Quickstart: fixing bugs

Ensuring that Bitcoin Core remains highly secure software requires reviewers and maintainers scrutinize every contribution, no matter how minor it seems. The best way to avoid wasting the time of reviewers and risking having them ignore your contribution is to read the entire onboarding guide, as described on the main page. However, if you’re going to contribute anyway without reading all of the documentation, this quickstart will guide you to the most relevant parts of the contributor documentation.

In this guide, we assume that you think you’ve discovered a bug. You may want to immediately report the bug, or you may want to begin debugging and fixing it yourself.

• To report an issue:

  • You may want to quickly mention the behavior you think is a bug in chat to confirm it’s unexpected behavior.

  • You should get set up with GitHub to submit an issue.

• To debug an issue:

  • You will need to build Bitcoin Core optionally with debugging options.

  • You may want to write a test that demonstrates your bug and will prove it’s been fixed.

  • If you need certain network activity to reproduce your bug, you can test on test networks.

  • If you’re trying to find a particular file, learn about Bitcoin Core’s architecture.

  • If you begin to suspect that your “bug” might be deliberate behavior, research the history of particular code.

• To contribute a change:

  • Follow project guidelines for effective commits and GitHub PRs.

  • Understand the jargon and process other developers will use in evaluating your proposed change.

  • Optionally help review contributions from other developers to encourage them to review your contribution.

Many other parts of the contributing guide can help explain how to successfully debug, report, and fix a bug. If you find yourself stymied at any point, or just curious about Bitcoin Core, please consider reading the full documentation starting from the main page.