Issue Reporting

If you think you found an issue and would like to report it we ask that you consider the following things before submitting an issue:

1. Have you asked or searched the forums concerning your issue?
2. Have you asked or searched the cacti-user@sourceforge.net mailing list concerning your issue?
3. Have you check that there isn't a release version that resolves the issue you are experiencing?

Preparing to Report an Issue

First make sure that it truly is an issue. If Cacti does not behave the way you expected look at the documentation, mailing lists, and forums to see if this is a known behavior. If you are unsure ask on the forums (forums.cacti.net) or ask the users mailing list (cacti-user@sourceforge.net).

Once you have established that it is an issue the most important thing you can do is come up with a description of the issue and an explanation of how to reproduce it. Screen shots and debug information are always welcomed.

When you do write up the issue report do not include a prose description of what you did to make the issue occur. Instead give a detailed description of the actions you took to cause the issue. Include the buttons, links, inputed text, changed items, actions, etc.

Once you have your full description and actions you took that reproduce the issue, don't forget some of the most important information:

• Operating system Cacti is running on.
• The version of Cacti, Spine, php, mysql, rrdtool, net-snmp/ucd-snmp you are running.
• Anything else that could possibly be relevant: scripts, resource files, etc. are welcomed.

How to Report an Issue

Now you are ready to write a issue report. Start out with a clear description of the issue - how you expect Cacti to behave and how it is behaving. While the issue maybe obvious to you it may not be obvious to someone else.

• If you can speculate as to where in the code the problem occurs, try to quote the source files and line numbers.
• If you can supply a patch, doing so helps the whole cacti community, remember the following:
  • Set the issue title to a 'plain english' title that summarizes the issue
  • Add an entry to the CHANGELOG file that matches the above title using the number of the GitHub issue
  • Ensure you are patching from the correct branch

Happy issue reporting!

The Cacti Group