186 lines
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186 lines
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<title>Bug Reporting - Using as</title>
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<link rel="up" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" title="Reporting Bugs">
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<!--
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This file documents the GNU Assembler "as".
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Copyright (C) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002,
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2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
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or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
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with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
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<div class="node">
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<p>
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<a name="Bug-Reporting"></a>Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Bug-Criteria.html#Bug-Criteria">Bug Criteria</a>,
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Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a>
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<hr><br>
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</div>
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<h3 class="section">10.2 How to Report Bugs</h3>
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<p><a name="index-bug-reports-1903"></a><a name="index-assembler-bugs_002c-reporting-1904"></a>
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A number of companies and individuals offer support for <span class="sc">gnu</span> products. If
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you obtained <span class="command">as</span> from a support organization, we recommend you
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contact that organization first.
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<p>You can find contact information for many support companies and
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individuals in the file <span class="file">etc/SERVICE</span> in the <span class="sc">gnu</span> Emacs
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distribution.
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<p>In any event, we also recommend that you send bug reports for <span class="command">as</span>
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to <a href="http://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/">http://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/</a>.
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<p>The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this:
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<strong>report all the facts</strong>. If you are not sure whether to state a
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fact or leave it out, state it!
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<p>Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the problem
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and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might assume that the
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name of a symbol you use in an example does not matter. Well, probably it does
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not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a stray memory reference which
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happens to fetch from the location where that name is stored in memory;
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perhaps, if the name were different, the contents of that location would fool
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the assembler into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and
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give a specific, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do,
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and the most helpful.
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<p>Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug if
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it is new to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports on the assumption
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that the bug has not been reported previously.
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<p>Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, “Does this ring a
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bell?” This cannot help us fix a bug, so it is basically useless. We
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respond by asking for enough details to enable us to investigate.
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You might as well expedite matters by sending them to begin with.
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<p>To enable us to fix the bug, you should include all these things:
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<ul>
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<li>The version of <span class="command">as</span>. <span class="command">as</span> announces it if you start
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it with the <span class="samp">--version</span> argument.
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<p>Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for
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the bug in the current version of <span class="command">as</span>.
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<li>Any patches you may have applied to the <span class="command">as</span> source.
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<li>The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and
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version number.
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<li>What compiler (and its version) was used to compile <span class="command">as</span>—e.g.
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“<code>gcc-2.7</code>”.
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<li>The command arguments you gave the assembler to assemble your example and
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observe the bug. To guarantee you will not omit something important, list them
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all. A copy of the Makefile (or the output from make) is sufficient.
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<p>If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong
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and then we might not encounter the bug.
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<li>A complete input file that will reproduce the bug. If the bug is observed when
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the assembler is invoked via a compiler, send the assembler source, not the
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high level language source. Most compilers will produce the assembler source
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when run with the <span class="samp">-S</span> option. If you are using <code>gcc</code>, use
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the options <span class="samp">-v --save-temps</span>; this will save the assembler source in a
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file with an extension of <span class="file">.s</span>, and also show you exactly how
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<span class="command">as</span> is being run.
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<li>A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is
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incorrect. For example, “It gets a fatal signal.”
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<p>Of course, if the bug is that <span class="command">as</span> gets a fatal signal, then we
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will certainly notice it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might not
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notice unless it is glaringly wrong. You might as well not give us a chance to
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make a mistake.
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<p>Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still say so
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explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as, your copy of
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<span class="command">as</span> is out of sync, or you have encountered a bug in the C
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library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might crash and ours
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would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when ours fails to crash, we
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would know that the bug was not happening for us. If you had not told us to
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expect a crash, then we would not be able to draw any conclusion from our
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observations.
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<li>If you wish to suggest changes to the <span class="command">as</span> source, send us context
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diffs, as generated by <code>diff</code> with the <span class="samp">-u</span>, <span class="samp">-c</span>, or <span class="samp">-p</span>
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option. Always send diffs from the old file to the new file. If you even
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discuss something in the <span class="command">as</span> source, refer to it by context, not
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by line number.
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<p>The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your
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sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us.
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</ul>
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<p>Here are some things that are not necessary:
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<ul>
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<li>A description of the envelope of the bug.
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<p>Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating
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which changes to the input file will make the bug go away and which
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changes will not affect it.
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<p>This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we
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will find the bug is by running a single example under the debugger
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with breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples.
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We recommend that you save your time for something else.
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<p>Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report <em>instead</em>
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of the original one, that is a convenience for us. Errors in the
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output will be easier to spot, running under the debugger will take
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less time, and so on.
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<p>However, simplification is not vital; if you do not want to do this,
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report the bug anyway and send us the entire test case you used.
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<li>A patch for the bug.
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<p>A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit
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the necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that
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a patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide
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to fix the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all.
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<p>Sometimes with a program as complicated as <span class="command">as</span> it is very hard to
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construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path through
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the code. If you do not send us the example, we will not be able to construct
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one, so we will not be able to verify that the bug is fixed.
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<p>And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your
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patch should be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will
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help us to understand.
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<li>A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on.
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<p>Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such
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things without first using the debugger to find the facts.
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</ul>
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</body></html>
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