QA/BugReport: Difference between revisions
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You are about to make an important contribution to LibreOffice: a clear bug report is very important for assisting our developers. So thanks for doing this!<br> | You are about to make an important contribution to LibreOffice: a clear bug report is very important for assisting our developers. So thanks for doing this!<br> | ||
In order to make this easier, we have some tips to help you.<br> | In order to make this easier, we have some tips to help you.<br> | ||
<!--Someone else may have already reported your bug, in which case you may be able add useful comments to it. To do that, please check [https://bugs.freedesktop.org/duplicates.cgi?sortby=count&reverse=1&bug_id=46074%2C46901%2C36263%2C36677%2C46071%2C45081%2C44664%2C37488%2C40298%2C50552%2C50139%2C40571%2C46155%2C44720%2C39007%2C36301%2C49853%2C47044%2C46230%2C43989%2C37044%2C37024%2C34814%2C33463%2C33229%2C32664%2C50651%2C38244%2C37559%2C36496%2C36336%2C35972%2C34617%2C33114%2C32826%2C31716%2C31023%2C47963%2C47368%2C46687%2C45117%2C45020%2C44742%2C43869%2C42169%2C40261%2C39659%2C39093%2C37913%2C37654&sortvisible=0&product=LibreOffice&maxrows=100&changedsince=7 Most Frequently Reported Bugs for LibreOffice]. | |||
Someone else may have already reported your bug, in which case you may be able add useful comments to it. To do that, please check [https://bugs.freedesktop.org/duplicates.cgi?sortby=count&reverse=1&bug_id=46074%2C46901%2C36263%2C36677%2C46071%2C45081%2C44664%2C37488%2C40298%2C50552%2C50139%2C40571%2C46155%2C44720%2C39007%2C36301%2C49853%2C47044%2C46230%2C43989%2C37044%2C37024%2C34814%2C33463%2C33229%2C32664%2C50651%2C38244%2C37559%2C36496%2C36336%2C35972%2C34617%2C33114%2C32826%2C31716%2C31023%2C47963%2C47368%2C46687%2C45117%2C45020%2C44742%2C43869%2C42169%2C40261%2C39659%2C39093%2C37913%2C37654&sortvisible=0&product=LibreOffice&maxrows=100&changedsince=7 Most Frequently Reported Bugs for LibreOffice]. | |||
Both the | Both the | ||
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* the instructions on [[#Steps for reporting a bug with BugZilla|Steps for reporting a bug with BugZilla]], | * the instructions on [[#Steps for reporting a bug with BugZilla|Steps for reporting a bug with BugZilla]], | ||
will assist you with submitting your bug report. | will assist you with submitting your bug report. | ||
--> | |||
(See the sections below for greater detail.) | (See the sections below for greater detail.) | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<!-- | <!-- | ||
== How to use the Bug Submission Assistant == | == How to use the Bug Submission Assistant == | ||
| Line 35: | Line 24: | ||
--> | --> | ||
== | == Before you submit a bug == | ||
# | # Confirm that it really is a bug. <!--A bug is...--> | ||
# | ## If you require help using LibreOffice, consider reading the user documentation at [https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/ Official LibreOffice Documentation]. And if you still require assistance, post your question at [http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Users-f1639498.html LibreOffice Users Mailing List] or [http://ask.libreoffice.org/questions/ Ask.LibreOffice.org]. | ||
# | # Check for similar, existing bug reports. | ||
## | ## Select the appropriate subcomponent at [[QA/Bugzilla/Components#Sub-components|Components]]. You will see a list of bugs with that subcomponent. | ||
## | ## At the bottom of the page, select "Edit Search". There, you can modify the search according to your needs. | ||
## | <!--## Do not use contractions like "doesn't" or "isn't" in your search. Instead, use the full form, such as "does not"--> | ||
## Check in "possibly related Bugs" table on the Bug Report Page and additionally in the [https://bugs.freedesktop.org/duplicates.cgi?sortby=count&maxrows=100&changedsince=90&product=LibreOffice Duplicates Table] whether the problem really has not been reported yet. | <!--## If you did not find an appropriate Sub component, click the "for all other ..."--> | ||
# | # If you find a bug report that concerns your problem, you can contribute to it. If you don't find a bug report that concerns your problem, file a new bug report. | ||
# If the bug occurs on only Ubuntu, go to [[BugReport#Reporting Ubuntu bugs|Reporting Ubuntu bugs]]. If the bug appears on other operating systems, follow the instructions at Submitting a bug. | |||
== Submitting a bug == | |||
Note: Please file a different bug report for a different bug. Even if the symptoms from user's point of view seem to be identical, different problems with different roots what appeared with different LibO versions might have to be fixed by different people, for different versions, and at different times. It is impossible to track that in a single bug report. | |||
