perlbug - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

perlbug - how to submit bug reports on Perl

SYNOPSIS

perlbug

perlbug [ -v ] [ -a address ] [ -s subject ] [ -b body | -f inputfile ] [ -F outputfile ]
[ -r returnaddress ] [ -e editor ] [ -c adminaddress | -C ] [ -S ] [ -t ] [ -d ] [ -A ]
[ -h ] [ -T ]

perlbug [ -v ] [ -r returnaddress ]
[ -A ] [ -ok | -okay | -nok | -nokay ]

perlthanks

DESCRIPTION

This program is designed to help you generate and send bug reports (and thank-you notes)
about perl5 and the modules which ship with it.

In most cases, you can just run it interactively from a command line without any special
arguments and follow the prompts.

If you have found a bug with a non-standard port (one that was not part of the standard
distribution), a binary distribution, or a non-core module (such as Tk, DBI, etc), then
please see the documentation that came with that distribution to determine the correct
place to report bugs.

If you are unable to send your report using perlbug (most likely because your system
doesn't have a way to send mail that perlbug recognizes), you may be able to use this tool
to compose your report and save it to a file which you can then send to [email protected]
using your regular mail client.

In extreme cases, perlbug may not work well enough on your system to guide you through
composing a bug report. In those cases, you may be able to use perlbug -d to get system
configuration information to include in a manually composed bug report to
[email protected].

When reporting a bug, please run through this checklist:

What version of Perl you are running?
Type "perl -v" at the command line to find out.

Are you running the latest released version of perl?
Look at http://www.perl.org/ to find out. If you are not using the latest released
version, please try to replicate your bug on the latest stable release.

Note that reports about bugs in old versions of Perl, especially those which indicate
you haven't also tested the current stable release of Perl, are likely to receive less
attention from the volunteers who build and maintain Perl than reports about bugs in
the current release.

This tool isn't appropriate for reporting bugs in any version prior to Perl 5.0.

Are you sure what you have is a bug?
A significant number of the bug reports we get turn out to be documented features in
Perl. Make sure the issue you've run into isn't intentional by glancing through the
documentation that comes with the Perl distribution.

Given the sheer volume of Perl documentation, this isn't a trivial undertaking, but if
you can point to documentation that suggests the behaviour you're seeing is wrong,
your issue is likely to receive more attention. You may want to start with perldoc
perltrap for pointers to common traps that new (and experienced) Perl programmers run
into.

If you're unsure of the meaning of an error message you've run across, perldoc
perldiag for an explanation. If the message isn't in perldiag, it probably isn't
generated by Perl. You may have luck consulting your operating system documentation
instead.

If you are on a non-UNIX platform perldoc perlport, as some features may be
unimplemented or work differently.

You may be able to figure out what's going wrong using the Perl debugger. For
information about how to use the debugger perldoc perldebug.

Do you have a proper test case?
The easier it is to reproduce your bug, the more likely it will be fixed -- if nobody
can duplicate your problem, it probably won't be addressed.

A good test case has most of these attributes: short, simple code; few dependencies on
external commands, modules, or libraries; no platform-dependent code (unless it's a
platform-specific bug); clear, simple documentation.

A good test case is almost always a good candidate to be included in Perl's test
suite. If you have the time, consider writing your test case so that it can be easily
included into the standard test suite.

Have you included all relevant information?
Be sure to include the exact error messages, if any. "Perl gave an error" is not an
exact error message.

If you get a core dump (or equivalent), you may use a debugger (dbx, gdb, etc) to
produce a stack trace to include in the bug report.

NOTE: unless your Perl has been compiled with debug info (often -g), the stack trace
is likely to be somewhat hard to use because it will most probably contain only the
function names and not their arguments. If possible, recompile your Perl with debug
info and reproduce the crash and the stack trace.

Can you describe the bug in plain English?
The easier it is to understand a reproducible bug, the more likely it will be fixed.
Any insight you can provide into the problem will help a great deal. In other words,
try to analyze the problem (to the extent you can) and report your discoveries.

Can you fix the bug yourself?
If so, that's great news; bug reports with patches are likely to receive significantly
more attention and interest than those without patches. Please attach your patch to
the report using the "-p" option. When sending a patch, create it using "git
format-patch" if possible, though a unified diff created with "diff -pu" will do
nearly as well.

Your patch may be returned with requests for changes, or requests for more detailed
explanations about your fix.

