SEND-PR

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: @VERSION@
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NAME

send-pr - send problem report (PR) to a central support site  

SYNOPSIS

send-pr [ site ] [ -f problem-report ] [ -t mail-address ]
[ -p ] [ -P ] [ -L ] [ --request-id ] [ -v ]  

DESCRIPTION

send-pr is a tool used to submit problem reports (PRs) to a central support site. In most cases the correct site will be the default. This argument indicates the support site which is responsible for the category of problem involved. Some sites may use a local address as a default. site values are defined by using the aliases(5).

send-pr invokes an editor on a problem report template (after trying to fill in some fields with reasonable default values). When you exit the editor, send-pr sends the completed form to the Problem Report Management System (GNATS) at a central support site. At the support site, the PR is assigned a unique number and is stored in the GNATS database according to its category and submitter-id. GNATS automatically replies with an acknowledgement, citing the category and the PR number.

To ensure that a PR is handled promptly, it should contain your (unique) submitter-id and one of the available categories to identify the problem area. (Use `send-pr -L' to see a list of categories.)

The send-pr template at your site should already be customized with your submitter-id (running `install-sid submitter-id' to accomplish this is part of the installation procedures for send-pr). If this hasn't been done, see your system administrator for your submitter-id, or request one from your support site by invoking `send-pr --request-id'. If your site does not distinguish between different user sites, or if you are not affiliated with the support site, use `net' for this field.

The more precise your problem description and the more complete your information, the faster your support team can solve your problems.  

OPTIONS

-f problem-report
specify a file (problem-report) which already contains a complete problem report. send-pr sends the contents of the file without invoking the editor. If the value for problem-report is `-', then send-pr reads from standard input.
-t mail-address
Change mail address at the support site for problem reports. The default mail-address is the address used for the default site. Use the site argument rather than this option in nearly all cases.
-p
Print the standard blank template on standard output. No mail is sent.
-P
print the form specified by the environment variable PR_FORM on standard output. No mail is sent.
-s mail-agent
Use mail-agent instead of the default mailer, sendmail(8).
-L
print the list of available categories. No mail is sent.
--request-id
sends mail to the default support site, or site if specified, with a request for your submitter-id. If you are not affiliated with site, use a submitter-id of net'.
-v
Display the send-pr version number.

Note: use send-pr to submit problem reports rather than mailing them directly. Using both the template and send-pr itself will help ensure all necessary information will reach the support site.  

ENVIRONMENT

The environment variable EDITOR specifies the editor to invoke on the template.
default: vi

If the environment variable PR_FORM is set, then its value is used as the file name of the template for your problem-report editing session. You can use this to start with a partially completed form (for example, a form with the identification fields already completed).  

HOW TO FILL OUT A PROBLEM REPORT

Problem reports have to be in a particular form so that a program can easily manage them. Please remember the following guidelines:
*
describe only one problem with each problem report.
*
For follow-up mail, use the same subject line as the one in the automatic acknowledgent. It consists of category, PR number and the original synopsis line. This allows the support site to relate several mail messages to a particular PR and to record them automatically.
*
Please try to be as accurate as possible in the subject and/or synopsis line.
*
The subject and the synopsis line are not confidential. This is because open-bugs lists are compiled from them. Avoid confidential information there.

See the GNU Info file send-pr.info or the document Reporting Problems With send-pr for detailed information on reporting problems  

HOW TO SUBMIT TEST CASES, CODE, ETC.

Submit small code samples with the PR. Contact the support site for instructions on submitting larger test cases and problematic source code.  

FILES

/tmp/p$$     copy of PR used in editing session

/tmp/pf$$   copy of empty PR form, for testing purposes

/tmp/pbad$$ file for rejected PRs
.  

SEE ALSO

gnats.texi and send-pr.texi, which are also installed as GNU Info files gnats.info and send-pr.info;

gnats(l), query-pr(1), edit-pr(1), gnats(8), queue-pr(8), at-pr(8), mkcat(8), mkdist(8).  

EMACS USER INTERFACE

An Emacs user interface for send-pr with completion of field values is part of the send-pr distribution (invoked with M-x send-pr). See the file send-pr.info or the ASCII file INSTALL in the top level directory of the distribution for configuration and installation information. The Emacs LISP template file is send-pr-el.in and is installed as send-pr.el.

 

INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION

See send-pr.info or INSTALL for installation instructions.

There are many ways in which send-pr can be customized to meet specific needs. As mentioned above, at least the submitter-id should be set before using send-pr. You can change the submitter-id used by an already installed send-pr script, by running an auxiliary script: `install_sid submitter-id'.

The file send-pr.el is automatically installed when the distribution is built. It is not, however, automatically loaded every time Emacs starts up. See send-pr.info or INSTALL for instructions on how to load send-pr automatically into Emacs.  

AUTHORS

Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Heinz G. Seidl (Cygnus Support)  

COPYING

Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
HOW TO FILL OUT A PROBLEM REPORT
HOW TO SUBMIT TEST CASES, CODE, ETC.
FILES
SEE ALSO
EMACS USER INTERFACE
INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
AUTHORS
COPYING

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Time: 07:48:39 GMT, May 19, 2025