empserver/doc/bug-reports

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Reporting Bugs
Code Correctness
What's a bug? Well, if a game program core-dumps under normal
conditions, that's definitely a bug. If a player can manufacture
game items (circumventing the intended game semantics) then
that's a bug too.
If you don't agree about an existing semantic, or you don't like
the format of a particular command output, that's NOT a bug!
If you do have a bug to report, I will only pay attention if
I have a chance of fixing it. Bug reports which vaguely
describe behavior, e.g., "Sometimes when I run the ship
command, it gives me funny output" will be ignored! Bug
reports should include game output, stack traces if possible
(assuming a core dump is produced), and the major, minor, and
patch level of the version you're running.
Once you find a bug, try and reproduce it. If you can't,
then say so. If you can, say that too. If you can't reproduce
it, chances are pretty good that I can't either.
If you have a debugger, try running the offending game
section under your debugger -- preferably gdb -- and try
and locate the area of code responsible.
If you can fix the bug and verify the fix, then you can bet
that I'll be much more interested in your bug report. Response
time is likely to be greater too!
Semantics
If you want to get into a discussion of game semantics, the
best place to do that is rec.games.empire, or your favorite
empire-hackers mailing list. Don't send me a bug report
about it!
Naturally, I hope you don't find any bugs. If you do,
go through the above steps, and mail the resulting output
to us -- wolfpack@wolfpackempire.com