1 _ _ ____ _ 2 ___| | | | _ \| | 3 / __| | | | |_) | | 4 | (__| |_| | _ <| |___ 5 \___|\___/|_| \_\_____| 6 7 BUGS 8 9 1. Bugs 10 1.1 There are still bugs 11 1.2 Where to report 12 1.3 Security bugs 13 1.4 What to report 14 1.5 libcurl problems 15 1.6 Who will fix the problems 16 1.7 How to get a stack trace 17 1.8 Bugs in libcurl bindings 18 1.9 Bugs in old versions 19 20 2. Bug fixing procedure 21 2.1 What happens on first filing 22 2.2 First response 23 2.3 Not reproducible 24 2.4 Unresponsive 25 2.5 Lack of time/interest 26 2.6 KNOWN_BUGS 27 2.7 TODO 28 2.8 Closing off stalled bugs 29 30 ============================================================================== 31 32 1.1 There are still bugs 33 34 Curl and libcurl keep being developed. Adding features and changing code 35 means that bugs will sneak in, no matter how hard we try not to. 36 37 Of course there are lots of bugs left. And lots of misfeatures. 38 39 To help us make curl the stable and solid product we want it to be, we need 40 bug reports and bug fixes. 41 42 1.2 Where to report 43 44 If you can't fix a bug yourself and submit a fix for it, try to report an as 45 detailed report as possible to a curl mailing list to allow one of us to 46 have a go at a solution. You can optionally also post your bug/problem at 47 curl's bug tracking system over at 48 49 https://github.com/curl/curl/issues 50 51 Please read the rest of this document below first before doing that! 52 53 If you feel you need to ask around first, find a suitable mailing list and 54 post there. The lists are available on https://curl.haxx.se/mail/ 55 56 1.3 Security bugs 57 58 If you find a bug or problem in curl or libcurl that you think has a 59 security impact, for example a bug that can put users in danger or make them 60 vulnerable if the bug becomes public knowledge, then please report that bug 61 using our security development process. 62 63 Security related bugs or bugs that are suspected to have a security impact, 64 should be reported by email to curl-security (a] haxx.se so that they first can 65 be dealt with away from the public to minimize the harm and impact it will 66 have on existing users out there who might be using the vulnerable versions. 67 68 The curl project's process for handling security related issues is 69 documented here: 70 71 https://curl.haxx.se/dev/secprocess.html 72 73 1.4 What to report 74 75 When reporting a bug, you should include all information that will help us 76 understand what's wrong, what you expected to happen and how to repeat the 77 bad behavior. You therefore need to tell us: 78 79 - your operating system's name and version number 80 81 - what version of curl you're using (curl -V is fine) 82 83 - versions of the used libraries that libcurl is built to use 84 85 - what URL you were working with (if possible), at least which protocol 86 87 and anything and everything else you think matters. Tell us what you 88 expected to happen, tell use what did happen, tell us how you could make it 89 work another way. Dig around, try out, test. Then include all the tiny bits 90 and pieces in your report. You will benefit from this yourself, as it will 91 enable us to help you quicker and more accurately. 92 93 Since curl deals with networks, it often helps us if you include a protocol 94 debug dump with your bug report. The output you get by using the -v or 95 --trace options. 96 97 If curl crashed, causing a core dump (in unix), there is hardly any use to 98 send that huge file to anyone of us. Unless we have an exact same system 99 setup as you, we can't do much with it. Instead we ask you to get a stack 100 trace and send that (much smaller) output to us instead! 101 102 The address and how to subscribe to the mailing lists are detailed in the 103 MANUAL file. 104 105 1.5 libcurl problems 106 107 When you've written your own application with libcurl to perform transfers, 108 it is even more important to be specific and detailed when reporting bugs. 109 110 Tell us the libcurl version and your operating system. Tell us the name and 111 version of all relevant sub-components like for example the SSL library 112 you're using and what name resolving your libcurl uses. If you use SFTP or 113 SCP, the libssh2 version is relevant etc. 114 115 Showing us a real source code example repeating your problem is the best way 116 to get our attention and it will greatly increase our chances to understand 117 your problem and to work on a fix (if we agree it truly is a problem). 118 119 Lots of problems that appear to be libcurl problems are actually just abuses 120 of the libcurl API or other malfunctions in your applications. It is advised 121 that you run your problematic program using a memory debug tool like 122 valgrind or similar before you post memory-related or "crashing" problems to 123 us. 124 125 1.6 Who will fix the problems 126 127 If the problems or bugs you describe are considered to be bugs, we want to 128 have the problems fixed. 129 130 There are no developers in the curl project that are paid to work on bugs. 131 All developers that take on reported bugs do this on a voluntary basis. We 132 do it out of an ambition to keep curl and libcurl excellent products and out 133 of pride. 134 135 But please do not assume that you can just lump over something to us and it 136 will then magically be fixed after some given time. Most often we need 137 feedback and help to understand what you've experienced and how to repeat a 138 problem. Then we may only be able to assist YOU to debug the problem and to 139 track down the proper fix. 140 141 We get reports from many people every month and each report can take a 142 considerable amount of time to really go to the bottom with. 143 144 1.7 How to get a stack trace 145 146 First, you must make sure that you compile all sources with -g and that you 147 don't 'strip' the final executable. Try to avoid optimizing the code as 148 well, remove -O, -O2 etc from the compiler options. 149 150 Run the program until it cores. 151 152 Run your debugger on the core file, like '<debugger> curl core'. <debugger> 153 should be replaced with the name of your debugger, in most cases that will 154 be 'gdb', but 'dbx' and others also occur. 155 156 When the debugger has finished loading the core file and presents you a 157 prompt, enter 'where' (without the quotes) and press return. 