On Help and All Things Support

TL;DR: Provide us with data!

Don't ask if you can ask something, just ask it directly.

Messages may be overlooked or forgotten in chats more easily than on a bug tracker. While it's certainly faster to ask us in #general, the preferred way is to file an issue in the repository created specifically for that purpose, especially if you suspect a bug.

That being said, if you can't (or won't) -- there are multiple things we would require to know about the issue in order to handle it efficiently, or at all.

Don't forget that we are volunteers and donating our spare time to the project, so be prepared before you ask.

In particular:

• Search Discord chat logs for relevant messages, explore the Web -- maybe someone else has already found the solution? It happens a lot.

• Provide us with data! We need that stuff to efficiently help you.

  • mangosd -v will give you a lot of information that is useful right away. That is, if you've built and can run the thing at all.

  • git rev-parse HEAD: commit hash is much better than saying "latest release from github" (the meaning you think it has is lost a few hours after you've built the core)

  • Versions of CMake and Boost used (check compatibility table here)

  • In what mode the core was built? DEBUG? RELEASE? RelWithDebugInfo or maybe something else?

  • What cmake flags were used? These are things like PCH=1 or BUILD_PLAYERBOT=1

  • Any additional tools you've used, such as ccache?

  • Compiler name and version, kind / flavor of OS, name / version of DB server (e.g MariaDB?) you're running?

  • Any related details you can dig up yourself, like spell / creature IDs, crash- and execution- logs, in-game messages and screenshots.

  • Is it a crash? Run a debugger, check state of threads, look for stack traces. Use Debug builds of the core.

P.S. Use Discord's formatting facilities! That way you can make all this data readable to most of us~

P.P.S. If you can spare an hour of your time: READ THIS. Helping others help you helps.