Daftar Isi

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• OPTIONS
• AUTHORS
• SEE ALSO
• BUGS

NAME

perlbug - how to submit bug reports on Perl

SYNOPSIS

perlbug

perlbug [ -v ] [ -a address ] [ -s subject ][ -b body | -f inputfile ] [ -F outputfile ][ -r returnaddress ][ -e editor ] [ -c adminaddress | -C ][ -S ] [ -t ] [ -d ] [ -A ] [ -h ] [ -T ]

perlbug [ -v ] [ -r returnaddress ] [ -A ] [ -ok | -okay | -nok | -nokay ]

perlthanks

DESCRIPTION

This program is designed to help you generate and send bug reports(and thank-you notes) about perl5 and the modules which ship with it.

In most cases, you can just run it interactively from a commandline without any special arguments and follow the prompts.

If you have found a bug with a non-standard port (one that was notpart of the standard distribution), a binary distribution, or anon-core module (such as Tk, DBI, etc), then please see thedocumentation that came with that distribution to determine thecorrect place to report bugs.

If you are unable to send your report using perlbug (most likelybecause your system doesn't have a way to send mail that perlbugrecognizes), you may be able to use this tool to compose your reportand save it to a file which you can then send to [email protected]using your regular mail client.

In extreme cases, perlbug may not work well enough on your systemto guide you through composing a bug report. In those cases, youmay be able to use perlbug -d to get system configurationinformation to include in a manually composed bug report to[email protected].

When reporting a bug, please run through this checklist:

• What version of Perl you are running?

  Type perl -v at the command line to find out.

• Are you running the latest released version of perl?

  Look at http://www.perl.org/ to find out. If you are not using thelatest released version, please try to replicate your bug on thelatest stable release.

  Note that reports about bugs in old versions of Perl, especiallythose which indicate you haven't also tested the current stablerelease of Perl, are likely to receive less attention from thevolunteers who build and maintain Perl than reports about bugs inthe current release.

  This tool isn't appropriate for reporting bugs in any versionprior to Perl 5.0.

• Are you sure what you have is a bug?

  A significant number of the bug reports we get turn out to bedocumented features in Perl. Make sure the issue you've run intoisn't intentional by glancing through the documentation that comeswith the Perl distribution.

  Given the sheer volume of Perl documentation, this isn't a trivialundertaking, but if you can point to documentation that suggeststhe behaviour you're seeing is wrong, your issue is likely toreceive more attention. You may want to start with perldocperltrap for pointers to common traps that new (and experienced)Perl programmers run into.

  If you're unsure of the meaning of an error message you've runacross, perldoc perldiag for an explanation. If the messageisn't in perldiag, it probably isn't generated by Perl. You mayhave luck consulting your operating system documentation instead.

  If you are on a non-UNIX platform perldoc perlport, as somefeatures may be unimplemented or work differently.

  You may be able to figure out what's going wrong using the Perldebugger. For information about how to use the debugger perldocperldebug.

• Do you have a proper test case?

  The easier it is to reproduce your bug, the more likely it will befixed -- if nobody can duplicate your problem, it probably won't be addressed.

  A good test case has most of these attributes: short, simple code;few dependencies on external commands, modules, or libraries; noplatform-dependent code (unless it's a platform-specific bug);clear, simple documentation.

  A good test case is almost always a good candidate to be included inPerl's test suite. If you have the time, consider writing your test case sothat it can be easily included into the standard test suite.

• Have you included all relevant information?

  Be sure to include the exact error messages, if any."Perl gave an error" is not an exact error message.

  If you get a core dump (or equivalent), you may use a debugger(dbx, gdb, etc) to produce a stack trace to include in the bugreport.

  NOTE: unless your Perl has been compiled with debug info(often -g), the stack trace is likely to be somewhat hard to usebecause it will most probably contain only the function names and nottheir arguments. If possible, recompile your Perl with debug info andreproduce the crash and the stack trace.

• Can you describe the bug in plain English?

  The easier it is to understand a reproducible bug, the more likelyit will be fixed. Any insight you can provide into the problemwill help a great deal. In other words, try to analyze the problem(to the extent you can) and report your discoveries.

• Can you fix the bug yourself?

  A bug report which includes a patch to fix it will almostdefinitely be fixed. When sending a patch, please use the diffprogram with the -u option to generate "unified" diff files.Bug reports with patches are likely to receive significantly moreattention and interest than those without patches.

  Your patch may be returned with requests for changes, or requests for moredetailed explanations about your fix.

