NAME
reportbug - reports a bug to a debbugs server
SYNOPSIS
reportbug [options] <package | pseudo-package | absolute-pathname>
DESCRIPTION
reportbug is primarily designed to report bugs in the Debian
distribution; by default, it creates an email to the Debian bug
tracking system at submit@bugs.debian.org with information about the
bug you’ve found, and makes a carbon copy of the report for you as
well.
Using the --bts option, you can also report bugs to other servers that
use the Debian bug tracking system, debbugs.
You may specify either a package name or a filename; if you use a
filename, it must either be an absolute filename (so beginning with a
/) or if you want reportbug to search the system for a filename, see
the --filename and --path options below. If installed, also dlocate is
used to identify the filename location and thus the package containing
it.
You can also specify a pseudo-package; these are used in the Debian bug
tracking system to track issues that are not related to one specific
package. Run reportbug without any arguments, then enter other at the
package prompt, to see a list of the most commonly-used pseudo-
packages.
OPTIONS
The program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (‘--’). A summary of options are
included below.
-h, --help
Show summary of options.
--version
Show the version of reportbug and exit.
-A FILENAME, --attach=FILENAME
Attach a file to the bug report; both text and binary files are
acceptable; this option can be specified multiple times to
attach several files. This routine will create a MIME
attachment with the file included; in some cases (usually text
files), it is probably better to use -i/--include option.
(Please note that Debian’s bug tracking system has limited
support for MIME attachments.)
-b, --no-query-bts
Don’t check the Debian bug tracking system to see if this
problem has already been reported; useful for offline use or if
you’re really sure it’s a bug.
--query-bts
Check the Debian bug tracking system to see if this problem has
already been reported (default).
-B SYSTEM, --bts=SYSTEM
Instead of the Debian bug server (or the bug server specified in
/etc/reportbug.conf, use the server specified by SYSTEM.
--body=BODY
Use the specified BODY as the body of the message. The body
text will be wrapped at 70 columns, and the normal reportbug
headers and footers will be added as appropriate. The editor
prompt and any "special" prompting will be bypassed.
--body-file=BODYFILE, --bodyfile=BODYFILE
The contents of the (assumed to be) text file BODYFILE will be
used as the message body. This file is assumed to be properly
formatted (i.e. reasonable line lengths, etc.). The usual
headers and footers will be added, and the editor step and
"special" prompts will be skipped. (BODYFILE may also be a
named pipe; using a device special file may lead to unusual
results.)
-c, --no-config-files
Omit configuration files from the bug report without asking. By
default, you are asked if you want to include them; in some
cases, doing so may cause sensitive information to be sent via
email.
-C CLASS, --class=CLASS
Specify report class for GNATS BTSes.
--configure
Rerun the reportbug first time configuration routine, and write
a new $HOME/.reportbugrc file. This will erase any pre-existing
settings in the file; however, a backup will be written as
$HOME/.reportbugrc~.
--check-available
Check for newer releases of the package at packages.debian.org
(default). In advanced and expert mode, check
incoming.debian.org and http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html
too.
--no-check-available
Do not check for newer releases of the package at
packages.debian.org.
--debconf
Include debconf settings in your report.
--no-debconf
Do not include debconf settings from your report.
-d, --debug
Don’t send a real bug report to Debian; send it to yourself
instead. This is primarily used for testing by the maintainer.
--test Operate in test mode (maintainer use only).
--draftpath=DRAFTPATH
Save the draft (for example, when exiting and saving the report
without reporting it) into DRAFTPATH directory.
-e EDITOR, --editor=EDITOR
Specify the editor to use, overriding any EDITOR or VISUAL
environment variable setting.
--email=ADDRESS
Set the email address your report should appear to be sent from
(i.e. the address that appears in the From header). This should
be the actual Internet email address on its own (i.e. without a
real name or comment part, like foo@example.com). This setting
will override the EMAIL and DEBEMAIL environment variables, but
not REPORTBUGEMAIL.
--exit-prompt
Display a prompt before exiting; this is useful if reportbug is
run in a transient terminal (i.e. from its Debian menu entry).
