[magick-developers] Re: Bug tracing and Source code programming (HowTo)

[Anthony Thyssen]

Seth Price on  wrote...
| I haven't gotten a response from the bug list. Do you have suggestion 
| (s) for areas of code I should start looking at?
| ~Seth
| 
I would try to simplify the problem to a minimal image if posible.

Next build a version of IM from source and see it you can duplicate the
problem.  Q8 only or not?


You do NOT need to install IM to run a development version in its
own source area.

Just configure, and make,  but do NOT install.
You can then run the commands in the top level area of the source/build
areas using...

   ./magick.sh utilities/convert ....

This runs the just built convert command with environment settings to
use only the just built stuff, and not the installed IM version.


For tracing purposes.  Search for "option" in wand/mogrify.c
A specific option may appear twice, one is just syntax checking and
look-a-head for the legacy handling.  To trace a function,
grep for the function names in    magick/*.h  and the function
will be in the corresponding .c file.

The web site function documents is extracted from the source code so
that makes it easier, though some o fthat documentation can use
improvement and I try to do that with my patch updates at the same time.
Be sure to make a copy of any file you change for backup and reference
when things go screwy.


Add printf() statements and see if you can trace where it is going
wrong.  You can also use -monitor on a lot of options.


  Anthony Thyssen ( System Programmer )    <A.Thyssen at griffith.edu.au>
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      Kettering's Law :-
             "Logic is an organized way of going wrong, with confidence."
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     Anthony's Home is his Castle     http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/