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SEND-PR(1) SEND-PR(1)
NAME
send-pr - send problem report (PR) to a central support site
SYNOPSIS
send-pr [ site ] [ -f problem-report ] [ -t mail-address ]
[ -P ] [ -L ] [ -s severity ] [ -V ]
[ --version ] [ -c address ] [ -a file ]
DESCRIPTION
send-pr is a tool used to submit problem reports (PRs) to a central
support site. In most cases the correct site will be the default.
This argument indicates the support site which is responsible for the
category of problem involved. Some sites may use a local address as a
default. site values are defined by using the aliases(5).
send-pr invokes an editor on a problem report template (after trying to
fill in some fields with reasonable default values). When you exit the
editor, send-pr sends the completed form to the Problem Report Manage-
ment System (GNATS) at a central support site. At the support site,
the PR is assigned a unique number and is stored in the GNATS database
according to its category and submitter-id. GNATS automatically
replies with an acknowledgement, citing the category and the PR number.
To ensure that a PR is handled promptly, it should contain one of the
available categories to identify the problem area. (Use `send-pr -L'
to see a list of categories.)
The more precise your problem description and the more complete your
information, the faster your support team can solve your problems.
send-pr depends on a correctly configured mail submission system to
work correctly. If, for any reason, sending mail is not working, prob-
lem reports can be submitted over the web, through:
http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html
OPTIONS
-f problem-report
specify a file (problem-report) which already contains a com-
plete problem report. send-pr sends the contents of the file
without invoking the editor. If the value for problem-report is
`-', then send-pr reads from standard input.
-s severity
Give the problem report the severity severity.
-t mail-address
Change mail address at the support site for problem reports.
The default mail-address is the address used for the default
site. Use the site argument rather than this option in nearly
all cases.
-c address
Put address in the Cc: header of the message.
-a file
Copy the specified file into the Fix: section. Binary files are
uuencoded.
-P print the form specified by the environment variable PR_FORM on
standard output. If PR_FORM is not set, print the standard
blank PR template. No mail is sent.
-L print the list of available categories. No mail is sent.
-V Display the send-pr version number. This may also be specified
as --version.
Note: use send-pr to submit problem reports rather than mailing them
directly. Using both the template and send-pr itself will help ensure
all necessary information will reach the support site.
FREEBSD CATEGORIES
advocacy
This used to be for the advocacy WWW pages. Now deprecated in
favour of the www category, relevant alternative use of this
category is encouraged.
alpha Alpha processor specific problems.
amd64 AMD64 processor specific problems.
bin Corrections or enhancements to system executables.
conf Corrections or enhancements to the system configuration files.
docs Corrections or enhancements to the manpages or other documenta-
tion.
gnu Corrections or enhancements to the GNU contributed software.
i386 Intel x86 processor specific problems.
ia64 Intel ia64 processor specific problems.
java Problems related to Java.
kern Changes or enhancements to the architecture independent kernel
sources.
misc Problems that do not fit into any of the other categories.
ports Corrections or enhancements (including new ports) to the ports
collection.
powerpc
PowerPC processor specific problems.
sparc64
SPARC processor specific problems.
standards
Standards conformance issues.
threads
Problems related to threading on FreeBSD.
usb Problems related to the USB subsystem.
www Changes or enhancements to the FreeBSD website.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable EDITOR specifies the editor to invoke on the
template.
default: vi
If the environment variable MAIL_AGENT is set, its value is used as the
path + command line arguments of the executable to be invoked for send-
ing the problem report (which will be provided via standard input).
This can be useful if you either use a MTA other than sendmail or need
to provide additional parameters, such as the envelope sender on
machines without a valid FQDN.
Default value: /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t
If the environment variable PR_FORM is set, then its value is used as
the file name of the template for your problem-report editing session.
You can use this to start with a partially completed form (for example,
a form with the identification fields already completed).
HOW TO FILL OUT A PROBLEM REPORT
Problem reports have to be in a particular form so that a program can
easily manage them. Please remember the following guidelines:
o describe only one problem with each problem report.
o For follow-up mail, use the same subject line as the one in the
automatic acknowledgement. It consists of category, PR number and
the original synopsis line. This allows the support site to relate
several mail messages to a particular PR and to record them automat-
ically.
o Please try to be as accurate as possible in the subject and/or syn-
opsis line.
o The subject and the synopsis line are not confidential. This is
because open-bugs lists are compiled from them. Avoid confidential
information there.
See the GNU Info file send-pr.info or the document Reporting Problems
With send-pr for detailed information on reporting problems
HOW TO SUBMIT TEST CASES, CODE, ETC.
Submit small code samples with the PR. Contact the support site for
instructions on submitting larger test cases and problematic source
code.
FILES
/tmp/p$$ copy of PR used in editing session
/tmp/pf$$ copy of empty PR form, for testing purposes
/tmp/pbad$$ file for rejected PRs
EMACS USER INTERFACE
An Emacs user interface for send-pr with completion of field values is
part of the send-pr distribution (invoked with M-x send-pr). See the
file send-pr.info or the ASCII file INSTALL in the top level directory
of the distribution for configuration and installation information.
The Emacs LISP template file is send-pr-el.in and is installed as send-
pr.el.
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
See send-pr.info or INSTALL for installation instructions.
SEE ALSO
Reporting Problems Using send-pr (also installed as the GNU Info file
send-pr.info).
AUTHORS
Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Jason Merrill, Heinz G. Seidl (Cygnus
Support)
COPYING
Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a per-
mission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this man-
ual into another language, under the above conditions for modified ver-
sions, except that this permission notice may be included in transla-
tions approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the origi-
nal English.
February 1993 3.113 SEND-PR(1)
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