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
one of the available categories to identify the
problem area. (Use
`send-pr -L'
to see a list of categories.)
The more precise your problem description and the more complete your
information, the faster your support team can solve your problems.
send-pr
depends on a correctly configured mail submission system to work correctly.
If, for any reason, sending mail is not working, problem reports can be
submitted over the web, through:
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.
-s severity
Give the problem report the severity
severity.
-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.
-c address
Put
address
in the
Cc:
header of the message.
-a file
Copy the specified
file
into the
Fix:
section.
Binary files are uuencoded.
-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.
-V
Display the
send-pr
version number.
This may also be specified as
--version.
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.
FREEBSD CATEGORIES
advocacy
This used to be for the advocacy WWW pages.
Now deprecated in favour of the
www
category, relevant alternative use of this category is encouraged.
alpha
Alpha processor specific problems.
amd64
AMD64 processor specific problems.
arm
ARM processor specific problems.
bin
Corrections or enhancements to system executables.
conf
Corrections or enhancements to the system configuration files.
docs
Corrections or enhancements to the manpages or other documentation.
gnu
Corrections or enhancements to the GNU contributed software.
i386
Intel x86 processor specific problems.
ia64
Intel ia64 processor specific problems.
java
Problems related to Java.
kern
Changes or enhancements to the architecture independent kernel sources.
misc
Problems that do not fit into any of the other categories.
ports
Corrections or enhancements (including new ports) to the ports collection.
powerpc
PowerPC processor specific problems.
sparc64
SPARC processor specific problems.
standards
Standards conformance issues.
sun4v
Problems specific to the SPARC sun4v architecture and processors.
threads
Problems related to threading on FreeBSD.
usb
Problems related to the USB subsystem.
www
Changes or enhancements to the FreeBSD website.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable
EDITOR
specifies the editor to invoke on the template.
default:
vi
If the environment variable
MAIL_AGENT
is set, its value is used as the path + command line arguments of the
executable to be invoked for sending the problem report (which will be
provided via standard input).
This can be useful if you either use a MTA other than sendmail or need
to provide additional parameters, such as the envelope sender on
machines without a valid FQDN.
Default value:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t
If the environment variable
PR_FORM
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).
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.
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/pf.XXXXXXXXcopy of PR used in editing session
/tmp/pf.XXXXXXXXcopy of empty PR form, for testing purposes
/tmp/pr.XXXXXXXXcopy of filled PR form, created on interrupt
/tmp/pbad.XXXXXXXXfile for rejected PRs
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.
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
See
send-pr.info
or
INSTALL
for installation instructions.
SEE ALSO
Reporting Problems Using send-pr
(also installed as the GNU Info file
send-pr.info).
AUTHORS
Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Jason Merrill, Heinz G. Seidl (Cygnus
Support)
COPYING
Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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.
