(This is an archive of http://bugzilla.ximian.com/good-bugs.html, as of March 2, 2008.)
(Maintained by Luis Villa)
Bugzilla is a database of bugs and feature requests developed by the Mozilla project. It helps developers keep track of what's broken and who's fixing it. Users can help our effort by making their bug reports clear and specific. The better your bug report, the easier it is to identify the cause, and fix the bug.
These guidelines are based on the Mozilla project's guidelines.
A good bug report is
Reproducible: If the developers can't see it or conclusively prove that it exists, they will probably stamp it "WORKSFORME" or "INVALID", and move on to the next bug. Provide step-by-step instructions for reproducing the bug, and we'll be able to find and destroy it.
Specific: Try and figure out exactly what causes the crash. If you find an email that crashes Evolution, good. If you find what parts of the message make things go wrong, even better.
Unique: Before you report a bug, try to make sure it hasn't been reported before. If you have new information about an existing bug, please post a comment on the first bug.
Current. Before filing a bug, make sure you've run Red Carpet and installed the latest version of the program. That will minimize the chance of reporting a bug that has already been fixed.
Other tips:
Do include a stack trace and any error messages or console output the application gave. You can get stack traces easily with Bug Buddy, the GNOME Bug Report tool. Please don't attach core files or screenshots, though, unless the screenshot demonstrates a specific user interface problem that is hard to explain in words.
Do Write a summary that is specific enough to distinguish the bug from most others. Good: “Network Setup Tool hangs when verifying DHCP server.” Bad: “Setup Tools Crash.”
Do give step by step instructions on how to reproduce the problem.
If you find a mail message that crashes Evolution, please don't forward it to evolve@ximian.com. Do include it in a bugzilla report or post it on a web page.
Do tell us the exact name and version of all relevant software, including your distribution and operating system. For example:"Red Carpet 0.9.1 won't work with the RPM v. 4.0.2 database from my Red Hat 7.1 Beta system.” Don't say “I'm using Linux, and Ximian Setup Tools crashes.”