code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - admin/notes/bugtracker

   1 NOTES ON THE EMACS BUG TRACKER   -*- outline -*-
   2
   3 The Emacs Bug Tracker can be found at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/
   4
   5 For a list of all bugs, see http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/emacs
   6
   7 ** How do I report a bug in Emacs now?
   8 The same way as you always did.  Send mail to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org,
   9 or use M-x report-emacs-bug.
  10
  11 The only differences are:
  12
  13 i) Your report will be assigned a number and generate an automatic reply.
  14
  15 ii) Optionally, you can set some database parameters when you first
  16 report a bug (see "Setting bug parameters" below).
  17
  18 iii) If you want to CC: someone, use X-Debbugs-CC: (this is important;
  19 see below).
  20
  21 Once your report is filed and assigned a number, it is sent out to the
  22 bug mailing list.  In some cases, it may be appropriate to just file a
  23 bug, without sending out a copy.  To do this, send mail to
  24 quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com.
  25
  26 ** How do I reply to an existing bug report?
  27 Reply to 123@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com, replacing 123 with the number
  28 of the bug you are interested in.  NB this only sends mail to the
  29 bug-list, it does NOT (?) send a CC to the original bug submitter.
  30 So you need to explicitly CC him/her (and anyone else you like).
  31
  32 (Many people think the submitter SHOULD be automatically subscribed
  33 to subsequent discussion, but this does not seem to be implemented.
  34 See http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=37078)
  35
  36 Do NOT send a separate copy to the bug list, since this may generate a
  37 new report. The only time to send mail to the bug list is to create a
  38 new report.
  39
  40 Gnus users can add the following to message-dont-reply-to-names;
  41 similarly with Rmail and rmail-dont-reply-to-names:
  42
  43 "\\(emacs-pretest-bug\\|bug-gnu-emacs\\)@gnu\\.org\\|\
  44 \\(\\(submit\\|control\\|owner\\)@emacsbugs\\.\\|bug-submit-list@\\)\
  45 donarmstrong\\.com"
  46
  47 The "bug-submit-list@donarmstrong.com" and
  48 "owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com" entries are there because they can
  49 appear in the "Resent-To" and "Resent-CC" headers, respectively. For a
  50 long time Rmail erroneously included these headers in replies.  If you
  51 correspond with an Rmail user on a bug, these addresses may end up in
  52 the Cc.  Mailing to them does nothing but create duplicates and errors.
  53 (It is possible you might want to have a dialog with the owner
  54 address, outside of normal bug reporting.)
  55
  56 ** When reporting a bug, to send a Cc to another address
  57 (e.g. bug-cc-mode@gnu.org), do NOT just use a Cc: header.
  58 Instead, use "X-Debbugs-CC:".  This ensures the Cc address will get a
  59 mail with the bug report number in.  If you do not do this, each reply
  60 in the subsequent discussion will end up creating a new bug.  This is
  61 annoying.
  62
  63 ** To not get acknowledgement mail from the tracker,
  64 add an "X-Debbugs-No-Ack:" header (with any value).  If you use Gnus,
  65 you can add an element to gnus-posting-styles to do this automatically, eg:
  66
  67 ("gnu-emacs\\(-pretest\\)?-bug"
  68    ("X-Debbugs-No-Ack" "yes"))
  69
  70 (adjust the regexp according to the name you use for the bug lists)
  71
  72 ** To record a bug in the tracker without sending mail to the bug list.
  73 This can be useful to make a note of something discussed on
  74 emacs-devel that needs fixing.  In other words, this can be the
  75 equivalent of adding something to FOR-RELEASE.
  76
  77 To: quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
  78 [headers end]
  79 Package: emacs
  80 Version: 23.0.60
  81 Severity: minor
  82
  83 Remember to fix FOO, as discussed on emacs-devel at http://... .
  84
  85 ** Not interested in tracker control messages (tags being set, etc)?
  86 Discard mails matching:
  87
  88 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: transcript
  89
  90 When you close a bug, you get a message matching:
  91
  92 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: closed
  93
  94 ** How to avoid multiple copies of mails.
  95 When you reply to a bug, respect the Reply-To address, ie send mail
  96 only to the submitter address and the numbered bug address.  Do not
  97 send mail direct to bug-gnu-emacs or emacs-pretest-bug unless you are
  98 reporting a new bug.
  99
 100 ** To close bug #123 (for example), send mail
 101
 102 To: 123-done@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
 103
 104 with a brief explanation in the body as to why the bug was closed.
 105
 106 ** Setting bug parameters.
 107 There are two ways to set the parameters of bugs in the database
 108 (tags, severity level, etc).  When you report a new bug, you can
 109 provide a "pseudo-header" at the start of the report, eg:
 110
 111 Package: emacs
 112 Version: 23.0.60
 113 Severity: minor
 114
 115 Optionally, add a sub-package, eg Package: emacs,calendar.
 116 This can include tags.  Some things (e.g. submitter) don't seem to
 117 work here.