  Here are a few hints for creating high-quality patches:

  Make sure the patch is not reversed (the first argument to diff istypically the original file, the second argument your changed file).Make sure you test your patch by applying it with the patchprogram before you send it on its way. Try to follow the same styleas the code you are trying to patch. Make sure your patch reallydoes work (make test, if the thing you're patching is coveredby Perl's test suite).

• Can you use perlbug to submit the report?

  perlbug will, amongst other things, ensure your report includescrucial information about your version of perl. If perlbug isunable to mail your report after you have typed it in, you may haveto compose the message yourself, add the output produced by perlbug-d and email it to [email protected]. If, for some reason, youcannot run perlbug at all on your system, be sure to include theentire output produced by running perl -V (note the uppercase V).

  Whether you use perlbug or send the email manually, please makeyour Subject line informative. "a bug" is not informative. Neitheris "perl crashes" nor is "HELP!!!". These don't help. A compactdescription of what's wrong is fine.

• Can you use perlbug to submit a thank-you note?

  Yes, you can do this by either using the -T option, or by invokingthe program as perlthanks. Thank-you notes are good. It makes peoplesmile.

Having done your bit, please be prepared to wait, to be told thebug is in your code, or possibly to get no reply at all. Thevolunteers who maintain Perl are busy folks, so if your problem isan obvious bug in your own code, is difficult to understand or isa duplicate of an existing report, you may not receive a personalreply.

If it is important to you that your bug be fixed, do monitor [email protected] mailing list and the commit logs to developmentversions of Perl, and encourage the maintainers with kind words oroffers of frosty beverages. (Please do be kind to the maintainers.Harassing or flaming them is likely to have the opposite effect ofthe one you want.)

Feel free to update the ticket about your bug on http://rt.perl.orgif a new version of Perl is released and your bug is still present.

OPTIONS

• -a

  Address to send the report to. Defaults to [email protected].

• -A

  Don't send a bug received acknowledgement to the reply address.Generally it is only a sensible to use this option if you are aperl maintainer actively watching perl porters for your message toarrive.

• -b

  Body of the report. If not included on the command line, orin a file with -f, you will get a chance to edit the message.

• -C

  Don't send copy to administrator.

• -c

  Address to send copy of report to. Defaults to the address of thelocal perl administrator (recorded when perl was built).

• -d

  Data mode (the default if you redirect or pipe output). This prints outyour configuration data, without mailing anything. You can use thiswith -v to get more complete data.

• -e

  Editor to use.

• -f

  File containing the body of the report. Use this to quickly send aprepared message.

• -F

  File to output the results to instead of sending as an email. Usefulparticularly when running perlbug on a machine with no direct internetconnection.

• -h

  Prints a brief summary of the options.

• -ok

  Report successful build on this system to perl porters. Forces -Sand -C. Forces and supplies values for -s and -b. Onlyprompts for a return address if it cannot guess it (for use withmake). Honors return address specified with -r. You can use thiswith -v to get more complete data. Only makes a report if thissystem is less than 60 days old.

• -okay

  As -ok except it will report on older systems.

• -nok

  Report unsuccessful build on this system. Forces -C. Forces andsupplies a value for -s, then requires you to edit the reportand say what went wrong. Alternatively, a prepared report may besupplied using -f. Only prompts for a return address if itcannot guess it (for use with make). Honors return addressspecified with -r. You can use this with -v to get morecomplete data. Only makes a report if this system is less than 60days old.

• -nokay

  As -nok except it will report on older systems.

• -r

  Your return address. The program will ask you to confirm its defaultif you don't use this option.

• -S

  Send without asking for confirmation.

• -s

  Subject to include with the message. You will be prompted if you don'tsupply one on the command line.

• -t

  Test mode. The target address defaults to [email protected].

• -T

  Send a thank-you note instead of a bug report.

• -v

  Include verbose configuration data in the report.

AUTHORS

Kenneth Albanowski (<[email protected]>), subsequentlydoctored by Gurusamy Sarathy (<[email protected]>),Tom Christiansen (<[email protected]>), Nathan Torkington(<[email protected]>), Charles F. Randall (<[email protected]>),Mike Guy (<[email protected]>), Dominic Dunlop(<[email protected]>), Hugo van der Sanden (<[email protected]<gt>),Jarkko Hietaniemi (<[email protected]>), Chris Nandor(<[email protected]>), Jon Orwant (<[email protected]>,Richard Foley (<[email protected]>), and Jesse Vincent(<[email protected]<gt>).

SEE ALSO

perl(1), perldebug(1), perldiag(1), perlport(1), perltrap(1),diff(1), patch(1), dbx(1), gdb(1)

BUGS

None known (guess what must have been used to report them?)