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Commit d2ce2853 authored by Thorsten Leemhuis's avatar Thorsten Leemhuis Committed by Jonathan Corbet
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docs: make reporting-issues.rst official and delete reporting-bugs.rst 

Remove the WIP and two FIXME notes in the text to make it official, as
it's now considered fully ready for consumption. To make sure this
step is okay for people the intent of this change and the latest version
of the text were posted to ksummit-discuss; nobody complained, thus
lets move ahead.

Add a footer to point out people can contact Thorsten directly in case
they find something to improve in the text.

Dear reporting-bugs.rst, I'm sorry to tell you, but that makes you fully
obsolete and we thus have to let you go now. Thank you very much for
your service, you in one form or another have been around for a long
time. I'm sure over the years you got read a lot and helped quite a few
people. But it's time to retire now. Rest in peace.
Signed-off-by: default avatarThorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>
Reviewed-by: default avatarGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
CC: Harry Wei <harryxiyou@gmail.com>
CC: Alex Shi <alex.shi@linux.alibaba.com>
CC: Federico Vaga <federico.vaga@vaga.pv.it>
CC: Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/49c674c2d304d87e6259063580fda05267e8c348.1617113469.git.linux@leemhuis.infoSigned-off-by: default avatarJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
parent d4b61e17
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Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
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......@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ problems and bugs in particular.
:maxdepth: 1
reporting-issues
Reporting bugs (obsolete) <reporting-bugs>
security-bugs
bug-hunting
bug-bisect
......
Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-bugs.rst deleted 100644 → 0
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.. _reportingbugs:
.. note::
This document is obsolete, and will be replaced by
'Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst' in the near future.
Reporting bugs
++++++++++++++
Background
==========
The upstream Linux kernel maintainers only fix bugs for specific kernel
versions. Those versions include the current "release candidate" (or -rc)
kernel, any "stable" kernel versions, and any "long term" kernels.
Please see https://www.kernel.org/ for a list of supported kernels. Any
kernel marked with [EOL] is "end of life" and will not have any fixes
backported to it.
If you've found a bug on a kernel version that isn't listed on kernel.org,
contact your Linux distribution or embedded vendor for support.
Alternatively, you can attempt to run one of the supported stable or -rc
kernels, and see if you can reproduce the bug on that. It's preferable
to reproduce the bug on the latest -rc kernel.
How to report Linux kernel bugs
===============================
Identify the problematic subsystem
----------------------------------
Identifying which part of the Linux kernel might be causing your issue
increases your chances of getting your bug fixed. Simply posting to the
generic linux-kernel mailing list (LKML) may cause your bug report to be
lost in the noise of a mailing list that gets 1000+ emails a day.
Instead, try to figure out which kernel subsystem is causing the issue,
and email that subsystem's maintainer and mailing list. If the subsystem
maintainer doesn't answer, then expand your scope to mailing lists like
LKML.
Identify who to notify
----------------------
Once you know the subsystem that is causing the issue, you should send a
bug report. Some maintainers prefer bugs to be reported via bugzilla
(https://bugzilla.kernel.org), while others prefer that bugs be reported
via the subsystem mailing list.
To find out where to send an emailed bug report, find your subsystem or
device driver in the MAINTAINERS file. Search in the file for relevant
entries, and send your bug report to the person(s) listed in the "M:"
lines, making sure to Cc the mailing list(s) in the "L:" lines. When the
maintainer replies to you, make sure to 'Reply-all' in order to keep the
public mailing list(s) in the email thread.
If you know which driver is causing issues, you can pass one of the driver
files to the get_maintainer.pl script::
perl scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f <filename>
If it is a security bug, please copy the Security Contact listed in the
MAINTAINERS file. They can help coordinate bugfix and disclosure. See
:ref:`Documentation/admin-guide/security-bugs.rst <securitybugs>` for more information.
If you can't figure out which subsystem caused the issue, you should file
a bug in kernel.org bugzilla and send email to
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, referencing the bugzilla URL. (For more
information on the linux-kernel mailing list see
http://vger.kernel.org/lkml/).
Tips for reporting bugs
-----------------------
If you haven't reported a bug before, please read:
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
It's REALLY important to report bugs that seem unrelated as separate email
threads or separate bugzilla entries. If you report several unrelated
bugs at once, it's difficult for maintainers to tease apart the relevant
data.
Gather information
------------------
The most important information in a bug report is how to reproduce the
bug. This includes system information, and (most importantly)
step-by-step instructions for how a user can trigger the bug.
If the failure includes an "OOPS:", take a picture of the screen, capture
a netconsole trace, or type the message from your screen into the bug
report. Please read "Documentation/admin-guide/bug-hunting.rst" before posting your
bug report. This explains what you should do with the "Oops" information
to make it useful to the recipient.
This is a suggested format for a bug report sent via email or bugzilla.
Having a standardized bug report form makes it easier for you not to
overlook things, and easier for the developers to find the pieces of
information they're really interested in. If some information is not
relevant to your bug, feel free to exclude it.
First run the ver_linux script included as scripts/ver_linux, which
reports the version of some important subsystems. Run this script with
the command ``awk -f scripts/ver_linux``.
Use that information to fill in all fields of the bug report form, and
post it to the mailing list with a subject of "PROBLEM: <one line
summary from [1.]>" for easy identification by the developers::
[1.] One line summary of the problem:
[2.] Full description of the problem/report:
[3.] Keywords (i.e., modules, networking, kernel):
[4.] Kernel information
[4.1.] Kernel version (from /proc/version):
[4.2.] Kernel .config file:
[5.] Most recent kernel version which did not have the bug:
[6.] Output of Oops.. message (if applicable) with symbolic information
resolved (see Documentation/admin-guide/bug-hunting.rst)
[7.] A small shell script or example program which triggers the
problem (if possible)
[8.] Environment
[8.1.] Software (add the output of the ver_linux script here)
