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BUGS
1. Bugs
1.1 There are still bugs
1.2 Where to report
1.3 What to report
1.4 libcurl problems
1.5 Who will fix the problems
1.6 How to get a stack trace
1.7 Bugs in libcurl bindings
==============================================================================
1.1 There are still bugs
Curl and libcurl have grown substantially since the beginning. At the time
of writing (September 2011), there are about 66000 lines of source code, and
by the time you read this it has probably grown even more.
Of course there are lots of bugs left. And lots of misfeatures.
To help us make curl the stable and solid product we want it to be, we need
bug reports and bug fixes.
1.2 Where to report
If you can't fix a bug yourself and submit a fix for it, try to report an as
detailed report as possible to a curl mailing list to allow one of us to
have a go at a solution. You can optionally also post your bug/problem at
curl's bug tracking system over at
http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=976
(but please read the sections below first before doing that)
If you feel you need to ask around first, find a suitable mailing list and
post there. The lists are available on http://curl.haxx.se/mail/
1.3 What to report
When reporting a bug, you should include all information that will help us
understand what's wrong, what you expected to happen and how to repeat the
bad behavior. You therefore need to tell us:
- your operating system's name and version number
- what version of curl you're using (curl -V is fine)
- versions of the used libraries that libcurl is built to use
- what URL you were working with (if possible), at least which protocol
and anything and everything else you think matters. Tell us what you
expected to happen, tell use what did happen, tell us how you could make it
work another way. Dig around, try out, test. Then include all the tiny bits
and pieces in your report. You will benefit from this yourself, as it will
enable us to help you quicker and more accurately.
Since curl deals with networks, it often helps us if you include a protocol
debug dump with your bug report. The output you get by using the -v or
--trace options.
If curl crashed, causing a core dump (in unix), there is hardly any use to
send that huge file to anyone of us. Unless we have an exact same system
setup as you, we can't do much with it. Instead we ask you to get a stack
trace and send that (much smaller) output to us instead!
The address and how to subscribe to the mailing lists are detailed in the
MANUAL file.
1.4 libcurl problems
First, post all libcurl problems on the curl-library mailing list.
When you've written your own application with libcurl to perform transfers,
it is even more important to be specific and detailed when reporting bugs.
Tell us the libcurl version and your operating system. Tell us the name and
version of all relevant sub-components like for example the SSL library
you're using and what name resolving your libcurl uses. If you use SFTP or
SCP, the libssh2 version is relevant etc.
Showing us a real source code example repeating your problem is the best way
to get our attention and it will greatly increase our chances to understand
your problem and to work on a fix (if we agree it truly is a problem).
Lots of problems that appear to be libcurl problems are actually just abuses
of the libcurl API or other malfunctions in your applications. It is adviced
that you run your problematic program using a memory debug tool like
valgrind or similar before you post memory-related or "crashing" problems to
us.
1.5 Who will fix the problems
If the problems or bugs you describe are considered to be bugs, we want to
have the problems fixed.
There are no developers in the curl project that are paid to work on bugs.
All developers that take on reported bugs do this on a voluntary basis. We
do it out of an ambition to keep curl and libcurl excellent products and out
of pride.
But please do not assume that you can just lump over something to us and it
will then magically be fixed after some given time. Most often we need
feedback and help to understand what you've experienced and how to repeat a
problem. Then we may only be able to assist YOU to debug the problem and to
track down the proper fix.
We get reports from many people every month and each report can take a
considerable amount of time to really go to the bottom with.
1.6 How to get a stack trace
First, you must make sure that you compile all sources with -g and that you
don't 'strip' the final executable. Try to avoid optimizing the code as
well, remove -O, -O2 etc from the compiler options.
Run the program until it cores.
Run your debugger on the core file, like '<debugger> curl core'. <debugger>
should be replaced with the name of your debugger, in most cases that will
be 'gdb', but 'dbx' and others also occur.
When the debugger has finished loading the core file and presents you a
prompt, enter 'where' (without the quotes) and press return.
The list that is presented is the stack trace. If everything worked, it is
supposed to contain the chain of functions that were called when curl
crashed. Include the stack trace with your detailed bug report. It'll help a
lot.
1.7 Bugs in libcurl bindings
There will of course pop up bugs in libcurl bindings. You should then
primarily approach the team that works on that particular binding and see
what you can do to help them fix the problem.
If you suspect that the problem exists in the underlying libcurl, then
please convert your program over to plain C and follow the steps outlined
above.