Provided by: reportbug_11.5.0ubuntu1_all bug

NAME

       reportbug - reports a bug to a debbugs server

SYNOPSIS

       reportbug [options] <package | pseudo-package | absolute-pathname>

DESCRIPTION

       reportbug  is primarily designed to report bugs in the Debian distribution; by default, it
       creates an email  to  the  Debian  bug  tracking  system  at  submit@bugs.debian.org  with
       information  about  the bug you've found, and makes a carbon copy of the report for you as
       well.

       Using the --bts option, you can also report bugs to other servers that use the Debian  bug
       tracking system, debbugs.

       You may specify either a package name or a filename; if you use a filename, it must either
       be an absolute filename (so beginning with a /) or if you want  reportbug  to  search  the
       system  for  a  filename,  see the --filename and --path options below. If installed, also
       dlocate is used to identify the filename location and thus the package containing it.

       You can also specify a pseudo-package; these are used in the Debian bug tracking system to
       track  issues  that  are  not  related to one specific package.  Run reportbug without any
       arguments, then enter other at the package prompt, to see a list of the most commonly-used
       pseudo-packages.

OPTIONS

       The program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two
       dashes (`--').  A summary of options are included below.

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       --version
              Show the version of reportbug and exit.

       -A FILENAME, --attach=FILENAME
              Attach a file to the bug report; both text and binary files  are  acceptable;  this
              option  can be specified multiple times to attach several files.  This routine will
              create a MIME attachment with the  file  included;  in  some  cases  (usually  text
              files),  it  is  probably  better  to  use  -i/--include option.  (Please note that
              Debian's bug tracking system has limited support for MIME attachments.)

              This option supports also globbing (i.e. names with  wildcards,  like  file.*)  but
              remember  to  include  them  between  single  quotes (the previous example becomes:
              'file.*') else the shell would expand it before calling  reportbug  leading  to  an
              error.

              Be  aware  that  when using an external MUA to send the message (such as mutt), the
              attachment feature is not reliable and no file might be attached at  all:  the  MUA
              feature to attach files should be used instead (so from within the MUA).

       --archive
              Also show archived bugs when browsing bugs.

       -b, --no-query-bts
              Don't  check the Debian bug tracking system to see if this problem has already been
              reported; useful for offline use or if you're really sure it's a bug.

       --query-bts
              Check the Debian bug tracking system to  see  if  this  problem  has  already  been
              reported (default).

       -B SYSTEM, --bts=SYSTEM
              Instead   of   the   Debian   bug   server   (or   the   bug  server  specified  in
              /etc/reportbug.conf), use the server specified by SYSTEM.  Use --bts=help to obtain
              the   list   of   valid   values.    Note   that   if  your  $HOME/.reportbugrc  or
              /etc/reportbug.conf include an smtphost setting that is specific  to  your  default
              bug  server  and  not  a  generic  smarthost,  you  may need to override this using
              --smtphost=<host> to be able to report a bug directly to SYSTEM.

       --body=BODY
              Use the specified BODY string as the body of the message.  The body  text  will  be
              wrapped  at  70 columns, and the normal reportbug headers and footers will be added
              as appropriate.  The editor prompt and any "special" prompting will be bypassed.

       --body-file=BODYFILE, --bodyfile=BODYFILE
              The contents of the (assumed to be) text file BODYFILE will be used as the  message
              body.  This file is assumed to be properly formatted (i.e. reasonable line lengths,
              etc.).  The usual headers and footers will  be  added,  and  the  editor  step  and
              "special"  prompts  will  be  skipped.  (BODYFILE may also be a named pipe; using a
              device special file may lead to unusual results.)

       -c, --no-config-files
              Omit configuration files from the bug report without asking.  By default,  you  are
              asked  if  you  want  to  include them; in some cases, doing so may cause sensitive
              information to be sent via email.

       -C CLASS, --class=CLASS
              Specify report class for GNATS BTSes.

       --configure
              Rerun  the  reportbug  first  time  configuration  routine,   and   write   a   new
              $HOME/.reportbugrc  file.   This  will erase any pre-existing settings in the file;
              however, a backup will be written  as  $HOME/.reportbugrc~.   Reportbug  will  exit
              after  rewriting  its  configuration  file,  hence  this  option cannot usefully be
              combined with many other options.