 118
 119 Otherwise, send mail to the control server, control@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com.
 120 At the start of the message body, supply the desired commands, one per
 121 line:
 122
 123 command bug-number [arguments]
 124 ...
 125 quit|stop|thank|thanks|thankyou|thank you
 126
 127 The control server ignores anything after the last line above.  So you
 128 can place control commands at the beginning of a reply to a bug
 129 report, and Bcc: the control server (note the commands have no effect
 130 if you just send them to the bug-report number).  Bcc: is better than Cc:
 131 in case people use Reply-to-All in response.
 132
 133 Some useful control commands:
 134
 135 *** To reopen a closed bug:
 136 reopen 123
 137
 138 *** Bugs can be tagged in various ways (eg wontfix, patch, etc).
 139 The available tags are:
 140 patch wontfix moreinfo unreproducible fixed notabug
 141 Note that the list at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#tags
 142 is incorrect, at least for Emacs.
 143 The list of tags can be prefixed with +, - or =, meaning to add (the
 144 default), remove, or reset the tags. E.g.:
 145
 146 tags 123 + wontfix
 147
 148 *** To merge bugs:
 149 Eg when bad replies create a bunch of new bugs for the same report.
 150 Bugs must all be in the same state (e.g. same package(s) and severity),
 151 but need not have the same tags (tags are merged). E.g.:
 152
 153 merge 123 124 125 ...
 154
 155 Note that merging does not affect titles.  In particular, a "retitle"
 156 of merged bugs only affects individual bugs, not all of them.
 157
 158 *** Forcing a merge:
 159 Like `merge', but bugs need not be in the same state.  The packages
 160 must still match though.  The first one listed is the master.  E.g.:
 161
 162 forcemerge 123 124 125 ...
 163
 164 Note: you cannot merge with an archived bug - you must unarchive it first.
 165
 166 *** To unmerge bugs:
 167 To disconnect a bug from all bugs it is merged with:
 168
 169 unmerge 123
 170
 171 This command accepts only one bug number.
 172
 173 *** To clone bugs:
 174 Useful when one report refers to more than one bug.
 175
 176 clone 123 -1 [-2 ...]
 177 retitle -1 second bug
 178 retitle -2 third bug
 179
 180 The negative numbers provide a way to refer to the cloned bugs (which
 181 will be assigned proper numbers).
 182
 183 NB you cannot clone a merged bug.  You'd think that trying to do so
 184 would just give you an unmerged copy of the specified bug number, but no:
 185
 186 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=474742
 187
 188 You must unmerge, clone, then re-merge.
 189
 190 *** To set severity:
 191 severity 123 critical|grave|serious|important|normal|minor|wishlist
 192
 193 See http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#severities for the meanings.
 194
 195 *** To set the owner of a bug:
 196 owner 123 A Hacker <none@example.com>
 197
 198 The shorthand `!' means your own address.
 199
 200 *** To remove the owner of a bug:
 201 noowner 123
 202
 203 *** To mark a bug as fixed in a particular version:
 204 fixed 123 23.0.60
 205
 206 *** To remove a "fixed" mark:
 207 notfixed 123 23.0.60
 208
 209 ** To remove spam from the tracker, move it to the `spam' pseudo-package:
 210 reassign 123 spam
 211
 212 ** To change the title of a bug:
 213 retitle 123 Some New Title
 214
 215 ** To change the submitter address:
 216 submitter 123 none@example.com
 217
 218 Note that it does not seem to work to specify "Submitter:" in the
 219 pseudo-header when first reporting a bug.
 220
 221 ** How does archiving work?
 222 You can still send mail to a bug after it is closed.  After 28 days with
 223 no activity, the bug is archived, at which point no more changes can
 224 be made.  If you try to send mail to the bug after that (or merge with
 225 it), it will be rejected.  To make any changes, you must unarchive it first:
 226
 227 unarchive 123
 228
 229 The bug will be re-archived after the next 28 day period of no activity.
 230
 231 ** The web-page with the list of bugs is slow to load
 232
 233 It's a function of the number of displayed bugs.  You can speed things
 234 up by only looking at the newest 100 bugs:
 235
 236 http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?newest=100;package=emacs
 237
 238 The above page is accessible from the "Options" section at the end of
 239 the "main list of bugs" page. Select bugs "in package" = emacs;
 240 "newest bugs" = 100.  (I have no idea how you get to that Options
 241 section without having to go through the bug list page first...)
 242
 243 ** Mails to the bug tracker disappear
 244
 245 Apparently it has some kind of spam filter that sometimes silently
 246 discards valid mails. Adding a subject (pointless in control messages)
 247 may help.