                        Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports

  Dag-Erling Smo/rgrav

   Contributed by  

  Mark Linimon

   Revision: 43126

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   Last modified on 2013-11-07 by gabor.
   Abstract

   This article describes how to best formulate and submit a problem report
   to the FreeBSD Project.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Table of Contents

   1. Introduction

   2. When to submit a problem report

   3. Preparations

   4. Writing the problem report

   5. Follow-up

   6. If you are having problems

   7. Further Reading

   Index

1. Introduction

   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 "not a bug" or "bogus PR". 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.

   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.

   Although the primary focus of this article is on FreeBSD problem reports,
   most of it should apply quite well to other software projects.

   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.

2. When to submit a problem report

   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 not 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 new feature, for instance.

   So how do you determine what is a bug and what is not? As a simple rule of
   thumb your problem is not a bug if it can be expressed as a question
   (usually of the form "How do I do X?" or "Where can I find Y?"). 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 FreeBSD general questions mailing list.

   Some cases where it may be appropriate to submit a problem report about
   something that is not a bug are:

     * Notification of updates to externally maintained software (mainly
       ports, but also externally maintained base system components such as
       BIND or various GNU utilities).

       For unmaintained ports (MAINTAINER contains ports@FreeBSD.org), such
       update notifications might get picked up by an interested committer,
       or you might be asked to provide a patch to update the port; providing
       it upfront will greatly improve your chances that the port will get
       updated in a timely manner.

       If the port is maintained, PRs announcing new upstream releases are
       usually not very useful since they generate supplementary work for the
       committers, and the maintainer likely knows already there is a new
       version, they have probably worked with the developers on it, they are
       probably testing to see there is no regression, etc.

       In either case, following the process described in Porter's Handbook
       will yield the best results. (You might also wish to read Contributing
       to the FreeBSD Ports Collection.)

   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.

   Next, to decide to whom you should file your problem report, you need to
   understand that the software that makes up FreeBSD is composed of several
   different elements:

     * Code in the base system that is written and maintained by FreeBSD
       contributors, such as the kernel, the C library, and the device
       drivers (categorized as kern); the binary utilities (bin); the manual
       pages and documentation (docs); and the web pages (www). All bugs in
       these areas should be reported to the FreeBSD developers.

     * Code in the base system that is written and maintained by others, and
       imported into FreeBSD and adapted. Examples include bind, gcc(1), and
       sendmail(8). Most bugs in these areas should be reported to the
       FreeBSD developers; but in some cases they may need to be reported to
       the original authors instead if the problems are not FreeBSD-specific.
       Usually these bugs will fall under either the bin or gnu categories.

     * Individual applications that are not in the base system but are
       instead part of the FreeBSD Ports Collection (category ports). Most of
       these applications are not written by FreeBSD developers; what FreeBSD
       provides is merely a framework for installing the application.
       Therefore, you should only report a problem to the FreeBSD developers
       when you believe the problem is FreeBSD-specific; otherwise, you
       should report it to the authors of the software.

   Then you should ascertain whether or not the problem is timely. There are
   few things that will annoy a developer more than receiving a problem
   report about a bug she has already fixed.

   If the problem is in the base system, you should first read the FAQ
   section on FreeBSD versions, if you are not already familiar with the
   topic. It is not possible for FreeBSD to fix problems in anything other
   than certain recent branches of the base system, so filing a bug report
   about an older version will probably only result in a developer advising
   you to upgrade to a supported version to see if the problem still recurs.
   The Security Officer team maintains the list of supported versions.

   If the problem is in a port, note that you must first upgrade to the
   latest version of the Ports Collection and see if the problem still
   applies. Due to the rapid pace of changes in these applications, it is
   infeasible for FreeBSD to support anything other than the absolute latest
   versions, and problems with older version of applications simply cannot be
   fixed.

3. Preparations

   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 FreeBSD, this means:

     * The FreeBSD Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. The FAQ attempts to
       provide answers for a wide range of questions, such as those
       concerning hardware compatibility, user applications, and kernel
       configuration.

     * The mailing lists-if you are not subscribed, use the searchable
       archives on the FreeBSD 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.

     * 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.

     * Next, the searchable FreeBSD PR database (GNATS). Unless your problem
       is recent or obscure, there is a fair chance it has already been
       reported.

     * Most importantly, you should attempt to see if existing documentation
       in the source base addresses your problem.