       --check-available
              Check for newer releases of  the  package  at  packages.debian.org  (default).   In
              advanced and expert mode, check http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html too.

       --no-check-available
              Do not check for newer releases of the package at packages.debian.org.

       --debconf
              Include debconf settings in your report.

       --no-debconf
              Do not include debconf settings from your report.

       -d, --debug
              Don't  send  a  real  bug  report  to Debian; send it to yourself instead.  This is
              primarily used for testing by the maintainer.

       --test Operate in test mode (maintainer use only).

       --draftpath=DRAFTPATH
              Save the draft (for example, when exiting and saving the report  without  reporting
              it) into DRAFTPATH directory (default /tmp).

       -e EDITOR, --editor=EDITOR
              Specify  the  editor  to  use, overriding any EDITOR or VISUAL environment variable
              setting.

       --email=ADDRESS
              Set the email address your report should appear to be sent from (i.e.  the  address
              that appears in the From header).  This should be the actual Internet email address
              on its own (i.e. without a real name or comment part, like foo@example.com).   This
              setting  will  override  the  EMAIL  and  DEBEMAIL  environment  variables, but not
              REPORTBUGEMAIL.

       --envelope-from
              Specify the Envelope From mail header (also known as Return-path); by default  it's
              the  From  address  but  it can be selected a different one in case the MTA doesn't
              canonicalize local users to public addresses.

       --mbox-reader-cmd=MBOX_READER_CMD
              Specify a command to open the bug reports mbox file. You can use %s  to  substitute
              the  mbox  file  to  be  used, and %% to insert a literal percent sign. If no %s is
              specified, the mbox file name is supplied at the end of the argument list.

       -f FILENAME, --filename=FILENAME
              Report a bug in the package containing FILENAME so you don't  have  to  figure  out
              what  package the file belongs to.  The path will be searched for an exact path for
              FILENAME before attempting to broaden the  search  to  all  files.  If  dlocate  is
              installed, FILENAME is actually a regular expression.

       --from-buildd=BUILDD_FORMAT
              This  options  is  a shortcut for buildd admins to report bugs from buildd log; the
              option expects a value in the format  of  $source_$version  where  $source  is  the
              source package the bug will be reported against and $version is its version.

       --path If  the  -f/--filename  option  is  also  specified,  only  search the path for the
              specified FILENAME.  Specifying an absolute  path  with  the  -f/--filename  option
              (i.e. one beginning with a /) overrides this behavior.

       -g, --gnupg, --gpg
              Attach  a  digital signature to the bug report using GnuPG (the GNU Privacy Guard).
              (This argument will be ignored if you are using  an  MUA  to  edit  and  send  your
              report.)

       -G, --gnus
              Use  the  Gnus  mail  and  news  reader  to send your report, rather than using the
              editor.

       -H HEADER, --header=HEADER
              Add a custom RFC2822 header to your email. Do not use this option if  you  want  to
              submit  the  report  using  your  MUA, because custom headers cannot be passed from
              reportbug to the MUA reliably. To send a carbon  copy  of  the  report  to  another
              recipient using X-Debbugs-CC, please see the --list-cc option.

       -i FILE, --include=FILE
              Include the specified FILE as part of the body of the message to be edited.  Can be
              used multiple times to add multiple files; text-only please!  From a suggestion  by
              Michael Alan Dorman in the bug mailing list.  (See also the -A/--attach option.)

       -I, --no-check-installed
              Do  not  check  whether  the  package is installed before filing a report.  This is
              generally only useful when filing a report on a package you know is  not  installed
              on your system.

       --check-installed
              Check  if  the  specified  package  is installed when filing reports.  (This is the
              default behavior of reportbug.)

       -j JUSTIFICATION, --justification=JUSTIFICATION
              Bugs in Debian that have serious, grave, or critical severities must  meet  certain
              criteria  to  be  classified  as  such.   This  option  allows  you  to specify the
              justification for a release-critical bug, instead of being prompted for it.

       -k, --kudos
              Send appreciative email to the recorded maintainer address, rather  than  filing  a
              bug  report.   (You  can  also  send  kudos to packagename@packages.debian.org, for
              packages in the Debian archive; however, this option uses  the  Maintainer  address
              from the control file, so it works with other package sources too.)

