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 "\\(\\(emacs-pretest-bug\\|bug-gnu-emacs\\)@gnu\\.org\\|\
  41 \\(submit\\|control\\)@emacsbugs\\.donarmstrong\\.com\\)"
  42 to message-dont-reply-to-names.  RMAIL users can investigate
  43 rmail-dont-reply-to-names.
  44
  45 ** When reporting a bug, to send a Cc to another address
  46 (e.g. bug-cc-mode@gnu.org), do NOT just use a Cc: header.
  47 Instead, use "X-Debbugs-CC:".  This ensures the Cc address will get a
  48 mail with the bug report number in.  If you do not do this, each reply
  49 in the subsequent discussion will end up creating a new bug.  This is
  50 annoying.
  51
  52 ** To not get acknowledgement mail from the tracker,
  53 add an "X-Debbugs-No-Ack:" header (with any value).  If you use Gnus,
  54 you can add an element to gnus-posting-styles to do this automatically, eg:
  55
  56 ("gnu-emacs\\(-pretest\\)?-bug"
  57    ("X-Debbugs-No-Ack" "yes"))
  58
  59 (adjust the regexp according to the name you use for the bug lists)
  60
  61 ** To record a bug in the tracker without sending mail to the bug list.
  62 This can be useful to make a note of something discussed on
  63 emacs-devel that needs fixing.  In other words, this can be the
  64 equivalent of adding something to FOR-RELEASE.
  65
  66 To: quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
  67 [headers end]
  68 Package: emacs
  69 Version: 23.0.60
  70 Severity: minor
  71
  72 Remember to fix FOO, as discussed on emacs-devel at http://... .
  73
  74 ** Not interested in tracker control messages (tags being set, etc)?
  75 Discard mails matching:
  76
  77 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: transcript
  78
  79 When you close a bug, you get a message matching:
  80
  81 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: closed
  82
  83 ** How to avoid multiple copies of mails.
  84 When you reply to a bug, respect the Reply-To address, ie send mail
  85 only to the submitter address and the numbered bug address.  Do not
  86 send mail direct to bug-gnu-emacs or emacs-pretest-bug unless you are
  87 reporting a new bug.
  88
  89 ** To close bug #123 (for example), send mail
  90
  91 To: 123-done@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
  92
  93 with a brief explanation in the body as to why the bug was closed.
  94
  95 ** Setting bug parameters.
  96 There are two ways to set the parameters of bugs in the database
  97 (tags, severity level, etc).  When you report a new bug, you can
  98 provide a "pseudo-header" at the start of the report, eg:
  99
 100 Package: emacs
 101 Version: 23.0.60
 102 Severity: minor
 103
 104 Optionally, add a sub-package, eg Package: emacs,calendar.
 105 This can include tags.  Some things (e.g. submitter) don't seem to
 106 work here.
 107
 108 Otherwise, send mail to the control server, control@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com.
 109 At the start of the message body, supply the desired commands, one per
 110 line:
 111
 112 command bug-number [arguments]
 113 ...
 114 quit|stop|thank|thanks|thankyou|thank you
 115
 116 The control server ignores anything after the last line above.  So you
 117 can place control commands at the beginning of a reply to a bug
 118 report, and Bcc: the control server (note the commands have no effect
 119 if you just send them to the bug-report number).  Bcc: is better than Cc:
 120 in case people use Reply-to-All in response.
 121
 122 Some useful control commands:
 123
 124 *** To reopen a closed bug:
 125 reopen 123
 126
 127 *** Bugs can be tagged in various ways (eg wontfix, patch, etc).
 128 The available tags are:
 129 patch wontfix moreinfo unreproducible fixed notabug
 130 Note that the list at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#tags
 131 is incorrect, at least for Emacs.
 132 The list of tags can be prefixed with +, - or =, meaning to add (the
 133 default), remove, or reset the tags. E.g.:
 134
 135 tags 123 + wontfix
 136
 137 *** To merge bugs:
 138 Eg when bad replies create a bunch of new bugs for the same report.
 139 Bugs must all be in the same state (e.g. same package(s) and severity),
 140 but need not have the same tags (tags are merged). E.g.:
 141
 142 merge 123 124 125 ...
 143
 144 Note that merging does not affect titles.  In particular, a "retitle"
 145 of merged bugs only affects individual bugs, not all of them.
 146
 147 *** Forcing a merge:
 148 Like `merge', but bugs need not be in the same state.  The packages
 149 must still match though.  The first one listed is the master.  E.g.:
 150
 151 forcemerge 123 124 125 ...
 152
 153 Note: you cannot merge with an archived bug - you must unarchive it first.
 154
 155 *** To unmerge bugs:
 156 To disconnect a bug from all bugs it is merged with:
 157
 158 unmerge 123
 159
 160 This command accepts only one bug number.
 161
 162 *** To clone bugs:
 163 Useful when one report refers to more than one bug.
 164
 165 clone 123 -1 [-2 ...]
 166 retitle -1 second bug
 167 retitle -2 third bug
 168
 169 The negative numbers provide a way to refer to the cloned bugs (which
 170 will be assigned proper numbers).
 171
 172 *** To set severity:
 173 severity 123 critical|grave|serious|important|normal|minor|wishlist
 174
 175 See http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#severities for the meanings.
 176
 177 *** To set the owner of a bug:
 178 owner 123 A Hacker <none@example.com>
 179
 180 The shorthand `!' means your own address.
 181
 182 *** To remove the owner of a bug:
 183 noowner 123
 184
 185 *** To mark a bug as fixed in a particular version:
 186 fixed 123 23.0.60
 187
 188 *** To remove a "fixed" mark:
 189 notfixed 123 23.0.60
 190
 191 ** To remove spam from the tracker, move it to the `spam' pseudo-package:
 192 reassign 123 spam
 193
 194 ** To change the title of a bug:
 195 retitle 123 Some New Title
 196
 197 ** To change the submitter address:
 198 submitter 123 none@example.com
 199
 200 Note that it does not seem to work to specify "Submitter:" in the
 201 pseudo-header when first reporting a bug.
 202
 203 ** How does archiving work?
 204 You can still send mail to a bug after it is closed.  After 28 days with
 205 no activity, the bug is archived, at which point no more changes can
 206 be made.  If you try to send mail to the bug after that (or merge with
 207 it), it will be rejected.  To make any changes, you must unarchive it first:
 208
 209 unarchive 123
 210
 211 The bug will be re-archived after the next 28 day period of no activity.
 212
 213 ** The web-page with the list of bugs is slow to load
 214
 215 It's a function of the number of displayed bugs.  You can speed things
 216 up by only looking at the newest 100 bugs:
 217
 218 http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?newest=100;package=emacs
 219
 220 The above page is accessible from the "Options" section at the end of
 221 the "main list of bugs" page. Select bugs "in package" = emacs;
 222 "newest bugs" = 100.  (I have no idea how you get to that Options
 223 section without having to go through the bug list page first...)