Filing an Effective Problem Report

Whenever something breaks, you want it fixed, preferably as soon as possible. Unfortunately, too many problems are reported as <X> is broken. Please fix it ASAP. Needless to say, this is insufficient and can lead to a lot of wasted time (both your's and the system administrator's) in either waiting for more details to be provided or trying to duplicate a reported problem.

A reasonable emailed problem report should include:

• A brief summary of the problem in the message's subject. Include the name of the machine/printer/program that is having problems. For example:
  • netscape won't start (gives "segmentation fault") on <machine>
  • print jobs sent to <printer> from <machine> disappear
  • xdbx gives "out of ptys" on <machine>
  Examples of bad subjects include:
  • HELP!!!
  • mail is broken
  • printer problems
  • program doesn't work
• Details of the problem in the message body. Please concentrate on symptoms (BTW, "doesn't work" is not a symptom). A description of the symptoms is much more useful to a experienced problem solver than your guess as to what the problem may be or a request for help on a a deep-level detail needed for your solution to the problem. Your asking an expert. Give him the whole picture.

  If applicable, please include:

• the exact command or sequence of commands you tried
• the directory and machine where you ran the command(s)
• what you expected to happen
• any output or diagnostics produced (cut-and-paste, if possible)
• whether the problem is repeatable or transient
• the time when you first noticed the problem
• if the problem is email-related, include which mail agent (e.g. elm, pine, mh, exmh, "mail", etc.) you use. There are 1,000,001 different mailers on the system.
• the full pathname of the file you tried to print
• a phone number where you can be reached