perlthanks
(1)
Name
perlthanks - 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
Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLBUG(1)
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
command line without any special arguments and follow the
prompts.
If you have found a bug with a non-standard port (one that
was not part of the standard distribution), a binary
distribution, or a non-core module (such as Tk, DBI, etc),
then please see the documentation that came with that
distribution to determine the correct place to report bugs.
If you are unable to send your report using perlbug (most
likely because your system doesn't have a way to send mail
that perlbug recognizes), you may be able to use this tool
to compose your report and 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
system to guide you through composing a bug report. In those
cases, you may be able to use perlbug -d to get system
configuration information 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 the latest released version, please try to
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replicate your bug on the latest stable release.
Note that reports about bugs in old versions of Perl,
especially those which indicate you haven't also tested
the current stable release of Perl, are likely to
receive less attention from the volunteers who build and
maintain Perl than reports about bugs in the current
release.
This tool isn't apropriate for reporting bugs in any
version prior 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 be documented features in Perl. Make sure the issue
you've run into isn't intentional by glancing through
the documentation that comes with the Perl distribution.
Given the sheer volume of Perl documentation, this isn't
a trivial undertaking, but if you can point to
documentation that suggests the behaviour you're seeing
is wrong, your issue is likely to receive more
attention. You may want to start with perldoc perltrap
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 run across, perldoc perldiag for an explanation.
If the message isn't in perldiag, it probably isn't
generated by Perl. You may have luck consulting your
operating system documentation instead.
If you are on a non-UNIX platform perldoc perlport, as
some features may be unimplemented or work differently.
You may be able to figure out what's going wrong using
the Perl debugger. For information about how to use the
debugger perldoc perldebug.
Do you have a proper test case?
The easier it is to reproduce your bug, the more likely
it will be fixed -- 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; no platform-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 in Perl's test suite. If you have the time,
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consider writing your test case so that 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 bug report.
NOTE: unless your Perl has been compiled with debug info
(often -g), the stack trace is likely to be somewhat
hard to use because it will most probably contain only
the function names and not their arguments. If
possible, recompile your Perl with debug info and
reproduce 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 likely it will be fixed. Any insight you can
provide into the problem will 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
almost definitely be fixed. When sending a patch,
please use the "diff" program with the "-u" option to
generate "unified" diff files. Bug reports with patches
are likely to receive significantly more attention and
interest than those without patches.
Your patch may be returned with requests for changes, or
requests for more detailed 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 is typically the original file, the second
argument your changed file). Make sure you test your
patch by applying it with the "patch" program before you
send it on its way. Try to follow the same style as the
code you are trying to patch. Make sure your patch
really does work ("make test", if the thing you're
patching is covered by Perl's test suite).
Can you use "perlbug" to submit the report?
perlbug will, amongst other things, ensure your report
includes crucial information about your version of perl.
If "perlbug" is unable to mail your report after you
have typed it in, you may have to compose the message
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yourself, add the output produced by "perlbug -d" and
email it to [email protected]. If, for some reason, you
cannot run "perlbug" at all on your system, be sure to
include the entire output produced by running "perl -V"
(note the uppercase V).
Whether you use "perlbug" or send the email manually,
please make your Subject line informative. "a bug" is
not informative. Neither is "perl crashes" nor is
"HELP!!!". These don't help. A compact description 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 invoking the program as "perlthanks". Thank-you notes
are good. It makes people smile.
Having done your bit, please be prepared to wait, to be told
the bug is in your code, or possibly to get no reply at all.
The volunteers who maintain Perl are busy folks, so if your
problem is an obvious bug in your own code, is difficult to
understand or is a duplicate of an existing report, you may
not receive a personal reply.
If it is important to you that your bug be fixed, do monitor
the [email protected] mailing list and the commit logs
to development versions of Perl, and encourage the
maintainers with kind words or offers of frosty beverages.
(Please do be kind to the maintainers. Harassing or flaming
them is likely to have the opposite effect of the one you
want.)
Feel free to update the ticket about your bug on
http://rt.perl.org if 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 a perl maintainer
actively watching perl porters for your message to
arrive.
-b Body of the report. If not included on the command
line, or in a file with -f, you will get a chance to
edit the message.
-C Don't send copy to administrator.
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-c Address to send copy of report to. Defaults to the
address of the local perl administrator (recorded
when perl was built).
-d Data mode (the default if you redirect or pipe
output). This prints out your configuration data,
without mailing anything. You can use this with -v
to get more complete data.
-e Editor to use.
-f File containing the body of the report. Use this to
quickly send a prepared message.
-F File to output the results to instead of sending as
an email. Useful particularly when running perlbug
on a machine with no direct internet connection.
-h Prints a brief summary of the options.
-ok Report successful build on this system to perl
porters. Forces -S and -C. Forces and supplies
values for -s and -b. Only prompts for a return
address if it cannot guess it (for use with make).
Honors return address specified with -r. You can
use this with -v to get more complete data. Only
makes a report if this system 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 and supplies a value for -s, then
requires you to edit the report and say what went
wrong. Alternatively, a prepared report may be
supplied using -f. Only prompts for a return
address if it cannot guess it (for use with make).
Honors return address specified with -r. You can
use this with -v to get more complete data. Only
makes a report if this system is less than 60 days
old.
-nokay As -nok except it will report on older systems.
-r Your return address. The program will ask you to
confirm its default if 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't supply one on the command
line.
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-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]>), subsequently
doctored 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>).
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | runtime/perl-512 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
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?)
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from
http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.12.5.tar.bz2
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.perl.org/.
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