[8.2.] Processor information (from /proc/cpuinfo):
[8.3.] Module information (from /proc/modules):
[8.4.] Loaded driver and hardware information (/proc/ioports, /proc/iomem)
[8.5.] PCI information ('lspci -vvv' as root)
[8.6.] SCSI information (from /proc/scsi/scsi)
[8.7.] Other information that might be relevant to the problem
(please look in /proc and include all information that you
think to be relevant):
[X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds:
Follow up
=========
Expectations for bug reporters
------------------------------
Linux kernel maintainers expect bug reporters to be able to follow up on
bug reports. That may include running new tests, applying patches,
recompiling your kernel, and/or re-triggering your bug. The most
frustrating thing for maintainers is for someone to report a bug, and then
never follow up on a request to try out a fix.
That said, it's still useful for a kernel maintainer to know a bug exists
on a supported kernel, even if you can't follow up with retests. Follow
up reports, such as replying to the email thread with "I tried the latest
kernel and I can't reproduce my bug anymore" are also helpful, because
maintainers have to assume silence means things are still broken.
Expectations for kernel maintainers
-----------------------------------
Linux kernel maintainers are busy, overworked human beings. Some times
they may not be able to address your bug in a day, a week, or two weeks.
If they don't answer your email, they may be on vacation, or at a Linux
conference. Check the conference schedule at https://LWN.net for more info:
https://lwn.net/Calendar/
In general, kernel maintainers take 1 to 5 business days to respond to
bugs. The majority of kernel maintainers are employed to work on the
kernel, and they may not work on the weekends. Maintainers are scattered
around the world, and they may not work in your time zone. Unless you
have a high priority bug, please wait at least a week after the first bug
report before sending the maintainer a reminder email.
The exceptions to this rule are regressions, kernel crashes, security holes,
or userspace breakage caused by new kernel behavior. Those bugs should be
addressed by the maintainers ASAP. If you suspect a maintainer is not
responding to these types of bugs in a timely manner (especially during a
merge window), escalate the bug to LKML and Linus Torvalds.
Thank you!
[Some of this is taken from Frohwalt Egerer's original linux-kernel FAQ]
Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
View file @ d2ce2853
......@@ -9,25 +9,6 @@
(for example by the kernel's build system) might contain content taken from
files which use a more restrictive license.
.. important::
This document is being prepared to replace
'Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-bugs.rst'. The main work is done and
you are already free to follow its instructions when reporting issues to the
Linux kernel developers. But keep in mind, below text still needs a few
finishing touches and review. It was merged to the Linux kernel sources at
this stage to make this process easier and increase the text's visibility.
Any improvements for the text or other feedback is thus very much welcome.
Please send it to 'Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>' and 'Jonathan
Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>', ideally with 'Linux kernel mailing list (LKML)
<linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>' and the 'Linux Kernel Documentation List
<linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>' in CC.
Areas in the text that still need work or discussion contain a hint like this
which point out the remaining issues; all of them start with the word "FIXME"
to make them easy to find.
Reporting issues
++++++++++++++++
......@@ -710,26 +691,6 @@ example above does not have such a line. That is the case for most sections, as
Linux kernel development is completely driven by mail. Very few subsystems use
a bug tracker, and only some of those rely on bugzilla.kernel.org.
.. note::
FIXME: The old text took a totally different approach to bugzilla.kernel.org,
as it mentions it as the place to file issue for people that don't known how
to contact the appropriate people. The new one mentions it rarely; and when
it does like here, it warns users that it's often the wrong place to go.
This approach was chosen as the main author of this document noticed quite a
few users (or even a lot?) get no reply to the bugs they file in bugzilla.
That's kind of expected, as quite a few (many? most?) of the maintainers
don't even get notified when reports for their subsystem get filed there. And
not getting a single reply to report is something that is just annoying for
users and might make them angry. Improving bugzilla.k.o would be an option,
but on the kernel and maintainers summit 2017 it was agreed on to first go
this route (sorry it took so long): it's easier to achieve and less
controversial, as putting additional burden on already overworked maintainers
is unlikely to get well received.
In this and many other cases you thus have to look for lines starting with
'Mail:' instead. Those mention the name and the email addresses for the
maintainers of the particular code. Also look for a line starting with 'Mailing
......@@ -742,21 +703,6 @@ and might leave some work for other developers on the subsystem specific list;
and LKML is important to have one place where all issue reports can be found.
.. note::
FIXME: Above section tells users to always CC LKML. These days it's a kind of
"catch-all" list anyway, which nearly nobody seems to follow closely. So it
seems appropriate to go "all in" and make people send their reports here,
too, as everything (reports, fixes, ...) then can be found in one place (at
least for all reports sent by mail and all subsystems that CC LKML).
Related: Should we create mailing list like 'linux-issues@vger.kernel.org'
and tell users above to always CC it when reporting issues? Then there would
be one central place reporters could search for existing reports (at least
for issues reported by mail) without getting regular LKML traffic mixed into
the results.
Finding the maintainers with the help of a script
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
......@@ -1776,3 +1722,13 @@ issues to the Linux kernel developers: the length and complexity of this
document and the implications between the lines illustrate that. But that's how
it is for now. The main author of this text hopes documenting the state of the
art will lay some groundwork to improve the situation over time.
..
This text is maintained by Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>. If you
spot a typo or small mistake, feel free to let him know directly and he'll
fix it. You are free to do the same in a mostly informal way if you want
to contribute changes to the text, but for copyright reasons please CC
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org and "sign-off" your contribution as
Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst outlines in the section "Sign
your work - the Developer's Certificate of Origin".
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