator:</emphasis> This is normally
|
|
prefilled with the <literal>gecos</literal> field of the
|
|
currently logged-in
|
|
user. Please specify your real name, optionally followed
|
|
by your email address in angle brackets.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Organization:</emphasis> Whatever you feel
|
|
like. This field is not used for anything
|
|
significant.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Confidential:</emphasis> This is prefilled
|
|
to <literal>no</literal>. Changing it makes no sense as
|
|
there is no such thing as a confidential &os; problem
|
|
report—the PR database is distributed worldwide by
|
|
<application>CVSup</application>.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Synopsis:</emphasis> Fill this out with a
|
|
short and accurate description of the problem. The
|
|
synopsis is used as the subject of the problem report
|
|
email, and is used in problem report listings and
|
|
summaries; problem reports with obscure synopses tend to
|
|
get ignored.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>As noted above, if your problem report includes a patch,
|
|
please have the synopsis start with <literal>[patch]</literal>;
|
|
if you are a maintainer, you may consider adding
|
|
<literal>[maintainer update]</literal> and set the
|
|
<quote>Class</quote> of your PR to
|
|
<literal>maintainer-update</literal>.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Severity:</emphasis> One of
|
|
<literal>non-critical</literal>,
|
|
<literal>serious</literal> or
|
|
<literal>critical</literal>. Do not overreact; refrain
|
|
from labeling your problem <literal>critical</literal>
|
|
unless it really is (e.g. <username>root</username> exploit, easily
|
|
reproducible panic) or <literal>serious</literal> unless
|
|
it is something that will affect many users (problems with
|
|
particular device drivers or system utilities). &os;
|
|
developers will not neccesarily work on your problem faster
|
|
if you inflate its importance since there are so many other
|
|
people who have done exactly that — in fact, some
|
|
developers pay little attention to this field, and the next,
|
|
because of this.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Priority:</emphasis> One of
|
|
<literal>low</literal>, <literal>medium</literal> or
|
|
<literal>high</literal>. <literal>high</literal> should
|
|
be reserved for problems that will affect practically
|
|
every user of &os; and <literal>medium</literal> for
|
|
something that will affect many users.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Category:</emphasis> Choose one of the
|
|
following (taken from
|
|
<filename>/usr/gnats/gnats-adm/categories</filename>):</para>
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>advocacy:</literal> problems relating to
|
|
&os;'s public image. Rarely used.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>alpha:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
Alpha platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>amd64:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
AMD64 platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>bin:</literal> problems with userland
|
|
programs in the base system.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>conf:</literal> problems with
|
|
configuration files, default values etc.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>docs:</literal> problems with manual pages
|
|
or on-line documentation.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>gnu:</literal> problems with GNU software
|
|
such as &man.gcc.1; or &man.grep.1;.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>i386:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
&i386; platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>ia64:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
ia64 platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>java:</literal> problems related to &java;.
|
|
</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>kern:</literal> problems with
|
|
the kernel or (non-platform-specific) device drivers.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>misc:</literal> anything that does not fit
|
|
in any of the other categories. (Note that it is
|
|
easy for things to get lost in this category).</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>ports:</literal> problems relating to the
|
|
ports tree.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>powerpc:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
&powerpc; platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>sparc64:</literal> problems specific to the
|
|
&sparc64; platform.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>standards:</literal> Standards conformance
|
|
issues.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>threads:</literal> problems related to the
|
|
&os; threads implementation (especially on &os.current;).</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>www:</literal> Changes or enhancements to
|
|
the &os; website.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Class:</emphasis> Choose one of the
|
|
following:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>sw-bug:</literal> software bugs.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>doc-bug:</literal> errors in
|
|
documentation.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>change-request:</literal> requests for
|
|
additional features or changes in existing
|
|
features.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>update:</literal> updates to ports or
|
|
other contributed software.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><literal>maintainer-update:</literal> updates to
|
|
ports for which you are the maintainer.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Release:</emphasis> The version of &os;
|
|
that you are running. This is filled out automatically by
|
|
&man.send-pr.1; and need only be changed if you are
|
|
sending a problem report from a different system than the
|
|
one that exhibits the problem.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>Finally, there is a series of multi-line fields:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Environment:</emphasis> This should
|
|
describe, as accurately as possible, the environment in
|
|
which the problem has been observed. This includes the
|
|
operating system version, the version of the specific
|
|
program or file that contains the problem, and any other
|
|
relevant items such as system configuration, other
|
|
installed software that influences the problem,
|
|
etc.—quite simply everything a developer needs to
|
|
know to reconstruct the environment in which the problem
|
|
occurs.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Description:</emphasis> A complete and
|
|
accurate description of the problem you are experiencing.
