doc/en/bugzilla-howto.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/bugzilla-howto.xml,v 1.1 2005/07/07 12:02:21 fox2mike Exp $ -->

<guide link="/doc/en/bugzilla-howto.xml">
<title>Gentoo Bug Reporting Guide</title>

<author title="Author">
  <mail link="chriswhite@gentoo.org">Chris White</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="fox2mike@gentoo.org">Shyam Mani</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
This document shows the proper method of reporting bugs using Bugzilla.
</abstract>

<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
<license/>

<version>1.1</version>
<date>2005-07-07</date>

<chapter>
<title>Introduction</title>
<section>
<title>Preface</title>
<body>

<p>
Often one of the factors that delay a bug being fixed is how it is reported. By
creating this guide, I hope to help improve the communication between
developers and users in bug resolution. Getting bugs fixed is an important, if
not crucial part of the quality assurance of any project and hopefully this
guide will help make that a success.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Initial Finding</title>
<body>

<p>
You're emerge-ing a package or working with a program, then suddenly the worst
happens -- you find a bug. Bugs come in many forms, whether it be emerge
failures or segmentation faults. Whatever the cause, the fact still remains that
such a bug must be fixed. Here is a few examples of such bugs.
</p>

<pre caption="A run time error">
$ <i>./bad_code `perl -e 'print Ax100'`</i>
Segmentation fault
</pre>

<pre caption="An emerge failure">
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.2/include/g++-v3/backward/backward_warning.h:32:2:
warning: #warning This file includes at least one deprecated or antiquated
header. Please consider using one of the 32 headers found in section 17.4.1.2 of
the C++ standard. Examples include substituting the &lt;X&gt; header for the &lt;X.h&gt;
header for C++ includes, or &lt;sstream&gt; instead of the deprecated header
&lt;strstream.h&gt;. To disable this warning use -Wno-deprecated.
In file included from main.cc:40:
menudef.h:55: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:62: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:70: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:78: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
main.cc: In member function `void OXMain::DoOpen()':
main.cc:323: warning: unused variable `FILE*fp'
main.cc: In member function `void OXMain::DoSave(char*)':
main.cc:337: warning: unused variable `FILE*fp'
make[1]: *** [main.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory
`/var/tmp/portage/xclass-0.7.4/work/xclass-0.7.4/example-app'
make: *** [shared] Error 2

!!! ERROR: x11-libs/xclass-0.7.4 failed.
!!! Function src_compile, Line 29, Exitcode 2
!!! 'emake shared' failed
</pre>

<p>
These errors can be quite troublesome. However, once you find them, what do
you do? The following sections will look at 2 important tools for handling
run time errors. After that, we'll take a look at compile errors, and how to
handle them. Let's start out with the first tool for debugging run time 
errors -- <c>gdb</c>
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>


<chapter>
<title>Debugging using GDB</title>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
GDB, or the (G)NU (D)e(B)ugger, is a program used to find run time errors that
normally involve memory corruption. First off, let's take a look at what
debugging entails. One of the main things you must do in order to debug a
program is to <c>emerge</c> the program with FEATURES="nostrip". This prevents
the stripping of debug symbols. Why are programs stripped by default? The reason
is the same as that for having gzipped man pages -- saving space. Here's how the
size of a program varies with and without debug symbol stripping.
</p>

<pre caption="Filesize Comparison">
<comment>(debug symbols stripped)</comment>
-rwxr-xr-x  1 chris users 3140  6/28 13:11 bad_code
<comment>(debug symbols intact)</comment>
-rwxr-xr-x  1 chris users 6374  6/28 13:10 bad_code
</pre>

<p>
Just for reference, <e>bad_code</e> is the program we'll be debugging with
<c>gdb</c> later on. As you can see, the program without debugging symbols is
3140 bytes, while the program with them is 6374 bytes. That's close to double
the size! Two more things can be done for debugging. The first is adding -g to
your CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS. This flag adds more debugging information than is
generally included. We'll see what that means later on. Lastly, you can also add
debug to the package's USE flags. This can be done with the
<path>package.use</path> file.
</p> 

