SEND-PR(1)                                                    General Commands Manual                                                   SEND-PR(1)

NAME

       send-pr, sendbug - 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 Management 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 automati-
       cally 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 complete 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.

       arm    ARM 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 documentation.

       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.

       sun4v  Problems specific to the SPARC sun4v architecture and processors.

       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
       sending 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 ses-
       sion.  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 automati-
          cally.

       o  Please try to be as accurate as possible in the subject and/or synopsis 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/pf.XXXXXXXX    copy of PR used in editing session
       /tmp/pf.XXXXXXXX    copy of empty PR form, for testing purposes
       /tmp/pr.XXXXXXXX    copy of filled PR form, created on interrupt
       /tmp/pbad.XXXXXXXX  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 informa-
       tion.  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 permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the  above  conditions  for  modified
       versions,  except  that  this  permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the
       original English.

October 2006                                                           3.113                                                            SEND-PR(1)