Using send-pr from within Emacs

You can use an interactive send-pr interface from within GNU Emacs to fill out your Problem Report. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with Emacs before using this feature (see section `Introduction' in GNU Emacs).

Call send-pr with `M-x send-pr'.(1) send-pr responds with a Problem Report template preconfigured for the Support Site from which you received send-pr. (If you use send-pr locally, the default Support Site is probably your local site.)

You may also submit problem reports to different Support Sites from the default site. To use this feature, invoke send-pr with

C-u M-x send-pr

send-pr prompts you for the name of a site. site is an alias on your local machine which points to an alternate Support Site.

send-pr displays the template and prompts you in the minibuffer with the line:

>Category: other

Delete the default value `other' in the minibuffer and replace it with the keyword corresponding to your problem (the list of valid categories is in the topmost section of the PR template). For example, if the problem you wish to report has to do with the GNU C compiler, and your support organization accepts bugs submitted for this program under the category `gcc', delete `other' and then type `gcc[RET]'. send-pr replaces the line

>Category:       <name of the product (one line)>

in the template with

>Category:       gcc

and moves on to another field.

send-pr provides name completion in the minibuffer. For instance, you can also type `gc[TAB]', and send-pr attempts to complete the entry for you. Typing `g[TAB]' may not have the same effect if several possible entries begin with `g'. In that case send-pr cannot complete the entry because it cannot determine whether you mean `gcc' or, for example, `gdb', if both of those are possible categories. send-pr continues to prompt you for a valid entry until you enter one.

send-pr prompts you interactively to enter each field for which there is a range of specific choices. If you attempt to enter a value which is not in the range of acceptable entries, send-pr responds with `[No match]' and allows you to change the entry until it contains an acceptable value. This avoids unusable information (at least in these fields) and also avoids typographical errors which could cause problems later.

send-pr prompts you for the following fields:

>Category:
>Confidential: (default:  no)
>Severity:     (default:  serious)
>Priority:     (default:  medium)
>Class:        (default:  sw-bug)
>Release:
>Synopsis:     (this value is copied to Subject:)

After you complete these fields, send-pr places the cursor in the `>Description:' field and displays the message

To send the problem report use: C-c C-c

in the minibuffer. At this point, edit the file in the main buffer to reflect your specific problem, putting relevant information in the proper fields.

`send-pr' provides a few key bindings to make moving around in a template buffer more simple:

C-c C-f

M-x change-field

Changes the field under the cursor. edit-pr prompts you for a new value.

M-C-b

M-x gnats-backward-field

Moves the cursor to the beginning of the value of the current field.

M-C-f

M-x gnats-forward-field

Moves the cursor to the end of the value of the current field.

M-p

M-x gnats-previous-field

Moves the cursor back one field to the beginning of the value of the previous field.

M-n

M-x gnats-next-field

Moves the cursor forward one field to the beginning of the value of the next field.

send-pr takes over again when you type `C-c C-c' to send the message. send-pr reports any errors in a separate buffer, which remains in existence until you send the PR properly (or, of course, until you explicitly kill the buffer).

For detailed instructions on using Emacs, see section `Introduction' in GNU Emacs.

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