LaTeX Error Reports 12 January 1999 ERROR REPORTS Before you report an error please check that: * Your LaTeX system is not more than one year old. New LaTeX releases occur at 6 monthly intervals, thus your problem may have already been fixed. * The error is not already fixed by a patch added recently to the current distribution. If you have access to a CTAN archive then you can easily check whether there is already a patch that fixes your problem; so please do so. The patches are described in the files patches.txt and ltpatch.ltx; these are in the current distribution. This check is especially important if you are using a distribution that is more than one month old. * The error is not already mentioned in the documentation of the distribution, e.g. in a .dtx file (in this case it is a feature :-). * The error has not already been reported. If you have WWW access, you can search the LaTeX bugs database using this URL: http://www.latex-project.org/bugs.html * The error is not caused by software other than the core LaTeX software that is produced and maintained by the LaTeX3 project team (please report problems with other software to the authors or suppliers of that software). * The error is not caused by using an obsolete version of any file or of other software. * You are using the original version of all files, not one that has been modified elsewhere. If you think you have found a genuine bug in a recent version of the core LaTeX software, please report it in the following way: * Prepare a *short* test file that clearly demonstrates your problem; see below for a discussion of `short'. * Run this file through latex to obtain the transcript file (often .log) since you will need to submit this file also. * Generate a bug report template by running the file latexbug.tex through LaTeX. * Fill in the spaces in the generated template file. Please note that the reporting language is *English* irregardless of the fact, that the address you are sending the bug report to, might not be in an English speaking country. Reports received in a language other than English might not be understandable for the person currently looking at bug reports! * Include all necessary information, especially a complete input file, a complete transcript file, and all other files used (if they are not standard). Please check carefully to ensure that any non-standard files are essential to the bug; and remember that we cannot debug files not supplied by us. Any such non-standard files should be included in a `filecontents' environment at the start of your input file! This allows us to run your test file without a lot of manual preparation; this is essential since we have to deal with many reports, not just with the one written by you. * Please note that it is important to make the input file as short as possible since this will enable us to find and fix the error quickly. It also helps us because then we can often use it as a test file for future releases. We would expect most files to be less than 60 lines, and very rarely to be longer than 100 lines. This can often be achieved by defining a command to be some arbitrary text and using this several times if it is necessary to generate longer bits of text. Error reports concerning UNCHANGED versions of CORE LaTeX files which are less than one year old should be sent by E-mail to: latex-bugs@latex-project.org You will receive an acknowledgement by E-mail containing at the beginning of its subject line a problem reference of the form category/number, e.g. latex/1234. Please use this subject line in ALL further E-mails concerning the problem. Otherwise your reply will be categorized and filed separately. LAYOUT PROBLEMS If you think you have found a bug or some problematic behavior that has been present in LaTeX for a long time (e.g., it was already in LaTeX 2.09) you are, of course, equally welcome to report this, using the above procedure. However, please note that we will normally not change layout decisions made in the LaTeX standard classes (which are derived from their 2.09 counterparts); nor will we change layout decisions or the behaviour of core commands, even when these are questionable from a typographic point of view, since such changes would make thousands of documents invalid. See also the file ltnews07.tex with regard to this policy. DOCUMENTATION ERRORS If you find an error in one of the following books: TITLE Author Errata File The LaTeX Manual Lamport manual.err The LaTeX Companion Goossens, Mittelbach, Samarin compan.err The LaTeX Graphics Companion Goossens, Mittelbach, Rahtz grphcomp.err Das LaTeX Handbuch Lamport handbuch.err Der LaTeX Begleiter Goossens, Mittelbach, Samarin begleit.err The LaTeX Web Goossens, Rahtz webcomp.err Companion then please check first whether it is already mentioned in the errata file for that book (these files are part of the LaTeX distribution). If this is not the case then please report the error to the address given in that corresponding errata file. Please *do not* send such reports to the latex-bugs address. --- Copyright 1997,1998 the LaTeX3 project. All rights reserved ---