LibreOfficeBugWrangling

Revision 6 as of 2012-03-20 12:51:40

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Debugging Central

This page is part of the debugging series — pages with debugging details for a variety of Ubuntu packages.

How to File

  • Please file all your LibreOffice bugs by executing at the Terminal:
    ubuntu-bug <PACKAGE>

    where <PACKAGE> is the specific package you found the problem in. For example, if you have a document import issue with Writer:
    ubuntu-bug libreoffice-writer

  • Sample bug reporting template:

1) lsb_release -rd

2) apt-cache policy libreoffice-writer

3) What is expected to happen in Writer is <PRECISE, STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS>.

4) What happened instead is...

WORKAROUND: Perform the following steps:...

  • Please do not stack multiple issues into one bug.
  • Please do not complain about how long it takes to fix a bug, the severity of your bug is high so it should be fixed immediately, "I cannot believe it's not fixed...", etc. Especially, if you have not completed the relevant, below mentioned debugging procedures, let alone contributed code upstream. This type of behavior is unconstructive, irritating to others who read your E-Mail, and spammy. We all want to see every bug fixed as soon as possible! Naturally, bugs being fixed is limited to reproducibility and clarity of the bug report, the actual impact the bug has on the community, and available developer resources.

Debugging Procedure

Document Issues

Bug exporting to MS Office

  • If you are reporting about how a document looks different exporting to MS Office, please attach the document to the bug report immediately after saving via LibreOffice, but before opening in MS Office. As well, please post a screenshot of how it looks in LibreOffice and then how it shows in MS Office.

Bug Importing from MS Office

  • If you are reporting about how a document looks importing from MS Office, please save the file in MS Office, then before opening in any other program, attach the document to the bug report. As well, please post a screenshot of how it looks in LibreOffice and then how it shows in MS Office.

Bug Exporting to PDF

  • If you are reporting about how a document looks exporting to Evince, please attach the file to the bug report before and after exporting to PDF. As well, provide screenshots of how it looks in LibreOffice, Evince, and Adobe Reader.

Printing

Crashes

  • For instances when LibreOffice crashes, please ensure you have all the debug symbols installed (ex. libreoffice-dbg) and that it is reported via Apport. For more on this please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport . As well, if this happened while a particular document was open or you were manipulating the document, please attach that document to the bug report with detailed, click-for-click steps on how to reproduce the crash.

Regressions

Wishlists

  • For Wishlist reports, many of these are requests to implement a feature in LibreOffice found in MS Office. A broad but good rule of thumb is if you want LibreOffice to do something that MS Office does (MS Office compatibility expectation), please document how specifically MS Office does it, then how LibreOffice does not or does not do well that which you desire. Please keep in mind, pocket cases exist where LibreOffice intentionally does not do what MS Office does (ex. leap year implementation https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/456100).

Triaging LibreOffice Bugs

Writer and Calc

  • For bugs in Writer, it is helpful to check to see if the problem exists in AbiWord. For bugs in Calc, it is helpful to check to see if the problem exists in Gnumeric. Sometimes, AbiWord and Gnumeric give the bug reporter a usable workaround to the problem (and vice versa). If a workaround is found, feel free to document it in the report. As well, while not quite apples and oranges code wise, it gives LibreOffice developers code to base a patch on.

Wishlist Reports

  • For Wishlist reports, they most likely should be marked Won't Fix Wishlist. This is due to how Ubuntu diverts very little from the LibreOffice upstream source release, and upstream's rapid maintenance cadence.
    A Won't Fix Wishlist stock reply:

Thank you for reporting this and helping making Ubuntu better. Regarding this report:
- This is a clearcut upstream issue. Your welcome to send this to the developers of the software by following the instructions at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport . If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status.
- Marking LibreOffice Packaging and libreoffice (Ubuntu) => Won't Fix Wishlist. This does not mean the issue will not be cared about, but if it is cared about (even by Ubuntu/Canonical contributors), it is done upstream at LibreOffice.

How to Forward Bugs Upstream

  • Once marked Triaged, a report may be filed upstream using the LibreOffice Bug Submission Assistant 1.

    • Once a remote bug watch has been added to a bug report, it is helpful to append [Upstream] to the beginning of the bug title. This helps in searching for bugs reports by title. Please do not append this unless a remote bug watch has been added to the report as this creates confusion on which bugs have been reported upstream and which have not.


CategoryBugSquad CategoryDebugging