1                                  _   _ ____  _
2                              ___| | | |  _ \| |
3                             / __| | | | |_) | |
4                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
5                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
6
7BUGS
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
321.1 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
421.2 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
561.3 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@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/security.html
72
731.4 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
1051.5 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
1251.6 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
1441.7 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
1641.8 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
1741.9 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
2062. Bug fixing procedure
207
2082.1 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
2182.2 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
2312.3 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
2382.4 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
2492.5 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
2582.6 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
2712.7 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
2882.8 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