-f FILENAME, --filename=FILENAME
Report a bug in the package containing FILENAME so you don’t
have to figure out what package the file belongs to. The path
will be searched for an exact path for FILENAME before
attempting to broaden the search to all files. If dlocate is
installed, FILENAME is actually a regular expression.
--from-buildd=BUILDD_FORMAT
This options is a shortcut for buildd admins to report bugs from
buildd log; the option expects a value in the format of
$source_$version where $source is the source package the bug
will be reported against and $version is its version.
--path If the -f/--filename option is also specified, only search the
path for the specified FILENAME. Specifying an absolute path
with the -f/--filename option (i.e. one beginning with a /)
overrides this behavior.
-g, --gnupg, --gpg
Attach a digital signature to the bug report using GnuPG (the
GNU Privacy Guard). (This argument will be ignored if you are
using an MUA to edit and send your report.)
-G, --gnus
Use the GNUS mail and news reader to send your report, rather
than using the editor.
-H HEADER, --header=HEADER
Add a custom RFC2822 header to your email; for example, to send
a carbon copy of the report to debian-68k@lists.linux-m68k.org
you could use -H X-Debbugs-CC: debian-68k@lists.linux-m68k.org
-i FILE, --include=FILE
Include the specified FILE as part of the body of the message to
be edited. Can be used multiple times to add multiple files;
text-only please! From a suggestion by Michael Alan Dorman in
the bug mailing list. (See also the -a/--attach option.)
-I, --no-check-installed
Do not check whether the package is installed before filing a
report. This is generally only useful when filing a report on a
package you know is not installed on your system.
--check-installed
Check if the specified package is installed when filing reports.
(This is the default behavior of reportbug.)
-j JUSTIFICATION, --justification=JUSTIFICATION
Bugs in Debian that have serious, grave, or critical severities
must meet certain criteria to be classified as such. This
option allows you to specify the justification for a release-
critical bug, instead of being prompted for it.
-k, --kudos
Send appreciative email to the recorded maintainer address,
rather than filing a bug report. (You can also send kudos to
packagename@packages.debian.org, for packages in the Debian
archive; however, this option uses the Maintainer address from
the control file, so it works with other package sources too.)
-K KEYID, --keyid=KEYID
Private key to use for PGP/GnuPG signatures. If not specified,
the first key in the secret keyring that matches your email
address will be used.
--license
Show reportbug’s copyright and license information on standard
output.
--list-cc=ADDRESS
Send a carbon copy of the report to the specified list after a
report number is assigned; this is the equivalent to the option
-H X-Debbugs-CC: ADDRESS. This option will only work as
intended with debbugs systems.
-m, --maintonly
Only send the bug to the package maintainer; the bug tracking
system will not send a copy to the bug report distribution
lists.
--mirror=MIRRORS
Add a BTS mirror.
--mode=MODE
Set the operating mode for reportbug. reportbug currently has
four operating modes: novice (the default), standard, advanced,
and expert.
novice mode is designed to minimize prompting about things that
"ordinary users" would be unlikely to know or care about,
shifting the triage burden onto the maintainer. Checking for
new versions is only done for the stable distribution in this
mode. It is currently the default mode.
standard mode includes a relatively large number of prompts and
tries to encourage users to not file frivolous or duplicate bug
reports.
advanced mode is like standard mode, but may include shortcuts
suitable for more advanced users of Debian, without being as
close to the metal (and potential flamage) as expert mode.
(Currently, the only differences from standard mode are that it
assumes familiarity with the "incoming" queue; it allows the
reporting of bugs on "dependency" packages; and it does not
prompt where to insert the report text in the editor.)
expert mode is designed to minimize prompts that are designed to
discourage frivolous or unnecessary bug reports, "severity
inflation," and the like. In expert mode, reportbug assumes the
user is thoroughly familiar with Debian policies. In practice,
this means that reporters are no longer required to justify
setting a high severity on a bug report, and certain automated
cleanups of the message are bypassed. Individuals who do not
regularly contribute to the Debian project are highly
discouraged from using expert mode, as it can lead to flamage
from maintainers when used improperly.
