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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Bug Writing Guidelines</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<h1>Bug Writing Guidelines</h1>
</center>
<h3>Why You Should Read This</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Simply put, the more effectively you report a bug, the more
likely an engineer will actually fix it.</p>
<p>These guidelines are a general
tutorial to teach novice and intermediate bug reporters how to compose effective bug reports. Not every sentence may precisely apply to
your software project.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>How to Write a Useful Bug Report</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Useful bug reports are ones that get bugs fixed. A useful bug
report normally has two qualities:</p>
<ol>
<li><b>Reproducible.</b> If an engineer can't see the bug herself to prove that it exists, she'll probably stamp your bug report "WORKSFORME" or "INVALID" and move on to the next bug. Every detail you can provide helps.<br>
<br>
</li>
<li><b>Specific.</b> The quicker the engineer can isolate the bug
to a specific area, the more likely she'll expediently fix it.
(If a programmer or tester has to decypher a bug, they may spend
more time cursing the submitter than solving the problem.)
<br>
<br>
[ <a href="#tips" name="Anchor">Tell Me More</a> ]
</li>
</ol>
<p>Let's say the application you're testing is a web browser. You
crash at foo.com, and want to write up a bug report:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>BAD:</b> "My browser crashed. I think I was on www.foo.com. I play golf with Bill Gates, so you better fix this problem, or I'll report you to him. By the way, your Back icon looks like a squashed rodent. UGGGLY. And my grandmother's home page is all messed up in your browser. Thx 4 UR help."
</p>
<p>
<b>GOOD:</b> "I crashed each time I went to www.foo.com, using
the 2002-02-25 build on a Windows 2000 system. I also
rebooted into Linux, and reproduced this problem using the 2002-02-24
Linux build.
</p>
<p>
It again crashed each time upon drawing the Foo banner at the top
of the page. I broke apart the page, and discovered that the
following image link will crash the application reproducibly,
unless you remove the "border=0" attribute:
</p>
<p>
<tt><IMG SRC="http://www.foo.com/images/topics/topicfoos.gif"
width="34" height="44" border="0" alt="News"></tt>
</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<h3>How to Enter your Useful Bug Report into Bugzilla:</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>Before you enter your bug, use Bugzilla's
<a href="query.cgi">search page</a> to determine whether the defect you've discovered is a known, already-reported bug. If your bug is the 37th duplicate of a known issue, you're more likely to annoy the engineer. (Annoyed
engineers fix fewer bugs.)
</p>
<p>
Next, be sure to reproduce your bug using a recent
build. Engineers tend to be most interested in problems affecting
the code base that they're actively working on. After all, the bug you're reporting
may already be fixed.
</p>
<p>
If you've discovered a new bug using a current build, report it in
Bugzilla:
</p>
<ol>
<li>From your Bugzilla main page, choose
"<a href="enter_bug.cgi">Enter a new bug</a>".</li>
<li>Select the product that you've found a bug in.</li>
<li>Enter your e-mail address, password, and press the "Login"
button. (If you don't yet have a password, leave the password field empty,
and press the "E-mail me a password" button instead.
You'll quickly receive an e-mail message with your password.)</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, fill out the form. Here's what it all means:</p>
<p><b>Where did you find the bug?</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Product: In which product did you find the bug?</b><br>
You just specified this on the last page, so you can't edit it here.</p>
<p><b>Version: In which product version did you find the
bug?</b><br>
(If applicable)</p>
<p><b>Component: In which component does the bug exist?</b><br>
Bugzilla requires that you select a component to enter a bug. (Not sure which to choose?
Click on the Component link. You'll see a description of each component, to help you make the best choice.)</p>
<p><b>OS: On which Operating System (OS) did you find this bug?</b>
(e.g. Linux, Windows 2000, Mac OS 9.)<br>
If you know the bug happens on all OSs, choose 'All'. Otherwise,
select the OS that you found the bug on, or "Other" if your OS
isn't listed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>How important is the bug?</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Severity: How damaging is the bug?</b><br>
This item defaults to 'normal'. If you're not sure what severity your bug deserves, click on the Severity link.
You'll see a description of each severity rating. <br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Who will be following up on the bug?</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Assigned To: Which engineer should be responsible for fixing
this bug?</b><br>
Bugzilla will automatically assign the bug to a default engineer
upon submitting a bug report. If you'd prefer to directly assign the bug to
someone else, enter their e-mail address into this field. (To see the list of
default engineers for each component, click on the Component
link.)</p>
<p><b>Cc: Who else should receive e-mail updates on changes to this
bug?</b><br>
List the full e-mail addresses of other individuals who should
receive an e-mail update upon every change to the bug report. You
can enter as many e-mail addresses as you'd like, separated by spaces or commas, as long as those
people have Bugzilla accounts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b>What else can you tell the engineer about the bug?</b></p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Summary:</b> <b>How would you describe the bug, in
approximately 60 or fewer characters?</b><br>
A good summary should <b>quickly and uniquely identify a bug
report</b>. Otherwise, an engineer cannot meaningfully identify
your bug by its summary, and will often fail to pay attention to
your bug report when skimming through a 10 page bug list.<br>
<br>
A useful summary might be
"<tt>PCMCIA install fails on Tosh Tecra 780DVD w/ 3c589C</tt>".
