ffmpegs bug/patch/feature request tracker manual
================================================

NOTE, this is a draft, it is not yet recommended to send real bugreports to the
tracker but rather use the mailing lists.
Though, if you are brave and do not mind that your bugreport might disappear or
that you might be mailbombed due to a misconfiguration, you can surely try
to enter a real bugreport.

Overview:
---------
FFmpeg uses roundup for tracking issues, new issues and changes to
existing issues can be done through a web interface and through email.
It is possible to subscribe to individual issues by adding yourself to the
nosy list or to subscribe to the ffmpeg-issues mailing list which receives
a mail for every change to every issue. Replies to such mails will also
properly be added to the respective issue.
(the above does all work already after light testing)
The subscription URL for the ffmpeg-issues list is:
http://live.polito.it/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-issues

note: issue = (bug report || patch || feature request)

Type:
-----
bug
    An error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in ffmpeg or libav* that
    prevents it from behaving as intended.

feature request
    Request of support for encoding or decoding of a new codec, container
    or variant.
    Request of support for more, less or plain different output or behavior
    where the current behavior cannot be considered wrong.

patch
    A patch as generated by diff which conforms to the patch submission and
    Development Policy.


Priority:
---------
critical
    Bugs and patches which deal with data loss and security issues.
    No feature request can be critical.

important
    Bugs which make ffmpeg unusable for a significant number of users, and
    patches fixing them.
    Examples here might be completely broken mpeg4 decoding or a build issue
    on Linux.
    While broken 4xm decoding or broken OS/2 build would not be important, the
    separation to normal is somewhat fuzzy ...
    For feature requests this priority would be used for things many people
    want.

normal


minor
    Bugs and patches about things like spelling errors, "mp2" instead of
    "mp3" being shown and such.
    Feature requests about things few people want or which do not make a big
    difference.

wish
    Something that is desirable to have but that there is no urgency at
    all to implement, e.g.: something completely cosmetic like a
    website restyle or a personalized doxy template or the ffmpeg logo.
    This priority isn't valid for bugs.


Status:
-------
new
    initial state

open
    intermediate states

closed
    Final state


Type/Status/Substatus:
----------
*/new/new
    Initial state of new bugs, patches and feature requests submitted by
    users

*/open/open
    Issues which have been briefly looked at and which did not look outright
    invalid.
    This implicates that no real more detailed state applies yet. And the
    more detailed states below implicate that the issue has been briefly
    looked at.

*/closed/duplicate
    Bugs, patches or feature requests which are duplicate of some other.
    Note patches dealing with the same thing but differently are not duplicate.

*/closed/invalid
    Bugs caused by user errors, random ineligible or otherwise nonsense stuff

bug/open/reproduced
    Bugs which have been reproduced

bug/open/analyzed
    Bugs which have been analyzed and where it is understood what causes them
    and which exact chain of events triggers them. This analysis should be
    available as a message in the bugreport.
    Note, do not change the status to analyzed without also providing a clear
    and understandable analysis.
    This state implicates that the bug either has been reproduced or that
    reproduction is not needed as the bug is understood already anyway.

bug/open/needs_more_info
    Bugreports which are incomplete and or where more information is needed
    from the submitter or another person who can provide the info.
    This state implicates that the bug has not been analyzed or reproduced.

bug/closed/fixed
    Bugs which have to the best of our knowledge been fixed.

bug/closed/wont_fix
    Bugs which we will not fix, the reasons here could be legal, philosophical
    or others.

bug/closed/works_for_me
    Bugs for which sufficient information was provided to reproduce but
    reproduction failed - that is the code seems to work correctly to the
    best of our knowledge.

patch/open/approved
    Patches which have been reviewed and approved by a developer.
    Such patches can be applied anytime by any other developer after some
    reasonable testing (compile + regression tests + does the patch do
    what the author claimed).

patch/open/needs_changes
    Patches which have been reviewed and need changes to be accepted.

patch/closed/applied
    Patches which have been applied.

patch/closed/rejected
    Patches which have been rejected.

feature_request/open/needs_more_info
    Feature requests where its not clear what exactly is wanted
    (these also could be closed as invalid ...).

feature_request/closed/implemented
    Feature requests which have been implemented.

feature_request/closed/wont_implement
    Feature requests which will not be implemented. The reasons here could
    be legal, philosophical or others.

Note, please do not use type-status-substatus combinations other than the
above without asking on ffmpeg-dev first!

Topic:
------
A topic is a tag you should add to your issue in order to make grouping them
easier. Some tags available: avformat, avcodec, avutils, ffmpeg, roundup