LAL/LALWrapper Bug Report Entry Page for Gnats UWM LSC Home Page > LAL Home Page > Bug Report Entry Page
Enter the LAL Bug Report Main Page Anonymous users Developers Notes on Submitting Contact

Instruction for anonymous users of gnats

This will allow you to surf the bug reports and file bug reports, but you will not be able to edit or close bug reports.

  1. When you have read these instructions, follow the link in step 7 to enter the LAL Bug report page.
  2. The anonymous user name is anonymous
  3. The anonymous password is anonymous
  4. The strange part is that gnats will let you in even if you misspell the user name or password.
  5. To surf all the existing open bug reports push the "query" button.
    Then on the next page push the "submit query" button without changing any values in the pop-up menus.
  6. To file a bug report: Use the "create" button.
    Be sure to give your email address and choose the most appropriate category. See below for instructions on categorizing errors. Be sure to choose the correct Submitter-ID ("anonymous" if you logged in as anonymous). Please put your name in the Originator field.
  7. Enter the LAL Bug Report Main Page.

For more help, see the gnatsweb introduction.


Instructions for developers

Instructions for developers: filing and closing bug reports in gnats

  1. When you have read these instructions, follow the link in step 6 to enter the LAL Bug report page.
  2. Note: Gnats uses virulent cookies. If you have entered gnats before, it will let you in with out entering a user name or password, even if the username and password were incorrect.
  3. Enter your username and password.
    If you are a LAL or LALWrapper developer and need a user name and password for Gnats, send an email to Alan G. Wiseman (agw@gravity.phys.uwm.edu)
  4. Note: If you enter your user name or password incorrectly, gnats still lets you in with no warning. The only indication is that the buttons needed to file and edit bug reports aren't present. Basically, gnats gives you the anonymous privlidges described above.
  5. To surf the existing open bug reports: Push the "query" button. Then on the next page push the "submit query" button without changing any of the options in the pop-up menus.
    You can (and should) surf the options available, such as querying by individual, but this will get you started.
  6. To file a bug report: Use the "create" button.
    Be sure to give your email address and choose the most appropriate category. See below for instructions on categorizing errors. Be sure to choose the correct Submitter-ID ("anonymous" if you logged in as anonymous). Please put your name in the Originator field.
  7. To close a bug report: use the "edit" button. Change the "state" from open to closed. Be sure to give a reason for the change.
  8. Enter the LAL Bug Report Main Page.

For more help, see the gnatsweb introduction.


Notes on Submitting

The "severity" and "priority" of bugs.

Obviously, some judgement is called for when deciding how to catagorize a bug your are filing. A reasonable set of guidelines can be found on the Introducing Gnats Page.

Categories of errors.
severity: critical, serious, non-critical
priority: high, medium, low

Some common examples:
  1. If the bug causes the LAL build to fail, thus keeping people from being able to work, it is a critical bug with high priority.
    These types of bugs should be fixed on a timescale of minutes. Run the test script before -- and after -- committing your code to the CVS!
  2. If code runs but gives incorrect answers: severity is critical, priority is medium
  3. Documentation in a package is unclear: severity is serious, priority is medium

Page created on: Thu May 24 22:32:52 CDT 2001 by agw