Changes between Version 4 and Version 5 of HowToFileABug

Timestamp:

2010-07-27T20:55:07Z (14 years ago)

Author:

Jakub Jermář

Comment:

—

HowToFileABug

@@ -3 +3 @@
 As in any other complex software system, there will inevitably be bugs in the HelenOS source code (unless we can formally prove the opposite). It is therefore essential for people who run into them to make sure the bug is actually known to the developers and that all potentially relevant information that can help to root-cause the bug is available. This is best achieved by filing a ticket in our bug tracking database.
 
-Below follows a list of tips for filing the most useful bug reports, but before filing one, please check the existing tickets to see whether the problem you are going to log is a new bug or a duplicate of an already known issue. For duplicates, you can try to improve the original bug report by providing additional information. For new bugs, continue with the following points.
+Writing bug reports is by far not that trivial as it may initially seem. Quite the contrary. Writing really good bug reports takes some effort and needs some practice, but the reward is high.  The ticket owner can then focus on solving the bug itself rather than figuring out all the information and circumstances that lead to the it. Below follows a list of tips for filing the most useful bug reports.
 
+  * Make sure the bug is not a duplicate of some other bug
+    * If it is, consider improving the original bug report, but don't file any new ticket
   * Pick a descriptive ```Summary```
     * '''bad''': ''HelenOS has bugs''
@@ -23 +25 @@
       * name and version of the simulator/virtualizer, if the target system is a simulated machine
     * Provide reasonable details about HelenOS configurations
-      * consider including Makefile.config from the root of the HelenOS tree
+      * consider attaching Makefile.config from the root of the HelenOS tree
     * If there is a stack trace associated with the bug, paste it into the bug report
       * In case there is a core dump generated for a crashing task, compress it and attach it to the ticket
-      * Alternatively, attach the compressed binary itself (kernel.raw or the respective uspace binary). Note that attaching .disasm files is problematic as these files are usually much bigger than the respective binaries themselves.
+      * Alternatively, attach the compressed binary itself (kernel.raw or the respective uspace binary). Note that attaching .disasm files is problematic as these files are usually much bigger than the respective binaries themselves (even when compressed).
     * If there are some terminal or console messages of interest such as warnings or errors, mention those in the bug report.