<pre caption="Using package.use to add debug USE flag">
# <i>echo "category/package debug" >> /etc/portage/package.use</i>
</pre>

<note>
The directory <path>/etc/portage</path> does not exist by default and you may
have to create it, if you have not already done so. If the package already has
USE flags set in <path>package.use</path>, you will need to manually modify them
in your favorite editor.
</note>

<p>
Now that that's done, you will need to re-emerge your package to set the
new debug settings into place. This can be done as follows:
</p>

<pre caption="Re-emergeing a package with debugging">
# <i>FEATURES="nostrip" emerge package</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now that debug symbols are setup, we can continue with debugging the program.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Running the program with GDB</title>
<body>

<p>
Let's say we have a program here called "bad_code" (I know, it's sort of cheesy
but..). Some person claims he can break the code and provides an example. You go
ahead and test it out:
</p>

<pre caption="Breaking The Program">
$ <i>./bad_code `perl -e 'print Ax100'`</i>
Segmentation fault
</pre>

<p>
It seems this person was right. Since the program is obviously broken, we have
a bug at hand. Now, it's time to use <c>gdb</c> to help solve this matter. First
we run <c>gdb</c> with <c>--args</c>, then give it the full program with
arguments like shown:
</p>

<pre caption="Running Our Program Through GDB">
$ <i>gdb --args ./bad_code `perl -e 'print Ax100'`</i>
GNU gdb 6.3
Copyright 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
</pre>

<p>
You should see a small terminal like setup after that which says "(gdb)" and
waits for input. First, we have to run the program. We type in <c>run</c> at the
command and receive a notice like:
</p>

<pre caption="Running the program in GDB">
(gdb) run
Starting program: /home/chris/bad_code

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0xb7ec6dc0 in strcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6
</pre>

<p>
Here we see the program starting, as well as a notification of SIGSEGV, or
Segmentation Fault. This is GDB telling us that our program has crashed. It
also gives the last run function it could trace when the program crashes.
However, this isn't too useful, as there could be multiple strcpy's in the
program, making it hard for developers to find which one is causing the issue.
In order to help them out, we do what's called a backtrace. A backtrace runs
backwards through all the functions that occurred upon program execution, to the
function at fault. Functions that return (without causing a crash) will not show
up on the backtrace. To get a backtrace, at the (gdb) prompt, type in <c>bt</c>.
You will get something like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Program backtrace">
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb7ec6dc0 in strcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6
#1  0x0804838c in run_it ()
#2  0x080483ba in main ()
</pre>

<p>
So as we see here, first main() was run, then run_it(), and somewhere in run_it
lies the strcpy() at fault. Things such as this help developers narrow things
down. Now, there are a few exceptions to the output. First off is forgetting
to disable debug symbols with FEATURES="nostrip". With debug symbols stripped,
output looks something like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Program backtrace With debug symbols stripped">
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb7e2cdc0 in strcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6
#1  0x0804838c in ?? ()
#2  0xbfd19510 in ?? ()
#3  0x00000000 in ?? ()
#4  0x00000000 in ?? ()
#5  0xb7eef148 in libgcc_s_personality () from /lib/libc.so.6
#6  0x080482ed in ?? ()
#7  0x080495b0 in ?? ()
#8  0xbfd19528 in ?? ()
#9  0xb7dd73b8 in __guard_setup () from /lib/libc.so.6
#10 0xb7dd742d in __guard_setup () from /lib/libc.so.6
#11 0x00000006 in ?? ()
#12 0xbfd19548 in ?? ()
#13 0x080483ba in ?? ()
#14 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#15 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#16 0xb7deebcc in __new_exitfn () from /lib/libc.so.6
#17 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#18 0xbfd19560 in ?? ()
#19 0xb7ef017c in nullserv () from /lib/libc.so.6
#20 0xb7dd6f37 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/libc.so.6
#21 0x00000001 in ?? ()
#22 0xbfd195d4 in ?? ()
#23 0xbfd195dc in ?? ()
#24 0x08048201 in ?? ()
</pre>

