Error Report

A bug report , or English bug report is a report of a bug of software, to which the competent programmer or the respective program is sent with the aim to correct the error or errors described therein. Mostly bug trackers or issue trackers are used. B. an email can be sent.

purpose

Since a software developer cannot test his program on every piece of hardware, it is impossible to fix every error in advance. So- called workarounds (e.g. Linux calls this quirks ) are often necessary on different hardware so that a program also works on this hardware. However, general errors that occur independently of the hardware can also be reported and corrected.

For software developers , a bug report enables them to correct bugs that they did not notice themselves. For larger software projects, there are programmers responsible for different software areas, called maintainers . In such a case, it is important to assign the bug report to the correct area so that the responsible maintainer receives it. If the development is given up by a programmer, there is usually a new responsible programmer who continues to take care of the program (or the software area) and takes on the task of software maintenance. If this is not the case, a program is considered unmaintained - and no bug reports are processed until a new maintainer can be found.

For users , a bug report is often the only way to get feedback to the developers. Therefore, sometimes not only errors, but also suggestions or feature requests or just comments - and thus no program errors, English bugs - are sent as bug reports .

content

A good bug report must contain essential information that is important for correcting the bug. These are usually given in the presence of an English bug tracking system or in the documentation for the respective software. Typically, a bug report includes the following information:

• Type of error - e.g. B. an error message or a program termination
• Process that led to the error; it is important for a developer how to recreate the bug on his system
• System on which the error occurred
  • Hardware - on which computer system ( computer architecture )
  • Operating system - on which operating system, and in which version of the same
• the program itself, the software - on which versions and with which configurations did the error occur?
• Data about the state in which the program was when it crashed - this is usually optional, as it can contain private or sensitive information
  • Data from a debugger or a stack trace
  • a document that has been opened (loaded)

In addition, the user who reported the error should be available to answer questions or possibly try a patch .

Examples

• On the website for the Windows program Rufus , rufus.ie , it says: To send feedback, a bug report
  or suggestions for improvement, please use the issue tracker from GitHub. Alternatively, you can also send an email.
• In macOS there is the function " Send bug report to Apple " integrated into the operating system . CrashReporter.appAfter a program crash , the program sends crash logs , including debugger information and an optional comment from the user, to Apple. In Mac OS X Snow Leopard , the function has been automated and can be controlled with the global setting "Diagnostic reports".
• The Mozilla Crash Reporter sends bug reports and similar after confirmation. a. after Firefox and Thunderbird program crashes to the Mozilla Foundation .
• The Linux distribution Debian GNU / Linux effectively uses mailing lists as a Bug Track System (BTS) . The program supports a user in reporting a bug as an email in the corresponding list.reportbug
• https://transmediale.de/de/content/von-tiefen-und-dicht-ein- Fehlerbericht

See also

• Defect management

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2004/tn2123.html
2. ↑ https://www.macwelt.de/tipps/Tipp-Mac-OS-X-Automatischen-Fehlerbericht-ausschalt-3187652.html
3. ↑ https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/mozilla-absturzmelder
4. ↑ https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/mozilla-absturzmelder-thunderbird
5. ↑ https://www.debian.org/Bugs/
6. ↑ https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting