The reportbug program can ease filing bugs by guiding you through the bug
reporting process step by step. The querybts tool, available from the same
package as reportbug, provides a convenient text-based interface to the bug
tracking system.
Emacs users can also use the debian-bug command provided by the debian-el
package. When called with M-x debian-bug, it will ask for all necessary
information in a similar way to reportbug.
Sending the Debian bug report via e-mail
To me, using the Debian bug-tracking system is pro's job, not for normal
Johns like me. jamesw's article on
using the Debian
bug-tracking system eliminate most of its mysteries for me. However, Debian
bugs reporting normally requires you to have a working MTA that can relay
you local email onto the Internet. But I just found that if you don't have a
working MTA for any reason, you can still report bugs. The following is a
step by step example showing how I sent a bug report via my yahoo mail web
interface.
First identify the severity for reportbug:
1 critical makes unrelated software on the system (or the whole system)
break, or causes serious data loss, or introduces a security
hole on systems where you install the package.
2 grave makes the package in question unusable by most or all users,
or causes data loss, or introduces a security hole allowing
access to the accounts of users who use the package.
3 serious is a severe violation of Debian policy (that is, the problem
is a violation of a 'must' or 'required' directive); may or
may not affect the usability of the package. Note that non-
severe policy violations may be 'normal,' 'minor,' or
'wishlist' bugs. (Package maintainers may also designate
other bugs as 'serious' and thus release-critical; however,
end users should not do so.)
4 important a bug which has a major effect on the usability of a package,
without rendering it completely unusable to everyone.
5 does-not-build a bug that stops the package from being built from source.
(This is a 'virtual severity'.)
6 normal a bug that does not undermine the usability of the whole
package; for example, a problem with a particular option or
menu item.
7 minor things like spelling mistakes and other minor cosmetic errors
that do not affect the core functionality of the package.
8 wishlist suggestions and requests for new features.
The best way to report bug is to use "reportbug —template" to create a template
first with all the relevant information being automatically gathered:
$ reportbug --template --bts debian -S normal xsel
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: Tong Sun <my.email@noexist.com>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: none
X-Debbugs-Cc: my.email@noexist.com
Package: xsel
Version: 0.9.6-1.1
Severity: normal
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (600, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-grml
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C
Versions of packages xsel depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.6.ds1-4 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libice6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libsm6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 Session Management library
ii libx11-6 2:1.0.0-9 X11 client-side library
ii libxext6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 miscellaneous extension librar
-- no debconf information
-
This might be still useful even if you are not reporting bugs, but just want to know which packages (and their versions) the package depends on.
-
The default severity level without the "—template" switch is "normal", with
the switch it is "wishlist", so I set severity level via "-S" switch first.
-
The "—bts debian" switch is not necessary unless you are using Debian derived distros which have their own bug-tracking system (e.g. grml). I use it here to illustrate how to bypass such system and report bugs directly to the Debian bug-tracking system.
Next is to fill in the actual bug report and sent it (via yahoo mail web interface). I chose the subject as "xsel does not get selections from emacs", and put the following into my (yahoo) email message body:
Package: xsel
Version: 0.9.6-1.1
Severity: normal
Hi,
the xsel cannot get selections from emacs:
$ xprop -root CUT_BUFFER0
CUT_BUFFER0(STRING) = "text from emacs"
$ xsel | wc
0 0 0
$ wish
% selection get -selection PRIMARY -type STRING
text from emacs
%
I.e., all others tools can see/get the selections from emacs while xsel
can't.
I really hope that it can be fixed.
thanks a lot.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (600, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-grml
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C
Versions of packages xsel depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.6.ds1-4 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libice6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libsm6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 Session Management library
ii libx11-6 2:1.0.0-9 X11 client-side library
ii libxext6 1:1.0.1-2 X11 miscellaneous extension librar
-- no debconf information
About 20~30 minutes after I sent it, I received the bug report acknowledgment in
my email, with a bug number specific for my bug report.
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.debian.user
Date: 2006-10-26
> I submitted a bug report #393779: libglademm-2.4-1c2a: fails to load
> .glade file. Later I've found that the problem was on my side. I've
> added a note to the report.
>
> How to close the bug properly in this case?
mail 393779-done <at> bugs.debian.org and state that it was a problem on your
side.
Martin Zobel-Helas @ftbfs.de