<p>
This backtrace contains a large number of ?? marks. This is because without
debug symbols, <c>gdb</c> doesn't know how the program was ran. Hence, it is
crucial that debug symbols are <e>not</e> stripped. Now remember a while ago I
told you about the -g flag. Let's see what the output looks like with that:
</p>

<pre caption="Program backtrace with -g flag">
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb7e4bdc0 in strcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6
#1  0x0804838c in run_it (input=0x0) at bad_code.c:7
#2  0x080483ba in main (argc=1, argv=0xbfd3a434) at bad_code.c:12
</pre>

<p>
Here we see that a lot more information is available for developers. Not only is
variable information displayed, but even the exact line numbers of the source
files. This method is the most preferred if you can spare the extra space.
Here's how much the file size varies between debug, strip, and -g programs.
</p>

<pre caption="Filesize differences With -g flag">
<comment>(debug symbols stripped)</comment>
-rwxr-xr-x  1 chris users 3140  6/28 13:11 bad_code
<comment>(debug symbols enabled)</comment>
-rwxr-xr-x  1 chris users 6374  6/28 13:10 bad_code
<comment>(-g flag enabled)</comment>
-rwxr-xr-x  1 chris users 7366  6/28 13:11 bad_code
</pre>

<p>
As you can see, -g adds about a 1000 more bytes to the file size over the one
with debugging symbols. However, as shown above, this increase in file size can
be worth it if presenting debug information to developers. Now that we have
obtained the backtrace, we can save it to a file by copying and pasting from the
terminal (if it's a non-x based terminal, you can use gpm. To keep this doc
simple, I recommend you read up on the documentation for gpm to see how to copy
and paste with it). Now that we're done with <c>gdb</c>, we can quit.
</p>

<pre caption="Quitting GDB">
(gdb) quit
The program is running. Exit anyway? (y or n) y
$
</pre>

<p>
This ends the walk-through of <c>gdb</c>. Using <c>gdb</c>, I hope that you will
be able to use it to create better bug reports. However, there are other types
of errors that can cause a program to fail during run time. One of the other
ways is through improper file access. We can find those using a nifty little
tool called <c>strace</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Finding file access errors using strace</title>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
Programs often use files to get configuration information, get access 
to hardware, or write logs. Often a program attempts to reach such files 
incorrectly. A program called <c>strace</c> was created to help deal with 
this. <c>strace</c> traces system calls (hence the name) which include 
calls that use the memory and files. For our example, we're going to take a 
program foobar2. This is an updated version of foobar. However, during the 
changeover to foobar2, you notice all your configurations are missing!  In 
foobar version 1, you had it setup to say "foo", but now it's using the default
"bar".
</p>

<pre caption="Foobar2 With an invalid configuration">
$ <i>./foobar2</i>
Configuration says: bar
</pre>

<p>
Our previous configuration specifically had it set to foo, so let's use
<c>strace</c> to find out what's going on.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Using strace to track the issue</title>
<body>

<p>
Let's have <c>strace</c> log the results of the system calls. To do this, we run
<c>strace</c> with the -o[file] arguments. Let's use it on foobar2 like so:
</p>

<pre caption="Running foobar2 through strace">
# <i>strace -ostrace.log ./foobar2</i>
</pre>

<p>
This creates a file called <path>strace.log</path> in the current directory. We
check the file, and shown below are the relevant parts from the file.
</p>

<pre caption="A Look At the strace Log">
open(".foobar2/config", O_RDONLY)       = 3
read(3, "bar", 3)                       = 3
</pre>

<p>
Aha! So There's the problem. Someone moved the configuration directory to
<path>.foobar2</path> instead of <path>.foobar</path>. We also see the program
reading in "bar" as it should. In this case, we can recommend the ebuild
maintainer to put a warning about it. For now though, we can copy over the
config file from <path>.foobar</path> and modify it to produce the correct
results. 
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Conclusion</title>
<body>

