1.7  Bug Reports

Before submitting any bug reports, make sure that the bug is not in the list of known bugs below. Please remember that the POV-Ray users who provide assistance on our news server are volunteers who give their time for free so you can enjoy this program for no charge. Keep this in mind when wording your message.

MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the subject of your report isn't already covered in this document. Questions that are already answered either in this help file, any README's, installation notes, FAQ's, or other files supplied with this program will most likely not get the reply you expect.

We strongly recommend that you check out the »online version of the POV-Ray VFAQ before submitting a report. This is also a copy of the VFAQ included in this help file but we recommend viewing the online version if possible as it's being continually updated.

1.7.1  Feature Requests are not bugs

The above may seem to be an obvious statement, but it's not so obvious that this section is unnecessary :(. Numerous people had been sending feature requests to the bug reporting email address, and this is in part one of the reasons why we no longer provide email support. If you want to request a feature, discuss it in one of the povray.* groups on »news.povray.org.

1.7.2  Known Bugs

POV-Ray for Unix is currently not handling the POVINI environment variable. This should be fixed in the near future.

Other known issues can be found in the »POV-Ray VFAQ. There is a copy of the VFAQ included in this help file but we recommend viewing the online version if possible as it's being continually updated.

1.7.3  Spelling

As stated in the introduction, we use international English spelling in many parts of POV-Ray for Unix. This means that many words that are normally spelt with a 'z' in American English (such as minimized) are spelt with the English 's' (e.g. minimised). (We have actually received flame email from folks who told us we couldn't spell).

1.7.4  Bug Reporting via Email

Unfortunately, email bug reporting is no longer available due to the abuse of this facility by a number of users. You may only report bugs in POV-Ray by using the newsgroups mentioned in the next section.