bug_report_howto
How to submit a quality bug report
Submitting quality bug reports is important to get bugs fixed and to not waste developer time. Once a bug is reported, a dev will have to verify that the report is actually a bug. Once it has been verified, a dev has to hunt down the cause of the bug, and then fix it.
Submit to Correct Location
Submitting a bug report to the correct location is important for getting it fixed quickly. While we can move tickets from one tracker to another, it can often slow down fixes. Additionally, forums, email, and private messages are not appropriate places for bug reports.
MegaMek Tickets
MekHQ Tickets
MegaMekLab Tickets
Check for duplicates
The first step in creating a bug report is to search the bug tracker to see if the bug has already been reported. When on the bug tracker page, the in upper left is a search box.
Be detailed
After making sure the bug report isn't a duplicate, it's time to think about what makes a quality bug report. It is important to be clear and detailed; the developers cannot read your mind and the only information they have to go off of is what is in the bug report. Often, something that seems obvious to the reporter will not be obvious to the developer, because the developer can be in a different frame of mind. Describe the situation leading up to the bug in as much detail as possible. Also include steps to reproduce: these should be detailed steps that a developer can use to reproduce the bug (a saved game can help here, see below).
One thing to note is that the bug tracker is not a forum to get information: if there is confusion about how something works, or why something works the way it does that isn't grounds for a bug report. Instead, posting on the forums is a better way to get information. Furthermore, bug reports without sufficient details to reproduce are not beneficial at all. They just waste the devs time. Bug reports with single sentence descriptions or descriptions that say things like "see title" will not be well received.
It is also important to only report one issue per ticket. Creating a new ticket is cheap and it's easy to cross reference tickets. When multiple issues get reported in a single issue it just ends up confusing the discussion.
Give references for rules
Additionally, when reporting a bug about rules it is very important to give references to the rules and to first check errata. BattleTech is a complex game with a large number of optional rules. The devs may not know all of the rules by heart and often have to spend a lot of time looking up and cross checking rules.
Attach a logfile
Version information is also important, and the easiest way to convey this is by attaching a logfile from MegaMek. When running, MegaMek logs messages to logs/megameklog.txt by default (this can be changed with the -log flag when running MegaMek). The log file will contain basic system information (like operating system) as well as the version of MegaMek that is running. Frequently it also contains stack traces that can be immensely helpful in hunting down a bug.
Under no circumstances should excerpts from a logfile be posted into the ticket. This clutters up the ticket and can screw with the page formatting. Logfiles are generally not that large and easy to attach to the ticket. There can also be multiple pieces of useful information in the logfile that can be missed when the reporter posts what they think is relevant. To attach multiple files, either zip up all files into one file and attach that, or attach a file and make the post and then edit the post to attach further files. Unfortunately there is no great way to make multiple attachments to our knowledge.
Attach a saved game
In addition to attaching a log file, it is also helpful to attach a saved game. If you have a saved game prior to the bug occurring, often the devs can load the saved game and quickly reproduce the bug. This is very helpful as the dev can then attach a debugger and step through the code to figure out exactly what is going on. Megamek automatically creates an autosave at the start of a turn and there is also the "paranoid save" option that will make Megamek save an autosave at the start of every phase instead of at the start of a turn. Changing the name of the save game (not the extension part) to the name of the player the dev should connect as would help streamline the devs effort to fix bugs. Do not say, "see this other ticket...** kind of comments. Attach relevant files to the ticket itself.
Until further notice: Anon bug reports have been disabled. Thank you for your patience.
This means that you will not see the option to create a ticket if you are not signed in, however anyone with a SourceForge account can sign in and submit tickets.
Subscribe to notifications if posting as anon
One final thing. MegaMek currently allows anonymous bug reports, which means people can post reports without creating an account and logging in. If making an anonymous report, it is recommended to at least subscribe to the ticket so you get email notifications about updates to the ticket. Frequently, vague reports with insufficient information will be reported by anonymous users who then forget about the bug, leaving it to never be fixed. When on the bug report page, in the upper right there are several buttons, including an email icon for "subscribe to."
