hard-to-reproduce bugs (was: plugged in thumb drive, which disconnected another USB drive)
Chris Bannister wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 09:04:51AM -0700, Mike Kupfer wrote:
> > - Do I need to have a reproducible test case before opening a bug?
>
> If it is not reproducible, then how does one go about fixing it?
I deal with hard-to-reproduce bugs in my day job fairly frequently.
Sometimes I'm able to suggest refinements to the test case to make the
problem easier to reproduce. Sometimes I can tell the submitter what
additional information to gather the next time the problem occurs.
Sometimes the bug report sits idle for awhile as I wait for additional
reports and additional clues. In theory I can provide a special debug
binary in the hopes of getting more information, though in practice I
can't remember the last time I did this. Sometimes I just find where a
particular message is generated and poke through the source code to see
if any causes leap out at me.
I don't mean to suggest that I expect Debian package maintainers to do
all that. I asked because I've had mixed results asking support
questions on this list, and I'm not sure what the cultural norms are in
Debian for filing a formal bug report.
regards,
mike
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