       For the base FreeBSD code, you should carefully study the contents of
       the /usr/src/UPDATING file on your system or its latest version at
       http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/UPDATING?view=log. (This is vital
       information if you are upgrading from one version to
       another-especially if you are upgrading to the FreeBSD-CURRENT
       branch).

       However, if the problem is in something that was installed as a part
       of the FreeBSD Ports Collection, you should refer to
       /usr/ports/UPDATING (for individual ports) or /usr/ports/CHANGES (for
       changes that affect the entire Ports Collection).
       http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/UPDATING?view=log and
       http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/CHANGES?view=log are also
       available via svnweb.

4. Writing the problem report

   Now that you have decided that your issue merits a problem report, and
   that it is a FreeBSD 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.

  4.1. Tips and tricks for writing a good problem report

     * Do not leave the "Synopsis" line empty. The PRs go both onto a mailing
       list that goes all over the world (where the "Synopsis" is used for
       the Subject: 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.

     * Avoid using a weak "Synopsis" line. 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 Synopsis: portupgrade is
       broken, see how much more informative this seems: Synopsis: port
       ports-mgmt/portupgrade coredumps on -current. (In the case of ports,
       it is especially helpful to have both the category and portname in the
       "Synopsis" line.)

     * If you have a patch, say so. 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 [patch] (including the brackets) at the beginning of the
       "Synopsis". (Although it is not mandatory to use that exact string, by
       convention, that is the one that is used.)

     * If you are a maintainer, say so. If you are maintaining a part of the
       source code (for instance, a port), you might consider adding the
       string [maintainer update] (including the brackets) at the beginning
       of your synopsis line, and you definitely should set the "Class" of
       your PR to maintainer-update. This way any committer that handles your
       PR will not have to check.

     * Be specific. The more information you supply about what problem you
       are having, the better your chance of getting a response.

          * Include the version of FreeBSD 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 Subversion (and, if
            so, what revision number you are at). If you are tracking the
            FreeBSD-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 FreeBSD-CURRENT users are
            expected to keep up.

          * Include which global options you have specified in your
            make.conf. Note: specifying -O2 and above to gcc(1) is known to
            be buggy in many situations. While the FreeBSD 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.

          * If the problem can be reproduced easily, include information that
            will help a developer to reproduce it themselves. If a problem
            can be demonstrated with specific input then include an example
            of that input if possible, and include both the actual and the
            expected output. If this data is large or cannot be made public,
            then do try to create a minimal file that exhibits the same issue
            and that can be included within the PR.

          * 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):

               * your kernel configuration (including which hardware devices
                 you have installed)

               * whether or not you have debugging options enabled (such as
                 WITNESS), and if so, whether the problem persists when you
                 change the sense of that option

               * the full text of any backtrace, panic or other console
                 output, or entries in /var/log/messages, if any were
                 generated

               * the output of pciconf -l and relevant parts of your dmesg
                 output if your problem relates to a specific piece of
                 hardware

               * the fact that you have read src/UPDATING and that your
                 problem is not listed there (someone is guaranteed to ask)

               * 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)

          * 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):

               * which ports you have installed

               * any environment variables that override the defaults in
                 bsd.port.mk, such as PORTSDIR

               * the fact that you have read ports/UPDATING and that your
                 problem is not listed there (someone is guaranteed to ask)

     * Avoid vague requests for features. PRs of the form "someone should
       really implement something that does so-and-so" 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
       freebsd-questions than an entry in the PR database, as discussed
       above.

     * Make sure no one else has already submitted a similar PR. 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
       http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query. (Of course,
       everyone is guilty of forgetting to do this now and then.)

     * Report only one issue per Problem Report. Avoid including two or more
       problems within the same report unless they are related. When
       submitting patches, avoid adding multiple features or fixing multiple
       bugs in the same PR unless they are closely related-such PRs often
       take longer to resolve.

     * Avoid controversial requests. 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
       "The Right Thing To Do". As noted above, a careful search of the
       mailing lists using the archives at
       http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists is always good
       preparation.

     * Be polite. 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.

  4.2. Before you begin

   If you are using the send-pr(1) program, make sure your VISUAL (or EDITOR
   if VISUAL is not set) environment variable is set to something sensible.

