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<title>Bug Reporting - GNU Binary Utilities</title>
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<a name="Bug-Reporting"></a>
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<p>
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Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Bug-Criteria.html#Bug-Criteria">Bug Criteria</a>,
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Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a>
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<hr>
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</div>
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<h3 class="section">19.2 How to Report Bugs</h3>
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<p><a name="index-bug-reports-171"></a><a name="index-bugs_002c-reporting-172"></a>
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A number of companies and individuals offer support for <span class="sc">gnu</span>
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products. If you obtained the binary utilities from a support
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organization, we recommend you contact that organization first.
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<p>You can find contact information for many support companies and
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individuals in the file <samp><span class="file">etc/SERVICE</span></samp> in the <span class="sc">gnu</span> Emacs
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distribution.
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<p>In any event, we also recommend that you send bug reports for the binary
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utilities to <a href="http://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/">http://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/</a>.
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<p>The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this:
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<strong>report all the facts</strong>. If you are not sure whether to state a
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fact or leave it out, state it!
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<p>Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the
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problem and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might
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assume that the name of a file you use in an example does not matter.
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Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is
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a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where
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that pathname is stored in memory; perhaps, if the pathname were
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different, the contents of that location would fool the utility into
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doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a
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specific, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do,
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and the most helpful.
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<p>Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug if
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it is new to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports on the assumption
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that the bug has not been reported previously.
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<p>Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, “Does this ring a
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bell?” This cannot help us fix a bug, so it is basically useless. We
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respond by asking for enough details to enable us to investigate.
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You might as well expedite matters by sending them to begin with.
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<p>To enable us to fix the bug, you should include all these things:
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<ul>
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<li>The version of the utility. Each utility announces it if you start it
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with the <samp><span class="option">--version</span></samp> argument.
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<p>Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for
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the bug in the current version of the binary utilities.
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<li>Any patches you may have applied to the source, including any patches
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made to the <code>BFD</code> library.
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<li>The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and
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version number.
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<li>What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the utilities—e.g.
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“<code>gcc-2.7</code>”.
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<li>The command arguments you gave the utility to observe the bug. To
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guarantee you will not omit something important, list them all. A copy
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of the Makefile (or the output from make) is sufficient.
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<p>If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong
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and then we might not encounter the bug.
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<li>A complete input file, or set of input files, that will reproduce the
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bug. If the utility is reading an object file or files, then it is
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generally most helpful to send the actual object files.
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<p>If the source files were produced exclusively using <span class="sc">gnu</span> programs
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(e.g., <samp><span class="command">gcc</span></samp>, <samp><span class="command">gas</span></samp>, and/or the <span class="sc">gnu</span> <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp>), then it
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may be OK to send the source files rather than the object files. In
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this case, be sure to say exactly what version of <samp><span class="command">gcc</span></samp>, or
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whatever, was used to produce the object files. Also say how
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<samp><span class="command">gcc</span></samp>, or whatever, was configured.
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<li>A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is
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incorrect. For example, “It gets a fatal signal.”
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<p>Of course, if the bug is that the utility gets a fatal signal, then we
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will certainly notice it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might
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not notice unless it is glaringly wrong. You might as well not give us
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a chance to make a mistake.
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<p>Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still
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say so explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as your
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copy of the utility is out of sync, or you have encountered a bug in
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the C library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might
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crash and ours would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when
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ours fails to crash, we would know that the bug was not happening for
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us. If you had not told us to expect a crash, then we would not be able
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to draw any conclusion from our observations.
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<li>If you wish to suggest changes to the source, send us context diffs, as
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generated by <samp><span class="command">diff</span></samp> with the <samp><span class="option">-u</span></samp>, <samp><span class="option">-c</span></samp>, or <samp><span class="option">-p</span></samp>
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option. Always send diffs from the old file to the new file. If you
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wish to discuss something in the <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> source, refer to it by
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context, not by line number.
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<p>The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your
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sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us.
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</ul>
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<p>Here are some things that are not necessary:
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<ul>
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<li>A description of the envelope of the bug.
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<p>Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating
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which changes to the input file will make the bug go away and which
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changes will not affect it.
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<p>This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we
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will find the bug is by running a single example under the debugger
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with breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples.
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We recommend that you save your time for something else.
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<p>Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report <em>instead</em>
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of the original one, that is a convenience for us. Errors in the
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output will be easier to spot, running under the debugger will take
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less time, and so on.
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<p>However, simplification is not vital; if you do not want to do this,
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report the bug anyway and send us the entire test case you used.
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<li>A patch for the bug.
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<p>A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit
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the necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that
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a patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide
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to fix the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all.
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<p>Sometimes with programs as complicated as the binary utilities it is
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very hard to construct an example that will make the program follow a
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certain path through the code. If you do not send us the example, we
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will not be able to construct one, so we will not be able to verify that
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the bug is fixed.
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<p>And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your
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patch should be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will
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help us to understand.
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<li>A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on.
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<p>Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such
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things without first using the debugger to find the facts.
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</ul>
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</body></html>
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