2000-12-10 -+- Karl M. Hegbloom -+- karlheg@debian.org -+- A bug report that includes a patch is an especially valuable
contribution! If you enjoy puzzles, believe you know how to fix the
problem, and have some time on your hands, then by all means...

(first making sure you've got "deb-src" lines in "/etc/apt/sources.list")
# apt-get update

% cd <srcdir>
% mkdir <pkgname>
% cd <pkgname>
% apt-get source <pkgname>

I recommend using RCS to assist in generating the patch. Check it in
before you begin, and use it to create a "-u" diff to paste into the
bug report, along with a decently detailed change description. Please
include a summary paragraph and perhaps a rationale if the
modifications are relatively extensive and need explanation to
convince people the patch is necessary. Don't forget to mention what
bug(s) it fixes. If you plan to do a lot of work, it's best to
communicate with the maintainer, to avoid duplication of effort. Log
your changes as you go, so you don't have to dig through the patch to
construct your ChangeLog.