reportbug(1)



reportbug(1)                General Commands Manual               reportbug(1)

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 distribu-
       tion; 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 file-
       name, 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-pack-
       ages.

OPTIONS
       The  program  follows  the usual GNU command line syntax, with long op-
       tions starting with two dashes (`--').  A summary of  options  are  in-
       cluded 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  at-
              tach  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.)

              This  option  supports also globbing (i.e. names with wildcards,
              like file.*) but remember to include them between single  quotes
              (the  previous  example  becomes: 'file.*') else the shell would
              expand it before calling reportbug leading to an error.

              Be aware that when using an external MUA  to  send  the  message
              (such  as  mutt), the attachment feature is not available and no
              file will be attached at all: the MUA feature  to  attach  files
              must be used instead (so from within the MUA).

       -b, --no-query-bts
              Don't  check the Debian bug tracking system to see if this prob-
              lem 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.  Use
              --bts=help to obtain the list of valid  values.   Note  that  if
              your  HOME/.reportbugrc  or  /etc/reportbug.conf include an smt-
              phost setting that is specific to your default  bug  server  and
              not  a  generic  smarthost,  you may need to override this using
              --smtphost=<host> to be able to report a bug directly to 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 head-
              ers 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~.  Reportbug will exit  after  rewriting  its
              configuration  file,  hence  this option cannot usefully be com-
              bined with many other options.

       --check-available
              Check for newer releases of the package  at  packages.debian.org
              (default).   In  advanced  and  expert  mode, check incoming.de-
              bian.org and http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html too.

       --no-check-available
              Do not check for newer releases of the package  at  packages.de-
              bian.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 in-
              stead.  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(default /tmp).

       -e EDITOR, --editor=EDITOR
              Specify the editor to use, overriding any EDITOR or VISUAL envi-
              ronment 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.

       --envelope-from
              Specify  the  Envelope  From  mail header (also known as Return-
              path); by default it's the From address but it can be selected a
              different  one  in case the MTA doesn't canonicalize local users
              to public addresses.

       --mbox-reader-cmd=MBOX_READER_CMD
              Specify a command to open the bug reports mbox file. You can use
              %s  to  substitute  the mbox file to be used, and %% to insert a
              literal percent sign. If no %s is specified, the mbox file  name
              is supplied at the end of the argument list.

       --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  attempt-
              ing 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  op-
              tion allows you to specify the justification for a release-crit-
              ical 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  ar-
              chive; 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 ad-
              dress will be used.

       --latest-first
              Display the bug reports list sorted and with the latest  reports
              at the top.

       --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  in-
              tended with debbugs systems.

       --list-cc-me
              Send  a carbon copy of the report to your automatically detected
              email address after a report number is assigned.  This  sets  an
              X-Debbugs-CC  header  specifying  that address. This option will
              only work as intended with debbugs systems. See  the  documenta-
              tion  for the --email option and the ENVIRONMENT section for in-
              formation on how reportbug detects your email address.

       -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.

       --max-attachment-size=MAX_ATTACHMENT_SIZE
              Specify the maximum size any attachment file can have (this also
              include  the file for --body-file option). If an attachment file
              is too big, there could be problems in delivering the email (and
              also  to  compose  it), so we set a limit to attachment size. By
              default this is 10 megabytes.

       --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, shift-
              ing 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 re-
              porting 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 in-
              flation," 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 set-
              ting  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 discour-
              aged 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 de-
              fault).  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, --bugnumber BUGNUMBER
              Run reportbug against the specified bug report, useful when fol-
              lowing-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  file-
              name.

              The  output file is a full dump of the email message, so it con-
              tains 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,  dif-
              ferently  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: my-
              tag'.

       -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.

       --security-team
              If  the 'security' tag is set, this option will explicitly spec-
              ify to send the report only to the Debian Security Team, as this
              is an undisclosed vulnerability.

       --no-security-team
              If  the 'security' tag is set, this option will explicitly spec-
              ify to not send the report only to the Debian Security Team,  as
              this is not an undisclosed vulnerability.

       -S SEVERITY, --severity=SEVERITY
              Specify  a severity level, from critical, grave, serious, impor-
              tant, 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.  Note  that this option is ignored if you
              connect to your SMTP server via port 465, which already  implies
              using SSL/TLS.

       --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/.re-
              portbugrc).

       --src, --source
              Specify to report the bug against the source  package,  and  not
              the  binary  package (default behaviour).  In order for this op-
              tion to work, you have to populate the relevant 'deb-src'  lines
              in  /etc/apt/sources.list  so  that  apt  cache  will know about
              source packages too.

       -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 presents a  tem-
              plate without user's input.

       -u INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE, --ui=INTERFACE
              Specify  the user interface to use.  Valid options are text, ur-
              wid, and gtk; 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 sys-
              tem.

       -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/.report-
       bugrc 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, DEBEMAIL, EMAIL
              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 omit-
              ting a port other than 80, WILL NOT WORK).

NOTES
       reportbug  should  probably  be compatible with other bug tracking sys-
       tems, like bugzilla (used by the GNOME and Mozilla projects)  and  jit-
       terbug (used by Samba, AbiSource and FreeCiv) but it isn't.

SEE ALSO
       reportbug.conf(5), http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#tags for avail-
       able tags, querybts(1)

AUTHOR
       Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>, Sandro Tosi <morph@debian.org>.

                                                                  reportbug(1)

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