Apache Tomcat -- Reporting Bugs

Glenn L. Nielsen Apache Tomcat -- Reporting Bugs

The Apache Tomcat community consists of those who use Apache Tomcat, help answer questions on discussions lists, contribute documentation and patches, and those who develop and maintain the code for Apache Tomcat. Almost all those who assist on a day to day basis resolving bug reports do this for a wide variety of reasons, and almost all of them do this on their own time.

Many bugs reported end up not being a bug in the Apache Tomcat code, but are due to misconfiguration, problems caused by installed applications, the operating system, etc.

Before reporting a bug please make every effort to resolve the problem yourself.

The remainder of this document points you toward resources you can use to resolve the problem you are having.

Here are some resources you can use to help you resolve the problem you are having before reporting a bug.

Documentation - Review the documentation for the version of Apache Tomcat you are using. The problem you are having may already be addressed in the docs.

Logs - The logs which Apache Tomcat generates can be a valuable resource when trying to diagnose a problem. Please review them. You may want to enable debug output in your Apache Tomcat configuration so that you have more information to help diagnose the problem.

FAQ's - Search Frequently Asked Question documents. FAQ's for all Jakarta projects can be found here.

Please search the bug database to see if the bug you are seeing has already been reported.

The bug may have already been fixed and is available in a later version or nightly build.
Someone else may have reported the bug, you could add supporting information to help reproduce and resolve the bug.

Search the Apache Tomcat 3 bug database here.
Search the Apache Tomcat 4 bug database here.
Search the Apache Tomcat 5 bug database here.
Search the Apache Tomcat 6 bug database here.

It is very likely you are not the first to run into a problem. Others may have already found a solution. The tomcat-user or tomcat-dev list archives may contain discussions which will help you resolve the problem. Here are four resources to view the Apache Tomcat User List archives: Mailing list ARChives, Eyebrowse, Mail Archive, and mikal.org. Here are four resources to view the Apache Tomcat Developer List archives Mailing list ARChives, Eyebrowse, and Mail Archive.

If you have already subscribed to the Tomcat User or Tomcat Developer discussion lists you can ask about the problem on those lists. If you are not subscribed, you can learn about the lists and subscribe here.

An IRC channel dedicated to Apache Tomcat exists on OpenProjects.

#tomcat at irc.us.openprojects.net. Click here to connect to the channel using Mozilla.

If after you have exhausted all other resources to resolve a problem with Apache Tomcat you may want to file a bug report. Please make sure the problem is a bug in Apache Tomcat and not a bug in your web application.

Please make sure you provide as much information as possible. Its very hard to fix a bug if the person looking into the problem can't reproduce it. Here is a listing of information which should be included:

Version - Apache Tomcat version, if from a nightly build, version and date of build.
Component - Apache Tomcat component which has the bug.
Platform - Hardward platform Tomcat is running on.
OS - Computer operating system and version.
JVM - JVM Version
Web Server - Web Server and version, Apache Tomcat Connector and version.
Configuration - Attach configuration files if they would help track down the bug.
Log file excerpts - Review your logs files, reproduce the bug with debugging enabled in your Apache Tomcat configuration. Then submit any relevant sections of the log which help document the bug.
Stack Traces - Any stack traces generated by the bug.
Example - Example configuration files or web applications which demonstrate the bug. When submitting an example which reproduces the bug, please try to make it as simple as possible.
Bug Fix Patch - A patch created using diff -u which fixes the bug. (If you have found a bug fix which can be applied to the Apache Tomcat code)
Miscellaneous - Any other information you feel will help track down the problem. For example other Java API's and versions being used with Apache Tomcat.

Report an Apache Tomcat 6 bug here.
Report an Apache Tomcat 5 bug here.
Report an Apache Tomcat 4 bug here.
Report an Apache Tomcat 3 bug here.

Security-related bugs are of special concern. If you have a verified security bug to report please do not post it to email lists or submit a bug report. Security bugs should be reported privately by email to security@tomcat.apache.org.