09/06/87 Trouble Reporting These trouble reporting commands are available on Multics- enter_problem_report, epr for reporting problems in using Multics. enter_question, eq for asking questions about Multics. enter_suggestion, es for suggesting changes to Multics. add_to_trouble_report, attr for adding information to an existing report. answer_trouble_report, atr for use by developers to answer trouble reports. answer_linked_trs, altr for use by developers to answer a set of linked TRs reporting the same problem. display_tr, dtr for printing reports which have been entered, or searching for reports by area of system affected. tr_query, trq for searching for reports by site, submittor, type, priority, area, etc. print_tr_mail, ptrm prints transactions of a TR mailed to you in reverse order (ie, most recent first). tr_number command/af which provides a canonical TR number. print_tr_registration, ptrr prints the TR registration for a given user. update_tr_registration, utrr to update your TR registration information The commands operate by gathering pertinent information and submitting it as mail to a trouble reports mailbox, >udd>TR>mbx>new_reports.mbx. The commands format the information, check its accuracy, and assign a trouble report number before mailing the report. The send_mail command should not be used to submit trouble reports. The commands are self-explanatory in their operation, and include an internal help facility describing requests for entering, printing, editing and submitting the information in a report. Use the Multics help command to print a brief description of the commands, themselves. Use enter_problem_report to report any problems in using these commands. The remainder of this file describes how to use the TR commands to perform often-requested functions. Obtaining documentation for TR system: The TR system is documented by a series of info segments named below. In >doc>iis tr.info this info segment tr.states.info documents state values used in TR answers tr.priorities.info documents priorities for problem reports tr.changes.info documents changes made to TR system tr.status.info documents known problems/suggestions in TR system itself (epr es eq attr atr altr).info documents the commands (epr es eq attr atr altr).gi.info gives general information on use of the commands (ptrr utrr dtr ptrm tr_number).info documents the commands In >doc>iis>tr_system (epr es eq attr atr altr).*.info detailed documentation for the requests available in this command's request loop Edit your TR registration record: When first using the TR commands, they gather information about you for future use in trouble reports. This information can be edited at any time in the future by using the update_tr_registration command. Just type: utrr Note that this will not enter a problem report, but just edits the registration. Entering problem reports with prompting for info: The simplest usage of the trouble reporting commands prompts the user for the information to be included in the trouble report. Once all prompts have been answered, the entire report can be printed, edited and submitted using requests in the epr request loop. To enter a problem report via prompting, type: epr epr begins by asking questions (prompting). Some questions require one-line answers. The prompts for such questions leave the terminal positioned on the same line as the prompt. The answer ends with a newline character. Other questions require multi-line answers. The prompts for such questions leave the terminal positioned on the line following the prompt. The answer ends with a line containing just a period. The commands are designed to prompt for information when the user may not know how to enter a problem, question or suggestion. To this end, the commands ask some questions which may not be applicable to your particular problem, question or suggestion. To skip over such questions, just give the answer delimiter (type a newline for one-line answers, or type a line containing just a period for multi-line answers). During prompting, any answer can be edited by ending the answer with \f. The editor given in your TR registration is entered with the text of the answer. After the revised answer is written out from the editor, the revised answer is validated and prompting for other information continues. If you end an answer with \q, then the answer is validated and further prompting stops. The request loop is entered, allowing the user to enter requests to print, alter or enter the information given so far. Once all questions have been answered, epr enters the request loop and prompts for requests by typing "epr:". At this point, you can type ? for a list of available requests and type "help request_name" for information about any request. Requests are available for printing and editing the report, and for submitting the report. The enter request submits the report. It can optionally store the report in a mailbox for your future reference. For example, enter -save my_trs submits the report, saves a copy in my_trs.sv.mbx in the working directory, and exits the epr command. Note that "send -ack" does not give you an acknowledgment when the TR administrator reads the report. It invokes send_mail to send the report to another user (with acknowledgment), and then send_mail reports an error when it finds no user addresses have been specified. Entering problem reports with brief prompting: The TR commands can be invoked in a brief mode of operation which asks only essential questions. To enter a problem report in brief mode, type: epr -rql -rq "add -rqd" -bf After answering the required questions, epr enters the request loop. You can use the add request to add other (nonrequired) fields pertinent to your report. Use the list_fields (lfl) request to print a list of fields which can be supplied. Entering problem reports via editor: Some users prefer to enter problem reports by filling in a report template using an editor. The command epr -rql -rq edit enters the editor with a template report. (The user's choice of editor is given in the TR registration information.) The user can essentially fill in the blanks, save the file and quit out of the editor. At this point, epr enters its request loop and the send request can be used to submit the report. Many users like this method of TR entry, because it allows editing of the data as it is typed in. How Site SAs can specify site and release: For most users, the name of the site and release to which the problem report applies default to the current site and release name. However, Site SAs must specify these values in their reports. To avoid being asked these values in each report, the values for site and release reflecting the site you represent can be stored in an input file. For example site: Ford release: MR9.1 To invoke epr using this file with prompting for the remaining questions, type: epr -if my_site_defaults This could be stored as an abbreviation to save repetitive typing. To invoke epr with this file and use editor to answer remaining questions, type: epr -if my_site_defaults -rq edit How developers can answer trouble reports with no prompting: In many cases, trouble reports can be answered by giving state and error_list_info values without any additional information. The following command line does this: atr TRnumber -st STATE -eli pl1 1234 -rql -rq send or from within read_mail, use the apply request as ap -dl atr -st STATE -eli pl1 1234 -rql -rq send How developers can transfer a report to another developer: In some cases, a trouble report is sent to the wrong developer. If you know who the report should be sent to, type: ! attr TRnumber added info: ! Transfer this report to developer_name. ! . attr: ! send If you don't know which developer is responsible for the report, type: ! attr TRnumber added info: ! I am not responsible for this area of the system. ! . attr: ! send How developers can change type of a report: To change the type of a report as it is being answered, the developer can use atr as follows: atr TRnnnn -type new_type -state new_state -eli error_list_info This form specifies the new type, and a new state appropriate to that type, plus error list information. It is also possible to specify the new type from atr request level, after the answer (and perhaps, a state appropriate to the old type) have already been entered. To do this, use the replace request: rp type You will then be prompted for the new type. If the state given previously is not appropriate to the new type, you will be prompted for a new state as well. Also, if the type is being changed from suggestion or question to a problem, you will be prompted for a problem priority. ----------------------------------------------------------- Historical Background This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. as a contribution to computer science knowledge. This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970), renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems incorporated Multics principles. Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. . ----------------------------------------------------------- Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission. Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS All Rights Reserved