       -K KEYID, --keyid=KEYID
              Private  key  to  use for PGP/GnuPG signatures.  If not specified, the first key in
              the secret keyring that matches your email address will be used.

       --latest-first
              Display the bug reports list sorted and with the latest reports at the top.

       --license
              Show reportbug's copyright and license information on standard output.

       --list-cc=ADDRESS
              Send a carbon copy of the report to the specified list after  a  report  number  is
              assigned;  this  is  the equivalent to the option -P 'X-Debbugs-CC: ADDRESS'.  This
              option will only work as intended with debbugs systems.

       --list-cc-me
              Send a carbon copy of the report to your automatically detected email address after
              a  report  number  is  assigned. This sets an X-Debbugs-CC pseudo-header specifying
              that address. This option will only work as intended with debbugs systems. See  the
              documentation for the --email option and the ENVIRONMENT section for information on
              how reportbug detects your email address.

       -m, --maintonly
              Only send the bug to the package maintainer; the bug tracking system will not  send
              a copy to the bug report distribution lists.

       --max-attachment-size=MAX_ATTACHMENT_SIZE
              Specify  the  maximum size any attachment file can have (this also include the file
              for --body-file option). If an attachment file is too big, there could be  problems
              in  delivering  the email (and also to compose it), so we set a limit to attachment
              size. By default this is 10 megabytes.

       --mirror=MIRRORS
              Add a BTS mirror.

       --mode=MODE
              Set the operating mode for  reportbug.   reportbug  currently  has  four  operating
              modes: novice (the default), standard, advanced, and expert.

              novice  mode  is  designed to minimize prompting about things that "ordinary users"
              would be unlikely to know or care  about,  shifting  the  triage  burden  onto  the
              maintainer.   Checking for new versions is only done for the stable distribution in
              this mode.  It is currently the default mode.

              standard mode includes a relatively large number of prompts and tries to  encourage
              users to not file frivolous or duplicate bug reports.

              advanced  mode  is  like standard mode, but may include shortcuts suitable for more
              advanced users of Debian, without being  as  close  to  the  metal  (and  potential
              flamage)  as  expert mode.  (Currently, the only differences from standard mode are
              that it assumes familiarity with the "new" queue; it allows the reporting  of  bugs
              on "dependency" packages; and it does not prompt where to insert the report text in
              the editor.)

              expert mode is designed  to  minimize  prompts  that  are  designed  to  discourage
              frivolous  or  unnecessary  bug  reports,  "severity  inflation," and the like.  In
              expert mode,  reportbug  assumes  the  user  is  thoroughly  familiar  with  Debian
              policies.  In practice, this means that reporters are no longer required to justify
              setting a high severity on a bug report, and  certain  automated  cleanups  of  the
              message  are  bypassed.   Individuals who do not regularly contribute to the Debian
              project are highly discouraged from using expert mode, as it can  lead  to  flamage
              from maintainers when used improperly.

       -M, --mutt
              Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the mutt mail reader to
              edit and send it.

       --mta=MTA
              Specify an  alternate  MTA,  instead  of  /usr/sbin/sendmail  (the  default).   Any
              smtphost setting will override this one.

       --mua=MUA
              Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the specified MUA (mail
              user agent) to edit and send it. --mutt and --nmh options are processed.

       -n, --mh, --nmh
              Instead of spawning an editor to revise the bug report, use the comp command  (part
              of the nmh and mh mail systems) to edit and send it.

       -N BUGNUMBER, --bugnumber BUGNUMBER
              Run  reportbug against the specified bug report, useful when following-up a bug and
              its number is already known.

       --no-bug-script
              Do not execute the bug script (if present); this option can be useful together with
              --template  to  suppress  every interactive actions, since some bug scripts can ask
              questions.

       --no-cc-menu
              Don't display the menu to enter additional addresses (CC).

       --no-tags-menu
              Don't display the menu to enter additional tags.

       -o FILE, --output=FILE
              Instead of sending an email, redirect it to the specified filename.

              The output file is a full dump of the email message, so it  contains  both  headers
              and  mail body. If you want to use it as a template to create a new bug report, see
              the --resume-saved option.

       -O, --offline
              Disable   all   external   queries.    Currently   has   the   same    effect    as
              --no-check-available --no-query-bts.

