[Klug-general] Re: KLUG IRC

[Alan Pope]

On Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 11:35:13PM +0100, Colin_The_Technician wrote:
> Alan
> I really am a total newbie.....how to I submit a bug report?  The
> Istanbul site says,
> 

I'm with you! Before a few months ago, I'd not reported any bugs, but in the
last year I've reports about a dozen. Not many, granted, but every little
helps to make the applications better, increase the documentation out there
and also make me feel warm and fuzzy that I'm helping a little.

> 'Istanbul uses Gnome bugzilla for bug reports and feature requests.'
> 

There is a link directly to bugzilla from the Istanbul page. Click that.

This takes you to http://bugzilla.gnome.org.

Follow the steps..

1. Search existing - click that, then choose "complicated bug search form".
Then you'll find Istanbul under Classification: Other, Product:Istanbul,
Component: general, Version: 0.2.0. Also tick the Status: Resolved option to
show not only new outstanding bugs but also ones that have been tagged as
fixed. 

Leave everything else, as is, and search.

Right now that shows up 8 bugs for me. See if your problem is listed there. 

Note at the bottom there is a link to "enter a new bug".

This takes you through a *great* web based helper/wizard for reporting a
bug. Seriously it couldn't be easier. If the problem you've got isn't in the
8 bugs listed, go ahead and report one. 

I also mailed the Author to give him a heads up about the bug report. Some
people don't watch their bug trackers much. After a few emails I asked if I
actually needed to be mailing him and he said that he actually checked the
bug reports regularly and it wasn't needed. If you look at the bugs I
reported (348576 and 348711) you'll note he replied nice and quickly - less
that 24 hours.

The bug tracker also emails you to tell you when a bug has been updated.
That's really handy if you've reported a few, and saves you having to keep
checking in on it.

> How do I use Bugzilla, is it a website?  Do I need to install it?  Is
> it already installed in Gnome?
> 

Some applications do indeed have bug reporting tools, it's sometimes
difficult to know where to report bugs. My general rule of thumb is if you
got the program/package from your distribution, file the bug with them (e.g.
for ubuntu use http://launchpad.net/) but if you compiled from source or
received the package some other way then report via whatever the authors
means are. 

> Once I get Linux screecasting working think I will screencast that :-)
> 

Top plan! :)

Cheers,
Al.