NAME
send-pr - send problem report (PR) to a central support site
SYNOPSIS
send-pr [
site ] [
-f problem-report ] [
-t
mail-address ]
[
-P ] [
-L ] [
--request-id ] [
-V ]
DESCRIPTION
send-pr is a tool used to submit
problem reports (PRs) to a
central support site. In most cases the correct
site will be the
default. This argument indicates the support site which is responsible for the
category of problem involved. Some sites may use a local address as a default.
site values are defined by using the
aliases(5).
send-pr invokes an editor on a problem report template (after trying to
fill in some fields with reasonable default values). When you exit the editor,
send-pr sends the completed form to the
Problem Report Management
System (
GNATS) at a central support site. At the support site, the
PR is assigned a unique number and is stored in the
GNATS database
according to its category and submitter-id.
GNATS automatically replies
with an acknowledgement, citing the category and the PR number.
To ensure that a PR is handled promptly, it should contain your (unique)
submitter-id and one of the available
categories to identify the
problem area. (Use
`send-pr -L' to see a list of categories). The PR
should also contain a subject header, which is separate to the synopsis line.
NetBSD does not use unique
submitter-id's - all PR's use the default
value of
`net' for this field.
The more precise your problem description and the more complete your
information, the faster your support team can solve your problems.
OPTIONS
- -f problem-report
- specify a file (problem-report) which already
contains a complete problem report. send-pr sends the contents of
the file without invoking the editor. If the value for
problem-report is `-', then send-pr reads from
standard input.
- -t mail-address
- Change mail address at the support site for problem
reports. The default mail-address is the address used for the
default site. Use the site argument rather than this option
in nearly all cases.
- -P
- print the form specified by the environment variable
PR_FORM on standard output. If PR_FORM is not set, print the
standard blank PR template. No mail is sent.
- -L
- print the list of available categories. No mail is
sent.
- --request-id
- sends mail to the default support site, or site if
specified, with a request for your submitter-id. If you are not
affiliated with site, use a submitter-id of
net'.
- -V
- Display the send-pr version number.
Note: use
send-pr to submit problem reports rather than mailing them
directly. Using both the template and
send-pr itself will help ensure
all necessary information will reach the support site.
ENVIRONMENT
- GNATS_ROOT
- If the file $GNATS_ROOT/gnats-adm/config exists then it is
used to provide newer configuration information. The default value is the
empty string.
- LOGNAME
- Sets the default for the From and Reply-To fields of the
problem report. Defaults to $USER if not set.
- NAME
- Sets the default for the Originator field of the problem
report. If not set, then the file $HOME/.fullname is used. If
$HOME/.fullname is not present, then an attempt is made to query the
password file for a full name.
- ORGANIZATION
- The name of a file which contains the default for the
Organization field of the problem report.
- PR_FORM
- If this is set, then its value is used as the file name of
the template for your problem-report editing session. You can use this to
start with a partially completed form (for example, a form with the
identification fields already completed).
- REPLYTO
- Sets the default for the Reply-To field of the problem
report. If not set, then it defaults to $LOGNAME.
- TMPDIR
- Specifies the temporary directory used for creating the
problem report. This directory must exist with write permissions. Defaults
to /tmp if not specified.
- USER_GNATS_SITE
- Used to set the default site you are reporting bugs to.
Defaults to netbsd if not specified.
- VISUAL
- Specifies the editor to invoke on the template. If not set,
then the variable EDITOR is used. If neither VISUAL nor EDITOR are set,
then vi(1) is used.
HOW TO FILL OUT A PROBLEM REPORT
Problem reports have to be in a particular form so that a program can easily
manage them. Please remember the following guidelines:
- •
- describe only one problem with each problem
report.
- •
- For follow-up mail, use the same subject line as the one in
the automatic acknowledgement. It consists of category, PR number and the
original synopsis line. This allows the support site to relate several
mail messages to a particular PR and to record them automatically.
- •
- Please try to be as accurate as possible in the subject
and/or synopsis line.
- •
- The subject and the synopsis line are not confidential.
This is because open-bugs lists are compiled from them. Avoid confidential
information there.
The
severity field is to indicate the severity of the problem. The
accepted values are:
- critical
- The product, component or concept is completely
non-operational or some essential functionality is missing (e.g. kernel
panic or program core dumps). No workaround is known.
- serious
- The product, component or concept is not working properly
or significant functionality is missing. Problems that would otherwise be
considered critical are rated serious when a workaround is
known.
- non-critical
- The product, component or concept is working in general,
but lacks features, has irritating behavior, does something wrong, or
doesn't match its documentation.
The default value is
serious.
The
priority field specifies how soon the problem report submitter
requires a solution. The accepted values are:
- high
- A solution is needed as soon as possible.
- medium
- The problem should be solved in the next release.
- low
- The problem should be solved in a future release.
The default value is
medium.
The
class of a problem report can be one of the following:
- sw-bug
- A general software problem ( `sw' stands for
software ).
- doc-bug
- A problem with the manual pages or other
documentation.
- change-request
- A request for a change from existing behavior that is not a
bug ("It's nice, but it would be better if ...").
- support
- A support problem or question.
The default value is
sw-bug.
See the GNU
Info file
send-pr.info or the document
Reporting
Problems With send-pr for detailed information on reporting problems
HOW TO SUBMIT TEST CASES, CODE, ETC.
Submit small code samples with the PR. Contact the support site for instructions
on submitting larger test cases and problematic source code.
FILES
/tmp/p$$ copy of PR used in editing session
- /tmp/pf$$
- copy of empty PR form, for testing purposes
- /tmp/pbad$$
- file for rejected PRs
- $HOME/.fullname
- Contains the default for the Originator field of the
problem report if $NAME is not set
- $HOME/.organization
- Contains the default for the Organization field of the
problem report if $ORGANIZATION is not set.
- $HOME/.signature
- Contains the default for the Organization field of the
problem report if $ORGANIZATION is not set and $HOME/.organization does
not exist.
EMACS USER INTERFACE
An Emacs user interface for
send-pr with completion of field values is
part of the
send-pr distribution (invoked with
M-x send-pr). See
the file
send-pr.info or the ASCII file
INSTALL in the top level
directory of the distribution for configuration and installation information.
The Emacs LISP template file is
send-pr-el.in and is installed as
send-pr.el.
WEB INTERFACE
An interface to sending PR's is available on the NetBSD website at
http://www.NetBSD.org/Gnats/.
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
See
send-pr.info or
INSTALL for installation instructions.
SEE ALSO
Reporting Problems Using send-pr (also installed as the GNU Info file
send-pr.info).
AUTHORS
Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Jason Merrill, Heinz G. Seidl (Cygnus Support)
COPYING
Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual
provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all
copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual
under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting
derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical
to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into
another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except
that this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the
Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.