<p>
Now we've taken care of finding run time bugs. These bugs prove to be
problematic when you try and run your programs. However, run time errors are
the least of your concern if your program won't compile at all. Let's take a
look at how to address <c>emerge</c> compile errors.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Handling emerge Errors</title>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
<c>emerge</c> errors, such as the one displayed earlier, can be a major cause
of frustration for users. Reporting them is considered crucial for helping
maintain the health of Gentoo. Let's take a look at a sample ebuild, foobar2,
which contains some build errors.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section id="emerge_error">
<title>Evaluating emerge Errors</title>
<body>

<p>
Let's take a look at this very simple <c>emerge</c> error:
</p>

<pre caption="emerge Error">
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-7.o foobar2-7.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-8.o foobar2-8.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-9.o foobar2-9.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2.o foobar2.c
foobar2.c:1:17: ogg.h: No such file or directory
make: *** [foobar2.o] Error 1

!!! ERROR: sys-apps/foobar2-1.0 failed.
!!! Function src_compile, Line 19, Exitcode 2
!!! Make failed!
!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message
</pre>

<p>
The compile is going smoothly, then it stops and presents an error message. This
particular error can be split into 3 different sections, The compile, the build
error, and the emerge error message as shown below.
</p>

<pre caption="Parts of the error">
<comment>(Compile Error)</comment>
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-7.o foobar2-7.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-8.o foobar2-8.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2-9.o foobar2-9.c
gcc -D__TEST__ -D__GNU__ -D__LINUX__ -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib/nspr/ -I/usr/include/fmod   -c -o foobar2.o foobar2.c

<comment>(Build Error)</comment>
foobar2.c:1:17: ogg.h: No such file or directory
make: *** [foobar2.o] Error 1

<comment>(Emerge Error)</comment>
!!! ERROR: sys-apps/foobar2-1.0 failed.
!!! Function src_compile, Line 19, Exitcode 2
!!! Make failed!
!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message
</pre>

<p>
The compile is what leads up to the error. Most often, it's good to at least
include 10 lines of compile information so that the developer knows where the
compile is at. Make errors are the actual error, and the information the
developer needs. When you see "make: ***", this is often where the error has
occurred. Normally, you can copy and paste 10 lines above it and the developer
will be able to address the issue. However, this may not always work and we'll
take a look at an alternative shortly. The emerge error is what <c>emerge</c>
can address from the make error. Often people make the mistake of posting the
emerge error and that's all. This is useless by itself, but with make error and
compile information, a developer can get what application and what version of
the package is failing. As a side note, make is commonly used as the build
process for programs (<b>but not always</b>). If you can't find a "make: ***"
error anywhere, then simply copy and paste 20 lines before the emerge error.
This should take care of most all build system error messages. Now let's say the
errors seem to be quite large. 10 lines won't be enough to catch everything.
That's where PORT_LOGDIR comes into play. 
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>emerge and PORT_LOGDIR</title>
<body>

<p>
PORT_LOGDIR is a portage variable that sets up a log directory for separate 
emerge logs. Let's take a look and see what that entails. First, run your emerge
with PORT_LOGDIR set to your favorite log location. Let's say we have a
location /var/log/portage. We'll use that for our log directory:
</p>

<note>
In the default setup, /var/log/portage does not exist, and you will most likely
have to create it. If you do not, portage will fail to write the logs.
</note>

<pre caption="emerge-ing With PORT_LOGDIR">
# <i>PORT_LOGDIR=/var/log/portage emerge foobar2</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now the emerge fails again. However, this time we have a log we can work with,
and attach to the bug later on. Let's take a quick look at our log directory.
</p>

<pre caption="PORT_LOGDIR Contents">
# <i>ls -la /var/log/portage</i>
total 16
drwxrws---   2 root root 4096 Jun 30 10:08 .
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root 4096 Jun 30 10:08 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 7390 Jun 30 10:09 2115-foobar2-1.0.log
</pre>

<p>
The log files have the format [counter]-[package name]-[version].log. Counter
is a special variable that is meant to state this package as the n-th package
you've emerged. This prevents duplicate logs from appearing. A quick look at
the log file will show the entire emerge process. This can be attached later
on as we'll see in the bug reporting section. Now that we've safely obtained
our information needed to report the bug we can continue to do so. However,
before we get started on that, we need to make sure no one else has reported
the issue. Let's take a look at searching for bugs.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Searching Using Bugzilla</title>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
<uri link="http://www.bugzilla.org">Bugzilla</uri> is what we at Gentoo use to
handle bugs. Gentoo's Bugzilla is reachable by HTTPS and HTTP. HTTPS is
available for those on insecure networks or simply paranoid :). For the sake of
consistency, I will be using the HTTPS version in the examples to follow. Head
over to <uri link="https://bugs.gentoo.org">Gentoo Bugs</uri> to see how it
looks.
</p>

<p>
One of the most frustrating thing for developers and bug-wranglers is finding
duplicate bug reports. This causes them valuable time they could be using to
find new and more important bugs. Often, this can be prevented by a few simple
search methods. So we're going to see how to search for bugs and find out if
you have one that's similar. For this example, we're going to use the xclass
emerge error that was used earlier:
</p>

<pre caption="xclass emerge error">
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.2/include/g++-v3/backward/backward_warning.h:32:2:
warning: #warning This file includes at least one deprecated or antiquated
header. Please consider using one of the 32 headers found in section 17.4.1.2 of
the C++ standard. Examples include substituting the &lt;X&gt; header for the &lt;X.h&gt;
header for C++ includes, or &lt;sstream&gt; instead of the deprecated header
&lt;strstream.h&gt;. To disable this warning use -Wno-deprecated.
In file included from main.cc:40:
menudef.h:55: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:62: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:70: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
menudef.h:78: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `
OXPopupMenu*'
main.cc: In member function `void OXMain::DoOpen()':
main.cc:323: warning: unused variable `FILE*fp'
main.cc: In member function `void OXMain::DoSave(char*)':
main.cc:337: warning: unused variable `FILE*fp'
make[1]: *** [main.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory
`/var/tmp/portage/xclass-0.7.4/work/xclass-0.7.4/example-app'
make: *** [shared] Error 2

!!! ERROR: x11-libs/xclass-0.7.4 failed.
!!! Function src_compile, Line 29, Exitcode 2
!!! 'emake shared' failed
</pre>

<p>
So to begin searching, we head over to the <uri
link="https://bugs.gentoo.org/">Bugzilla Homepage</uri>.
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-homepage.png" caption="Bugzilla Homepage"/>

<p>
In order to begin our search, we'll click on "Query Existing bug reports". The
reason why we choose this versus the basic bug search is because the basic bug
search tends to give vague results and often hinders users from looking
through the results and finding the duplicate bug. Once we click on the query
screen, we reach the next page:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-search.png" caption="Bugzilla Search Page"/>

<note>
If you've used the Advanced Search before, you'll most likely see that screen
instead.
</note>

<p>
Proceed on clicking the "Advanced Search" link to bring up the Advanced
Search page:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-adv-search.png" caption="Advanced Search Page"/>

<p>
This is how the Advanced Search Page looks like. While it may seem overwhelming
at first, we're going to look at a few simple areas to narrow down the rather
vague searches bugzilla returns. 
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-content.png" caption="Content"/>

<p>
The first field is the summary of the bug. Here we're simply going to put the
name of the package that's crashing. If you still don't get results, try
removing the package name, just in case someone didn't put that in the summary
(highly unlikely, but I've seen my fair share of strange bug reports).
</p>

<p>
Product, Component, and Version should all be set to the default. This
prevents us from being too specific and missing all the bugs.
</p>

<p>
Comment is the important part. Use comment to list what appears to be a
specific instance of the error. Basically, don't use anything like the
beginning of the build error, find a line that's before it stating a true
error. Also, you'll want to filter out any punctuation to prevent bugzilla
from interpreting the results the comment the wrong way. Example from the xclass
emerge error:
</p>