# Go to the [https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/ Bug Submission Assistant]. Alternatively, you can go to the [https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=LibreOffice;bug_status=UNCONFIRMED;version=? bug submission assistant directly in Bugzilla]. | |||
# If you are prompted to sign in, log in with your Bugzilla account. | |||
# In "Component", choose the component. | |||
## If you are not sure what component your problem is about, choose the Libreoffice component. Someone will come and change it later. For more information about this, have a look at "[[QA/BugTriage|BugTriage]]". If it is an urgent issue (broken parts, regression, etc), experienced users can assign it to one of the developers listed on the [[FindTheExpert]] page. | |||
# If there is a "Sub component" section: in that section, select the subcomponent. Check [[QA/Bugzilla/Components#Sub-components|Components]]. | |||
# Choose the version of the application in which the bug appeared. To check in LibreOffice, select {{bc|Help|About LibreOffice}} | |||
# In "Operating system" or "OS", choose the operating system. | |||
# If there is a "Hardware" section, fill it in. | |||
# If there is a "Severity" section: ignore that section unless you are experienced. Selecting "Blocker" will not make the bug fixed faster. If you want to know the definitions of the items in the Severity section, see [[:File:Prioritizing_Bugs_Flowchart.jpg|this chart]]. | |||
<!--# latest known working version--> | |||
# Check in "possibly related Bugs" table on the Bug Report Page and additionally in the [https://bugs.freedesktop.org/duplicates.cgi?sortby=count&maxrows=100&changedsince=90&product=LibreOffice Duplicates Table] to see whether the problem really has not been reported yet. | |||
# In the "Subject" section (also known as the Summary): | |||
## Please add a '''meaningful ''Summary''''' for the bug you want to report. A very bad example would be "LibreOffice Writer 3.4.5 Problem". Nearby all bug reports are concerning a "Problem", ''Product'' LibreOffice, ''Version'' "3.4.5" and ''Component'' "Writer" are already known from the selectors, so that example would not contain any useful information. A useful Summary looks like "UI FILESAVE: no progress bar" using the pseudo key words from [[BugReport Details]]. Additional examples: | |||
### Not: "File is broken" | |||
### But: Menu '''File > Save as''' not available (greyed out) | |||
## Avoid short forms like "doesn't" or "isn't" to ease queries for strings in the Summary, instead, use the full form: "does not" or "is not". | |||
## If the report is concerning a ''crash'' or LibO stops responding ('''hangs'''), please add the word '''CRASH''' to the Summary line ("Heading" of the bug), so that these bugs can be tracked easily. | |||
# In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, give a lengthier factual description of the problem. | |||
# In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, list the steps to reproduce the bug. | |||
## Use a numbered list | |||
## Be very exact. | |||
### do not write: "Open document" | |||
### write instead: "In new empty LibO Spreadsheet document, use menu File > Open (LibO dialog) > file type "Text documents" > select attached sample document > double click | |||
<!--## If you have difficulty with reproducing the bug, it could be because (of): | |||
### your user profile. Try renaming your profile (link) and checking whether the bug appears in a normal profile. If it doesn’t, try to figure out what in your profile causes the bug. | |||
### your screen's resolution. | |||
### (for more information, see [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html#intermittent])--> | |||
# In the "Long Description" or "Description" section: if using a pre-built LibreOffice, on Linux tell the exact versions of LibreOffice packages in your package management system. For Windows, the exact file name of the installer, and from where downloaded. | |||
## Additionally information concerning installed and used localization (UI language, document language) might be useful | |||
## whether a 32-bit LibreOffice is used on a 64 bit (Linux) system | |||
## the package source if it's not the official LibreOffice build | |||
# In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, write the expected behavior and the current behavior. | |||
# <!