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6
7BUGS
8
9 1. Bugs
10  1.1 There are still bugs
11  1.2 Where to report
12  1.3 What to report
13  1.4 libcurl problems
14  1.5 Who will fix the problems
15  1.6 How to get a stack trace
16  1.7 Bugs in libcurl bindings
17
18==============================================================================
19
201.1 There are still bugs
21
22  Curl and libcurl have grown substantially since the beginning. At the time
23  of writing (September 2011), there are about 66000 lines of source code, and
24  by the time you read this it has probably grown even more.
25
26  Of course there are lots of bugs left. And lots of misfeatures.
27
28  To help us make curl the stable and solid product we want it to be, we need
29  bug reports and bug fixes.
30
311.2 Where to report
32
33  If you can't fix a bug yourself and submit a fix for it, try to report an as
34  detailed report as possible to a curl mailing list to allow one of us to
35  have a go at a solution. You can optionally also post your bug/problem at
36  curl's bug tracking system over at
37
38        http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=976
39
40  (but please read the sections below first before doing that)
41
42  If you feel you need to ask around first, find a suitable mailing list and
43  post there. The lists are available on http://curl.haxx.se/mail/
44
451.3 What to report
46
47  When reporting a bug, you should include all information that will help us
48  understand what's wrong, what you expected to happen and how to repeat the
49  bad behavior. You therefore need to tell us:
50
51   - your operating system's name and version number
52
53   - what version of curl you're using (curl -V is fine)
54
55   - versions of the used libraries that libcurl is built to use
56
57   - what URL you were working with (if possible), at least which protocol
58
59  and anything and everything else you think matters. Tell us what you
60  expected to happen, tell use what did happen, tell us how you could make it
61  work another way. Dig around, try out, test. Then include all the tiny bits
62  and pieces in your report. You will benefit from this yourself, as it will
63  enable us to help you quicker and more accurately.
64
65  Since curl deals with networks, it often helps us if you include a protocol
66  debug dump with your bug report. The output you get by using the -v or
67  --trace options.
68
69  If curl crashed, causing a core dump (in unix), there is hardly any use to
70  send that huge file to anyone of us. Unless we have an exact same system
71  setup as you, we can't do much with it. Instead we ask you to get a stack
72  trace and send that (much smaller) output to us instead!
73
74  The address and how to subscribe to the mailing lists are detailed in the
75  MANUAL file.
76
771.4 libcurl problems
78
79  First, post all libcurl problems on the curl-library mailing list.
80
81  When you've written your own application with libcurl to perform transfers,
82  it is even more important to be specific and detailed when reporting bugs.
83
84  Tell us the libcurl version and your operating system. Tell us the name and
85  version of all relevant sub-components like for example the SSL library
86  you're using and what name resolving your libcurl uses. If you use SFTP or
87  SCP, the libssh2 version is relevant etc.
88
89  Showing us a real source code example repeating your problem is the best way
90  to get our attention and it will greatly increase our chances to understand
91  your problem and to work on a fix (if we agree it truly is a problem).
92
93  Lots of problems that appear to be libcurl problems are actually just abuses
94  of the libcurl API or other malfunctions in your applications. It is adviced
95  that you run your problematic program using a memory debug tool like
96  valgrind or similar before you post memory-related or "crashing" problems to
97  us.
98
991.5 Who will fix the problems
100
101  If the problems or bugs you describe are considered to be bugs, we want to
102  have the problems fixed.
103
104  There are no developers in the curl project that are paid to work on bugs.
105  All developers that take on reported bugs do this on a voluntary basis. We
106  do it out of an ambition to keep curl and libcurl excellent products and out
107  of pride.
108
109  But please do not assume that you can just lump over something to us and it
110  will then magically be fixed after some given time. Most often we need
111  feedback and help to understand what you've experienced and how to repeat a
112  problem. Then we may only be able to assist YOU to debug the problem and to
113  track down the proper fix.
114
115  We get reports from many people every month and each report can take a
116  considerable amount of time to really go to the bottom with.
117
1181.6 How to get a stack trace
119
120  First, you must make sure that you compile all sources with -g and that you
121  don't 'strip' the final executable. Try to avoid optimizing the code as
122  well, remove -O, -O2 etc from the compiler options.
123
124  Run the program until it cores.
125
126  Run your debugger on the core file, like '<debugger> curl core'. <debugger>
127  should be replaced with the name of your debugger, in most cases that will
128  be 'gdb', but 'dbx' and others also occur.
129
130  When the debugger has finished loading the core file and presents you a
131  prompt, enter 'where' (without the quotes) and press return.
132
133  The list that is presented is the stack trace. If everything worked, it is
134  supposed to contain the chain of functions that were called when curl
135  crashed. Include the stack trace with your detailed bug report. It'll help a
136  lot.
137
1381.7 Bugs in libcurl bindings
139
140  There will of course pop up bugs in libcurl bindings. You should then
141  primarily approach the team that works on that particular binding and see
142  what you can do to help them fix the problem.
143
144  If you suspect that the problem exists in the underlying libcurl, then
145  please convert your program over to plain C and follow the steps outlined
146  above.
147