-M, --mutt
Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the
mutt mail reader to edit and send it.
--mta=MTA
Specify an alternate MTA, instead of /usr/sbin/sendmail (the
default). Any smtphost setting will override this one.
--mua=MUA
Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the
specified MUA (mail user agent) to edit and send it. --mutt and
--nmh options are processed.
-n, --mh, --nmh
Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the
comp command (part of the nmh and mh mail systems) to edit and
send it.
-N, --bugnumber
Run reportbug against the specified bug report, useful when
following-up a bug and its number is already known.
--no-bug-script
Do not execute the bug script (if present); this option can be
useful together with --template to suppress every interactive
actions, since some bug scripts can ask questions.
--no-cc-menu
Don’t display the menu to enter additional addresses (CC).
--no-tags-menu
Don’t display the menu to enter additional tags.
-o FILE, --output=FILE
Instead of sending an email, redirect it to the specified
filename.
The output file is a full dump of the email message, so it
contains both headers and mail body. If you want to use it as a
template to create a new bug report, then you have to remove all
the headers (mind the Subject one, though) and start the report
at the Package pseudo-header.
-O, --offline
Disable all external queries. Currently has the same effect as
--no-check-available --no-query-bts.
-p, --print
Instead of sending an email, print the bug report to standard
output, so you can redirect it to a file or pipe it to another
program.
This option only outputs a template for a bug report (but,
differently from --template it’s more interactive); you will
need to fill in the long description.
--paranoid
Show the contents of the message before it is sent, including
all headers. Automatically disabled if in template mode.
--no-paranoid
Don’t show the full contents of the message before it is sent
(default).
--pgp Attach a digital signature to the bug report using PGP (Pretty
Good Privacy). Please note, however, that the Debian project is
phasing out the use of PGP in favor of GnuPG. (This argument
will be ignored if using an MUA to edit and send your report.)
--proxy=PROXY, --http_proxy=PROXY
Specify the WWW proxy server to use to handle the query of the
bug tracking system. You should only need this parameter if you
are behind a firewall. The PROXY argument should be formatted
as a valid HTTP URL, including (if necessary) a port number; for
example, http://192.168.1.1:3128/.
-P PSEUDO-HEADER, --pseudo-header=PSEUDO-HEADER
Add a custom pseudo-header to your report; for example, to add
the mytag usertag for the user humberto@example.com to the bug,
you could use -P User: humberto@example.com -P Usertags:
mytag.
-q, --quiet
Suppress diagnostic messages to standard error.
-Q, --query-only
Do not submit a bug report; just query the BTS. Option ignored
if you specify --no-bts-query.
--query-source
Query on all binary packages built by the same source, not just
the binary package specified.
--no-query-source
Only query on the binary package specified on the command line.
--realname=NAME
Set the real name (human-readable name) to use for your report.
--report-quiet
Register the bug in the bug tracking system, but don’t send a
report to the package maintainer or anyone else. Don’t do this
unless you’re the maintainer of the package in question, or you
really know what you are doing.
--reply-to=ADDRESS, --replyto=ADDRESS
Set the Reply-To address header in your report.
-s SUBJECT, --subject=SUBJECT
Set the subject of the bug report (i.e. a brief explanation of
the problem, less than 60 characters). If you do not specify
this switch, you will be prompted for a subject.
-S SEVERITY, --severity=SEVERITY
Specify a severity level, from critical, grave, serious,
important, normal, minor, and wishlist.
--smtphost=HOST[:PORT]
Use the mail transport agent (MTA) at HOST to send your report,
instead of your local /usr/sbin/sendmail program. This should
generally be your ISP’s outgoing mail server; you can also use
’localhost’ if you have a working mail server running on your
machine. If the PORT is omitted, the standard port for SMTP,
port 25, is used.
--timeout=SECONDS
Specify the network timeout, the number of seconds to wait for a
resource to respond. If nothing is specified, a default timeout
of 1 minute is selected.