--Reference to an existing [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Openoffice.org / Apache OpenOffice bug] might be useful. Please mention: Active OOo Bugzilla has moved to [https://issues.apache.org/ooo/ Apache OO Bugzilla]--> | |||
# You can include an attachment, such as a screenshot or a sample document. | |||
## If you create screenshots, it helps the developers if you switch the language to English first. You can do so in {{bc|Tools|Options|Language Settings|Languages}}. | |||
## You can make screenshots more useful by adding comments and marking relevant areas with LibreOffice Draw. | |||
## If you want to attach more than one screenshot, you should collect them all in one document (copy / paste to a LibreOffice Draw document) and attach as a PDF. Please add a short comment to each screenshot to tell what you want to demonstrate with it. | |||
## If you want to attach more than 1 document (a complete test kit, for example) you should create a .zip file containing all documents and attach that .zip. | |||
## If your attachment is too big to be attached in Bugzilla (bigger than 1 MB) you can use the [[QA/Bugzilla-Attachments|Experimental upload page]]. | |||
# Click "Submit", and your report will be added to the Bugzilla database. | |||
# Hint: If the Bugzilla bug tracking system seems daunting or too hard to understand, you should post your problem here: [http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/ users@global.libreoffice.org LibreOffice user mailing list] or [http://libreofficeforum.org/ LibreOfficeForum.org]. | |||
== After you submit a bug == | |||
# If nobody reviewed your report within appropriate time (24 h for a critical bug 14 days for an enhancement request) consider asking someone else to reproduce your bug report on the [http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/ users@global.libreoffice.org mailing list or [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=libreoffice on the #libreoffice IRC channel]. | |||
== Reporting Ubuntu bugs == | == Reporting Ubuntu bugs == | ||
| Line 59: | Line 92: | ||
Remember to include details such as how you installed LibreOffice, what platform you use (32-bit or 64-bit) and steps to reproduce the problem. | Remember to include details such as how you installed LibreOffice, what platform you use (32-bit or 64-bit) and steps to reproduce the problem. | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
| Line 118: | Line 113: | ||
NB: Depending on your system configuration and user setup, you may or may not be asked about sending a report to Apple; you may need to be logged in as an admin user to see these dialogs. | NB: Depending on your system configuration and user setup, you may or may not be asked about sending a report to Apple; you may need to be logged in as an admin user to see these dialogs. | ||
=== How to get a backtrace on Linux=== | === How to get a backtrace on Linux=== | ||
Revision as of 17:26, 27 May 2013
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Great step!
You are about to make an important contribution to LibreOffice: a clear bug report is very important for assisting our developers. So thanks for doing this!
In order to make this easier, we have some tips to help you.
(See the sections below for greater detail.)
Before you submit a bug
- Confirm that it really is a bug.
- If you require help using LibreOffice, consider reading the user documentation at Official LibreOffice Documentation. And if you still require assistance, post your question at LibreOffice Users Mailing List or Ask.LibreOffice.org.
- Check for similar, existing bug reports.
- Select the appropriate subcomponent at Components. You will see a list of bugs with that subcomponent.
- At the bottom of the page, select "Edit Search". There, you can modify the search according to your needs.
- If you find a bug report that concerns your problem, you can contribute to it. If you don't find a bug report that concerns your problem, file a new bug report.
- If the bug occurs on only Ubuntu, go to Reporting Ubuntu bugs. If the bug appears on other operating systems, follow the instructions at Submitting a bug.
Submitting a bug
Note: Please file a different bug report for a different bug. Even if the symptoms from user's point of view seem to be identical, different problems with different roots what appeared with different LibO versions might have to be fixed by different people, for different versions, and at different times. It is impossible to track that in a single bug report.
- Go to the Bug Submission Assistant. Alternatively, you can go to the bug submission assistant directly in Bugzilla.
- If you are prompted to sign in, log in with your Bugzilla account.
- In "Component", choose the component.
- If you are not sure what component your problem is about, choose the Libreoffice component. Someone will come and change it later. For more information about this, have a look at "BugTriage". If it is an urgent issue (broken parts, regression, etc), experienced users can assign it to one of the developers listed on the FindTheExpert page.
- If there is a "Sub component" section: in that section, select the subcomponent. Check Components.
