Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:28:47 +0000 (UTC) From: Warren Block <wblock@FreeBSD.org> To: doc-committers@freebsd.org, svn-doc-all@freebsd.org, svn-doc-head@freebsd.org Subject: svn commit: r44225 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports Message-ID: <201403130328.s2D3SlLp056229@svn.freebsd.org>
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Author: wblock Date: Thu Mar 13 03:28:47 2014 New Revision: 44225 URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/44225 Log: Fix numerous style problems, remove many uses of "you" and "your" (leaving only a few thousand), kinda sorta maybe remove some instances of passive voice, remove and reduce repeated redundancy, add some IDs to sections. Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.xml Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.xml ============================================================================== --- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.xml Thu Mar 13 03:00:53 2014 (r44224) +++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/article.xml Thu Mar 13 03:28:47 2014 (r44225) @@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ it.</para> <para>This document attempts to describe how to write good problem - reports. What, you ask, is a good problem report? Well, to go + reports. What, one asks, is a good problem report? Well, to go straight to the bottom line, a good problem report is one that can be analyzed and dealt with swiftly, to the mutual satisfaction of both user and developer.</para> @@ -56,37 +56,37 @@ software projects.</para> <para>Note that this article is organized thematically, not - chronologically, so you should read through the entire document - before submitting a problem report, rather than treat it as a + chronologically. Read the entire document + before submitting a problem report, rather than treating it as a step-by-step tutorial.</para> </section> <section xml:id="pr-when"> - <title>When to submit a problem report</title> + <title>When to Submit a Problem Report</title> <para>There are many types of problems, and not all of them should engender a problem report. Of course, nobody is perfect, and - there will be times when you are convinced you have found a bug - in a program when in fact you have misunderstood the syntax for - a command or made a typographical error in a configuration file + there will be times when what seems to be a bug + in a program is, in fact, a misunderstanding of the syntax for + a command or a typographical error in a configuration file (though that in itself may sometimes be indicative of poor documentation or poor error handling in the application). There are still many cases where submitting a problem report is clearly <emphasis>not</emphasis> the right - course of action, and will only serve to frustrate you and the + course of action, and will only serve to frustrate both the submitter and the developers. Conversely, there are cases where it might be appropriate to submit a problem report about something else than a bug—an enhancement or a new feature, for instance.</para> - <para>So how do you determine what is a bug and what is not? As a - simple rule of thumb your problem is <emphasis>not</emphasis> a + <para>So how does one determine what is a bug and what is not? As a + simple rule of thumb, the problem is <emphasis>not</emphasis> a bug if it can be expressed as a question (usually of the form <quote>How do I do X?</quote> or <quote>Where can I find Y?</quote>). It is not always quite so black and white, but the - question rule covers a large majority of cases. If you are looking - for an answer, consider posing your question to the + question rule covers a large majority of cases. When looking + for an answer, consider posing the question to the &a.questions;.</para> <para>Some cases where it may be appropriate to submit a problem @@ -163,20 +163,20 @@ but are instead part of the &os; Ports Collection (category <literal>ports</literal>). Most of these applications are not written by &os; developers; what &os; provides is merely - a framework for installing the application. Therefore, you - should only report a problem to the &os; developers when you - believe the problem is &os;-specific; otherwise, you should + a framework for installing the application. Therefore, + only report a problem to the &os; developers when the + problem is believed to be &os;-specific; otherwise, report it to the authors of the software.</para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> - <para>Then you should ascertain whether or not the problem is + <para>Then, ascertain whether the problem is timely. There are few things that will annoy a developer more than receiving a problem report about a bug she has already fixed.