Last week I successfully reported a real bug, and I’m pretty sure I did it right, with the “print-out” of the script that was broken (Had to do with FBX exporting). It was a duplicate, so it got tied to another one, they closed mine, and I followed the original report until it was listed as resolved.
Awesome…now what?
My assumption was that the fixes are part of the daily builds. So I downloaded the latest daily build and tried it again, but it wasn’t fixed.
So I guess my questions are, what is a daily build? Is it changed from the day before?
Do I need to wait for the next version, say 2.80.1 for the bug fix I reported to be worked in?
How long do I wait before I report the bug again?
I’m just looking to be a good blender citizen, I don’t want to bother the developers because I don’t understand how the bug-reporting and fixing system works, or the time frames involved.
The most important thing is to provide enough information for the developers to replicate the bug, especially exact steps which lead to the issue and a sample file if relevant. The more information you can provide about what will trigger the bug, the easier it is to find and fix.
Look through the bug tracker to see if a report has already been filed. If a bug report has already been filed, just add any additional information you can provide in a comment on the original, so all the information about the bug is in one place. If it’s already been marked resolved, make sure you are using a build that includes any commits (usually the next daily build) that were made before trying to re-open the issue or filing a new one.
Daily builds are compiled every night incorporating all the changes made that day. It’s best to double check if the problem occurs on the latest build before filing a bug report, to see if it hasn’t been fixed already.
An etiquette note: don’t change the status/priority of your own bug reports. It’s considered rude to elevate your own bug report over other people’s unless you are a core developer.
Thank you for the input. When i did my bug report, I did include a sample file, and written instructions on how to duplicate the bug. I didn’t however search for existing similar reports…simply because I didn’t know that was a thing.
So, if the bug persists in the next daily build, or even lets say I wait a few days and download a daily build a few days newer than the bug resolution date, I should;
Search the bug tracker for the same bug. If so, comment there.
And you can see the commit timestamps for each. If the current Buildbot downloadable was created after this time then the fix should be included, otherwise you usually need to wait until the next night’s build.
A complication is that the commit history tries to display times in your local time zone and the Buildbot always uses some unspecified time zone (presumably GMT or Amsterdam time, I haven’t actually tried to figure out which).
Another option is to setup your own build environment (which actually isn’t too hard!) and then as soon as the commit is made you can re-build Blender on your own and immediately have the up-to-the-minute version.
The download filenames and the web page display part of the commit hash for the latest commit that was done before the build, and you can find this in the Blender project history:
and thus see which other commits (all the older ones) are in the current download. This works for all changes that are part of the main Blender project (as opposed to add-ons etc.)
