Effective bug reports are the most likely to be fixed. These guidelines explain how to write such reports.
Principles
- Be precise
- Be clear - explain it so others can reproduce the bug
- One bug per report
- No bug is too trivial to report - small bugs may hide big bugs
- Clearly separate fact from speculation
Preliminaries
- Reproduce your bug using a recent build of the software, to see whether it has already been fixed.
- Search Red Hat Bugzilla, to see whether your bug has already been reported.
Reporting a New Bug
If you have reproduced the bug in a recent build and no-one else appears to have reported it, then:
- Choose "Enter a new bug"
- Select the product in which you've found the bug
- Fill out the form. Here is some help understanding it:
Component: In which sub-part of the software does it exist?
This field is required. Click the word "Component" to see a description of each component. If none seems appropriate, look for a "General" component.OS: On which operating system (OS) did you find it? (e.g. Linux, Windows XP, Mac OS X.)
If you know the bug happens on more than one type of operating system, choose All. If your OS isn't listed, choose Other.Summary: How would you describe the bug, in approximately 60 or fewer characters?
A good summary should quickly and uniquely identify a bug report. It should explain the problem, not your suggested solution.
Description: The details of your problem report, including:
- Good: "Cancelling a File Copy dialog crashes File Manager"
- Bad: "Software crashes"
- Bad: "Browser should work with my web site"
Overview: More detailed restatement of summary.
Drag-selecting any page crashes Mac builds in the NSGetFactory function.Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): The version number of the component that is causing this problem. For example if you were experiencing a problem with the grep command in RHEL 6, the component version would be 2.6.3.
2.6.3How reproducible: Can this bug always be reproduced, or only reproduced occasionally.
alwaysSteps to Reproduce: Minimized, easy-to-follow steps that will trigger the bug. Include any special setup steps.
1) View any web page. (I used the default sample page, resource:/res/samples/test0.html) 2) Drag-select the page. (Specifically, while holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse pointer downwards from any point in the browser's content region to the bottom of the browser's content region.)Actual Results: What the application did after performing the above steps.
The application crashed.Expected Results: What the application should have done, were the bug not present.
The window should scroll downwards. Scrolled content should be selected. (Or, at least, the application should not crash.)Build Date & Hardware: Date and hardware of the build in which you first encountered the bug.
Build 2006-08-10 on Mac OS 10.4.3Additional Builds and Platforms: Whether or not the bug takes place on other platforms (or browsers, if applicable).
Doesn't Occur On Build 2006-08-10 on Windows XP Home (Service Pack 2)Additional Information: Any other useful information.
For crashing bugs:
- Windows: Note the type of the crash, and the module that the application crashed in (e.g. access violation in apprunner.exe).
- Mac OS X: Attach the "Crash Reporter" log that appears upon crash. Only include the section directly below the crashing thread, usually titled "Thread 0 Crashed". Please do not paste the entire log!
Double-check your report for errors and omissions, then press "Commit". Your bug report will now be in the Red Hat Bugzilla database.