# Problem Report Handling Guidelines

### Dag-Erling Smørgrav

### Hiten Pandya

$FreeBSD: release/9.1.0/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/pr-guidelines/article.sgml 38826 2012-05-17 19:12:14Z hrs $

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These guidelines describe recommended handling practices for FreeBSD Problem Reports (PRs). Whilst developed for the FreeBSD PR Database Maintenance Team `<freebsd-bugbusters@FreeBSD.org>`, these guidelines should be followed by anyone working with FreeBSD PRs.

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# 1. Introduction

GNATS is a defect management (bug reporting) system used by the FreeBSD Project. As accurate tracking of outstanding software defects is important to FreeBSD's quality, the correct use of GNATS is essential to the forward progress of the Project.

Access to GNATS is available to FreeBSD developers, as well as to the wider community. In order to maintain consistency within the database and provide a consistent user experience, guidelines have been established covering common aspects of bug management such as presenting followup, handling close requests, and so forth.

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