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+# Debugging / reporting desyncs
+
+As desyncs are hard to make reproducible OpenTTD has the ability to log all
+actions done by clients so we can replay the whole game in an effort to make
+desyncs better reproducible. You need to turn this ability on. When turned
+on an automatic savegame will be made once the map has been constructed in
+the 'save/autosave' directory, see OpenTTD directories to know where to find
+this directory. Furthermore the log file 'commands-out.log' will be created
+and all actions will be written to there.
+
+To enable the desync debugging you need to set the debug level for 'desync'
+to at least 1. You do this by starting OpenTTD with '`-d desync=<level>`' as
+parameter or by typing '`debug_level desync=<level>`' in OpenTTD's internal
+console.
+The desync debug levels are:
+
+- 0: nothing.
+- 1: dumping of commands to 'commands-out.log'.
+- 2: same as 1 plus checking vehicle caches and dumping that too.
+- 3: same as 2 plus monthly saves in autosave.
+- 4 and higher: same as 3
+
+Restarting OpenTTD will overwrite 'commands-out.log'. OpenTTD will not remove
+the savegames (dmp_cmds_*.sav) made by the desync debugging system, so you
+have to occasionally remove them yourself!
+
+The naming format of the desync savegames is as follows:
+dmp_cmds_XXXXXXXX_YYYYYYYY.sav. The XXXXXXXX is the hexadecimal representation
+of the generation seed of the game and YYYYYYYY is the hexadecimal
+representation of the date of the game. This sorts the savegames by game and
+then by date making it easier to find the right savegames.
+
+When a desync has occurred with the desync debugging turned on you should file
+a bug report with the following files attached:
+
+- commands-out.log as it contains all the commands that were done
+- the last saved savegame (search for the last line beginning with
+ 'save: dmp_cmds_' in commands-out.log). We use this savegame to check
+ whether we can quickly reproduce the desync. Otherwise we will need …
+- the first saved savegame (search for the first line beginning with 'save'
+ where the first part, up to the last underscore '_', is the same). We need
+ this savegame to be able to reproduce the bug when the last savegame is not
+ old enough. If you loaded a scenario or savegame you need to attach that.
+- optionally you can attach the savegames from around 50%, 75%, 85%, 90% and
+ 95% of the game's progression. We can use these savegames to speed up the
+ reproduction of the desync, but we should be able to reproduce these
+ savegames based on the first savegame and commands-out.log.
+- in case you use any NewGRFs you should attach the ones you used unless
+ we can easily find them ourselves via bananas or when they are in the
+ #openttdcoop pack.
+
+Do NOT remove the dmp_cmds savegames of a desync you have reported until the
+desync has been fixed; if you, by accident, send us the wrong savegames we
+will not be able to reproduce the desync and thus will be unable to fix it.
+
+