NOTES ON THE EMACS BUG TRACKER -*- outline -*- The Emacs Bug Tracker can be found at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/ For a list of all bugs, see http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/emacs ** How do I report a bug in Emacs now? The same way as you always did. Send mail to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, or use M-x report-emacs-bug. The only differences are: i) Your report will be assigned a number and generate an automatic reply. ii) Optionally, you can set some database parameters when you first report a bug (see "Setting bug parameters" below). iii) If you want to CC: someone, use X-Debbugs-CC: (see below). Once your report is filed and assigned a number, it is sent out to the bug mailing list. In some cases, it may be appropriate to just file a bug, without sending out a copy. To do this, send mail to quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com. ** How do I reply to an existing bug report? Reply to 123@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com, replacing 123 with the number of the bug you are interested in. Cc anyone you like. Do NOT send a copy to the bug list, since this may generate a new report. The only time to send mail to the bug list is to create a new report. ** When reporting a bug, to send a Cc to another address (e.g. bug-cc-mode@gnu.org), do not just use a Cc: header. Instead, use "X-Debbugs-CC:". This ensures the Cc address will get a mail with the bug report number in. ** To not get acknowledgement mail from the tracker, add an "X-Debbugs-No-Ack:" header (with any value). ** To record a bug in the tracker without sending mail to the bug list. This can be useful to make a note of something discussed on emacs-devel that needs fixing. In other words, this can be the equivalent of adding something to FOR-RELEASE. To: quiet@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com [headers end] Package: emacs Version: 23.0.60 Severity: minor Remember to fix FOO, as discussed on emacs-devel at http://... . ** Not interested in tracker control messages (tags being set, etc)? Discard mails matching: ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: transcript When you close a bug, you get a message matching: ^X-Emacs-PR-Message: closed ** How to avoid multiple copies of mails. When you reply to a bug, respect the Reply-To address, ie send mail only to the submitter address and the numbered bug address. Do not send mail direct to bug-gnu-emacs or emacs-pretest-bug unless you are reporting a new bug. ** To close bug #123 (for example), send mail To: 123-done@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com with a brief explanation in the body as to why the bug was closed. ** Setting bug parameters. There are two ways to set the parameters of bugs in the database (tags, severity level, etc). When you report a new bug, you can provide a "pseudo-header" at the start of the report, eg: Package: emacs Version: 23.0.60 Severity: minor Optionally, add a sub-package, eg Package: emacs,calendar. This can include tags. Some things (e.g. submitter) don't seem to work here. Otherwise, send mail to the control server, control@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com. At the start of the message body, supply the desired commands, one per line: command bug-number [arguments] ... quit|stop|thank|thanks|thankyou|thank you The control server ignores anything after the last line above. So you can place control commands at the beginning of a reply to a bug report, and Bcc: the control server (note the commands have no effect if you just send them to the bug-report number). Bcc: is better than Cc: in case people use Reply-to-All in response. Some useful control commands: *** To reopen a closed bug: reopen 123 *** Bugs can be tagged in various ways (eg wontfix, patch, etc). The available tags are: patch wontfix moreinfo unreproducible fixed notabug Note that the list at http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#tags is incorrect, at least for Emacs. The list of tags can be prefixed with +, - or =, meaning to add (the default), remove, or reset the tags. E.g.: tags 123 + wontfix *** To merge bugs: Eg when bad replies create a bunch of new bugs for the same report. Bugs must all be in the same state, but need not have the same tags. E.g.: merge 123 124 125 ... *** Forcing a merge: Like `merge', but bugs need not be in the same state. The first one listed is the master. E.g.: forcemerge 123 124 125 ... *** To unmerge bugs: To disconnect a bug from all bugs it is merged with: unmerge 123 This command accepts only one bug number. *** To set severity: severity 123 critical|grave|serious|important|normal|minor|wishlist See http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/Developer#severities for the meanings. *** To set the owner of a bug: owner 123 A Hacker The shorthand `!' means your own address. *** To remove the owner of a bug: noowner 123 *** To mark a bug as fixed in a particular version: fixed 123 23.0.60 *** To remove a "fixed" mark: notfixed 123 23.0.60 ** To remove spam from the tracker, move it to the `spam' pseudo-package: reassign 123 spam ** To change the title of a bug: retitle 123 Some New Title ** To change the submitter address: submitter 123 none@example.com Note that it does not seem to work to specify "Submitter:" in the pseudo-header when first reporting a bug.