</para> - <para>If the problem is in the base system, you should first read + <para>If the problem is in the base system, first read the FAQ section on <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/introduction.html#LATEST-VERSION"> &os; versions</link>, if you are not already familiar with @@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ <title>Preparations</title> <para>A good rule to follow is to always do a background search - before submitting a problem report. Maybe your problem has + before submitting a problem report. Maybe the problem has already been reported; maybe it is being discussed on the mailing lists, or recently was; it may even already be fixed in a newer version than what you are running. You should therefore @@ -228,15 +228,15 @@ <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL">mailing lists</link>—if you are not subscribed, use <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">the - searchable archives</link> on the &os; web site. If your + searchable archives</link> on the &os; web site. If the problem has not been discussed on the lists, you might try posting a message about it and waiting a few days to see if - someone can spot something you have overlooked.</para> + someone can spot something that has been overlooked.</para> </listitem> <listitem> <para>Optionally, the entire web—use your favorite - search engine to locate any references to your problem. You + search engine to locate any references to the problem. You may even get hits from archived mailing lists or newsgroups you did not know of or had not thought to search through.</para> @@ -245,19 +245,19 @@ <listitem> <para>Next, the searchable <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query">; - &os; PR database</link> (GNATS). Unless your problem + &os; PR database</link> (GNATS). Unless the problem is recent or obscure, there is a fair chance it has already been reported.</para> </listitem> <listitem> - <para>Most importantly, you should attempt to see if existing + <para>Most importantly, attempt to see if existing documentation in the source base addresses your problem.</para> <para>For the base &os; code, you should - carefully study the contents of the - <filename>/usr/src/UPDATING</filename> file on your system - or its latest version at + carefully study the contents of + <filename>/usr/src/UPDATING</filename> on your system + or the latest version at <uri xlink:href="http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/UPDATING?view=log">http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/UPDATING?view=log</uri>. (This is vital information if you are upgrading from one version to @@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ </section> <section xml:id="pr-writing"> - <title>Writing the problem report</title> + <title>Writing the Problem Report</title> <para>Now that you have decided that your issue merits a problem report, and that it is a &os; problem, it is time to write @@ -287,8 +287,8 @@ tips and tricks to help make sure that your PR will be most effective.</para> - <section> - <title>Tips and tricks for writing a good problem report</title> + <section xml:id="pr-writing-tips"> + <title>Tips and Tricks for Writing a Good Problem Report</title> <itemizedlist> <listitem> @@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ <para>Include the version of &os; you are running (there is a place to put that, see below) and on which architecture. You should include whether you are running from a release - (e.g. from a CDROM or download), or from + (e.g., from a <acronym>CD-ROM</acronym> or download), or from a system maintained by Subversion (and, if so, what revision number you are at). If you are tracking the &os.current; branch, that is the very first thing someone @@ -506,52 +506,52 @@ </itemizedlist> </section> - <section> - <title>Before you begin</title> + <section xml:id="pr-writing-before-beginning"> + <title>Before Beginning</title> - <para>If you are using the &man.send-pr.1; program, make sure your + <para>When using the &man.send-pr.1; program, make sure the <envar>VISUAL</envar> (or <envar>EDITOR</envar> if <envar>VISUAL</envar> is not set) environment variable is set to something sensible.</para> - <para>You should also make sure that mail delivery works fine. + <para>Make sure that mail delivery is working. &man.send-pr.1; uses mail messages for the submission and - tracking of problem reports. If you cannot post mail messages - from the machine you are running &man.send-pr.1; on, your + tracking of problem reports. If mail messages cannot be sent + from the machine running &man.send-pr.1;, the problem report will not reach the GNATS database. For details on the setup of mail on &os;, see the <quote>Electronic Mail</quote> chapter of the &os; Handbook at <uri xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mail.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mail.html</uri>.