bug reporting

[Tom H]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Chris <cpollock at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>
> How/Where do I report a bug in a Ubuntu package? Specifically Evolution
> 3.12.6

Use "ubuntu-bug".

$ MANPAGER=cat man ubuntu-bug
apport-bug(1)
                                                 General Commands
Manual
                                         apport-bug(1)



NAME
       apport-bug, apport-collect - file a bug report using Apport, or
update an existing report


SYNOPSIS
       apport-bug

       apport-bug symptom | pid | package | program path | .apport/.crash file

       apport-collect report-number


DESCRIPTION
       apport-bug reports problems to your distribution's bug tracking
system, using Apport to collect a lot of local information about your
system to help the developers to fix the problem and avoid unnecessary
question/answer turnarounds.

       You should always start with running apport-bug without
arguments, which will present a list of known symptoms. This will
generate the most useful bug reports.

       If there is no matching symptom, you need to determine the
affected program or package yourself. You can provide a package name
or program name to apport-bug, e. g.:

           apport-bug firefox
           apport-bug /usr/bin/unzip

       In order to add more information to the bug report that could
help the developers to fix the problem, you can also specify a process
ID instead:

           $ pidof gnome-terminal
           5139
           $ apport-bug 5139

       As a special case, to report a bug against the Linux kernel,
you do not need to use the full package name (such as
linux-image-2.6.28-4-generic); you can just use

           apport-bug linux

       to report a bug against the currently running kernel.

       Finally, you can use this program to report a previously stored
crash or bug report:

           apport-bug /var/crash/_bin_bash.1000.crash
           apport-bug /tmp/apport.firefox.332G9t.apport

       Bug reports can be written to a file by using the --save option
 or by using apport-cli.

       apport-bug detects whether KDE or Gnome is running and calls
apport-gtk or apport-kde accordingly. If neither is available, or the
session does not run under X11, it calls apport-cli for a command-line
client.


UPDATING EXISTING REPORTS
       apport-collect  collects  the  same  information as apport-bug,
but adds it to an already reported problem you have submitted. This is
useful if the report was not originally filed through Apport, and the
developers ask you to attach information from your
       system.


OPTIONS
       Please see the apport-cli(1) manpage for possible options.


ENVIRONMENT
       APPORT_IGNORE_OBSOLETE_PACKAGES
              Apport refuses to create bug reports if the package or
any dependency is not current. If this environment variable is set,
this check is waived. Experts who will thoroughly check the situation
before filing a bug report can  define  this  in  their
              ~/.bashrc or temporarily on the command line when
calling apport-bug.


FILES
       apport  crash  files are written in to /var/crash by default,
named uniquely per binary name and user id.  They are not deleted
after being sent to the bug tracker (but from cron when they get older
than 7 days). You can extract the core file (if any) and
       other information using apport-unpack.


SEE ALSO
       apport-cli(1), apport-unpack(1)


AUTHOR
       apport and the accompanying tools are developed by Martin Pitt
<martin.pitt at ubuntu.com>.



Martin Pitt
                                                   September 08, 2009

                                    apport-bug(1)



$ MANPAGER=cat man apport-cli
apport-cli(1)
                                                 General Commands
Manual
                                         apport-cli(1)



NAME
       apport-cli, apport-gtk, apport-kde - Apport user interfaces for
reporting problems


SYNOPSIS
       apport-cli

       apport-cli [ --save file ] symptom | pid | package | program
path | .apport/.crash file

       apport-cli -f

       apport-cli -f -p package -P pid

       apport-cli -u report-number

       Same options/arguments for apport-gtk and apport-kde.


DESCRIPTION
       apport automatically collects data from crashed processes and
compiles a problem report in /var/crash/. This is a command line
frontend for reporting those crashes to the developers. It can also be
used to report bugs about packages or running processes.

       If symptom scripts are available, it can also be given the name
of a symptom, or be called with just -f to display a list of known
symptoms.

       When being called without any options, it processes the pending
crash reports and offers to report them one by one. You can also
display the entire report to see what is sent to the software
developers.

       When  being  called  with exactly one argument and no option,
apport-cli uses some heuristics to find out "what you mean" and
reports a bug against the given symptom name, package name, program
path, or PID. If the argument is a .crash or .apport file, it
       uploads the stored problem report to the bug tracking system.

       For desktop systems with a graphical user interface, you should
consider installing the GTK or KDE user interface (apport-gtk or
apport-kde). They accept the very same options and arguments.
apport-cli is mainly intended to be used on servers.


OPTIONS
       -f, --file-bug
              Report a (non-crash) problem. If neither --package,
--symptom, or --pid are specified, then it displays a list of
available symptoms. If none are available, it aborts with an error.

              This will automatically attach information about your
operating system and the package version etc. to the bug report, so
that the developers have some important context.


       -s symptom, --symptom=symptom
              When being used in --file-bug mode, specify the symptom
to report the problem about.


       -p package, --package=package
              When being used in --file-bug mode, specify the package
to report the problem against.


       -P pid, --pid=pid
              When being used in --file-bug mode, specify the PID
(process ID) of a running program to report the problem against. This
can be determined with e. g.  ps -ux.


       -c report, --crash-file=report
              Upload a previously processed stored report in an
arbitrary file location.  This is useful for copying a crash report to
a machine with internet connection and reporting it from there. Files
must end in .crash or .apport.


       -u report-number, --update-report report-number
              Run apport information collection on an already existing
problem report. The affected package is taken from the report by
default, but you can explicitly specify one with --package to collect
information for a different package (this is  useful  if
              the report is assigned to the wrong package).


       --save filename
              In --file-bug mode, save the collected information into
a file instead of reporting it. This file can then be reported with
--crash-file later on.


       -w, --window
              Point  and  click  at the application window against
which you wish to report the bug. Apport will automatically find the
package name and generate a report for you. This option can be
specially useful in situations when you do not know the name of
              the package, or if the application window has stopped
responding and you cannot report the problem from the "Help" menu of
the application.


ENVIRONMENT
       APPORT_IGNORE_OBSOLETE_PACKAGES
              Apport refuses to create bug reports if the package or
any dependency is not current. If this environment variable is set,
this check is waived. Experts who will thoroughly check the situation
before filing a bug report can  define  this  in  their
              ~/.bashrc or temporarily when calling the apport
frontend (-cli, -gtk, or -kde).


FILES
       /usr/share/apport/symptoms/*.py
              Symptom scripts. These ask a set of interactive
questions to determine the package which is responsible for a
particular problem. (For some problems like sound or storage device
related bugs there are many places where things can go wrong, and it's
              not immediately obvious for a bug reporter where the problem is.)


AUTHOR
       apport and the accompanying tools are developed by Martin Pitt
<martin.pitt at ubuntu.com>.



Martin Pitt
                                                     August 01, 2007

                                    apport-cli(1)