<pre caption="Comment Line Content">
menudef.h:78: error: brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize `OXPopupMenu'
<comment>(Remove the quotes ' ')</comment>
menudef.h 78 error brace-enclosed initializer used to initialize OXPopupMenu
</pre>

<p>
The above is specific enough to where we'll find the bug without wading through
other xclass compile failure candidates.
</p>

<p>
URI, Whiteboard, and Keywords can all be left alone. What we've entered so far
should be enough to find our bug. Let's see what we have filled out:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-comp-search.png" caption="Completed Search Form"/>

<p>
Now we click on the Search button and here come the results:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-search-result.png" caption="Search Results"/>

<p>
Only 2 bugs! That's a lot easier to deal with. We click on the first one to
check, and sure enough it's the one we're looking for:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-located.png" caption="Bug Located"/>

<p>
Not only is it the one we want, but it has also been resolved. By checking the
last comment we see the solution and know what to do in order to resolve it.
Now, let's see what would have happened if we had not used the advanced search:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-basic-search-result.png" caption="Basic Search Results"/>

<p>
4 more bugs to deal with! It gets even worse with larger packages. However,
with these simple tools, we're able to significantly narrow down the search to
try and locate a specific bug.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Conclusion</title>
<body>

<p>
Let's say that you have searched and searched but still can't find a bug.
You've found yourself a new bug. Let's take a look at the bug reporting process
for submitting your new bug.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Reporting Bugs</title>
<section>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
In this chapter, we'll figure out how to use Bugzilla to file a shiny, new bug.
Head over to <uri link="https://bugs.gentoo.org">Gentoo Bugs</uri> and...
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-homepage.png" caption="Bugzilla Homepage"/>

<p>
Go ahead and click on "Report a Bug - Using the Guided format".
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-prod-select.png" caption="Product Selection"/>

<p>
As you can see, <b>major</b> emphasis has been placed on putting your bug in the
right place. Gentoo Linux is where a large majority of bugs go. Despite this,
some people will file ebuild bugs in portage development (assumption that
portage team handles the portage tree) or infra (assumption that infra has
access to mirrors and rsync and can fix it directly). This is simply not how
things work. Our bug goes in Gentoo Linux, as it's an ebuild bug. We head over
there and are presented with the multi-step bug reporting process.
</p>

<note>
We would rather see a non-Gentoo Linux bug filed in Gentoo Linux than a Gentoo
Linux bug filed in non-Gentoo Linux projects! While neither is preferred, the
former is more acceptable and understandable (except website bugs.. we might
have an issue with that...)
</note>

<p>
Let us now proceed with Step 1...
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-guide-step1.png" caption="Guided Format Step 1"/>

<p>
The first step here is really important (as the red text tells you). This is
where you search to see that someone else hasn't hit the same bug you have, yet.
If you do skip this step, and a bug like yours already exists, it will be marked
as a DUPLICATE thus wasting a large amount of QA effort. To give you an idea,
the numbers that are struck out above are duplicate bugs. Now comes step 2,
where we give the information.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Required Information</title>
<body>

<p>
Onto Step 2, let's see what we have here.
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-basic.png" caption="Basic Information"/>

<p>
First, there's the product. This is Gentoo Linux, which we selected earlier.
Component is where the problem occurs. We use this to help us sort out the
severity of the issue (i.e. baselayout and core systems will be more important
than new ebuilds or application bugs). Here we select Application, as it is an
application at fault. Hardware platform is what architecture you're running.
If you were running SPARC, you would set it to SPARC. For this example, we know
this error can occur on multiple architectures, so we'll select All. Operating
System is what Operating System you're using. Because Gentoo is considered a
"Meta-distribution", it can run on other operating systems beside Linux. 
Examples are Gentoo on MacOS, Gentoo on FreeBSD, etc. For this example, 
we'll select All, as this can occur on all types of systems. Build Identifier 
is what is being used to report the bugs (for logging purposes). You can just 
leave this as is. Let's see what we have so far:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-basic-comp.png" caption="Completed Basic Information"/>

