SEND-PR(1)

General Commands Manual

SEND-PR(1)

NAME

send-pr - send problem report (PR) to a central support site

SYNOPSIS

send-pr [ site ] [ -f problem-report ] [ -t mail-address ]

[ -P ] [ -L ] [ --request-id ] [ -V ]

DESCRIPTION

send-pr is a tool used to submit problem reports (PRs) to a central support site. In most cases the correct site will be the default. This argument indicates the support site which is responsible for the category of problem involved. Some sites may use a local address as a default. site values are defined by using the aliases(5).

send-pr invokes an editor on a problem report template (after trying to fill in some fields with reasonable default values). When you exit the editor, send-pr sends the completed form to the Problem Report Management System ( GNATS) at a central support site. At the support site, the PR is assigned a unique number and is stored in the GNATS database according to its category and submitter-id. GNATS automatically replies with an acknowledgement, citing the category and the PR number.

To ensure that a PR is handled promptly, it should contain your (unique) submitter-id and one of the available categories to identify the problem area. (Use `send-pr -L' to see a list of categories). The PR should also contain a subject header, which is separate to the synopsis line. NetBSD does not use unique submitter-id's - all PR's use the default value of `net' for this field.

The more precise your problem description and the more complete your information, the faster your support team can solve your problems.

OPTIONS

-f problem-report: specify a file (problem-report) which already contains a complete problem report. send-pr sends the contents of the file without invoking the editor. If the value for problem-report is `-', then send-pr reads from standard input.

-t mail-address: Change mail address at the support site for problem reports. The default mail-address is the address used for the default site. Use the site argument rather than this option in nearly all cases.

-P: print the form specified by the environment variable PR_FORM on standard output. If PR_FORM is not set, print the standard blank PR template. No mail is sent.

-L: print the list of available categories. No mail is sent.

--request-id: sends mail to the default support site, or site if specified, with a request for your submitter-id. If you are not affiliated with site, use a submitter-id of net'.

-V: Display the send-pr version number.

Note: use send-pr to submit problem reports rather than mailing them directly. Using both the template and send-pr itself will help ensure all necessary information will reach the support site.

ENVIRONMENT

GNATS_ROOT: If the file $GNATS_ROOT/gnats-adm/config exists then it is used to provide newer configuration information. The default value is the empty string.

LOGNAME: Sets the default for the From and Reply-To fields of the problem report. Defaults to $USER if not set.

NAME: Sets the default for the Originator field of the problem report. If not set, then the file $HOME/.fullname is used. If $HOME/.fullname is not present, then an attempt is made to query the password file for a full name.

ORGANIZATION: The name of a file which contains the default for the Organization field of the problem report.

PR_FORM: If this is set, then its value is used as the file name of the template for your problem-report editing session. You can use this to start with a partially completed form (for example, a form with the identification fields already completed).

REPLYTO: Sets the default for the Reply-To field of the problem report. If not set, then it defaults to $LOGNAME.

TMPDIR: Specifies the temporary directory used for creating the problem report. This directory must exist with write permissions. Defaults to /tmp if not specified.

USER_GNATS_SITE: Used to set the default site you are reporting bugs to. Defaults to netbsd if not specified.

VISUAL: Specifies the editor to invoke on the template. If not set, then the variable EDITOR is used. If neither VISUAL nor EDITOR are set, then vi(1) is used.

HOW TO FILL OUT A PROBLEM REPORT

Problem reports have to be in a particular form so that a program can easily manage them. Please remember the following guidelines:

•: describe only one problem with each problem report.

•: For follow-up mail, use the same subject line as the one in the automatic acknowledgement. It consists of category, PR number and the original synopsis line. This allows the support site to relate several mail messages to a particular PR and to record them automatically.

•: Please try to be as accurate as possible in the subject and/or synopsis line.

•: The subject and the synopsis line are not confidential. This is because open-bugs lists are compiled from them. Avoid confidential information there.

The severity field is to indicate the severity of the problem. The accepted values are:

critical: The product, component or concept is completely non-operational or some essential functionality is missing (e.g. kernel panic or program core dumps). No workaround is known.

serious: The product, component or concept is not working properly or significant functionality is missing. Problems that would otherwise be considered critical are rated serious when a workaround is known.

non-critical: The product, component or concept is working in general, but lacks features, has irritating behavior, does something wrong, or doesn't match its documentation.

The default value is serious.

The priority field specifies how soon the problem report submitter requires a solution. The accepted values are:

high: A solution is needed as soon as possible.

medium: The problem should be solved in the next release.

low: The problem should be solved in a future release.

The default value is medium.

The class of a problem report can be one of the following:

sw-bug: A general software problem ( `sw' stands for software ).

doc-bug: A problem with the manual pages or other documentation.

change-request: A request for a change from existing behavior that is not a bug ("It's nice, but it would be better if ...").

support: A support problem or question.

The default value is sw-bug.

See the GNU Info file send-pr.info or the document Reporting Problems With send-pr for detailed information on reporting problems

HOW TO SUBMIT TEST CASES, CODE, ETC.

Submit small code samples with the PR. Contact the support site for instructions on submitting larger test cases and problematic source code.

FILES

/tmp/p$$ copy of PR used in editing session

/tmp/pf$$: copy of empty PR form, for testing purposes

/tmp/pbad$$: file for rejected PRs

$HOME/.fullname: Contains the default for the Originator field of the problem report if $NAME is not set

$HOME/.organization: Contains the default for the Organization field of the problem report if $ORGANIZATION is not set.

$HOME/.signature: Contains the default for the Organization field of the problem report if $ORGANIZATION is not set and $HOME/.organization does not exist.

EMACS USER INTERFACE

An Emacs user interface for send-pr with completion of field values is part of the send-pr distribution (invoked with M-x send-pr). See the file send-pr.info or the ASCII file INSTALL in the top level directory of the distribution for configuration and installation information. The Emacs LISP template file is send-pr-el.in and is installed as send-pr.el.

WEB INTERFACE

An interface to sending PR's is available on the NetBSD website at http://www.NetBSD.org/Gnats/.

INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION

See send-pr.info or INSTALL for installation instructions.

AUTHORS

Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Jason Merrill, Heinz G. Seidl (Cygnus Support)

COPYING

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.

3.95	February 1993