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When something fails
Below are some tips for reporting bugs and asking questions. The idea is to use these resources as efficiently as possible (specifically, to save time for the good people who will look into your bug or answer your question). Please read this; if you don't, then in answer to your query you'll likely be directed back here.
First, check the issue trackers. Known bugs, often with patches or workarounds, are generally found there. If you have something to add to an existing bug, add it as a comment to the bug, rather than posting to the mailing lists.
Next, check the mailing list archives. Search the archives to see if someone else has asked your question or reported your bug.
If all the above steps failed, the best thing to do is post to the mailing list.
Read the next section before posting |
Guidelines for mailing list messages
- Don't contact the developers/maintainers directly.
- Direct correspondence is not archived or otherwise publicly available, which means that the larger user/developer community can't benefit from your question or the ensuing answer(s). Open Source development works best when the entire community participates in discussions and helps to answer questions.
- To be clear, send all questions to the appropriate mailing list, and report all bugs to the bug tracker.
- Be as specific as possible, with steps to reproduce.
- Describe exactly what you were doing or are trying to do, and exactly what, if anything, went wrong. If you say, "rviz doesn't work," we can't help you.
- Always provide the following information:
- Names and versions of our packages that you're
- Always provide the following information:
using. "I'm using ROS C Turtle with pr2_simulator 1.1.1 and vocabulary_tree r30294"
Your platform (architecture, OS & version/distro). "I'm
running OS X 10.5 on an iBook," or "I'm running Ubuntu Karmic on an x86, with kernel 2.6.31." For Linux, always provide the distro and kernel versions.
Any warnings or errors. Cut and paste them directly from the terminal window to which they were printed. DO NOT re-type them yourself.
- Describe exactly what you were doing or are trying to do, and exactly what, if anything, went wrong. If you say, "rviz doesn't work," we can't help you.
When discussing any compiling/linking/installation issues, also provide:
- gcc version
As appropriate, also include your:
- Backtraces
- Relevant config files
- Your graphics card
Ogre.log for rviz, if possible (run with rviz -l)
- Bag files and code samples that can reproduce the problem
Don't send your question more than once. We all heard you the first time, and if you didn't get a response then likely nobody has had time to answer you. Alternatively, it could be that nobody knows the answer, or that nobody wants to help you. In any case, sending it again is poor form and will only aggravate everybody else. And don't tell us about your homework/project/paper deadlines; we don't care.