<p>
That does look good, so we'll begin with the actual report. In this instance,
we'll use the foobar2 bug as our example. URL is used to point to errors on a
site someplace (pastebin, etc.). However, doing it inside the bug allows the
developers be able to reference to it at any time and is preferred. Then we have
the summary. In the summary, you should put the package category, name, and
number. Not including the category really isn't too bad, but it's recommended.
If you don't include the package name, however, we won't know what you're
filling a bug for, and will have to ask you about it later. The version number
is important for people searching for bugs. If 20 people filed bugs and not one
put a version number, how would people looking for similar bugs be able to tell
if one was there's? They'd have to look through every single bug, which isn't
too hard, but if there are say, 200 bugs.. it's not that easy. After all the
package information, you'll want to include a small description of the incident.
Here's an example:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-summary.png" caption="Summary"/>

<p>
Just these simple rules can make handling bugs a lot easier. Next are the
details. Here we put in the information about the bug. We'll demonstrate with an
example:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-details.png" caption="Details"/>

<p>
So now the developer knows why we're filing the bug. They can then try to
reproduce it. Reproducibility tells us how often we were able to make the
problem recur. In this example, we can reproduce it any time simply by running
foobar2. Let's put that information in:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-reprod.png" caption="Reproduction"/>

<p>
So now we have explained how we found the bug. Next we want to explain what
the results were and what we think they should be:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-results.png" caption="Results"/>

<p>
Next we put additional information. This can be things such as stack traces,
<b>sections</b> of strace logs, but most importantly, your emerge --info output.
Here's an example:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-addl-info.png" caption="Additional Information"/>

<p>
Lastly we select the severity of the bug. Please look this over carefully. In
most cases it's OK to leave it as is and someone will raise/lower it for you.
However, if you raise the severity of the bug, please make sure you read it over
carefully and make sure you're not making a mistake. Here we will set it to the
default of normal:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-sev.png" caption="Severity"/>

<p>
Now we can submit the bug report by clicking on the Submit Bug Report box. You
will now see your new bug come up. See <uri
link="https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97265">Bug 97561</uri> for what
the result looks like. We've reported our bug! Now let's see how it's dealt
with.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Working With Your Bug</title>
<section>
<body>

<p>
looking at the bug, we see the information we provided earlier:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-new-basic.png" caption="New Bug Basic Information"/>

<p>
And our details are there too:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-new-details.png" caption="New Bug Details"/>

<p>
Now as you can see, the bug has been assigned to bug-wranglers@gentoo.org. This
is the default location for Application component bugs. However, bug-wranglers
(usually) won't fix our bugs, so we'll reassign it to someone that can (you can
let bug-wranglers re-assign it for you as well). For this we use the package's
metadata.xml. You can normally find them in
/usr/portage/category/package/metadata.xml. Here's one I've made up for foobar2:
</p>

<pre caption="metadata.xml">
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
&lt;!DOCTYPE pkgmetadata SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd"&gt;
&lt;pkgmetadata&gt;
&lt;herd&gt;chriswhite&lt;/herd&gt;
&lt;maintainer&gt;
&lt;email&gt;chriswhite@gentoo.org&lt;/email&gt;
&lt;name&gt;Chris White&lt;/name&gt;
&lt;/maintainer&gt;
&lt;longdescription lang="en"&gt;
Foobar2 is a package that uses a configuration file to display a word.
&lt;/longdescription&gt;
&lt;/pkgmetadata&gt;
</pre>

<p>
Notice the maintainer section.T his lists the maintainer of the package, which
in this case is myself, Chris White. The email listed is chriswhite@gentoo.org.
We will use this to re-assign the bug to the proper person. To do this, click
the bubble next to Reassign bug to, then fill in the email:
</p>

<note>
A package without a metadata.xml file should be re-assigned to
maintainer-needed@gentoo.org.
</note>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-reassign.png" caption="Bug Reassignment"/>

