Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | [Some of this is taken from Frohwalt Egerer's original linux-kernel FAQ] |
| 2 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 3 | What follows is a suggested procedure for reporting Linux bugs. You aren't |
| 4 | obliged to use the bug reporting format, it is provided as a guide to the |
| 5 | kind of information that can be useful to developers - no more. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 6 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 7 | If the failure includes an "OOPS:" type message in your log or on screen |
| 8 | please read "Documentation/oops-tracing.txt" before posting your bug |
| 9 | report. This explains what you should do with the "Oops" information to |
| 10 | make it useful to the recipient. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 12 | Send the output to the maintainer of the kernel area that seems to be |
| 13 | involved with the problem, and cc the relevant mailing list. Don't worry |
| 14 | too much about getting the wrong person. If you are unsure send it to the |
| 15 | person responsible for the code relevant to what you were doing. If it |
| 16 | occurs repeatably try and describe how to recreate it. That is worth even |
| 17 | more than the oops itself. The list of maintainers and mailing lists is |
| 18 | in the MAINTAINERS file in this directory. If you know the file name that |
| 19 | causes the problem you can use the following command in this directory to |
| 20 | find some of the maintainers of that file: |
| 21 | |
Joe Perches | 503f794 | 2009-08-18 14:11:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 22 | perl scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f <filename> |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 23 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 24 | If it is a security bug, please copy the Security Contact listed in the |
| 25 | MAINTAINERS file. They can help coordinate bugfix and disclosure. See |
| 26 | Documentation/SecurityBugs for more information. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 27 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 28 | If you are totally stumped as to whom to send the report, send it to |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 29 | linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org. (For more information on the linux-kernel |
| 30 | mailing list see http://www.tux.org/lkml/). |
| 31 | |
Tobias Klauser | 9dcbb32 | 2005-09-10 00:26:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 32 | This is a suggested format for a bug report sent to the Linux kernel mailing |
| 33 | list. Having a standardized bug report form makes it easier for you not to |
| 34 | overlook things, and easier for the developers to find the pieces of |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 35 | information they're really interested in. Don't feel you have to follow it. |
| 36 | |
Sarah Sharp | 3b12c21 | 2013-04-13 17:55:18 -0700 | [diff] [blame^] | 37 | First run the ver_linux script included as scripts/ver_linux, which |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | reports the version of some important subsystems. Run this script with |
| 39 | the command "sh scripts/ver_linux". |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Use that information to fill in all fields of the bug report form, and |
| 42 | post it to the mailing list with a subject of "PROBLEM: <one line |
Tobias Klauser | 9dcbb32 | 2005-09-10 00:26:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 43 | summary from [1.]>" for easy identification by the developers. |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 44 | |
Tobias Klauser | 9dcbb32 | 2005-09-10 00:26:58 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 45 | [1.] One line summary of the problem: |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 46 | [2.] Full description of the problem/report: |
| 47 | [3.] Keywords (i.e., modules, networking, kernel): |
Randy Dunlap | 4e229be | 2006-12-06 20:39:14 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 48 | [4.] Kernel information |
| 49 | [4.1.] Kernel version (from /proc/version): |
| 50 | [4.2.] Kernel .config file: |
Andrew Morton | 30e835e | 2005-08-05 11:59:32 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 51 | [5.] Most recent kernel version which did not have the bug: |
| 52 | [6.] Output of Oops.. message (if applicable) with symbolic information |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 53 | resolved (see Documentation/oops-tracing.txt) |
Andrew Morton | 30e835e | 2005-08-05 11:59:32 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 54 | [7.] A small shell script or example program which triggers the |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 55 | problem (if possible) |
Andrew Morton | 30e835e | 2005-08-05 11:59:32 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 56 | [8.] Environment |
| 57 | [8.1.] Software (add the output of the ver_linux script here) |
| 58 | [8.2.] Processor information (from /proc/cpuinfo): |
| 59 | [8.3.] Module information (from /proc/modules): |
| 60 | [8.4.] Loaded driver and hardware information (/proc/ioports, /proc/iomem) |
| 61 | [8.5.] PCI information ('lspci -vvv' as root) |
| 62 | [8.6.] SCSI information (from /proc/scsi/scsi) |
| 63 | [8.7.] Other information that might be relevant to the problem |
Linus Torvalds | 1da177e | 2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700 | [diff] [blame] | 64 | (please look in /proc and include all information that you |
| 65 | think to be relevant): |
| 66 | [X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds: |
| 67 | |
| 68 | |
| 69 | Thank you |