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<a name="Bug-Criteria"></a>
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Next: <a href="Bug-Tracker.html#Bug-Tracker" accesskey="n" rel="next">Bug Tracker</a>, Up: <a href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="u" rel="up">Reporting Bugs</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Have-You-Found-a-Bug_003f"></a>
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<h4 class="appendixsubsec">F.2.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h4>
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<a name="index-bug-criteria"></a>
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<p>If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
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<li> <a name="index-fatal-signal"></a>
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<a name="index-core-dump"></a>
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If Octave gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is
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a bug. Reliable interpreters never crash.
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</li><li> <a name="index-incorrect-output"></a>
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<a name="index-incorrect-results"></a>
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<a name="index-results_002c-incorrect"></a>
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<a name="index-answers_002c-incorrect"></a>
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<a name="index-erroneous-results"></a>
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<a name="index-wrong-answers"></a>
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If Octave produces incorrect results, for any input whatever,
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</li><li> <a name="index-undefined-behavior"></a>
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<a name="index-undefined-function-value"></a>
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Some output may appear to be incorrect when it is in fact due to a
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program whose behavior is undefined, which happened by chance to give
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the desired results on another system. For example, the range operator
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may produce different results because of differences in the way floating
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point arithmetic is handled on various systems.
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</li><li> <a name="index-erroneous-messages"></a>
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<a name="index-incorrect-error-messages"></a>
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<a name="index-error-messages_002c-incorrect"></a>
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If Octave produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug.
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</li><li> <a name="index-invalid-input"></a>
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If Octave does not produce an error message for invalid input, that is
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a bug. However, you should note that your idea of “invalid input”
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might be my idea of “an extension” or “support for traditional
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</li><li> <a name="index-improving-Octave"></a>
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<a name="index-suggestions"></a>
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If you are an experienced user of programs like Octave, your suggestions
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for improvement are welcome in any case.