On Sunday, 25 of November 2007, Adrian Bunk wrote: > On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 09:57:09PM +0100, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote: > >... > > +Reporting Linux kernel bugs > >... > > +Usually, this requires you to do some more work than just sending an email > > +message with a bug report, but it often is necessary to collect all > > information > > +related to the reported bug in one place, so that it is easily accessible > > at > > +any time later. > > I wouldn't say creating an account (if you don't already have one) > plus 5 additional mouse clicks per bug report are substancially more > work.
Plus generating some information that it asks you for and that may or may not be relevant to your report. > > +Email messages containing bug reports should generally be sent to the > > +Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org> and to the > > +mailing list dedicated to the affected subsystem. > > How should a newbie find the correct mailing list? Read MAINTAINERS? Ok, I should have said about that. > Benchmark: > Easier than the "some more work" when using Bugzilla. Nope. Please try to file a report against libata/PATA using the Bugzilla. Good luck. ;-) > >... > > +It also is a good idea to notify the maintainer of the affected subsystem > > and > > +the maintainer of the tree in which the bug is present by adding their > > email > > +addresses to the Cc list of the bug report message. The email addresses of > > +maintainers of the majority of kernel subsystems can be found in the > > MAINTAINERS > > +file, but you should not worry too much about getting a wrong person. > > If you don't already know MAINTAINERS well then finding the right > component in Bugzilla is much easier. I disagree. How a newbie is supposed to know what AIO and DIO mean and WTH is the difference between LVM2/DM and MD? I took only the IO/Storage submenu as an example, but there are other things like that. For instance, what is the difference between "Flash/Memory Technology Devices" and MMC/SD? Why "Hotplug" is under "Drivers" and WTH does it *mean*? What "W1" means for that matter?? Etc. > > +If you know which patch has caused the problem to appear, you should also > > add > > +the email address of its author to the Cc list of your bug report (this > > address > > +is usually present in the 'From:' field of the patch header). > > Additionally, > > +it is recommended to notify all of the people involved in the process of > > +merging the patch (you can find their addresses in the 'Signed-off-by:' and > > +'Acked-by:' or 'Reviewed-by:' fields of the patch header). This way you > > can > > +increase the probability that someone "in the know" will notice the report > > and > > +respond to it quickly. Apart from this, you should make it clear that your > > +message contains a bug report, for example by adding the word "BUG" in > > front > > +of the message's subject line. If the bug is a regression (ie. one of the > > +previous kernel versions worked correctly), please put the word > > "REGRESSION" in > > +there instead. > > + > > +Unfortunately, sometimes bug reports are not responded to even if they > > contain > > +all of the right email addresses etc. If that happens to your bug report, > > you > > +should first check if it has not been intercepted by a spam filter. This > > is > > +easy if you have sent the report to a mailing list, since in that case it > > only > > +is necessary to look into the list's archives to see if the message is > > there. > > +If it turns out that the report has reached the list and no one is > > responding to > > +it, the developers might have overlooked it or they may be too busy to > > take care > > +of it right now. In that case you should wait for some time (usually, a > > couple > > +of days) and send it once again (if you resend the report, you may add the > > word > > +"resend" to the message's subject to indicate that this is not the first > > time). > > +If that does not help and there still is no response, it is best to open a > > new > > +entry in the Bugzilla at http://bugzilla.kernel.org . If you have already > > done > > +that, send messages to the appropriate lists and people periodically to > > remind > > +of the issue. > > What about recommending a cronjob that resends the bug report every > three days? ;-) > > Really, we must define _one_ way for people to report a bug, and how > developers are reminded is _our_ job. Well, who's "we" in that context? IOW, who's job exactly it's supposed to be? > >... > > +Generally, the following things are appreciated in a bug report: > >... > > If you expect people to read and follow this, wouldn't it be easier to > simply point them to open the bug in Bugzilla where we already have a > template asking these questions? I don't think so and please refer to the examples above. > You could replace the whole contents of this file with: > Go to http://bugzilla.kernel.org/ and click on "Enter a new bug report". > > It's a pity that we manage to add/change an average of 100.000 bugs^Wlines > of code each month, but do not have one generally accepted and working > process for bug reports. It's a pity that we do not have one, indeed, and so perhaps it's a good idea to try to create one? Not necessarily focusing on the Bugzilla for a little while. ;-) Greetings, Rafael - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