   You should also make sure that mail delivery works fine. send-pr(1) uses
   mail messages for the submission and tracking of problem reports. If you
   cannot post mail messages from the machine you are running send-pr(1) on,
   your problem report will not reach the GNATS database. For details on the
   setup of mail on FreeBSD, see the "Electronic Mail" chapter of the FreeBSD
   Handbook at
   http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mail.html.

   Make sure that your mailer will not mangle the message on its way to
   GNATS. In particular, if your mailer automatically breaks lines, changes
   tabs to spaces, or escapes newline characters, any patch that you submit
   will be rendered unusable. For the text sections, however, we request that
   you insert manual linebreaks somewhere around 70 characters, so that the
   web display of the PR will be readable.

   Similar considerations apply if you are using the web-based PR submission
   form instead of send-pr(1). Note that cut-and-paste operations can have
   their own side-effects on text formatting. In certain cases it may be
   necessary to use uuencode(1) to ensure that patches arrive unmodified.

   Finally, if your submission will be lengthy, you should to prepare your
   work offline so that nothing will be lost in case there is a problem
   submitting it. This can especially be a problem with the web form.

  4.3. Attaching patches or files

   The following applies to submitting PRs via email:

   The 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 -a command-line option to specify the names of the files you
   wish to attach:

 % send-pr -a /var/run/dmesg -a /tmp/errors

   Do not worry about binary files, they will be automatically encoded so as
   not to upset your mail agent.

   If you attach a patch, make sure you use the -c or -u option to diff(1) to
   create a context or unified diff (unified is preferred), and make sure to
   specify the exact SVN 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
   FreeBSD-CURRENT (the HEAD Subversion 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
   FreeBSD-STABLE branch.

   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.

   Do not send patches as attachments using Content-Transfer-Encoding:
   quoted-printable. These will perform character escaping and the entire
   patch will be useless.

   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. Finally, large
   patches simply increase the size of the database, since closed PRs are not
   actually deleted but instead kept and simply marked as closed.

   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.

  4.4. Filling out the template

   The next section applies to the email method only:

   When you run 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.

   At the top of the template, below the SEND-PR: 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 From: and Reply-To: 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 Cc: header.

   In the email template only, you will find the following single-line
   fields:

     * Submitter-Id: Do not change this. The default value of current-users
       is correct, even if you run FreeBSD-STABLE.

     * Confidential: This is prefilled to no. Changing it makes no sense as
       there is no such thing as a confidential FreeBSD problem report-the PR
       database is distributed worldwide.

     * Severity: One of non-critical, serious or critical. Do not overreact;
       refrain from labeling your problem critical unless it really is (e.g.,
       data corruption issues, serious regression from previous functionality
       in -CURRENT) or serious unless it is something that will affect many
       users (kernel panics or freezes; problems with particular device
       drivers or system utilities). FreeBSD developers will not necessarily
       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 because of this.

  Note:

       Security problems should not be filed in GNATS, because all GNATS
       information is public knowledge. Please send such problems according
       to our security report guidelines.

     * Priority: One of low, medium or high. high should be reserved for
       problems that will affect practically every user of FreeBSD and medium
       for something that will affect many users.

  Note:

       This field has become so widely abused that it is almost completely
       meaningless.

   The next section describes fields that are common to both the email
   interface and the web interface:

     * Originator: Please specify your real name, optionally followed by your
       email address in angle brackets. In the email interface, this is
       normally prefilled with the gecos field of the currently logged-in
       user.

  Note:

       The email address you use will become public information and may
       become available to spammers. You should either have spam handling
       procedures in place, or use a temporary email account. However, please
       note that if you do not use a valid email account at all, we will not
       be able to ask you questions about your PR.

     * Organization: Whatever you feel like. This field is not used for
       anything significant.

     * Synopsis: 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.

       As noted above, if your problem report includes a patch, please have
       the synopsis start with [patch] (including the brackets); if this is a
       ports PR and you are the maintainer, you may consider adding
       [maintainer update] (including the brackets) and set the "Class" of
       your PR to maintainer-update.

     * Category: Choose an appropriate category.

       The first thing you need to do is to decide what part of the system
       your problem lies in. Remember, FreeBSD is a complete operating
       system, which installs both a kernel, the standard libraries, many
       peripheral drivers, and a large number of utilities (the "base
       system"). However, there are thousands of additional applications in
       the Ports Collection. You'll first need to decide if the problem is in
       the base system or something installed via the Ports Collection.

