samba-mirror/docs/docbook/projdoc/Bugs.sgml

<chapter id="bugreport">

<chapterinfo>
	<author>
		<affiliation>
			<orgname>Samba Team</orgname>
		</affiliation>
	</author>
	<pubdate> 27 June 1997 </pubdate>
</chapterinfo>

<title>Reporting Bugs</title>

<sect1>
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>
The email address for bug reports for stable releases is <ulink url="samba@samba.org">samba@samba.org</ulink>. 
Bug reports for alpha releases should go to <ulink url="mailto:samba-technical@samba.org">samba-technical@samba.org</ulink>.
</para>

<para>
Please take the time to read this file before you submit a bug
report. Also, please see if it has changed between releases, as we
may be changing the bug reporting mechanism at some time.
</para>

<para>
Please also do as much as you can yourself to help track down the
bug. Samba is maintained by a dedicated group of people who volunteer
their time, skills and efforts. We receive far more mail about it than
we can possibly answer, so you have a much higher chance of an answer
and a fix if you send us a "developer friendly" bug report that lets
us fix it fast. 
</para>

<para>
Do not assume that if you post the bug to the comp.protocols.smb
newsgroup or the mailing list that we will read it. If you suspect that your 
problem is not a bug but a configuration problem then it is better to send 
it to the Samba mailing list, as there are (at last count) 5000 other users on
that list that may be able to help you.
</para>

<para>
You may also like to look though the recent mailing list archives,
which are conveniently accessible on the Samba web pages
at <ulink url="http://samba.org/samba/">http://samba.org/samba/</ulink>.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>General info</title>

<para>
Before submitting a bug report check your config for silly
errors. Look in your log files for obvious messages that tell you that
you've misconfigured something and run testparm to test your config
file for correct syntax.
</para>

<para>
Have you run through the <ulink url="Diagnosis.html">diagnosis</ulink>? 
This is very important.
</para>

<para>
If you include part of a log file with your bug report then be sure to
annotate it with exactly what you were doing on the client at the
time, and exactly what the results were.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>Debug levels</title>

<para>
If the bug has anything to do with Samba behaving incorrectly as a
server (like refusing to open a file) then the log files will probably
be very useful. Depending on the problem a log level of between 3 and
10 showing the problem may be appropriate. A higher level givesmore
detail, but may use too much disk space.
</para>

<para>
To set the debug level use <command>log level =</command> in your 
<filename>smb.conf</filename>. You may also find it useful to set the log 
level higher for just one machine and keep separate logs for each machine. 
To do this use:
</para>

<para><programlisting>
log level = 10
log file = /usr/local/samba/lib/log.%m
include = /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m
</programlisting></para>

<para>
then create a file 
<filename>/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.machine</filename> where
"machine" is the name of the client you wish to debug. In that file
put any smb.conf commands you want, for example 
<command>log level=</command> may be useful. This also allows you to 
experiment with different security systems, protocol levels etc on just 
one machine.
</para>

<para>
The <filename>smb.conf</filename> entry <command>log level =</command> 
is synonymous with the entry <command>debuglevel =</command> that has been 
used in older versions of Samba and is being retained for backwards 
compatibility of smb.conf files.
</para>

<para>
As the <command>log level =</command> value is increased you will record 
a significantly increasing level of debugging information. For most 
debugging operations you may not need a setting higher than 3. Nearly 
all bugs can be tracked at a setting of 10, but be prepared for a VERY 
large volume of log data.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>Internal errors</title>

<para>
If you get a "INTERNAL ERROR" message in your log files it means that
Samba got an unexpected signal while running. It is probably a
segmentation fault and almost certainly means a bug in Samba (unless
you have faulty hardware or system software)
</para>

<para>
If the message came from smbd then it will probably be accompanied by
a message which details the last SMB message received by smbd. This
info is often very useful in tracking down the problem so please
include it in your bug report.
</para>

<para>
You should also detail how to reproduce the problem, if
possible. Please make this reasonably detailed.
</para>

<para>
You may also find that a core file appeared in a "corefiles"
subdirectory of the directory where you keep your samba log
files. This file is the most useful tool for tracking down the bug. To
use it you do this:
</para>

<para><command>gdb smbd core</command></para>

<para>
adding appropriate paths to smbd and core so gdb can find them. If you
don't have gdb then try "dbx". Then within the debugger use the
command "where" to give a stack trace of where the problem
occurred. Include this in your mail.
</para>

<para>
If you known any assembly language then do a "disass" of the routine
where the problem occurred (if its in a library routine then
disassemble the routine that called it) and try to work out exactly
where the problem is by looking at the surrounding code. Even if you
don't know assembly then incuding this info in the bug report can be
useful. 
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>Attaching to a running process</title>

<para>
Unfortunately some unixes (in particular some recent linux kernels)
refuse to dump a core file if the task has changed uid (which smbd
does often). To debug with this sort of system you could try to attach
to the running process using "gdb smbd PID" where you get PID from
smbstatus. Then use "c" to continue and try to cause the core dump
using the client. The debugger should catch the fault and tell you
where it occurred.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1>
<title>Patches</title>

<para>
The best sort of bug report is one that includes a fix! If you send us
patches please use <command>diff -u</command> format if your version of 
diff supports it, otherwise use <command>diff -c4</command>. Make sure 
your do the diff against a clean version of the source and let me know 
exactly what version you used. 
</para>

</sect1>
</chapter>