- Choose the version of the application in which the bug appeared. To check in LibreOffice, select ▸
- In "Operating system" or "OS", choose the operating system.
- If there is a "Hardware" section, fill it in.
- If there is a "Severity" section: ignore that section unless you are experienced. Selecting "Blocker" will not make the bug fixed faster. If you want to know the definitions of the items in the Severity section, see this chart.
- Check in "possibly related Bugs" table on the Bug Report Page and additionally in the Duplicates Table to see whether the problem really has not been reported yet.
- In the "Subject" section (also known as the Summary):
- Please add a meaningful Summary for the bug you want to report. A very bad example would be "LibreOffice Writer 3.4.5 Problem". Nearby all bug reports are concerning a "Problem", Product LibreOffice, Version "3.4.5" and Component "Writer" are already known from the selectors, so that example would not contain any useful information. A useful Summary looks like "UI FILESAVE: no progress bar" using the pseudo key words from BugReport Details. Additional examples:
- Not: "File is broken"
- But: Menu File > Save as not available (greyed out)
- Avoid short forms like "doesn't" or "isn't" to ease queries for strings in the Summary, instead, use the full form: "does not" or "is not".
- If the report is concerning a crash or LibO stops responding (hangs), please add the word CRASH to the Summary line ("Heading" of the bug), so that these bugs can be tracked easily.
- Please add a meaningful Summary for the bug you want to report. A very bad example would be "LibreOffice Writer 3.4.5 Problem". Nearby all bug reports are concerning a "Problem", Product LibreOffice, Version "3.4.5" and Component "Writer" are already known from the selectors, so that example would not contain any useful information. A useful Summary looks like "UI FILESAVE: no progress bar" using the pseudo key words from BugReport Details. Additional examples:
- In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, give a lengthier factual description of the problem.
- In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, list the steps to reproduce the bug.
- Use a numbered list
- Be very exact.
- do not write: "Open document"
- write instead: "In new empty LibO Spreadsheet document, use menu File > Open (LibO dialog) > file type "Text documents" > select attached sample document > double click
- In the "Long Description" or "Description" section: if using a pre-built LibreOffice, on Linux tell the exact versions of LibreOffice packages in your package management system. For Windows, the exact file name of the installer, and from where downloaded.
- Additionally information concerning installed and used localization (UI language, document language) might be useful
- whether a 32-bit LibreOffice is used on a 64 bit (Linux) system
- the package source if it's not the official LibreOffice build
- In the "Long Description" or "Description" section, write the expected behavior and the current behavior.
- You can include an attachment, such as a screenshot or a sample document.
- If you create screenshots, it helps the developers if you switch the language to English first. You can do so in ▸ ▸ ▸ .
- You can make screenshots more useful by adding comments and marking relevant areas with LibreOffice Draw.
- If you want to attach more than one screenshot, you should collect them all in one document (copy / paste to a LibreOffice Draw document) and attach as a PDF. Please add a short comment to each screenshot to tell what you want to demonstrate with it.
- If you want to attach more than 1 document (a complete test kit, for example) you should create a .zip file containing all documents and attach that .zip.
- If your attachment is too big to be attached in Bugzilla (bigger than 1 MB) you can use the Experimental upload page.
- Click "Submit", and your report will be added to the Bugzilla database.
- Hint: If the Bugzilla bug tracking system seems daunting or too hard to understand, you should post your problem here: users@global.libreoffice.org LibreOffice user mailing list or LibreOfficeForum.org.
After you submit a bug
- If nobody reviewed your report within appropriate time (24 h for a critical bug 14 days for an enhancement request) consider asking someone else to reproduce your bug report on the users@global.libreoffice.org mailing list or [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=libreoffice on the #libreoffice IRC channel.
Reporting Ubuntu bugs
To file an Ubuntu-specific bug, first check the current list of bugs, then:
- If you're using Ubuntu 10.04 or Ubuntu 10.10 LibreOffice is unsupported. File the bug upstream at LibreOffice or update to Natty (11.04) or later.
- If you're using Ubuntu 11.04 or later, open a terminal window using ▸ ▸ (you may not need to click Accessories) and type ubuntu-bug libreoffice ↵ Enter, then follow the prompts to complete the report. Alternatively use this form.