<p>
Then hit the Commit button for the changes to take place. The bug has been
reassigned to me. Shortly afterward, you notice (by email usually) that I've
responded to your bug. I've stated that I'd like to see an strace log to figure
out how the program is trying to reach your configuration file. You follow the
previous instructions on using strace and obtain an strace log. Now you need to
attach it to the bug. In order to do this, click on "Create A New Attachment".
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-new-attach.png" caption="New Attachment"/>

<p>
Now we have to attach the log. We click on the "Browse..." button under "File"
and select the strace log. For Description, we'll put "strace log". Content-Type
is what kind of file we're attaching. A common mistake is to set it to
auto. In most cases it's best to manually set it. Our log file is a
plain text file, so we select "plain text (text/plain)". Obsoletes are for when
you are attaching a revision to a previously attached file. You can simply click
a check box next to the old file and Bugzilla will cross it out in the bug,
indicating that the attachment has been obsoleted. Reassignment means you want
to take the bug yourself. I rarely tend to use this.. and I don't think you will
need to at some point (unless you create great patches and we don't care about
you taking our bugs ;). Comments are for leaving comments about the file you're
posting. We'll put "Here is the strace file you requested". Now we have
something like this: 
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-new-attach-comp.png" caption="New Attachment Completed"/>

<p>
We Submit the patch and it is now reflected on the bug report.
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-strace.png" caption="Attached strace log"/>

<p>
Now, while we're waiting another person notices your bug during step 1 of the
Guided Format. This person wants to see the status of the bug as well. He or
she may do so by putting their email in the Add CC field like so:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-add-email.png" caption="Adding Email To CC:"/>

<note>
Email addresses must be registered with bugzilla. In order to CC multiple
addresses, simply separate them with commas or spaces.
</note>

<p>
After all this work, the bug can undergo various status markings. Here's a few:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
  UNCONFIRMED - You're generally not going to see this too often. This
  means that a bug reporter has opened a bug using the advanced method and is
  uncertain his or her bug is an actual bug.
  </li>
  <li>
  NEW - Bugs that are first opened are considered new.
  </li>
  <li>
  ASSIGNED - When the person you've assigned the bug too validates your
  bug, it will often receive ASSIGNED status while they figure out the issue.
  This let's you know that they've accepted your bug as a real bug.
  </li>
  <li>
  REOPENED - Someone has resolved a bug and you think the solution is not
  feasible or the problem still persists. At this point, you may re-open the
  bug. However <b>please do not abuse this</b>. If a developer closes the bug a
  second or even third time, chances are that your bug is closed.
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
Now shortly afterward, I find the error in the strace log. I resolve the bug
as RESOLVED FIXED and say that there was a change in the location of
configuration files, and that I will update the ebuild with a warning about it.
The bug now becomes resolved, and you are displayed with this:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-reso.png" caption="Resolved Bug"/>

<p>
Also note the section here:
</p>

<figure link="/images/docs/bugzie-options.png" caption="Bug Options"/>

<p>
This gives you the option of Reopening the bug if you wish to (i.e. the developer
thinks it's resolved but it's really not to your standards). Now our bug is
fixed! However, different resolutions can occur. Here's a small list:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
  FIXED - The bug is fixed, follow the instructions to resolve your
  issue.
  </li>
  <li>
  INVALID - You did not do something specifically documented, causing the
  bug
  </li>
  <li>
  DUPLICATE - You didn't use this guide and reported a duplicate bug
  :)
  </li>
  <li>
  WORKSFORME - Developer/person assigned the bug cannot reproduce your
  error
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Conclusion</title>
<body>

<p>
This concludes the howto on working with Bugzilla. I hope you find this useful.
If you have any questions, comments, or ideas regarding this document, please
send them to me at <mail
link="chriswhite@gentoo.org">chriswhite@gentoo.org</mail>. Special
thanks go to moreon for his notes on -g flags and compile errors, the people at
#gentoo-bugs for helping out with bug-wrangling, and Griffon26 for his notes on
maintainer-needed.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
</guide>