1If you find a bug in cairo we would love to hear about it. We're also
2trying to make cairo better, and learning about the bugs that users
3encounter is an essential part of that. So we really appreciate the
4extra effort users put in to providing high-quality bug reports.
5
6There are two acceptable ways to report cairo bugs, and you can choose
7which you prefer:
8
91) Bugzilla bug tracking database:
10
11   You can use the following web interface to report new bugs, follow
12   up on previous bug reports, and search for existing, known
13   bugs. Just use the "cairo" product:
14
15	http://bugs.freedesktop.org
16
17   It is necessary to go through a quick account creation process,
18   (with email address verification), in order to be able to report
19   new bugs in bugzilla. We apologize for any inconvenience that might
20   cause, and hope it won't prevent you from reporting bugs.
21
222) Cairo mailing list:
23
24   For people who cannot stand the bugzilla interface, you can just
25   send an email to cairo mailing list (cairo@cairographics.org). The
26   mailing list only allows posting from subscribers, so use the
27   following page for subscription instructions:
28
29	http://cairographics.org/lists
30
31   Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this subscription step
32   might cause, but we've found it necessary to require this in order
33   to enjoy spam-free discussions on the list.
34
35   If you don't actually _want_ to be a subscriber to the mailing
36   list, but just want to be able to send a message, the easiest thing
37   to do is to go through the subscription process, and then use the
38   preferences page to disable message delivery to your address.
39
40Which of the above you use to report bugs depends on your own
41preferences. Some people find just typing an email message much easier
42than using the web-based forms on bugzilla. Others greatly prefer the
43ability to check back on a specific bug entry in bugzilla without
44having to ask on the mailing list if an issue has been resolved.
45
46Regardless of which method you use, here are some general tips that
47will help you improve the quality of your bug report, (which will help
48in getting the bug fixed sooner):
49
501) Check to see if the bug has been reported already. It's pretty easy
51   to run a search or two against the cairo product in the
52   http://bugs.freedesktop.org bugzilla database. Another place to
53   look for known bugs is the cairo ROADMAP:
54
55	http://cairographics.org/ROADMAP
56
57   which shows a planned schedule of releases and which bug fixes are
58   being planned for each release.
59
602) Provide an accurate description of the bug with detailed steps for
61   how we can reproduce the problem.
62
633) If possible provide a minimal test case demonstrating the bug. A
64   great test case would be a minimal self-contained function in C or
65   python or whatever language you are using for cairo. The function
66   might accept nothing more than a cairo context, (cairo_t* in C).
67
684) If you feel like being particularly helpful, you could craft this
69   minimal test case in the form necessary for cairo's test
70   suite. This isn't much more work than writing a minimal
71   function. Just look at the cairo/test/README file and imitate the
72   style of existing test cases.
73
74   If you do submit a test case, be sure to include Copyright
75   information, (with the standard MIT licensing blurb if you want us
76   to include your test in the test case). Also, including a reference
77   image showing the expected result will be extremely useful.
78
795) Finally, the best bug report also comes attached with a patch to
80   cairo to fix the bug. So send this too if you have it! Otherwise,
81   don't worry about it and we'll try to fix cairo when we can.
82
83Thanks, and have fun with cairo!
84
85-Carl
86