1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> 2<html> 3<!-- Copyright (C) 1988-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 4 5Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document 6under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or 7any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the 8Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs 9Free Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," 10and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. 11 12(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify 13this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in 14developing GNU and promoting software freedom." --> 15<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 5.1, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> 16<head> 17<title>Debugging with GDB: Bug Criteria</title> 18 19<meta name="description" content="Debugging with GDB: Bug Criteria"> 20<meta name="keywords" content="Debugging with GDB: Bug Criteria"> 21<meta name="resource-type" content="document"> 22<meta name="distribution" content="global"> 23<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> 24<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> 25<link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> 26<link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> 27<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> 28<link href="GDB-Bugs.html#GDB-Bugs" rel="up" title="GDB Bugs"> 29<link href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" rel="next" title="Bug Reporting"> 30<link href="GDB-Bugs.html#GDB-Bugs" rel="previous" title="GDB Bugs"> 31<style type="text/css"> 32<!-- 33a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} 34blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} 35div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} 36div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} 37div.indentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em} 38div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} 39div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} 40div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} 41div.smallindentedblock {margin-left: 3.2em; font-size: smaller} 42div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} 43kbd {font-style:oblique} 44pre.display {font-family: inherit} 45pre.format {font-family: inherit} 46pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} 47pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} 48pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} 49pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} 50pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} 51pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} 52span.nocodebreak {white-space:nowrap} 53span.nolinebreak {white-space:nowrap} 54span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal} 55span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal} 56ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} 57--> 58</style> 59 60 61</head> 62 63<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000"> 64<a name="Bug-Criteria"></a> 65<div class="header"> 66<p> 67Next: <a href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" accesskey="n" rel="next">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a href="GDB-Bugs.html#GDB-Bugs" accesskey="u" rel="up">GDB Bugs</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> 68</div> 69<hr> 70<a name="Have-You-Found-a-Bug_003f"></a> 71<h3 class="section">31.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3> 72<a name="index-bug-criteria"></a> 73 74<p>If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: 75</p> 76<ul> 77<li> <a name="index-fatal-signal"></a> 78<a name="index-debugger-crash"></a> 79<a name="index-crash-of-debugger"></a> 80If the debugger gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a 81<small>GDB</small> bug. Reliable debuggers never crash. 82 83</li><li> <a name="index-error-on-valid-input"></a> 84If <small>GDB</small> produces an error message for valid input, that is a 85bug. (Note that if you’re cross debugging, the problem may also be 86somewhere in the connection to the target.) 87 88</li><li> <a name="index-invalid-input"></a> 89If <small>GDB</small> does not produce an error message for invalid input, 90that is a bug. However, you should note that your idea of 91“invalid input” might be our idea of “an extension” or “support 92for traditional practice”. 93 94</li><li> If you are an experienced user of debugging tools, your suggestions 95for improvement of <small>GDB</small> are welcome in any case. 96</li></ul> 97 98 99 100 101</body> 102</html> 103