Thunderbird Bug Fix Lab

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Overview

This lab is designed to give you first-hand experience working through a real bug, from confirming to fixing to submitting a patch. You will also get experience building and working with Thunderbird, which shares much of the same code with Firefox.

Introduction

A friend has told you about something they don't like in Mozilla Thunderbird. "I got an email today, and it made a hyperlink out of some text that shouldn't have been underlined."

Here is the text of the email:

Does Wednesday aft. work for you?
I'll tentatively schedule for 3:30 on Wednesday.
We'll come to S@Y...where should we meet?

which is being displayed as follows in Thunderbird:

Does Wednesday aft. work for you?
I'll tentatively schedule 3:30 on Wednesday.
We'll come to S@Y...where should we meet?

You rightly identify this as a bug to your friend, and offer to try and fix it.

Instructions

  1. File a dummy bug using Mozilla's test bugzilla. NOTE: use Unclassified and dump unwanted bugs here.
  2. Do a debug build of Thunderbird.
  3. Confirm the existence of this bug. TIP: try creating a message with the text above, saving it to Drafts, then open in Drafts to see how it gets rendered.
  4. Fix the bug. If you need a hint to figure out where to begin working, look here.
  5. Create a patch
  6. Test your patch here for common errors
  7. Attach your patch to the dummy bug you filed in step 1
  8. Get your patch reviewed by a classmate or your professor
  9. Put your patch and review comments on your personal wiki page
  10. Blog about the experience and include a link to wiki page

List of Valid/Invalid Email Address

Here is a list of some valid and invalid email addresses for testing:

Valid Addresses

  • a@a.com
  • a.a@a.a
  • a.a@a.a.com

Invalid Addresses

  • a@.
  • a@..
  • a@..f
  • a@....f
  • @.
  • @.com
  • @a.com
  • @a
  • @a.
  • @a..
  • @a...com
  • a@a.a..a

Resources