Bug Writing Guidelines (via Mowser)

Effective bug reports are the most likely to be fixed. These guidelines explain how to write such reports.

Principles

Be precise Be clear - explain it so others can reproduce the bug One bug per report No bug is too trivial to report - small bugs may hide big bugs Clearly separate fact from speculation

Preliminaries

Reproduce your bug using a recent build of the software, to see whether it has already been fixed. Search Bugzilla, to see whether your bug has already been reported.

Reporting a New Bug

If you have reproduced the bug in a recent build and no-one else appears to have reported it, then:

Choose "Enter a new bug" Select the product in which you've found the bug Fill out the form. Here is some help understanding it:

Component: In which sub-part of the software does it exist?
This field is required. Click the word "Component" to see a description of each component. If none seems appropriate, look for a "General" component.

OS: On which operating system (OS) did you find it? (e.g. Linux, Windows XP, Mac OS X.)
If you know the bug happens on more than one type of operating system, choose "All". If your OS isn't listed, choose Other.

Summary: How would you describe the bug, in approximately 60 or fewer characters?
A good summary should quickly and uniquely identify a bug report. It should explain the problem, not your suggested solution.

Good: "Cancelling a File Copy dialog crashes File Manager" Bad: "Software crashes" Bad: "Browser should work with my web site"

Description: The details of your problem report, including:

Overview: More detailed restatement of summary.

Drag-selecting any page crashes Mac builds in the NSGetFactory function.

Steps to Reproduce: Minimized, easy-to-follow steps that will trigger the bug. Include any special setup steps.

1) View any web page. (I used the default sample page, 
resource:/res/samples/test0.html)

2) Drag-select the page. (Specifically, while holding down 
the mouse button, drag the mouse pointer downwards from any 
point in the browser's content region to the bottom of the 
browser's content region.)

Actual Results: What the application did after performing the above steps.

The application crashed.

Expected Results: What the application should have done, were the bug not present.

The window should scroll downwards. Scrolled content should be selected. 
(Or, at least, the application should not crash.)

Build Date & Platform: Date and platform of the build in which you first encountered the bug.

Build 2006-08-10 on Mac OS 10.4.3

Additional Builds and Platforms: Whether or not the bug takes place on other platforms (or browsers, if applicable).

Doesn't Occur On Build 2006-08-10 on Windows XP Home (Service Pack 2)

Additional Information: Any other useful information.

For crashing bugs:

Windows: Note the type of the crash, and the module that the application crashed in (e.g. access violation in apprunner.exe). Mac OS X: Attach the "Crash Reporter" log that appears upon crash. Only include the section directly below the crashing thread, usually titled "Thread 0 Crashed". Please do not paste the entire log!

Double-check your report for errors and omissions, then press "Commit". Your bug report will now be in the Bugzilla database.

You are viewing a mobilized version of this site...
View original page here