Preparations

Before you report a bug, please make sure you have completed the following steps:

• Update to the current version. Reports for older versions will be ignored.
• Check the Changelog file from /trunk/ and see if your bug has already been fixed.
• If possible, update to the latest nightly build and see if the bug is still there. You can find the link to the nightly builds on our downloads page.
• Check the mailing list archive. Maybe someone else already reported the same bug you're seeing, and if so that bug might be already fixed.

How to write the bug report

There is a large number of TortoiseSVN users. There is a much small number of people who actually develop TortoiseSVN. There is an even smaller number of people who actively fix bugs reported by users.

What does this mean for you, an aspiring bug reporter? In order to catch the eye of one of these few volunteers, you'll need to take to heart a few tips on how to report a bug so that they can and will help you.

Take special note of that word in bold above. The people who are going to help you with a bug you report are volunteers. Not only are you not paying them to help you, but nobody else is either. So, be nice to them.

Beyond that golden rule, what follows are some additional tips on ways to make your bug report better so that someone will be able to help you.

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The basics: what you did, what you wanted to happen, and what actually happened.

Those are the three basic elements of a bug report. You need to tell us exactly what you did (for example, "I right-clicked on "make happy meal"), what you expected to have happened (to continue the example, "I expected TortoiseSVN to serve me a happy meal with a hamburger and onion rings"), and what actually happened ("It gave me a happy meal with french fries.").

Yes, the example is silly. But if your bug report simply said "The make_happy_meal function doesn't work," you will very likely get a reply saying "It works fine for me", because we can't guess what you were expecting to happen. By giving all the information you might get a reply like "That's because you can't have onion rings in a happy meal, you can only have french fries or curly fries." By telling us what you asked for, what you expected to get, and what you actually got, we don't have to guess what you mean.

Only report one problem in each bug report

If you have encountered two bugs that don't appear to be related, create a new bug report for each one. This makes it easier for different people to help with the different bugs.

Where to send the report to?

Bug reports should be reported on our forum.