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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001[Some of this is taken from Frohwalt Egerer's original linux-kernel FAQ]
2
3 What follows is a suggested procedure for reporting Linux bugs. You
4aren't obliged to use the bug reporting format, it is provided as a guide
5to the kind of information that can be useful to developers - no more.
6
7 If the failure includes an "OOPS:" type message in your log or on
8screen please read "Documentation/oops-tracing.txt" before posting your
9bug report. This explains what you should do with the "Oops" information
10to make it useful to the recipient.
11
Tobias Klauser9dcbb322005-09-10 00:26:58 -070012 Send the output to the maintainer of the kernel area that seems to
J. Bruce Fields3ab32df2008-02-07 00:13:40 -080013be involved with the problem, and cc the relevant mailing list. Don't
14worry too much about getting the wrong person. If you are unsure send it
15to the person responsible for the code relevant to what you were doing.
16If it occurs repeatably try and describe how to recreate it. That is
17worth even more than the oops itself. The list of maintainers and
Joe Perches503f7942009-08-18 14:11:18 -070018mailing lists is in the MAINTAINERS file in this directory. If you
19know the file name that causes the problem you can use the following
20command in this directory to find some of the maintainers of that file:
21 perl scripts/get_maintainer.pl -f <filename>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070022
23 If it is a security bug, please copy the Security Contact listed
24in the MAINTAINERS file. They can help coordinate bugfix and disclosure.
Tobias Klauser9dcbb322005-09-10 00:26:58 -070025See Documentation/SecurityBugs for more information.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070026
27 If you are totally stumped as to whom to send the report, send it to
28linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org. (For more information on the linux-kernel
29mailing list see http://www.tux.org/lkml/).
30
Tobias Klauser9dcbb322005-09-10 00:26:58 -070031This is a suggested format for a bug report sent to the Linux kernel mailing
32list. Having a standardized bug report form makes it easier for you not to
33overlook things, and easier for the developers to find the pieces of
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070034information they're really interested in. Don't feel you have to follow it.
35
36 First run the ver_linux script included as scripts/ver_linux, which
37reports the version of some important subsystems. Run this script with
38the command "sh scripts/ver_linux".
39
40Use that information to fill in all fields of the bug report form, and
41post it to the mailing list with a subject of "PROBLEM: <one line
Tobias Klauser9dcbb322005-09-10 00:26:58 -070042summary from [1.]>" for easy identification by the developers.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070043
Tobias Klauser9dcbb322005-09-10 00:26:58 -070044[1.] One line summary of the problem:
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070045[2.] Full description of the problem/report:
46[3.] Keywords (i.e., modules, networking, kernel):
Randy Dunlap4e229be2006-12-06 20:39:14 -080047[4.] Kernel information
48[4.1.] Kernel version (from /proc/version):
49[4.2.] Kernel .config file:
Andrew Morton30e835e2005-08-05 11:59:32 -070050[5.] Most recent kernel version which did not have the bug:
51[6.] Output of Oops.. message (if applicable) with symbolic information
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070052 resolved (see Documentation/oops-tracing.txt)
Andrew Morton30e835e2005-08-05 11:59:32 -070053[7.] A small shell script or example program which triggers the
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070054 problem (if possible)
Andrew Morton30e835e2005-08-05 11:59:32 -070055[8.] Environment
56[8.1.] Software (add the output of the ver_linux script here)
57[8.2.] Processor information (from /proc/cpuinfo):
58[8.3.] Module information (from /proc/modules):
59[8.4.] Loaded driver and hardware information (/proc/ioports, /proc/iomem)
60[8.5.] PCI information ('lspci -vvv' as root)
61[8.6.] SCSI information (from /proc/scsi/scsi)
62[8.7.] Other information that might be relevant to the problem
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070063 (please look in /proc and include all information that you
64 think to be relevant):
65[X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds:
66
67
68Thank you