<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Copyright (C) 1991-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". --> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Bug Criteria (GNU Binary Utilities)</title> <meta name="description" content="Bug Criteria (GNU Binary Utilities)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Bug Criteria (GNU Binary Utilities)"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Binutils-Index.html#Binutils-Index" rel="index" title="Binutils Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" rel="up" title="Reporting Bugs"> <link href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" rel="next" title="Bug Reporting"> <link href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" rel="prev" title="Reporting Bugs"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Bug-Criteria"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" accesskey="n" rel="next">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="u" rel="up">Reporting Bugs</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Binutils-Index.html#Binutils-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Have-You-Found-a-Bug_003f"></a> <h3 class="section">19.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3> <a name="index-bug-criteria"></a> <p>If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: </p> <ul> <li> <a name="index-fatal-signal"></a> <a name="index-crash"></a> If a binary utility gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a bug. Reliable utilities never crash. </li><li> <a name="index-error-on-valid-input"></a> If a binary utility produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. </li><li> If you are an experienced user of binary utilities, your suggestions for improvement are welcome in any case. </li></ul> </body> </html>