20 Bugs

Occasionally you may encounter a bug in PSPP.

20.1 When to report bugs

If you discover a bug, please first:

• Make sure that it really is a bug. Sometimes, what may appear to be a bug, turns out to be a misunderstanding of how to use the program. If you are unsure, ask for advice on the pspp-users mailing list. Information about the mailing list is at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-users.
• Try an up to date version of PSPP; the problem may have been recently fixed.
• If the problem persists in the up to date version, check to see if it has already been reported. Reported issues are listed at http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=pspp. For known issues in individual language features, see the relevant section in see Language.
• If the problem exists in a recent version and it has not already been reported, then please report it.

20.2 How to report bugs

The best way to send a bug report is using the web page at http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=pspp. Alternatively, bug reports may be sent by email to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.

In your bug report please include:

• The version of PSPP in which you encountered the problem. That means the precise version number. Do not simply say “the latest version” — releases happen quickly, and bug reports are archived indefinitely.
• The operating system and type of computer on which it is running. On a GNU or other unix-like system, the output from the uname command is helpful.
• A sample of the syntax which causes the problem or, if it is a user interface problem, the sequence of steps required to reproduce it. Screen shots are not usually helpful unless you are reporting a bug in the graphical user interface itself.
• A description of what you think is wrong: What happened that you didn’t expect, and what did you expect to happen?

The following is an example of a useful bug report:

When I run PSPP 0.8.4 on the system:
"Linux knut 3.5.3-gnu #1 PREEMPT Tue Aug 28 10:49:41 UTC 2012 mips64 GNU/Linux"
Executing the following syntax:

 DATA LIST FREE /x *.
 BEGIN DATA.
 1 2 3
 END DATA.
 LIST.

results in:

 4
 5
 6

I think the output should be:

 1
 2
 3

Here, the developers have the necessary information to reproduce the circumstances of the bug report, and they understand what the reporter expected.

Conversely, the following is a useless bug report:

I downloaded the latest version of PSPP and entered a sequence of numbers, 
but when I analyse them it gives the wrong output.

In that example, it is impossible to reproduce, and there is no indication of why the reporter thought what he saw was wrong.

Note that the purpose of bug reports is to help improve the quality of PSPP for the benefit of all users. It is not a consultancy or support service. If that is what you want, you are welcome to make private arrangements. Since PSPP is free software, consultants have access to the information they need to provide such support. The PSPP developers appreciate all users’ feedback, but cannot promise an immediate response.

Please do not use the bug reporting address for general enquiries or to seek help in using, installing or running the program. For that, use the pspp-users mailing list mentioned above.