NetBSD Problem Report Fields

Each problem report has several machine-parsable fields in it, to make it possible to process the reports semi-automatically. The values for several of those fields and their definitions are listed below, to help you more clearly specify what's wrong (and hopefully expedite the problem resolution).

In addition to the fields listed below, NetBSD problem reports are assigned to various Categories which reflect the part of the overall software that is thought to be the source of the problem. These categories are roughly split into two types:

  1. Machine Independent (e.g. bin, lib, security) - problems in the user level programs, daemons, libraries, and the machine independent parts of the kernel (i.e. those parts that are the same without regard to the particular hardware that NetBSD is running on, and therefore a problem is likely to affect all platforms).
  2. Port Specific (e.g. port-alpha, port-ofppc, port-sparc) - device driver, or CPU-specific support (i.e. kernel trap handlers) problems that are only going to affect the one kind of machine that the problem occurred on.

Severity

The severity of the problem. The accepted values are:

  • critical
    The product, component or concept is completely non-operational or some essential functionality is missing (e.g. kernel panic or program core dumps). No workaround is known.
  • serious
    The product, component or concept is not working properly or significant functionality is missing. Problems that would otherwise be considered critical are rated serious when a workaround is known.
  • non-critical
    The product, component or concept is working in general, but lacks features, has irritating behavior, does something wrong, or doesn't match its documentation.

The default value is serious.

Priority

How soon the problem report submitter requires a solution. The accepted values are:

  • high
    A solution is needed as soon as possible.
  • medium
    The problem should be solved in the next release.
  • low
    The problem should be solved in a future release.

The default value is medium.

Class

The class of a problem report can be one of the following:

  • sw-bug
    A general software problem (`sw' stands for "software").
  • doc-bug
    A problem with the manual pages or other documentation.
  • change-request
    A request for a change from existing behavior that is not a bug ("It's nice, but it would be better if ...").
  • support
    A support problem or question.

The default value is sw-bug.

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