If you find a bug in cairo we would love to hear about it. We're also

trying to make cairo better, and learning about the bugs that users

encounter is an essential part of that. So we really appreciate the

extra effort users put in to providing high-quality bug reports.

There are two acceptable ways to report cairo bugs, and you can choose

which you prefer:

1) Bugzilla bug tracking database:

   You can use the following web interface to report new bugs, follow

   up on previous bug reports, and search for existing, known

   bugs. Just use the "cairo" product:

	http://bugs.freedesktop.org

   It is necessary to go through a quick account creation process,

   (with email address verification), in order to be able to report

   new bugs in bugzilla. We apologize for any inconvenience that might

   cause, and hope it won't prevent you from reporting bugs.

2) Cairo mailing list:

   For people who cannot stand the bugzilla interface, you can just

   send an email to cairo mailing list (cairo@cairographics.org). The

   mailing list only allows posting from subscribers, so use the

   following page for subscription instructions:

	http://cairographics.org/lists

   Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this subscription step

   might cause, but we've found it necessary to require this in order

   to enjoy spam-free discussions on the list.

   If you don't actually _want_ to be a subscriber to the mailing

   list, but just want to be able to send a message, the easiest thing

   to do is to go through the subscription process, and then use the

   preferences page to disable message delivery to your address.

Which of the above you use to report bugs depends on your own

preferences. Some people find just typing an email message much easier

than using the web-based forms on bugzilla. Others greatly prefer the

ability to check back on a specific bug entry in bugzilla without

having to ask on the mailing list if an issue has been resolved.

Regardless of which method you use, here are some general tips that

will help you improve the quality of your bug report, (which will help

in getting the bug fixed sooner):

1) Check to see if the bug has been reported already. It's pretty easy

   to run a search or two against the cairo product in the

   http://bugs.freedesktop.org bugzilla database. Another place to

   look for known bugs is the cairo ROADMAP:

	http://cairographics.org/ROADMAP

   which shows a planned schedule of releases and which bug fixes are

   being planned for each release.

2) Provide an accurate description of the bug with detailed steps for

   how we can reproduce the problem.

3) If possible provide a minimal test case demonstrating the bug. A

   great test case would be a minimal self-contained function in C or

   python or whatever language you are using for cairo. The function

   might accept nothing more than a cairo context, (cairo_t* in C).

4) If you feel like being particularly helpful, you could craft this

   minimal test case in the form necessary for cairo's test

   suite. This isn't much more work than writing a minimal

   function. Just look at the cairo/test/README file and imitate the

   style of existing test cases.

   If you do submit a test case, be sure to include Copyright

   information, (with the standard MIT licensing blurb if you want us

   to include your test in the test case). Also, including a reference

   image showing the expected result will be extremely useful.

5) Finally, the best bug report also comes attached with a patch to

   cairo to fix the bug. So send this too if you have it! Otherwise,

   don't worry about it and we'll try to fix cairo when we can.

Thanks, and have fun with cairo!

-Carl