       Here is a description of the major categories:

          * If a problem is with the kernel, the libraries (such as standard
            C library libc), or a peripheral driver in the base system, in
            general you will use the kern category. (There are a few
            exceptions; see below). In general these are things that are
            described in section 2, 3, or 4 of the manual pages.

          * If a problem is with a binary program such as sh(1) or mount(8),
            you will first need to determine whether these programs are in
            the base system or were added via the Ports Collection. If you
            are unsure, you can do whereis programname. FreeBSD's convention
            for the Ports Collection is to install everything underneath
            /usr/local, although this can be overridden by a system
            administrator. For these, you will use the ports category (yes,
            even if the port's category is www; see below). If the location
            is /bin, /usr/bin, /sbin, or /usr/sbin, it is part of the base
            system, and you should use the bin category. (A few programs,
            such as gcc(1), actually use the gnu category, but do not worry
            about that for now.) These are all things that are described in
            section 1 or 8 of the manual pages.

          * If you believe that the error is in the startup (rc) scripts, or
            in some kind of other non-executable configuration file, then the
            right category is conf (configuration). These are things that are
            described in section 5 of the manual pages.

          * If you have found a problem in the documentation set (articles,
            books, man pages), the correct choice is docs.

          * If you are having a problem with the FreeBSD web pages, the
            proper choice is www.

  Note:

            if you are having a problem with something from a port named
            www/someportname, this nevertheless goes in the ports category.

       There are a few more specialized categories.

          * If the problem would otherwise be filed in kern but has to do
            with the USB subsystem, the correct choice is usb.

          * If the problem would otherwise be filed in kern but has to do
            with the threading libraries, the correct choice is threads.

          * If the problem would otherwise be in the base system, but has to
            do with our adherence to standards such as POSIX(R), the correct
            choice is standards.

          * If the problem has to do with errors internal to a Java Virtual
            Machine(TM) (JVM(TM)), even though Java(TM) was installed from
            the Ports Collection, you should select the java category. More
            general problems with Java(TM) ports still go under ports.

       This leaves everything else.

          * If you are convinced that the problem will only occur under the
            processor architecture you are using, select one of the
            architecture-specific categories: commonly i386 for
            Intel-compatible machines in 32-bit mode; amd64 for AMD machines
            running in 64-bit mode (this also includes Intel-compatible
            machines running in EMT64 mode); and less commonly arm, ia64,
            powerpc, and sparc64.

  Note:

            These categories are quite often misused for "I do not know"
            problems. Rather than guessing, please just use misc.

            Example 1. Correct use of arch-specific category

            You have a common PC-based machine, and think you have
            encountered a problem specific to a particular chipset or a
            particular motherboard: i386 is the right category.

            Example 2. Incorrect use of arch-specific category

            You are having a problem with an add-in peripheral card on a
            commonly seen bus, or a problem with a particular type of hard
            disk drive: in this case, it probably applies to more than one
            architecture, and kern is the right category.

          * If you really do not know where the problem lies (or the
            explanation does not seem to fit into the ones above), use the
            misc category. Before you do so, you may wish to ask for help on
            the FreeBSD general questions mailing list first. You may be
            advised that one of the existing categories really is a better
            choice.

       Here is the current list of categories (taken from
       http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/gnu/usr.bin/send-pr/categories):

          * advocacy: problems relating to FreeBSD's public image. Obsolete.

          * amd64: problems specific to the AMD64 platform.

          * arm: problems specific to the ARM platform.

          * bin: problems with userland programs in the base system.

          * conf: problems with configuration files, default values, and so
            forth.

          * docs: problems with manual pages or on-line documentation.

          * gnu: problems with imported GNU software such as gcc(1) or
            grep(1).

          * i386: problems specific to the i386(TM) platform.

          * ia64: problems specific to the ia64 platform.

          * java: problems related to the Java(TM) Virtual Machine.

          * kern: problems with the kernel, (non-platform-specific) device
            drivers, or the base libraries.

          * misc: anything that does not fit in any of the other categories.
            (Note that there is almost nothing that truly belongs in this
            category, except for problems with the release and build
            infrastructure. Temporary build failures on HEAD do not belong
            here. Also note that it is easy for things to get lost in this
            category).

          * ports: problems relating to the Ports Collection.

          * powerpc: problems specific to the PowerPC(R) platform.