158 159 The list that is presented is the stack trace. If everything worked, it is 160 supposed to contain the chain of functions that were called when curl 161 crashed. Include the stack trace with your detailed bug report. It'll help a 162 lot. 163 164 1.8 Bugs in libcurl bindings 165 166 There will of course pop up bugs in libcurl bindings. You should then 167 primarily approach the team that works on that particular binding and see 168 what you can do to help them fix the problem. 169 170 If you suspect that the problem exists in the underlying libcurl, then 171 please convert your program over to plain C and follow the steps outlined 172 above. 173 174 1.9 Bugs in old versions 175 176 The curl project typically releases new versions every other month, and we 177 fix several hundred bugs per year. For a huge table of releases, number of 178 bug fixes and more, see: https://curl.haxx.se/docs/releases.html 179 180 The developers in the curl project do not have bandwidth or energy enough to 181 maintain several branches or to spend much time on hunting down problems in 182 old versions when chances are we already fixed them or at least that they've 183 changed nature and appearance in later versions. 184 185 When you experience a problem and want to report it, you really SHOULD 186 include the version number of the curl you're using when you experience the 187 issue. If that version number shows us that you're using an out-of-date 188 curl, you should also try out a modern curl version to see if the problem 189 persists or how/if it has changed in appearance. 190 191 Even if you cannot immediately upgrade your application/system to run the 192 latest curl version, you can most often at least run a test version or 193 experimental build or similar, to get this confirmed or not. 194 195 At times people insist that they cannot upgrade to a modern curl version, 196 but instead they "just want the bug fixed". That's fine, just don't count on 197 us spending many cycles on trying to identify which single commit, if that's 198 even possible, that at some point in the past fixed the problem you're now 199 experiencing. 200 201 Security wise, it is almost always a bad idea to lag behind the current curl 202 versions by a lot. We keeping discovering and reporting security problems 203 over time see you can see in this table: 204 https://curl.haxx.se/docs/vulnerabilities.html 205 206 2. Bug fixing procedure 207 208 2.1 What happens on first filing 209 210 When a new issue is posted in the issue tracker or on the mailing list, the 211 team of developers first need to see the report. Maybe they took the day 212 off, maybe they're off in the woods hunting. Have patience. Allow at least a 213 few days before expecting someone to have responded. 214 215 In the issue tracker you can expect that some labels will be set on the 216 issue to help categorize it. 217 218 2.2 First response 219 220 If your issue/bug report wasn't perfect at once (and few are), chances are 221 that someone will ask follow-up questions. Which version did you use? Which 222 options did you use? How often does the problem occur? How can we reproduce 223 this problem? Which protocols does it involve? Or perhaps much more specific 224 and deep diving questions. It all depends on your specific issue. 225 226 You should then respond to these follow-up questions and provide more info 227 about the problem, so that we can help you figure it out. Or maybe you can 228 help us figure it out. An active back-and-forth communication is important 229 and the key for finding a cure and landing a fix. 230 231 2.3 Not reproducible 232 233 For problems that we can't reproduce and can't understand even after having 234 gotten all the info we need and having studied the source code over again, 235 are really hard to solve so then we may require further work from you who 236 actually see or experience the problem. 237 238 2.4 Unresponsive 239 240 If the problem haven't been understood or reproduced, and there's nobody 241 responding to follow-up questions or questions asking for clarifications or 242 for discussing possible ways to move forward with the task, we take that as 243 a strong suggestion that the bug is not important. 244 245 Unimportant issues will be closed as inactive sooner or later as they can't 246 be fixed. The inactivity period (waiting for responses) should not be 247 shorter than two weeks but may extend months. 248 249 2.5 Lack of time/interest 250 251 Bugs that are filed and are understood can unfortunately end up in the 252 "nobody cares enough about it to work on it" category. Such bugs are 253 perfectly valid problems that *should* get fixed but apparently aren't. We 254 try to mark such bugs as "KNOWN_BUGS material" after a time of inactivity 255 and if no activity is noticed after yet some time those bugs are added to 256 KNOWN_BUGS and are closed in the issue tracker. 257 258 2.6 KNOWN_BUGS 259 260 This is a list of known bugs. Bugs we know exist and that have been pointed 261 out but that haven't yet been fixed. The reasons for why they haven't been 262 fixed can involve anything really, but the primary reason is that nobody has 263 considered these problems to be important enough to spend the necessary time 264 and effort to have them fixed. 265 266 The KNOWN_BUGS are always up for grabs and we will always love the ones who 267 bring one of them back to live and offers solutions to them. 268 269 The KNOWN_BUGS document has a sibling document known as TODO. 270 271 2.7 TODO 272 273 Issues that are filed or reported that aren't really bugs but more missing 274 features or ideas for future improvements and so on are marked as 275 'enhancement' or 'feature-request' and will be added to the TODO document 276 instead and the issue is closed. We don't keep TODO items in the issue 277 tracker. 278 279 The TODO document is full of ideas and suggestions of what we can add or fix 280 one day. You're always encouraged and free to grab one of those items and 281 take up a discussion with the curl development team on how that could be 282 implemented or provided in the project so that you can work on ticking it 283 odd that document. 284 285 If the issue is rather a bug and not a missing feature or functionality, it 286 is listed in KNOWN_BUGS instead. 287 288 2.8 Closing off stalled bugs 289 290 The issue and pull request trackers on https://github.com/curl/curl will 291 only hold "active" entries (using a non-precise definition of what active 292 actually is, but they're at least not completely dead). Those that are 293 abandoned or in other ways dormant will be closed and sometimes added to 294 TODO and KNOWN_BUGS instead. 295 296 This way, we only have "active" issues open on github. Irrelevant issues and 297 pull requests will not distract developers or casual visitors. 298