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SEND-PR(1)		     General Commands Manual		      SEND-PR(1)

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

SYNOPSIS
     send-pr [ site ] [ -f problem-report ] [ -t mail-address ]
	     [ -P ] [ -L ] [ -s severity ] [ -V ]
	     [ --version ] [ -c address ] [ -a file ]

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 ed-
     itor, 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 ac-
     knowledgement, citing the category and the PR number.

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

     The more precise your problem description and the more complete your infor-
     mation, 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 in-
	    voking the editor.	If the value for  problem-report  is  `-',  then
	    send-pr reads from standard input.

     -s severity
	    Give the problem report the severity severity.

     -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.

     -c address
	    Put address in the Cc: header of the message.

     -a file
	    Copy  the  specified  file	into the Fix: section.	Binary files are
	    uuencoded.

     -P     print the form specified by  the  environment  variable  PR_FORM  on
	    standard output.  If PR_FORM is not set, print the standard blank PR
	    template.  No mail is sent.

     -L     print the list of available categories.  No mail is sent.

     -V     Display  the  send-pr version number.  This may also be specified as
	    --version.

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

FREEBSD CATEGORIES
     advocacy
	    This used to be for the advocacy WWW pages.  Not quite sure what  is
	    used for now.

     alpha  Alpha processor specific problems.

     amd64  AMD64 processor specific problems.

     bin    Corrections or enhancements to system executables.

     conf   Corrections or enhancements to the system configuration files.

     docs   Corrections or enhancements to the manpages or other documentation.

     gnu    Corrections or enhancements to the GNU contributed software.

     i386   Intel x86 processor specific problems.

     ia64   Intel ia64 processor specific problems.

     java   Problems related to Java.

     kern   Changes  or  enhancements  to  the	architecture  independent kernel
	    sources.

     misc   Problems that don't fit into any of the other categories.

     ports  Corrections or enhancements (including new ports) to the ports  col-
	    lection.

     powerpc
	    PowerPC processor specific problems.

     sparc64
	    SPARC processor specific problems.

     standards
	    Standards conformance issues.

     www    Changes or enhancements to the FreeBSD website.

ENVIRONMENT
     The  environment variable EDITOR specifies the editor to invoke on the tem-
     plate.
     default: vi

     If the environment variable MAIL_AGENT is set, its value  is  used  as  the
     path  +  command line arguments of the executable to be invoked for sending
     the problem report (which will be provided via standard input).
     This can be useful if you either use a MTA other than sendmail or	need  to
     provide  additional  parameters,  such  as  the envelope sender on machines
     without a valid FQDN.
     Default value: /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t

     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 eas-
     ily 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  auto-
	matic acknowledgement. It consists of category, PR number and the origi-
	nal  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 in-
     structions 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

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 distri-
     bution for configuration and installation information.  The Emacs LISP tem-
     plate 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.

SEE ALSO
     Reporting Problems Using send-pr (also installed as the GNU Info file send-
     pr.info).

AUTHORS
     Jeffrey Osier, Brendan Kehoe, Jason Merrill, Heinz G.  Seidl  (Cygnus  Sup-
     port)

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 man-
     ual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire re-
     sulting 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.

February 1993			      3.113			      SEND-PR(1)
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