          * sparc64: problems specific to the SPARC64(R) platform.

          * standards: Standards conformance issues.

          * threads: problems related to the FreeBSD threads implementation
            (especially on FreeBSD-CURRENT).

          * usb: problems related to the FreeBSD USB implementation.

          * www: Changes or enhancements to the FreeBSD website.

     * Class: Choose one of the following:

          * sw-bug: software bugs.

          * doc-bug: errors in documentation.

          * change-request: requests for additional features or changes in
            existing features.

          * update: updates to ports or other contributed software.

          * maintainer-update: updates to ports for which you are the
            maintainer.

     * Release: The version of FreeBSD that you are running. This is filled
       out automatically if you are using 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.

   Finally, there is a series of multi-line fields:

     * Environment: 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.

     * Description: 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.

     * How-To-Repeat: A summary of the actions you need to take to reproduce
       the problem.

     * Fix: 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.

  4.5. Sending off the problem report

   If you are using send-pr(1):

   Once you are done filling out the template, have saved it, and exit your
   editor, send-pr(1) will prompt you with s)end, e)dit or a)bort?. You can
   then hit s to go ahead and submit the problem report, e to restart the
   editor and make further modifications, or a to abort. If you choose the
   latter, your problem report will remain on disk (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 -f to send-pr(1):

 % send-pr -f ~/my-problem-report

   This will read the specified file, validate the contents, strip comments
   and send it off.

   If you are using the web form:

   Before you hit submit, you will need to fill in a field containing text
   that is represented in image form on the page. This unfortunate measure
   has had to be adopted due to misuse by automated systems and a few
   misguided individuals. It is a necessary evil that no one likes; please do
   not ask us to remove it.

   Note that you are strongly advised to save your work somewhere before
   hitting submit. A common problem for users is to have their web browser
   displaying a stale image from its cache. If this happens to you, your
   submission will be rejected and you may lose your work.

   If you are unable to view images for any reason, and are also unable to
   use send-pr(1), please accept our apologies for the inconvenience and
   email your problem report to the bugbuster team at
   <freebsd-bugbusters@FreeBSD.org>.

5. Follow-up

   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.

   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:

     * The easiest way is to use the followup link on the individual PR's web
       page, which you can reach from the PR search page. 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).

     * Alternatively, you can just mail it to <bug-followup@FreeBSD.org>,
       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.

  Note:

       If you do not 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.

       Wrong way:

 Subject: that PR I sent

       Right way:

 Subject: Re: ports/12345: compilation problem with foo/bar

   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.

6. If you are having problems

   Most PRs go through the system and are accepted quickly; however, at times
   GNATS runs behind and you may not get your email confirmation for 10
   minutes or even longer. Please try to be patient.

   In addition, because GNATS receives all its input via email, it is
   absolutely vital that FreeBSD runs all its submissions through spam
   filters. If you do not get a response within an hour or two, you may have
   fallen afoul of them; if so, please contact the GNATS administrators at
   <bugmeister@FreeBSD.org> and ask for help.

  Note:

   Among the anti-spam measures is one that weighs against many common abuses
   seen in HTML-based email (although not necessarily the mere inclusion of
   HTML in a PR). We strongly recommend against the use of HTML-based email
   when sending PRs: not only is it more likely to fall afoul of the filters,
   it also tends to merely clutter up the database. Plain old email is
   strongly preferred.

   On rare occasions you will encounter a GNATS bug where a PR is accepted
   and assigned a tracking number but it does not show up on the list of PRs
   on any of the web query pages. What may have happened is that the database
   index has gotten out of synchronization with the database itself. The way
   that you can test whether this has happened is to pull up the view a
   single PR page and see whether the PR shows up. If it does, please notify
   the GNATS administrators at <bugmeister@FreeBSD.org>. Note that there is a
   cron job that periodically rebuilds the database, so unless you are in a
   hurry, no action needs to be taken.

7. Further Reading

   This is a list of resources relevant to the proper writing and processing
   of problem reports. It is by no means complete.

     * How to Report Bugs Effectively-an excellent essay by Simon G. Tatham
       on composing useful (non-FreeBSD-specific) problem reports.

     * Problem Report Handling Guidelines-valuable insight into how problem
       reports are handled by the FreeBSD developers.

Index

  P

   problem reports, Writing FreeBSD Problem Reports
