Ticket Submission guide

Introduction

Reporting a bug, requesting a feature or posting a patch is more than just submitting a ticket. Any successful ticket basically involves three steps:

1. Gathering information

Before you submit a ticket, you search the database to see if similar tickets have been submitted before. Also, you search all the required background information needed so that your ticket can be handled efficiently.

2. Submitting the ticket

Be verbose in your ticket description. It is hard to provide too much information, but very easy to leave out vital information.

3. Wait for a solution and provide further feedback if needed

Fixing bugs or implementing features can take a lot of time. While we, the developers, do read all tickets, we do not have the time to reply to every ticket instantly, nor can we fix problems instantly. But eventually your ticket will get handled.

You need to be patient. Don't rush, posting BUMP and the likes will not help, it will only cause further delay.

Often, a developer working on your ticket will require further information. Be ready to adequately answer the developer's questions and provide the requested information.

Please read on for more details on each of these steps.

What are tickets?

This site is running Trac, which is an issue tracking system and every ticket is an issue. Think of a ticket as a number an issue and all corresponding data gets filed under.

There are three types of tickets or issues:

• Bug reports

Bugs can be best described as unintended behavior.

• Feature requests

If you would like to see certain functionality in FileZilla, then your ticket would be a feature request.

• Patches

Patches implement a new feature or fix bugs.

The distinction between a bug report and a feature request is not always clear, but you can follow this simple rule of thumb to come to a decision between the two: Assume you want FileZilla to perform a certain task, but cannot do it.

If there is no indication that this is possible with FileZilla, then it is a feature request. This still applies even if other programs can do it, but not FileZilla.

If there is an indication that the task you want to perform is possible with FileZilla, e.g. a button or menu item, but the action does not work or does something unexpected, then it is a bug.

Components

Each ticket describes an issue affecting a component. The components available here are:

• FileZilla Client
• FileZilla Server
• Other

Select the correct component, otherwise your ticket will be closed as invalid.

Ticket status

Over its lifetime, a ticket's status can change. Initially your ticket will have the new status and eventually it will reach the closed status. Other states include assigned, accepted, reopened or moreinfo. The latter tells you that the ticket is missing more information from you, while you as user can treat the other states just like new.

Information gathering

You do not want to ridicule yourself by submitting redundant, invalid or otherwise bad tickets. Doing so would not only waste your time, but also the time of the developers that have to look at your ticket.

Use the latest version

Most importantly, you need to make sure you are using the very latest version of FileZilla Client or Server respectively. Concerning tickets, there is nothing more embarrassing than to request a new feature that has been implemented already quite a while ago.

Make sure you are using the very latest version available directly from ​http://filezilla-project.org, do not rely on your distribution to have recent enough packages.

Search for existing tickets

The next step is to search the existing tickets. A huge amount of people are using FileZilla. Chances are good that you are not alone with your issue and that it has been reported before. To search the existing tickets, click on the View Tickets button in the navigation bar. You can then select a component and ticket type to browse. You can also search all tickets for some terms. Try searching for alternate terms too.

For example if you have an issue with the directory tree, search for the alternate (but technically inaccurate) word folder as well.

In addition, have a look at the ​forums, sometimes the answer can be found there already.

Submitting a ticket

This guide only covers what your ticket should contain. Read the 'New ticket' form guide how to fill out the 'new ticket' form.

Your ticket should contain a verbose description of your issue. Include every single detail that might be of importance.

You should include the full version number of FileZilla you are using in the ticket. If you don't enter a version number or are merely saying that you are using the latest version, nobody will be able to figure out which version you were using a couple of months in the future.

System details

In your ticket, include the name and version of the operating system you are using. Also name your system's processor architecture.

Examples:

• Windows Vista with SP6 on Intel Core i7
• OS X 10.5.3 on PowerPC
• Ubuntu Linux 9.6 on UltraSPARC

Logs

Especially with transfer related issues, valuable information is shown in the message log of FileZilla.

• Attach complete logs
  Snippets are useless without the surrounding context.
• Do not obfuscate logs
  You will most likely destroy the important parts of the log if you attempt to obfuscate it
• Set program language to English (client only)
  FileZilla is available in over forty languages, yet English is the only language understood by all developers.
• Logging debug level (client only)
  In the settings dialog, set the debug level to 3 to display a lot more additional information in the log. While not useful for most users, the developers can read and understand the debug information fluently.

Screenshots

If you have screenshots, attach them as simple .png files. Do not use .jpg and do not put screenshots into Word documents and the likes.

Summary

• Requirements
  • Make sure you are running the latest version of FileZilla Client or Server
  • Read existing documentation
  • Search existing tickets and the forums
  • Rule out your system as problem source: Install all system updates, use recent drivers, disable firewalls, virus scanners, so-called security solutions and all other third-party software.

• Submitting the ticket
  • Be verbose
  • Say which version you use
  • Say which operating system you use (name and version)
  • Include logs, dumps, and everything else that can help solve the issue

• Waiting for a solution
  • Be patient
  • Be ready to answer questions and to provide further information

Further reading

• ​How to ask questions the smart way by Eric S. Raymond, Rick Moen
• ​How to Report Bugs Effectively by Simon Tatham