</para>; - <para>Make sure that your mailer will not mangle the message on - its way to GNATS. In particular, if your mailer automatically + <para>Make sure that the mailer does not mangle the message on + its way to GNATS. In particular, if the mailer automatically breaks lines, changes tabs to spaces, or escapes newline - characters, any patch that you submit will be rendered - unusable. For the text sections, however, we request that - you insert manual linebreaks somewhere around 70 characters, + characters, any patch will be rendered + unusable. For the text sections, however, we request the + insertion of manual linebreaks somewhere around 70 characters, so that the web display of the PR will be readable.</para> - <para>Similar considerations apply if you are using the + <para>Similar considerations apply to use of the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/send-pr.html"> web-based - PR submission form</link> instead of &man.send-pr.1;. Note that + PR submission form</link>. Note that cut-and-paste operations can have their own side-effects on text formatting. In certain cases it may be necessary to use &man.uuencode.1; to ensure that patches arrive unmodified.</para> - <para>Finally, if your submission will be lengthy, you should - to prepare your work offline so that nothing will be lost in - case there is a problem submitting it. This can especially be a + <para>Finally, if the submission is lengthy, + prepare the work offline so that nothing will be lost if + there is a problem submitting it. This can especially be a problem with the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/send-pr.html">web form</link>.</para> </section> - <section> - <title>Attaching patches or files</title> + <section xml:id="pr-writing-attaching-patches"> + <title>Attaching Patches or Files</title> <para>The following applies to submitting PRs via email:</para> <para>The &man.send-pr.1; program has provisions for attaching files to a problem report. You can attach as many files as - you want provided that each has a unique base name (i.e. the + you want provided that each has a unique base name (i.e., the name of the file proper, without the path). Just use the <option>-a</option> command-line option to specify the names of the files you wish to attach:</para> @@ -561,8 +561,8 @@ <para>Do not worry about binary files, they will be automatically encoded so as not to upset your mail agent.</para> - <para>If you attach a patch, make sure you use the - <option>-c</option> or <option>-u</option> option to + <para>When attaching a patch, be sure to use + <option>-c</option> or <option>-u</option> with &man.diff.1; to create a context or unified diff (unified is preferred), and make sure to specify the exact SVN revision numbers of the files @@ -605,13 +605,13 @@ same terms as the original file you modified.</para> </section> - <section> - <title>Filling out the template</title> + <section xml:id="pr-writing-filling-template"> + <title>Filling out the Template</title> <para>The next section applies to the email method only:</para> - <para>When you run &man.send-pr.1;, you are presented with a - template. The template consists of a list of fields, some of + <para>&man.send-pr.1; presents a + template consisting of a list of fields, some of which are pre-filled, and some of which have comments explaining their purpose or listing acceptable values. Do not worry about the comments; they will be removed automatically if you @@ -871,7 +871,7 @@ </note> <example> - <title>Correct use of arch-specific category</title> + <title>Correct Use of Arch-Specific Category</title> <para>You have a common PC-based machine, and think you have encountered a problem specific to a particular @@ -880,7 +880,7 @@ </example> <example> - <title>Incorrect use of arch-specific category</title> + <title>Incorrect Use of Arch-Specific Category</title> <para>You are having a problem with an add-in peripheral card on a commonly seen bus, or a problem with @@ -1092,8 +1092,8 @@ </itemizedlist> </section> - <section> - <title>Sending off the problem report</title> + <section xml:id="pr-writing-sending"> + <title>Sending the Problem Report</title> <para>If you are using &man.send-pr.1;:</para> @@ -1141,7 +1141,7 @@ <section xml:id="pr-followup"> <title>Follow-up</title> - <para>Once your problem report has been filed, you will receive a + <para>Once the problem report has been filed, you will receive a confirmation by email which will include the tracking number that was assigned to your problem report and a URL you can use to check its status. With a little luck, someone will take an @@ -1161,7 +1161,7 @@ <para>The easiest way is to use the followup link on the individual PR's web page, which you can reach from the <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query">; - PR search page</link>. Clicking on this link will bring up an + PR search page</link>. Clicking on this link will bring up an email window with the correct To: and Subject: lines filled in (if your browser is configured to do this).</para> </listitem> @@ -1199,7 +1199,7 @@ </section> <section xml:id="pr-problems"> - <title>If you are having problems</title> + <title>If There Are Problems</title> <para>Most PRs go through the system and are accepted quickly; however, at times GNATS runs behind and you may not get your
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