How to use FlySpray in a helpful way

Introduction

First of all, make sure you use an official version of Rockbox. 3rd party bootloaders and builds are completely unsupported. Do not file any bugs when running 3rd party builds unless you have verified the problem persists with an official version of Rockbox.

If you think you found a bug it's important to give feedback to the developers so it can get fixed. But wait! As important as a bug report is is also the fact that this report is made in a useful way. For this to work you are expected to follow some rules that are below. Please read them completely before filing anything to our tracker. Following this guidelines greatly improves the chance your report being processed.

Flyspray is not a support channel. Our support channels are the mailing lists, the forums and IRC. For support questions don't go to Flyspray as you'll get way better responses there -- the tracker is a completely different thing and used in a completely different way. You won't get any support from the tracker, it is used to keep track of tasks only. Note that support questions in the tracker will get closed without any comment!

1. Write down anything that may be helpful. It's really important to be able reproducing your bug. If you think it's an emergency, calm down. Get yourself a piece of paper and take the time to write it down. (If you really can't wait please show up on IRC instead of filing a task).
2. Check out the version of Rockbox you are using. To find this out, go to Main Menu -> System -> Version. The current version is shown at the bottom of the screen.
3. Check if the bug is still present in the latest current version and with the latest available bootloader. Rockbox changes fast and many reported bugs have already been fixed in newer versions.
4. Check out if your problem is specific to some file or some file type. If it is try to find out what's different on that file. Don't forget to note such a finding in your report later.
5. When you gathered all information read the guidelines below completely. Make sure you follow them when filing your report.
6. Now follow the link to the tracker and add a new task. If you haven't registered with out tracker you can do now. You are required to use a valid email address. This address is used to send notification mails to you when something changes regarding the report you files. This is a really important thing as there is a possibility someone may you for some specific details. Your mail address won't get shown on the tracker page so there's no need to worry about that.
7. When you managed to file your report completely, wait. This is an open source project by volunteers run in their free time. No one can tell you how much time will be availiable in advance. Similarly, don't ask for dates as no one can estimate them. Thus, no one will give you dates.

Submitting a bug

Please include:

• What behaviour you are seeing
• What behaviour you expected
• How to reproduce the bug
• The SVN revision you are using and if possible the particular SVN revision in which you think the bug was introduced.

If you are unsure about a task you want to submit please ask in the aforementioned support channels first. This helps saving work for the developers and can also avoid you quite some amount of frustration.

Please try to respond to questions in the task for the bug you reported, sometimes developers need more information to be able to reproduce the bug. If the reporter doesn't reply, a bug that can't be reproduced will be closed.

Duplicate reports are really annoying and waste time that could be better used for fixing and developing! Please make sure the task you are about to submit isn't already present. If there is a similar task please take into consideration if it would be sufficient to comment on that existing task. Don't forget to check closed tasks as well -- the task you are thinking about might have been present but closed already. Also, make sure to check the list of known issues. Again, if you are unsure feel free to ask in our support channels.

Submitting a patch

• Explain in as much detail as possible what the patch does.
• Add any related existing Flyspray tasks to the list by entering their number in the "Add a new related task" box, under the "Related Tasks" tab.
• If your patch has issues that need to get addressed, don't forget to note them. Perhaps someone else is interested in your work and wants to help you out.
• Submitting a patch implies the assumption you want to get it included into Rockbox. For that to happen your patch needs to work on all players supported by Rockbox (if it's specific to some series of players make sure it doesn't break the other builds).
• Be aware that inclusion in Rockbox requires you giving your real name. Anonymous contributions aren't accepted in the project.