Commit d60418bc authored by Sarah Sharp's avatar Sarah Sharp
Browse files

Docs: Step-by-step directions for reporting bugs. 



REPORTING-BUGS is pretty disorganized.  Bug reporters are likely to be
in a frustrated, stressed frame of mind, so introduce methodical
step-by-step directions for how to report bugs.  Use titles so people
can skim it if necessary.

Slight changes in procedures:

1. Encourage people to report bugs to maintainers and sub-system mailing
lists, not LKML at first.  I've seen way too many people get lost in the
noise because they didn't Cc the maintainer or proper mailing list.

2. Link to bugzilla.kernel.org, and let people know that some
maintainers prefer bugs filed there vs. the mailing lists.  (Perhaps we
need an entry in MAINTAINERS for which is preferred?)

3. If someone doesn't know where to report a bug, encourage them to both
file a bugzilla entry and email LKML.  Their report is less likely to
get lost if there's a bugzilla entry.

Preserve text about reporting security bugs, and get_maintainer.pl.

More will be added/modified in upcoming patches.

Signed-off-by: default avatarSarah Sharp <sarah.a.sharp@linux.intel.com>
parent 3b12c21a

REPORTING-BUGS

+46 −19
Original line number Diff line number Diff line 
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

Documentation/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://www.tux.org/lkml/).





[Some of this is taken from Frohwalt Egerer's original linux-kernel FAQ]



What follows is a suggested procedure for reporting Linux bugs. You aren't
@@ -9,25 +53,8 @@ please read "Documentation/oops-tracing.txt" before posting your bug 
report. This explains what you should do with the "Oops" information to

make it useful to the recipient.



Send the output to the maintainer of the kernel area that seems to be

involved with the problem, and cc the relevant mailing list. Don't worry

too much about getting the wrong person. If you are unsure send it to the

person responsible for the code relevant to what you were doing.  If it

occurs repeatably try and describe how to recreate it. That is worth even

more than the oops itself.  The list of maintainers and mailing lists is

in the MAINTAINERS file in this directory.  If you know the file name that

causes the problem you can use the following command in this directory to

find some of the maintainers of that file:



     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

Documentation/SecurityBugs for more information.



If you are totally stumped as to whom to send the report, send it to

linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org. (For more information on the linux-kernel

mailing list see http://www.tux.org/lkml/).

If it occurs repeatably try and describe how to recreate it. That is worth

even more than the oops itself.



This is a suggested format for a bug report sent to the Linux kernel mailing

list. Having a standardized bug report form makes it easier for you not to

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