FFmpeg's bug/feature request tracker manual
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NOTE: This is a draft.
Overview:
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FFmpeg uses Trac for tracking issues, new issues and changes to
existing issues can be done through a web interface.
Issues can be different kinds of things we want to keep track of
but that do not belong into the source tree itself. This includes
bug reports, feature requests and license violations. We
might add more items to this list in the future, so feel free to
propose a new `type of issue' on the ffmpeg-devel mailing list if
you feel it is worth tracking.
It is possible to subscribe to individual issues by adding yourself to the
Cc list or to subscribe to the ffmpeg-trac mailing list which receives
a mail for every change to every issue.
(the above does all work already after light testing)
The subscription URL for the ffmpeg-trac list is:
http(s)://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-trac
The URL of the webinterface of the tracker is:
http(s)://trac.ffmpeg.org
Type:
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art
Artwork such as photos, music, banners, and logos.
bug / defect
An error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in FFmpeg or libav* that
prevents it from behaving as intended.
feature request / enhancement
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 implementation cannot be considered wrong.
license violation
ticket to keep track of (L)GPL violations of ffmpeg by others
sponsoring request
Developer requests for hardware, software, specifications, money,
refunds, etc.
Priority:
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critical
Bugs about data loss and security issues.
No feature request can be critical.
important
Bugs which make FFmpeg unusable for a significant number of users.
Examples here might be completely broken MPEG-4 decoding or a build issue
on Linux.
While broken 4xm decoding or a 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.
Regressions also should be marked as important, regressions are bugs that
don't exist in a past revision or another branch.
normal
minor
Bugs 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 is not valid for bugs.
Status:
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new
initial state
open
intermediate states
closed
final state
Analyzed flag:
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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 bug report.
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 already understood.
Type/Status:
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*/new
Initial state of new bugs and feature requests submitted by
users.
*/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. Conversely,
the more detailed states below implicate that the issue has been briefly
looked at.
*/closed/duplicate
Bugs or feature requests which are duplicates.
Note, if you mark something as duplicate, do not forget setting the
superseder so bug reports are properly linked.
*/closed/invalid
Bugs caused by user errors, random ineligible or otherwise nonsense stuff.
*/closed/needs_more_info
Issues for which some information has been requested by the developers,
but which has not been provided by anyone within reasonable time.
bug/closed/fixed
Bugs which have to the best of our knowledge been fixed.
bug/closed/wontfix
Bugs which we will not fix. Possible reasons include legality, high
complexity for the sake of supporting obscure corner cases, speed loss
for similarly esoteric purposes, et cetera.
This also means that we would reject a patch.
If we are just too lazy to fix a bug then the correct state is open
and unassigned. Closed means that the case is closed which is not
the case if we are just waiting for a patch.
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.
feature_request/closed/fixed
Feature requests which have been implemented.
feature_request/closed/wontfix
Feature requests which will not be implemented. The reasons here could
be legal, philosophical or others.
Note2, if you provide the requested info do not forget to remove the
needs_more_info resolution.
Component:
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avcodec
issues in libavcodec/*
avformat
issues in libavformat/*
avutil
issues in libavutil/*
regression test
issues in tests/*
ffmpeg
issues in or related to ffmpeg.c
ffplay
issues in or related to ffplay.c
ffprobe
issues in or related to ffprobe.c
ffserver
issues in or related to ffserver.c
build system
issues in or related to configure/Makefile
regression
bugs which were not present in a past revision
trac
issues related to our issue tracker