Here are a few hints for creating high-quality patches:

Make sure the patch is not reversed (the first argument to diff is typically the
original file, the second argument your changed file). Make sure you test your patch
by applying it with "git am" or the "patch" program before you send it on its way.
Try to follow the same style as the code you are trying to patch. Make sure your
patch really does work ("make test", if the thing you're patching is covered by Perl's
test suite).

Can you use "perlbug" to submit the report?
perlbug will, amongst other things, ensure your report includes crucial information
about your version of perl. If "perlbug" is unable to mail your report after you have
typed it in, you may have to compose the message yourself, add the output produced by
"perlbug -d" and email it to [email protected]. If, for some reason, you cannot run
"perlbug" at all on your system, be sure to include the entire output produced by
running "perl -V" (note the uppercase V).

Whether you use "perlbug" or send the email manually, please make your Subject line
informative. "a bug" is not informative. Neither is "perl crashes" nor is "HELP!!!".
These don't help. A compact description of what's wrong is fine.

Can you use "perlbug" to submit a thank-you note?
Yes, you can do this by either using the "-T" option, or by invoking the program as
"perlthanks". Thank-you notes are good. It makes people smile.

Having done your bit, please be prepared to wait, to be told the bug is in your code, or
possibly to get no reply at all. The volunteers who maintain Perl are busy folks, so if
your problem is an obvious bug in your own code, is difficult to understand or is a
duplicate of an existing report, you may not receive a personal reply.

If it is important to you that your bug be fixed, do monitor the [email protected]
mailing list (mailing lists are moderated, your message may take a while to show up) and
the commit logs to development versions of Perl, and encourage the maintainers with kind
words or offers of frosty beverages. (Please do be kind to the maintainers. Harassing or
flaming them is likely to have the opposite effect of the one you want.)

Feel free to update the ticket about your bug on http://rt.perl.org if a new version of
Perl is released and your bug is still present.

OPTIONS

-a Address to send the report to. Defaults to [email protected].

-A Don't send a bug received acknowledgement to the reply address. Generally it is
only a sensible to use this option if you are a perl maintainer actively watching
perl porters for your message to arrive.

-b Body of the report. If not included on the command line, or in a file with -f,
you will get a chance to edit the message.

-C Don't send copy to administrator.

-c Address to send copy of report to. Defaults to the address of the local perl
administrator (recorded when perl was built).

-d Data mode (the default if you redirect or pipe output). This prints out your
configuration data, without mailing anything. You can use this with -v to get
more complete data.

-e Editor to use.

-f File containing the body of the report. Use this to quickly send a prepared
message.

-F File to output the results to instead of sending as an email. Useful particularly
when running perlbug on a machine with no direct internet connection.

-h Prints a brief summary of the options.

-ok Report successful build on this system to perl porters. Forces -S and -C. Forces
and supplies values for -s and -b. Only prompts for a return address if it cannot
guess it (for use with make). Honors return address specified with -r. You can
use this with -v to get more complete data. Only makes a report if this system
is less than 60 days old.

-okay As -ok except it will report on older systems.

-nok Report unsuccessful build on this system. Forces -C. Forces and supplies a value
for -s, then requires you to edit the report and say what went wrong.
Alternatively, a prepared report may be supplied using -f. Only prompts for a
return address if it cannot guess it (for use with make). Honors return address
specified with -r. You can use this with -v to get more complete data. Only
makes a report if this system is less than 60 days old.

-nokay As -nok except it will report on older systems.

-p The names of one or more patch files or other text attachments to be included with
the report. Multiple files must be separated with commas.

-r Your return address. The program will ask you to confirm its default if you don't
use this option.

-S Send without asking for confirmation.

-s Subject to include with the message. You will be prompted if you don't supply one
on the command line.

-t Test mode. The target address defaults to [email protected].

-T Send a thank-you note instead of a bug report.

-v Include verbose configuration data in the report.

AUTHORS

Kenneth Albanowski (<[email protected]>), subsequently doctored by Gurusamy Sarathy
(<[email protected]>), Tom Christiansen (<[email protected]>), Nathan Torkington
(<[email protected]>), Charles F. Randall (<[email protected]>), Mike Guy (<[email protected]>),
Dominic Dunlop (<[email protected]>), Hugo van der Sanden (<[email protected]>), Jarkko
Hietaniemi (<[email protected]>), Chris Nandor (<[email protected]>), Jon Orwant
(<[email protected]>, Richard Foley (<[email protected]>), Jesse Vincent
(<[email protected]>), and Craig A. Berry (<[email protected]>).

Use perlbug online using onworks.net services