[Freeipa-devel] [RFE] Logging and output in install & management commands

[Dmitri Pal]

On 12/03/2012 11:03 AM, Rob Crittenden wrote:
> Petr Viktorin wrote:
>> Hello,
>> Please take a while to comment on this proposal before I post it on the
>> wiki.
>> This is about user-visible changes I plan to make for #2652 (Framework
>> for admin/install tool) -- consistent behavior will (in addition to not
>> confusing users) enable the framework to do common work without too much
>> special-casing.
>>
>>
>> = Overview =
>>
>> The output, logging, and command-line options of our install/management
>> tools are inconsistent. This RFE aims to clean up some of the
>> inconsistency.
>>
>> Specifically it addresses:
>> - Inconsistencies between console output and log files
>> - Tools using either --verbose or --debug used for the same purpose
>> And some collateral issues:
>> - The --version option missing in some tools
>> - The problem of e.g. an accidental ipa-server-install overwriting
>> ipaserver-install.log by the useless message, "The server is already
>> installed"
>>
>> This is part of [https://fedorahosted.org/freeipa/ticket/2652|#2652
>> Framework for admin/install tools]
>>
>>
>> = Design=
>>
>> Each command will have these command-line options (added automatically
>> by the framework):
>>
>>    --version        show program's version number and exit
>>    -h, --help       show the help message and exit
>>
>>    output and logging options:
>>      -q, --quiet    Output only errors
>>      -v, --verbose  Print debugging information
>>      --log-file     (alternate) log file name
>>
>> The precise meanings of the output options are:
>>    (nothing): print INFO-level messages and above to stderr
>>    -q: only print ERROR-level messages and above to stderr
>>    -v: print all messages to stderr, prefixed with severity level
>> In all cases, if there is a log file, all messages go to it
>>
>> In commands that currently have it, the `-d, --debug` option will become
>> a deprecated alias for --verbose.
>>
>> Note that this RFE only adds new options, so backwards compatibility is
>> maintained.
>>
>>
>> The tools will use the following log message severities:
>> - CRITICAL for fatal errors
>> - ERROR for critical things that the admin must see even in --quiet mode
>> - WARNING for things that need to stand out in the log
>> - INFO to display normal messages
>> - DEBUG to spam about everything the program does
>> - a plain print statement for things that should not be log, for
>> interactive prompting should use the console and follow up with a DEBUG
>> mentioning the final value
>>
>>
>> The commands check their arguments and most do some validation and
>> possible interactive prompting before doing any modification of the
>> system. Since the system is not changed, the user can always re-run with
>> --verbose if there are problems in this phase. Logging information from
>> this phase to a file is useless.
>> The file logging will start after the validation/prompting. The first
>> logged message(s) will mention the command and options used.
>>
>>
>> = Use Cases =
>>
>> User runs some /usr/sbin/ipa-* commands with the --help option to see
>> that the logging-related options are the same in all of those programs.
>>
>> User runs an ipa-* command with the -q option to only see errors.
>>
>> User runs an ipa-* command (possibly with --log-file, if the command
>> doesn't log by default), and later reviews the log file to find all
>> relevant information.
>>
>>
>> = Implementation =
>>
>> The RFE will be implemented gradually as new commands are ported to the
>> framework.
>>
>>
>
> Can you list exactly which commands you're targetting?
>
> At least some (ipa-replica-manage, ipa-replica-prepare) don't have
> logging but may still benefit from this structure. Did you have those
> in mind as well?
>
> It may be time to rewrite ipa-upgradeconfig too. It started as a
> one-off and has grown considerably over the past year. It would
> benefit from this as well (though other enhancements would be beyond
> this scope).

Would it affect ipa-server-install and ipa-client-install too?
I agree with Rob explicitly listing the commands would be helpful.
IMO creating a table of existing commands would be very beneficial.

I see it with the following columns:

Command     Version       Help             Quiet         Verbose        
Log File     Release
xyz         added         was there        added         was there      
added        Pilsner
abc         was there    was there        was there     was there      
added        Pilsner
klm         added         was there        added         was there      
added        Other beer
...

This (or similar) would allow QE to easily see what changed and when and
how to adjust test cases.
For doc it will also provide information needed.

>
> rob
> rob
>
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-- 
Thank you,
Dmitri Pal

Sr. Engineering Manager for IdM portfolio
Red Hat Inc.


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