Bug Reporting

In any complex software, there will be bugs. If you have successfully built and installed Kerberos V5, please use the krb5-send-pr program to fill out a Problem Report should you encounter any errors in our software.

Bug reports that include proposed fixes are especially welcome. If you do include fixes, please send them using either context diffs or unified diffs (using diff -c or diff -u, respectively). Please be careful when using "cut and paste" or other such means to copy a patch into a bug report; depending on the system being used, that can result in converting TAB characters into spaces, which makes applying the patches more difficult.

The krb5-send-pr program is installed in the directory /usr/local/sbin.

The krb5-send-pr program enters the problem report into our Problem Report Management System (PRMS), which automatically assigns it to the engineer best able to help you with problems in the assigned category.

The krb5-send-pr program will try to intelligently fill in as many fields as it can. You need to choose the category, class, severity, and priority of the problem, as well as giving us as much information as you can about its exact nature.

The PR category will be one of:

     krb5-admin   krb5-appl    krb5-build   krb5-clients
     krb5-doc     krb5-kdc     krb5-libs    krb5-misc
     pty          telnet       test
     

Choose the category that best describes the area under which your problem falls.

The class can be sw-bug, doc-bug, change-request, or support. The first two are exactly as their names imply. Use change-request when the software is behaving according to specifications, but you want to request changes in some feature or behavior. The support class is intended for more general questions about building or using Kerberos V5.

The severity of the problem indicates the problem's impact on the usability of Kerberos V5. If a problem is critical, that means the product, component or concept is completely non-operational, or some essential functionality is missing, and no workaround is known. A serious problem is one in which the product, component or concept is not working properly or significant functionality is missing. Problems that would otherwise be considered critical are rated serious when a workaround is known. A non-critical problem is one that is indeed a problem, but one that is having a minimal effect on your ability to use Kerberos V5. E.g., The product, component or concept is working in general, but lacks features, has irritating behavior, does something wrong, or doesn't match its documentation. The default severity is serious.

The priority indicates how urgent this particular problem is in relation to your work. Note that low priority does not imply low importance. A priority of high means a solution is needed as soon as possible. A priority of medium means the problem should be solved no later than the next release. A priority of low means the problem should be solved in a future release, but it is not important to your work how soon this happens. The default priority is medium.

Note that a given severity does not necessarily imply a given priority. For example, a non-critical problem might still have a high priority if you are faced with a hard deadline. Conversely, a serious problem might have a low priority if the feature it is disabling is one that you do not need.

It is important that you fill in the release field and tell us what changes you have made, if any.

A sample filled-out form from a company named "Toasters, Inc." might look like this:

     To: krb5-bugs@mit.edu
     Subject: misspelled "Kerberos" in title of installation guide
     From: jcb
     Reply-To: jcb
     Cc:
     X-send-pr-version: 3.99
     
     
     >Submitter-Id:	mit
     >Originator:	Jeffrey C. Gilman Bigler
     >Organization:
     mit
     >Confidential:	no
     >Synopsis:	Misspelled "Kerberos" in title of installation guide
     >Severity:	non-critical
     >Priority:	low
     >Category:	krb5-doc
     >Class:		doc-bug
     >Release:	1.0-development
     >Environment:
     	<machine, os, target, libraries (multiple lines)>
     System: ULTRIX imbrium 4.2 0 RISC
     Machine: mips
     >Description:
             Misspelled "Kerberos" in title of "Kerboros V5 Installation Guide"
     >How-To-Repeat:
             N/A
     >Fix:
             Correct the spelling.
     

If the krb5-send-pr program does not work for you, or if you did not get far enough in the process to have an installed and working krb5-send-pr, you can generate your own form, using the above as an example.