<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Bug Criteria - Using as</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Using as"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" title="Reporting Bugs"> <link rel="next" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" title="Bug Reporting"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- This file documents the GNU Assembler "as". Copyright (C) 1991-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''. --> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Bug-Criteria"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a> <hr> </div> <h3 class="section">10.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3> <p><a name="index-bug-criteria-2560"></a> If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: <a name="index-fatal-signal-2561"></a> <a name="index-assembler-crash-2562"></a> <a name="index-crash-of-assembler-2563"></a> <ul><li>If the assembler gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a <samp><span class="command">as</span></samp> bug. Reliable assemblers never crash. <p><a name="index-error-on-valid-input-2564"></a><li>If <samp><span class="command">as</span></samp> produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. <p><a name="index-invalid-input-2565"></a><li>If <samp><span class="command">as</span></samp> does not produce an error message for invalid input, that is a bug. However, you should note that your idea of “invalid input” might be our idea of “an extension” or “support for traditional practice”. <li>If you are an experienced user of assemblers, your suggestions for improvement of <samp><span class="command">as</span></samp> are welcome in any case. </ul> </body></html>