Debian Bug Reporting

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The Debian Bug Reporting class should give a basic understanding of how to report bugs on debian systems.

background

prerequisites

basic familiarity with commandline and Command Line 2
basic understanding of apt and dpkg

terms

tips for working environment

keep a web browser pointed to this page
open several terminal windows
don't forget to use the "man" command, or -h and --help
commandline reminders
- remember to use tab completion.
- hit tab twice, fast.
- hit tab again!
- remember to use the up arrow to re-do a previous command
- keep hitting tab!

topics covered

http://bugs.debian.org

http://bugs.debian.org/PACKAGENAME

http://bugs.debian.org/src:PACKAGENAME

http://bugs.debian.org/BUGNUMBER

reportbug

reportbug is a helper utility to faciliate good bug reporting. it will help you browse the currently reported bugs, and facilitate providing additional information, or report new bugs.

apt-get install reportbug

when you know what package is broken:

reportbug PACKAGE

when you know what program, but not what package:

reportbug -f FILENAME

without a working mail system (use FILE as a template for your email):

reportbug -o FILE

if it stalls indefinitely:

reportbug --no-check-available

additional and related topics

This is a stub. Please feel free to give this article love and attention if you know more about this topic than we have here.