SAMBA Project Documentation
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Chapter 19. Reporting Bugs

19.1. Introduction

The email address for bug reports is samba@samba.org

Please take the time to read this file before you submit a bug +report. Also, please see if it has changed between releases, as we +may be changing the bug reporting mechanism at some time.

Please also do as much as you can yourself to help track down the +bug. Samba is maintained by a dedicated group of people who volunteer +their time, skills and efforts. We receive far more mail about it than +we can possibly answer, so you have a much higher chance of an answer +and a fix if you send us a "developer friendly" bug report that lets +us fix it fast.

Do not assume that if you post the bug to the comp.protocols.smb +newsgroup or the mailing list that we will read it. If you suspect that your +problem is not a bug but a configuration problem then it is better to send +it to the Samba mailing list, as there are (at last count) 5000 other users on +that list that may be able to help you.

You may also like to look though the recent mailing list archives, +which are conveniently accessible on the Samba web pages +at http://samba.org/samba/

19.2. General info

Before submitting a bug report check your config for silly +errors. Look in your log files for obvious messages that tell you that +you've misconfigured something and run testparm to test your config +file for correct syntax.

Have you run through the diagnosis? +This is very important.

If you include part of a log file with your bug report then be sure to +annotate it with exactly what you were doing on the client at the +time, and exactly what the results were.

19.3. Debug levels

If the bug has anything to do with Samba behaving incorrectly as a +server (like refusing to open a file) then the log files will probably +be very useful. Depending on the problem a log level of between 3 and +10 showing the problem may be appropriate. A higher level givesmore +detail, but may use too much disk space.

To set the debug level use log level = in your +smb.conf. You may also find it useful to set the log +level higher for just one machine and keep separate logs for each machine. +To do this use:

log level = 10
+log file = /usr/local/samba/lib/log.%m
+include = /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m

then create a file +/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.machine where +"machine" is the name of the client you wish to debug. In that file +put any smb.conf commands you want, for example +log level= may be useful. This also allows you to +experiment with different security systems, protocol levels etc on just +one machine.

The smb.conf entry log level = +is synonymous with the entry debuglevel = that has been +used in older versions of Samba and is being retained for backwards +compatibility of smb.conf files.

As the log level = value is increased you will record +a significantly increasing level of debugging information. For most +debugging operations you may not need a setting higher than 3. Nearly +all bugs can be tracked at a setting of 10, but be prepared for a VERY +large volume of log data.

19.4. Internal errors

If you get a "INTERNAL ERROR" message in your log files it means that +Samba got an unexpected signal while running. It is probably a +segmentation fault and almost certainly means a bug in Samba (unless +you have faulty hardware or system software)

If the message came from smbd then it will probably be accompanied by +a message which details the last SMB message received by smbd. This +info is often very useful in tracking down the problem so please +include it in your bug report.

You should also detail how to reproduce the problem, if +possible. Please make this reasonably detailed.

You may also find that a core file appeared in a "corefiles" +subdirectory of the directory where you keep your samba log +files. This file is the most useful tool for tracking down the bug. To +use it you do this:

gdb smbd core

adding appropriate paths to smbd and core so gdb can find them. If you +don't have gdb then try "dbx". Then within the debugger use the +command "where" to give a stack trace of where the problem +occurred. Include this in your mail.

If you known any assembly language then do a "disass" of the routine +where the problem occurred (if its in a library routine then +disassemble the routine that called it) and try to work out exactly +where the problem is by looking at the surrounding code. Even if you +don't know assembly then incuding this info in the bug report can be +useful.

19.5. Attaching to a running process

Unfortunately some unixes (in particular some recent linux kernels) +refuse to dump a core file if the task has changed uid (which smbd +does often). To debug with this sort of system you could try to attach +to the running process using "gdb smbd PID" where you get PID from +smbstatus. Then use "c" to continue and try to cause the core dump +using the client. The debugger should catch the fault and tell you +where it occurred.

19.6. Patches

The best sort of bug report is one that includes a fix! If you send us +patches please use diff -u format if your version of +diff supports it, otherwise use diff -c4. Make sure +your do the diff against a clean version of the source and let me know +exactly what version you used.

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