"<tt>Software fails</tt>" or "<tt>install problem</tt>" would be
examples of a bad summary.<br>
<br>
[ <a href="#summary">Tell Me More</a> ]<br>
<br>
<b>Description: </b><br>
Please provide a detailed problem report in this field.
Your bug's recipients will most likely expect the following information:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>Overview Description:</b> More detailed expansion of
summary.</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
Drag-selecting any page crashes Mac builds in NSGetFactory
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Steps to Reproduce:</b> Minimized, easy-to-follow steps that will
trigger the bug. Include any special setup steps.</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
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.)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>
<b>Actual Results:</b> What the application did after performing
the above steps.
</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
The application crashed. Stack crawl appended below from MacsBug.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Expected Results:</b> What the application should have done,
were the bug not present.</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
The window should scroll downwards. Scrolled content should be selected.
(Or, at least, the application should not crash.)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Build Date & Platform:</b> Date and platform of the build
that you first encountered the bug in.</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
Build 2002-03-15 on Mac OS 9.0
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Additional Builds and Platforms:</b> Whether or not the bug
takes place on other platforms (or browsers, if applicable).</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
- Also Occurs On
Mozilla (2002-03-15 build on Windows NT 4.0)
- Doesn't Occur On
Mozilla (2002-03-15 build on Red Hat Linux; feature not supported)
Internet Explorer 5.0 (shipping build on Windows NT 4.0)
Netscape Communicator 4.5 (shipping build on Mac OS 9.0)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><b>Additional Information:</b> Any other debugging information.
For crashing bugs:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Win32:</b> if you receive a Dr. Watson error, please note
the type of the crash, and the module that the application crashed
in. (e.g. access violation in apprunner.exe)</li>
<li><b>Mac OS:</b> if you're running MacsBug, please provide the
results of a <b>how</b> and an <b>sc</b>:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<pre>
*** MACSBUG STACK CRAWL OF CRASH (Mac OS)
Calling chain using A6/R1 links
Back chain ISA Caller
00000000 PPC 0BA85E74
03AEFD80 PPC 0B742248
03AEFD30 PPC 0B50FDDC NSGetFactory+027FC
PowerPC unmapped memory exception at 0B512BD0 NSGetFactory+055F0
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>You're done!<br>
<br>
After double-checking your entries for any possible errors, press
the "Commit" button, and your bug report will now be in the
Bugzilla database.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<h3>More Information on Writing Good Bugs</h3>
<blockquote>
<p><b><a name="tips"></a> 1. General Tips for a Useful Bug
Report</b>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
<b>Use an explicit structure, so your bug reports are easy to
skim.</b> Bug report users often need immediate access to specific
sections of your bug. If your Bugzilla installation supports the
Bugzilla Helper, use it.
</p>
<p>
<b>Avoid cuteness if it costs clarity.</b> Nobody will be laughing
at your funny bug title at 3:00 AM when they can't remember how to
find your bug.
</p>
<p>
<b>One bug per report.</b> Completely different people typically
fix, verify, and prioritize different bugs. If you mix a handful of
bugs into a single report, the right people probably won't discover
your bugs in a timely fashion, or at all. Certain bugs are also
more important than others. It's impossible to prioritize a bug
report when it contains four different issues, all of differing
importance.
</p>
<p>
<b>No bug is too trivial to report.</b> Unless you're reading the
source code, you can't see actual software bugs, like a dangling
pointer -- you'll see their visible manifestations, such as the
segfault when the application finally crashes. Severe software
problems can manifest themselves in superficially trivial ways.
File them anyway.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><b><a name="summary"></a>2. How and Why to Write Good Bug Summaries</b>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><b>You want to make a good first impression on the bug
recipient.</b> Just like a New York Times headline guides readers
towards a relevant article from dozens of choices, will your bug summary
suggest that your bug report is worth reading from dozens or hundreds of
choices?
</p>
<p>
Conversely, a vague bug summary like <tt>install problem</tt> forces anyone
reviewing installation bugs to waste time opening up your bug to
determine whether it matters.
</p>
<p>
<b>Your bug will often be searched by its summary.</b> Just as
you'd find web pages with Google by searching by keywords through
intuition, so will other people locate your bugs. Descriptive bug
summaries are naturally keyword-rich, and easier to find.
</p>
<p>
For example, you'll find a bug titled "<tt>Dragging icons from List View to
gnome-terminal doesn't paste path</tt>" if you search on "List",
"terminal", or "path". Those search keywords wouldn't have found a
bug titled "<tt>Dragging icons
doesn't paste</tt>".
</p>
<p>
Ask yourself, "Would someone understand my bug from just this
summary?" If so, you've written a fine summary.
</p>
<p><b>Don't write titles like these:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>"Can't install" - Why can't you install? What happens when you
try to install?</li>
<li>"Severe Performance Problems" - ...and they occur when you do
what?</li>
<li>"back button does not work" - Ever? At all?</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Good bug titles:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>"1.0 upgrade installation fails if Mozilla M18 package present"
- Explains problem and the context.</li>
<li>"RPM 4 installer crashes if launched on Red Hat 6.2 (RPM 3)
system" - Explains what happens, and the context.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>(Written and maintained by
<a href="http://www.prometheus-music.com/eli">Eli Goldberg</a>. Claudius
Gayle, Gervase Markham, Peter Mock, Chris Pratt, Tom Schutter and Chris Yeh also
contributed significant changes. Constructive
<a href="mailto:eli@prometheus-music.com">suggestions</a> welcome.)</p>
</body>
</html>
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