- If this happens on any other operating system that isn't Ubuntu, then file it using the method above.
Remember to include details such as how you installed LibreOffice, what platform you use (32-bit or 64-bit) and steps to reproduce the problem.
Providing extra information for the developers - ADVANCED
How to get a backtrace on Windows
Now, there are installers of the development debug version of LibreOffice available along with a test symbol server containing the corresponding debugging symbols. Read How to get a backtrace with WinDbg to set the debugging environment.
You can eventually watch this video to understand how to get crash information for developers.
Please remember to copy the text you get to new document and attach it to bug report. That keeps the Bug readable and prevents from getting unusable results in Bugzilla queries.
How to get debug information on Mac OS X
The debug information is useful for analyzing the reasons why an application crashes or freezes. On Mac OS X, you can receive the standard debug information very simply, without installing any additional software. (This information even includes a simple stack trace, which misses full symbols, but can nevertheless be very useful.)
The exact steps vary depending on your Mac OS X version and setup, but in general you get the debug information as follows:
- When an application crashes, Mac OS X prompts you with a dialog window saying “LibreOffice quit unexpectedly.” and asks you if you want to send a report to Apple. Click on the button labelled “Report…”. Now a larger window with the title “Problem Report for LibreOffice” opens; under “Problem Details and System Configuration”, you find an edit field with a long text containing much technical details. You can just click into this long text, press ⌘ Cmd + a to select all the text, then press ⌘ Cmd + c to copy it and then switch to any text editor (e.g. Apple’s TextEdit) and press ⌘ Cmd + v to insert the text. Then you can save the text as a new file; the best would be to use a plain text (.txt) format. Please attach that file to your bug report. (You do not need to send the report to Apple, so click on the “Don’t Send” in the “Problem Report” window.)
- When an application hangs or freezes, you can force quit it by pressing ⌘ Cmd + Alt + Esc. Mac OS X prompts you with a dialog window entitled “Force Quit Applications”, asking which application(s) you want to quit; in that list, you can recognize the application which hangs or freezes often by the hint “(not responding)”. Select it and click the button “Force quit”. Depending on your system configuration, you will be asked if you want to send a report about that to Apple; if you confirm this, you will get the same “Problem Report” window as described above, and can copy and save the debug information text in the same way.
NB: Depending on your system configuration and user setup, you may or may not be asked about sending a report to Apple; you may need to be logged in as an admin user to see these dialogs.
How to get a backtrace on Linux
The backtrace is useful for analysing the reasons why an application crashes or freezes. You might use the following steps:
- Install the libreoffice*-debuginfo packages (on Debian, Ubuntu and derivated, the package name is libreoffice-dbg), if available. If you do not have them, the backtrace is much less useful, but still could potentially provide at least some information.
- Start a terminal / shell (in in some distros you can press Ctrl + Alt + T to do this)
- run soffice --backtrace
- reproduce your crasher, if you have a hang - make the application hang, and in another console type pkill -15 soffice.bin which will force a crash.
- Attach the gdbtrace.log file to the bug.
How to get a strace log (Linux)
strace traces the system calls that a process makes. If there is some problem around file-I/O this can be a great way of detecting exactly what is going on at an operating-system level. It's also a fast way to see whether the program continues executing and/or has hung, and finding information about the system libreoffice is run on.
- start a terminal
- soffice --strace
- reproduce your problem
- compress the log: bzip2 strace.log
- now attach the strace.log.bz2 file that is produced to the bug report.
How to get a valgrind log (Linux)
The valgrind log is invaluable for tracing obscure memory corruption errors that can be extremely difficult to find otherwise. It achieves this by emulating a CPU, the slight downside of that is that the code runs around eighty (80x) slower, that will seem slow to you. The plus side is that it shows us problems that are un-findable in any other way, and that the traces produced very often pin-point the issue in such a way that it is rather easy for a developer to fix: your patience is much appreciated. Valgrind can also produce a number of false-positives.
- install the libreoffice*-debuginfo packages. (if available, and/or from your linux distribution)
- install the valgrind package
- start a terminal
- soffice --valgrind >& /tmp/valgrind.log
- be patient ... 80x is a lot slower ... reproduce the problem.
- attach /tmp/valgrind.log to the bug report.