|
|
Try to avoid speculating about the causes of the problem
|
|
unless you are certain that you are on the right track, as
|
|
it may mislead a developer into making incorrect
|
|
assumptions about the problem.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>How-To-Repeat:</emphasis> A summary of the
|
|
actions you need to take to reproduce the problem.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><emphasis>Fix:</emphasis> Preferably a patch, or at
|
|
least a workaround (which not only helps other people with
|
|
the same problem work around it, but may also help a
|
|
developer understand the cause for the problem), but if
|
|
you do not have any firm ideas for either, it is better to
|
|
leave this field blank than to speculate.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<title>Sending off the problem report</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Once you are done filling out the template, have saved it,
|
|
and exit your editor, &man.send-pr.1; will prompt you with
|
|
<prompt>s)end, e)dit or a)bort?</prompt>. You can then hit
|
|
<userinput>s</userinput> to go ahead and submit the problem report,
|
|
<userinput>e</userinput> to restart the editor and make
|
|
further modifications, or <userinput>a</userinput> to abort.
|
|
If you choose the latter, your problem report will remain on
|
|
disk (&man.send-pr.1; will tell you the filename before it
|
|
terminates), so you can edit it at your leisure, or maybe
|
|
transfer it to a system with better net connectivity, before
|
|
sending it with the <option>-f</option> to
|
|
&man.send-pr.1;:</para>
|
|
|
|
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>send-pr -f ~/my-problem-report</userinput></screen>
|
|
|
|
<para>This will read the specified file, validate the contents,
|
|
strip comments and send it off.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-followup">
|
|
<title>Follow-up</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Once your problem report has been filed, you will receive a
|
|
confirmation by email which will include the tracking number
|
|
that was assigned to your problem report and a URL you can use
|
|
to check its status. With a little luck, someone will take an
|
|
interest in your problem and try to address it, or, as the case
|
|
may be, explain why it is not a problem. You will be
|
|
automatically notified of any change of status, and you will
|
|
receive copies of any comments or patches someone may attach to
|
|
your problem report's audit trail.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If someone requests additional information from you, or you
|
|
remember or discover something you did not mention in the
|
|
initial report, please use one of two methods to submit your
|
|
followup:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The easiest way is to use the followup link on
|
|
the individual PR's web page, which you can reach from the
|
|
<ulink URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query">
|
|
PR search page</ulink>. Clicking on this link will bring up an
|
|
an email window with the correct To: and Subject: lines filled in
|
|
(if your browser is configured to do this).</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Alternatively, you can just mail it to
|
|
<email>bug-followup@FreeBSD.org</email>, making sure that the
|
|
tracking number is included in the subject so the bug tracking
|
|
system will know what problem report to attach it to.</para>
|
|
|
|
<note>
|
|
<para>If you do <emphasis>not</emphasis> include the tracking
|
|
number, GNATS will become confused and create an entirely
|
|
new PR which it then assigns to the GNATS administrator,
|
|
and then your followup will become lost until someone
|
|
comes in to clean up the mess, which could be days or
|
|
weeks afterwards.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Wrong way: <programlisting>Subject: that PR I sent</programlisting>
|
|
Right way: <programlisting>Subject: Re: ports/12345: compilation problem with foo/bar</programlisting></para>
|
|
</note>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>If the problem report remains open after the problem has
|
|
gone away, just send a follow-up (in the manner prescribed
|
|
above) saying that the problem report can be closed, and, if
|
|
possible, explaining how or when the problem was fixed.</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section id="pr-further">
|
|
<title>Further Reading</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This is a list of resources relevant to the proper writing
|
|
and processing of problem reports. It is by no means complete.</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><ulink
|
|
url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html">
|
|
How to Report Bugs Effectively</ulink>—an excellent
|
|
essay by Simon G. Tatham on composing useful (non-&os;-specific)
|
|
problem reports.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><ulink
|
|
url="&url.articles.pr-guidelines;/article.html">Problem
|
|
Report Handling Guidelines</ulink>—valuable insight
|
|
into how problem reports are handled by the &os;
|
|
developers.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
</section>
|
|
</article>
|