       -p, --print
              Instead  of  sending  an email, print the bug report to standard output, so you can
              redirect it to a file or pipe it to another program.

              This option only outputs a  template  for  a  bug  report  (but,  differently  from
              --template it's more interactive); you will need to fill in the long description.

       --paranoid
              Show  the  contents  of  the  message  before  it  is  sent, including all headers.
              Automatically disabled if in template mode.

       --no-paranoid
              Don't show the full contents of the message before it is sent (default).

       --pgp  Attach a digital signature to the bug  report  using  PGP  (Pretty  Good  Privacy).
              Please  note,  however,  that  the  Debian project is phasing out the use of PGP in
              favor of GnuPG.  (This argument will be ignored if using an MUA to  edit  and  send
              your report.)

       --proxy=PROXY, --http_proxy=PROXY
              Specify the WWW proxy server to use to handle the query of the bug tracking system.
              You should only need this parameter if  you  are  behind  a  firewall.   The  PROXY
              argument  should  be formatted as a valid HTTP URL, including (if necessary) a port
              number; for example, http://192.168.1.1:3128/.

       -P PSEUDO-HEADER, --pseudo-header=PSEUDO-HEADER
              Add a custom pseudo-header to your report; for example, to add  the  mytag  usertag
              for   the   user   humberto@example.com  to  the  bug,  you  could  use  -P  'User:
              humberto@example.com' -P 'Usertags: mytag'.

       -q, --quiet
              Suppress diagnostic messages to standard error.

       -Q, --query-only
              Do not submit a bug report; just query the BTS.   Option  ignored  if  you  specify
              --no-bts-query.

       --query-source
              Query  on all binary packages built by the same source, not just the binary package
              specified.

       --no-query-source
              Only query on the binary package specified on the command line.

       --realname=NAME
              Set the real name (human-readable name) to use for your report.

       --report-quiet
              Register the bug in the bug tracking system, but don't send a report to the package
              maintainer  or  anyone  else.   Don't  do  this unless you're the maintainer of the
              package in question, or you really know what you are doing.

       --reply-to=ADDRESS, --replyto=ADDRESS
              Set the Reply-To address header in your report.

       -r TEMPFILE, --resume-saved=TEMPFILE
              Use this to resume an unsent  report  previously  saved  by  reportbug.  Note  that
              attachments  stored  in  TEMPFILE  are ignored; if you want to attach any files you
              need to do that again.

       -s SUBJECT, --subject=SUBJECT
              Set the subject of the bug report (i.e. a brief explanation of  the  problem,  less
              than 60 characters).  If you do not specify this switch, you will be prompted for a
              subject.

       --security-team
              If the 'security' tag is set, this option  will  explicitly  specify  to  send  the
              report only to the Debian Security Team, as this is an undisclosed vulnerability.

       --no-security-team
              If  the  'security' tag is set, this option will explicitly specify to not send the
              report  only  to  the  Debian  Security  Team,  as  this  is  not  an   undisclosed
              vulnerability.

       -S SEVERITY, --severity=SEVERITY
              Specify  a severity level, from critical, grave, serious, important, normal, minor,
              and wishlist.

       --smtphost=HOST[:PORT]
              Use the mail transport agent (MTA) at HOST to send your  report,  instead  of  your
              local  /usr/sbin/sendmail  program.   This  should generally be your ISP's outgoing
              mail server; you can also use 'localhost' if you have a working mail server running
              on  your  machine.  If the PORT is omitted, the standard port for SMTP, port 25, is
              used.

       --timeout=SECONDS
              Specify the network timeout, the number of  seconds  to  wait  for  a  resource  to
              respond. If nothing is specified, a default timeout of 1 minute is selected.

              In  case  of  a network error, there are chances it's due to a too low timeout: try
              passing the --timeout option with a higher value than default.

       --tls  If using SMTP,  use  Transport  Layer  Security  (TLS)  encryption  to  secure  the
              connection  to  the  mail  server.  Some SMTP servers may require this option. Note
              that this option is ignored if you connect to your SMTP server via port 465,  which
              already implies using SSL/TLS.

       --smtpuser=USERNAME
              If using SMTP, use the specified USERNAME for authentication.

       --smtppasswd=PASSWORD
              If  using  SMTP,  use  the  specified PASSWORD for authentication.  If the password
              isn't specified on the command line or in the configuration file, a prompt will  be
              displayed asking for it.

