symptom

From a symptom to an actual bug... and more!

I just fixed a bug in one of the modules powering this web site.

It started with a very simple symptom. When creating a new issue in the bug tracker, I got the following PHP E_ALL notice:
Undefined property: stdClass::$cid

Unfortunately, fixing the bug was not a simple matter of suppressing the warning. At first, I couldn't even reliably reproduce the symptom. I had to investigate more in depth and understand the exact circumstances that lead to the faulty manifestation. I finally found the proper way to fix that particular bug.

symptoms vs bugs

In software bug trackers, actual bugs and symptoms that may or may not be related to the given bug are often confused.

A modern software issue tracker must make a clear distinction between a given issue (a bug, a feature request, etc.) and a symptom and may relate to a variety of different bugs.

See also

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