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.
  43
  44 Similarly, RMAIL users can use rmail-dont-reply-to-names.  They might
  45 also need to ignore "bug-submit-list@donarmstrong.com" since it
  46 appears in the "Resent-To" header of reports, and for a long time
  47 RMAIL erroneously included this address in replies.  Likewise for
  48 "owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com", which can appear in the
  49 "Resent-CC:" header (but it is possible, outside of normal bug
  50 reporting, that you might want to have a dialog with this address).
  51
  52 ** When reporting a bug, to send a Cc to another address
  53 (e.g. bug-cc-mode@gnu.org), do NOT just use a Cc: header.
  54 Instead, use "X-Debbugs-CC:".  This ensures the Cc address will get a
  55 mail with the bug report number in.  If you do not do this, each reply
  56 in the subsequent discussion will end up creating a new bug.  This is
  57 annoying.
  58
  59 ** To not get acknowledgement mail from the tracker,
  60 add an "X-Debbugs-No-Ack:" header (with any value).  If you use Gnus,
  61 you can add an element to gnus-posting-styles to do this automatically, eg:
  62
  63 ("gnu-emacs\\(-pretest\\)?-bug"
  64    ("X-Debbugs-No-Ack" "yes"))
  65
  66 (adjust the regexp according to the name you use for the bug lists)
  67
  68 ** To record a bug in the tracker without sending mail to the bug list.
  69 This can be useful to make a note of something discussed on
  70 emacs-devel that needs fixing.  In other words, this can be the
  71 equivalent of adding something to FOR-RELEASE.
  72
  73 To: quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
  74 [headers end]
  75 Package: emacs
  76 Version: 23.0.60
  77 Severity: minor
  78
  79 Remember to fix FOO, as discussed on emacs-devel at http://... .
  80
  81 ** Not interested in tracker control messages (tags being set, etc)?
  82 Discard mails matching:
  83
  84 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: transcript
  85
  86 When you close a bug, you get a message matching:
  87
  88 ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: closed
  89
  90 ** How to avoid multiple copies of mails.
  91 When you reply to a bug, respect the Reply-To address, ie send mail
  92 only to the submitter address and the numbered bug address.  Do not
  93 send mail direct to bug-gnu-emacs or emacs-pretest-bug unless you are
  94 reporting a new bug.
  95
  96 ** To close bug #123 (for example), send mail
  97
  98 To: 123-done@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
  99
 100 with a brief explanation in the body as to why the bug was closed.
 101
 102 ** Setting bug parameters.
 103 There are two ways to set the parameters of bugs in the database
 104 (tags, severity level, etc).  When you report a new bug, you can
 105 provide a "pseudo-header" at the start of the report, eg:
 106
 107 Package: emacs
 108 Version: 23.0.60
 109 Severity: minor
 110
 111 Optionally, add a sub-package, eg Package: emacs,calendar.
 112 This can include tags.  Some things (e.g. submitter) don't seem to
 113 work here.
 114
 115 Otherwise, send mail to the control server, control@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com.
 116 At the start of the message body, supply the desired commands, one per
 117 line:
 118
 119 command bug-number [arguments]
 120 ...
 121 quit|stop|thank|thanks|thankyou|thank you
 122
 123 The control server ignores anything after the last line above.  So you
 124 can place control commands at the beginning of a reply to a bug
 125 report, and Bcc: the control server (note the commands have no effect
 126 if you just send them to the bug-report number).  Bcc: is better than Cc:
 127 in case people use Reply-to-All in response.
 128
 129 Some useful control commands:
 130
 131 *** To reopen a closed bug:
 132 reopen 123
 133
 134 *** Bugs can be tagged in various ways (eg wontfix, patch, etc).
 135 The available tags are:
 136 patch wontfix moreinfo unreproducible fixed notabug
 137 Note that the list at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#tags
 138 is incorrect, at least for Emacs.
 139 The list of tags can be prefixed with +, - or =, meaning to add (the
 140 default), remove, or reset the tags. E.g.:
 141
 142 tags 123 + wontfix
 143
 144 *** To merge bugs:
 145 Eg when bad replies create a bunch of new bugs for the same report.
 146 Bugs must all be in the same state (e.g. same package(s) and severity),
 147 but need not have the same tags (tags are merged). E.g.:
 148
 149 merge 123 124 125 ...
 150
 151 Note that merging does not affect titles.  In particular, a "retitle"
 152 of merged bugs only affects individual bugs, not all of them.
 153
 154 *** Forcing a merge:
 155 Like `merge', but bugs need not be in the same state.  The packages
 156 must still match though.  The first one listed is the master.  E.g.:
 157
 158 forcemerge 123 124 125 ...
 159
 160 Note: you cannot merge with an archived bug - you must unarchive it first.
 161
 162 *** To unmerge bugs:
 163 To disconnect a bug from all bugs it is merged with:
 164
 165 unmerge 123
 166
 167 This command accepts only one bug number.
 168
 169 *** To clone bugs:
 170 Useful when one report refers to more than one bug.
 171
 172 clone 123 -1 [-2 ...]
 173 retitle -1 second bug
 174 retitle -2 third bug
 175
 176 The negative numbers provide a way to refer to the cloned bugs (which
 177 will be assigned proper numbers).
 178
 179 *** To set severity:
 180 severity 123 critical|grave|serious|important|normal|minor|wishlist
 181
 182 See http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#severities for the meanings.
 183
 184 *** To set the owner of a bug:
 185 owner 123 A Hacker <none@example.com>
 186
 187 The shorthand `!' means your own address.
 188
 189 *** To remove the owner of a bug:
 190 noowner 123
 191
 192 *** To mark a bug as fixed in a particular version:
 193 fixed 123 23.0.60
 194
 195 *** To remove a "fixed" mark:
 196 notfixed 123 23.0.60
 197
 198 ** To remove spam from the tracker, move it to the `spam' pseudo-package:
 199 reassign 123 spam
 200
 201 ** To change the title of a bug:
 202 retitle 123 Some New Title
 203
 204 ** To change the submitter address:
 205 submitter 123 none@example.com
 206
 207 Note that it does not seem to work to specify "Submitter:" in the
 208 pseudo-header when first reporting a bug.
 209
 210 ** How does archiving work?
 211 You can still send mail to a bug after it is closed.  After 28 days with
 212 no activity, the bug is archived, at which point no more changes can
 213 be made.  If you try to send mail to the bug after that (or merge with
 214 it), it will be rejected.  To make any changes, you must unarchive it first:
 215
 216 unarchive 123
 217
 218 The bug will be re-archived after the next 28 day period of no activity.
 219
 220 ** The web-page with the list of bugs is slow to load
 221
 222 It's a function of the number of displayed bugs.  You can speed things
 223 up by only looking at the newest 100 bugs:
 224
 225 http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?newest=100;package=emacs
 226
 227 The above page is accessible from the "Options" section at the end of
 228 the "main list of bugs" page. Select bugs "in package" = emacs;
 229 "newest bugs" = 100.  (I have no idea how you get to that Options
 230 section without having to go through the bug list page first...)