Here is a first stab at writing up guidelines for people to follow when reporting bug. If this goes well I will also do ones for patches, committing, and PEPs.
-Brett --------------------------------------------------- These sets of guidelines are to help you file a bug report for the Python programming language on SourceForge_. If your bug is not for the language but for a third-party application, please report the bug to that third-party. *Please make sure to follow every step as it will make the lives of the Python developers much easier!!!* .. contents:: Get a SourceForge account ======================================= In order to file a bug report, you must have an account_ on SourceForge_. We realize some people would like to have anonymous bug reporting for various reasons (anonymity, ease or reporting, etc.). But SourceForge does not support anonymous reporting. Plus, by registering, you are notified by email when any action is been taken on your report. This can be very important if a Python developer needs more information from you about the bug. Start a new bug ======================================= You must be logged into SourceForge to file a bug! See `Get a SourceForge account`_ if you do not have one. Go to the `SourceForge bug page`_ to start a new bug report. There you will find a link called `Submit New`_. Click on it and it will allow you to fill out a new bug report. Once you click on the link, you are presented with a page that has several fields for you to fill in. Here is what to do for each field: * Category Set this to the area that the bug is related to (e.g., documentation, build, etc.). * Group Usually this is set the major.minor version of Python that you found the bug in. * Assigned To Leave this alone * Priority Leave this alone * Summary A one-line describing the problem so as to make it easy for developers to spot whether they have the expertise needed to work on the bug. * Detailed Description Following sections of this document discuss what should go in here. * Check to Upload and Attach a File If you are going to upload a file, you *must* check this box. * <File Location Field> Click the Browse button to upload any file to accompany your bug report (usually a succinct way to reproduce the bug). * File Description A one-line describing the file; no date info is needed since the upload is timestamped. Specify Python version ======================================= It is important that we have the most accurate version number of the interpreter you are using in order to best diagnose the issue. There are two ways to get us the version information. If you can run your Python interpreter, execute the following lines at an interpreter and paste the result into the ``Detailed Description`` field of the bug report:: >>> import sys >>> print sys.version If you are running a version of Python newer than 2.4 and are working from a source checkout of Python, the please also report the Subversion revision number for the root of your checkout:: python/trunk$ svnversion . If your bug is preventing you from running the interpreter, execute Python with teh ``-V`` command-line flag and paste the output:: python/trunk$ python -V Special settings for your Python interpreter ============================================ Sometimes your environment influences a bug and thus needs to be reported to help find the problem. This means we need to have reported: * Operating System * Environment Variables + PYTHONSTARTUP If this is set and might be causing the issue, please either upload the file or state what it does. + PYTHONCASEOK If your bug is on Windows and involves importing, please report if this environment variable is set or not. * site-packages If you have andy third-party packages installed that may be contributing to the bug, please report those. * Custom Patches Any differences between your code and the code the Python developers work off of needs to be reported. Sample code to reproduce bug ======================================== If you can, please upload a file the demonstrates the bug. The more succinct the better! And please do not forget to check the upload checkbox in the bug report. Submit! ======================================== At this point you should have a detailed bug report for developers to work off of. Click the ``Submit`` button and read on to see what you should do after the bug is reported. Respond to requests from developers ======================================== No matter how detailed the bug report, there is always the off-chance that a developer will need more information to fix a bug. Please be prompt in replying to requests for information by submitting a reply on the bug report. You may be asked to test out a patch. It is very important that you help with this, especially if the bug is not reproducible by the developer working on it. Write a patch! ======================================== If you are so inclined, patches for your own bug reports are always helpful! Please make sure to reference the tracker item # in the patch details. .. _SourceForge: http://www.sourceforge.net/ .. _SourceForge bug page: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=5470&atid=105470 .. _account: http://sourceforge.net/account/newuser_emailverify.php .. _Submit New: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=5470&atid=105470 _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com