In case of a network error, there are chances it’s due to a too
low timeout: try passing the --timeout option with a higher
value than default.
--tls If using SMTP, use Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption to
secure the connection to the mail server. Some SMTP servers may
require this option.
--smtpuser=USERNAME
If using SMTP, use the specified USERNAME for authentication.
--smtppasswd=PASSWORD
If using SMTP, use the specified PASSWORD for authentication.
If the password isn’t specified on the command line or in the
configuration file, a prompt will be displayed asking for it.
Use of this option is insecure on multiuser systems. Instead,
you should set this option in $HOME/.reportbugrc and ensure it
is only readable by your user (e.g. with chmod 600
$HOME/.reportbugrc).
--src, --source
Specify to report the bug against the source package, and not
the binary package (default behaviour).
-t TYPE, --type=TYPE
Specify the type of report to be submitted; currently accepts
either gnats or debbugs.
-T TAG, --tag=TAG
Specify a tag to be filed on this report, for example
--tag=patch. Multiple tags can be specified using multiple
-T/--tag arguments.
Alternatively, you can specify the ’tag’ none to bypass the tags
prompt without specifying any tags; this will also ignore any
tags specified on the command line.
--template
Output a template report to standard output. Differently from
-p/--print, it tries to be not interactive, and present a
template without user’s input.
-u INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE, --ui=INTERFACE
Specify the user interface to use. Valid options are text,
urwid, and gtk2; default is taken from the reportbug
configuration files.
-v, --verify
Verify the integrity of the package (if installed) using debsums
before reporting.
--no-verify
Do not verify the integrity of the package with debsums.
-V VERSION, --package-version=VERSION
Specify the version of the package the problem was found in.
This is probably most useful if you are reporting a bug in a
package that is not installable or installed on a different
system.
-x, --no-cc
Don’t send a blind carbon copy (BCC) of the bug report to the
submitter (i.e. yourself).
-z, --no-compress
Don’t compress configuration files by removing comments and
blank lines.
EXAMPLES
reportbug lynx-ssl
Report a bug in the lynx-ssl package.
reportbug --path --filename=ls
Report a bug in the installed package that includes a program in
your path called ls.
CONFIGURATION FILES
From version 0.22 on, reportbug has supported a simple run control file
syntax. Commands are read from /etc/reportbug.conf and
$HOME/.reportbugrc with commands in the latter overriding those in the
former.
Commands are not case sensitive, and currently take 0 or 1 argument;
arguments containing whitespace must be enclosed in quotes.
Any line starting with # is taken to be a comment and will be ignored.
Generally, options corresponding to the long options for reportbug are
supported, without leading -- sequences. See reportbug.conf(5) for all
acceptable options and detailed information.
ENVIRONMENT
VISUAL Editor to use for editing your bug report.
EDITOR Editor to use for editing the bug report (overridden by VISUAL).
REPORTBUGEMAIL, EMAIL, DEBEMAIL
Email address to use as your from address (in this order). If no
environment variable exists, the default is taken from your user
name and /etc/mailname.
DEBFULLNAME, DEBNAME, NAME
Real name to use; default is taken from /etc/passwd.
REPLYTO
Address for Reply-To header in outgoing mail.
MAILCC Use the specified CC address on your email. Note you can also
use the -H option for this (and for Bcc’s too).
MAILBCC
Use the specified BCC address, instead of your email address.
(CC and BCC based on suggestions from Herbert Thielen in the bug
wishlist).
http_proxy
Provides the address of a proxy server to handle the BTS query.
This should be a valid http URL for a proxy server, including
any required port number (simply specifying a hostname, or
omitting a port other than 80, WILL NOT WORK).
NOTES
reportbug should probably be compatible with other bug tracking
systems, like bugzilla (used by the GNOME and Mozilla projects) and
jitterbug (used by Samba, AbiSource and FreeCiv) but it isn’t.
SEE ALSO
reportbug.conf(5), http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#tags for
available tags, querybts(1)
AUTHOR
Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>, Sandro Tosi <morph@debian.org>.
reportbug(1)