TortoiseSVN The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control

Preparations

Before you report a bug, please make sure you have completed the following steps:

• Update to the current version. Reports for older versions will be ignored.
• Check the Changelog file from /trunk/ and see if your bug has already been fixed. (use 'guest' as username and leave the password field empty)
• If possible, update to the latest nightly build and see if the bug is still there. You can find the link to the nightly builds on our download page.
• Check the mailing list archive. Maybe someone else already reported the same bug you're seeing, and if so that bug might be already fixed.
• Check the issue tracker. Maybe your bug has already been filed there.
• If you've got a zip file from our crashreporting tool, send it to crashreports_at_tortoisesvn.tigris.org. Note that we don't answer mails there. Other kinds of bugreports on that list will be deleted without being read.

How to write the bug report

There is a large number of TortoiseSVN users. There is a much small number of people who actually develop TortoiseSVN. There is an even smaller number of people who actively fix bugs reported by users.

What does this mean for you, an aspiring bug reporter? In order to catch the eye of one of these few volunteers, you'll need to take to heart a few tips on how to report a bug so that they can and will help you.

Take special note of that word in bold above. The people who are going to help you with a bug you report are volunteers. Not only are you not paying them to help you, but nobody else is either. So, be nice to them.

Beyond that golden rule, what follows are some additional tips on ways to make your bug report better so that someone will be able to help you.

The basics: what you did, what you wanted to happen, and what actually happened.

Those are the three basic elements of a bug report. You need to tell us exactly what you did (for example, "I right-clicked on "make happy meal"), what you expected to have happened (to continue the example, "I expected TortoiseSVN to serve me a happy meal with a hamburger and onion rings"), and what actually happened ("It gave me a happy meal with french fries.").

Yes, the example is silly. But if your bug report simply said "The make_happy_meal function doesn't work," you will very likely get a reply saying "It works fine for me", because we can't guess what you were expecting to happen. By giving all the information you might get a reply like "That's because you can't have onion rings in a happy meal, you can only have french fries or curly fries." By telling us what you asked for, what you expected to get, and what you actually got, we don't have to guess what you mean.

Only report one problem in each bug report

If you have encountered two bugs that don't appear to be related, create a new bug report for each one. This makes it easier for different people to help with the different bugs.

Where to send the report to?

Bug reports must be mailed to our mailing list (users at tortoisesvn tigris org). To subscribe to the mailing list, send a mail to users-subscribe@tortoisesvn.tigris.org. To unsubscribe again later, send a mail to users-unsubscribe@tortoisesvn.tigris.org. You don't have to subscribe to the mailing list if you don't want to. You can read the mailing list from tigris or Google groups too.

Just make sure that if you're not subscribed to the mailing list that you read the answers on either the Google groups or tigris. If we have further questions and you don't read those, that will only annoy us and your issue will never get resolved.

Note: if you're not subscribed to the list, it may take up to a day until your mail appears on the mailing list. This is because we have to review mails from non-subscribers first and have to 'accept' them - we have to do this to prevent SPAM from going to the list. So don't worry if you're not getting an answer right away, your mail will appear on the list, just give us some time.

Now you're almost ready to send your bugreport. But before you do, please read our mailing list etiquette. Then send your mail to: users at tortoisesvn tigris org