Providing Backtraces
If you have a bug in which an application is crashing, developers and maintainers can best help you if you provide a backtrace. To provide a backtrace, it is best if you can also reproduce the bug. To reproduce a bug means to have a series of exact steps that cause the bug to appear.
1. First, make sure the yum-utils package is installed. In a graphical environment's main menu, choose System > Administration > Add/Remove Software. From a console, run this command:
yum install yum-utils
1. If you're using GNOME, the bug-buddy package also comes in handy:
yum install bug-buddy # or combine this with the previous installation
1. Find the package that corresponds to the application you're running. Sometimes this package is obvious, such as firefox for the Firefox web browser. In other cases you can identify it with the following commands:
ps awU $USER # look for the command in the list rpm -qf <some_command_path> # such as /usr/libexec/mixer_applet2
1. Use the debuginfo-install command to install the debug packages for that application's package and its dependency chain:
su -c 'debuginfo-install gnome-applets'
1. If you have bug-buddy available a backtrace may be provided automatically when you run the application again and trigger the bug. Refer to the Crash Details for more information. If not, run the application, and attach gdb to the process:
ps aU $USER # look for the command and find its process ID (PID) on left gdb -p <the_PID>
1. At the gdb prompt, turn on logging:
set pagination off set logging on my-backtrace.txt
1. Reproduce the bug and crash the application. Now you can generate the backtrace, and then quit the debugger:
thread apply all bt full quit
1. Attach the resulting my-backtrace.txt (with a better file name) to your bug entry. DO NOT PASTE IT into the bug, as this makes the bug longer and harder to read for everyone. Instead, use the "attachment" feature to attach your backtrace file.