[RFC 3/7] Docs: Add "Gather info" section to REPORTING-BUGS.

From: Sarah Sharp
Date: Mon Apr 15 2013 - 13:33:51 EST


Add a sub-heading, and emphasize reproducibility.

Suggest taking a picture of the oops message. (Did no one have cameras
in 2006?)

Signed-off-by: Sarah Sharp <sarah.a.sharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
REPORTING-BUGS | 26 ++++++++++++++------------
1 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/REPORTING-BUGS b/REPORTING-BUGS
index 6ed518b..f86e500 100644
--- a/REPORTING-BUGS
+++ b/REPORTING-BUGS
@@ -44,22 +44,24 @@ 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
-obliged to use the bug reporting format, it is provided as a guide to the
-kind of information that can be useful to developers - no more.
+Gather information
+------------------

-If the failure includes an "OOPS:" type message in your log or on screen
-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.
+The most important information in a bug report is how to reproduce the
+bug. This includes system information, and (most importantly)
+step-by-step instructions for how a user can trigger the bug.

-If it occurs repeatably try and describe how to recreate it. That is worth
-even more than the oops itself.
+If the failure includes an "OOPS:", take a picture of the screen, capture
+a netconsole trace, or type the message from your screen into the bug
+report. 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.

-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
+This is a suggested format for a bug report sent via email or bugzilla.
+Having a standardized bug report form makes it easier for you not to
overlook things, and easier for the developers to find the pieces of
-information they're really interested in. Don't feel you have to follow it.
+information they're really interested in. If some information is not
+relevant to your bug, feel free to exclude it.

First run the ver_linux script included as scripts/ver_linux, which
reports the version of some important subsystems. Run this script with
--
1.7.9

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