              Use  of this option is insecure on multiuser systems.  Instead, you should set this
              option in $HOME/.reportbugrc and ensure it is only readable by your user (e.g. with
              chmod 600 $HOME/.reportbugrc).

       --src, --source
              Specify  to  report  the bug against the source package, and not the binary package
              (default behaviour).  In order for this option to work, you have  to  populate  the
              relevant 'deb-src' lines in /etc/apt/sources.list so that apt cache will know about
              source packages too.

              You can also specify the package name with a 'src:' prefix instead  of  using  this
              option if you already know the name of the source package.

       -t TYPE, --type=TYPE
              Specify  the  type  of  report  to  be submitted; currently accepts either gnats or
              debbugs.

       -T TAG, --tag=TAG
              Specify a tag to be filed on this report, for example --tag=patch.   Multiple  tags
              can be specified using multiple -T/--tag arguments.

              Alternatively,  you  can  specify  the 'tag' none to bypass the tags prompt without
              specifying any tags; this will also ignore any tags specified on the command line.

       --template
              Output a template report to standard output. Differently from -p/--print, it  tries
              to  be  not interactive, and presents a template without user's input. You may need
              to combine it with --no-bug-script if you want to avoid all user interaction.

       -u INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE, --ui=INTERFACE
              Specify the user interface to use.  Valid options are text, urwid, and gtk; default
              is taken from the reportbug configuration files.

       -v, --verify
              Verify the integrity of the package (if installed) using debsums before reporting.

       --no-verify
              Do not verify the integrity of the package with debsums.

       -V VERSION, --package-version=VERSION
              Specify the version of the package the problem was found in.  This is probably most
              useful if you are reporting a bug in a package that is not installable or installed
              on a different system.

       -x, --no-cc
              Don't  send  a  blind  carbon  copy  (BCC) of the bug report to the submitter (i.e.
              yourself).

       -z, --no-compress
              Don't compress configuration files by removing comments and blank lines.

EXAMPLES

       reportbug lynx-ssl
              Report a bug in the lynx-ssl package.

       reportbug --path --filename=ls
              Report a bug in the installed package that includes a program in your  path  called
              ls.

CONFIGURATION FILES

       From  version 0.22 on, reportbug has supported a simple run control file syntax.  Commands
       are read from /etc/reportbug.conf and  $HOME/.reportbugrc  with  commands  in  the  latter
       overriding those in the former.

       Commands  are not case sensitive, and currently take 0 or 1 argument; arguments containing
       whitespace must be enclosed in quotes.

       Any line starting with # is taken to be a comment and will be ignored.

       Generally, options corresponding to the long options for reportbug are supported,  without
       leading  --  sequences.   See  reportbug.conf(5)  for  all acceptable options and detailed
       information.

ENVIRONMENT

       VISUAL Editor to use for editing your bug report.

       EDITOR Editor to use for editing the bug report (overridden by VISUAL).

       REPORTBUGEMAIL, DEBEMAIL, EMAIL
              Email address to use as your from  address  (in  this  order).  If  no  environment
              variable exists, the default is taken from your user name and /etc/mailname.

       DEBFULLNAME, DEBNAME, NAME
              Real name to use; default is taken from /etc/passwd.

       REPLYTO
              Address for Reply-To header in outgoing mail.

       MAILCC Use  the  specified  CC address on your email.  Note you can also use the -H option
              for this (and for Bcc's too).

       MAILBCC
              Use the specified BCC address, instead of your email address.  (CC and BCC based on
              suggestions from Herbert Thielen in the bug wishlist).

       http_proxy
              Provides  the  address of a proxy server to handle the BTS query.  This should be a
              valid http URL for a proxy server,  including  any  required  port  number  (simply
              specifying a hostname, or omitting a port other than 80, WILL NOT WORK).

NOTES

       reportbug  should  probably  be  compatible with other bug tracking systems, like bugzilla
       (used by the GNOME and Mozilla projects) and  jitterbug  (used  by  Samba,  AbiSource  and
       FreeCiv) but it isn't.

SEE ALSO

       reportbug.conf(5),    http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#tags    for   available   tags,
       querybts(1)

AUTHOR

       Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>, Sandro Tosi <morph@debian.org>.

                                                                                     reportbug(1)