[Freeipa-devel] user-friendly 'IPA internal error' message

[Simo Sorce]

On Thu, 2015-04-23 at 07:28 +0200, Jan Cholasta wrote:
> Dne 22.4.2015 v 15:32 Simo Sorce napsal(a):
> > On Wed, 2015-04-22 at 09:59 +0200, Jan Cholasta wrote:
> >> Dne 22.4.2015 v 09:05 Petr Spacek napsal(a):
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> looking at freeipa-users list, following kind of conversation is quite common:
> >>>
> >>> user: 'IPA reports an internal error, what should I do?'
> >>> dev: 'see HTTPd error log on the IPA server'
> >>> user: 'what server?'
> >>> dev: 'enable debugging on client and see which server was contacted'
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Can we make InternalError more useful and eliminate this kind of ping-pong?
> >>>
> >>> Looking at sources:
> >>> $ git grep 'class .*InternalError'
> >>> ipalib/errors.py:class InternalError(PublicError):
> >>> ipalib/errors.py:class ServerInternalError(PublicError):
> >>>
> >>> $ git grep ServerInternalError
> >>> ipalib/errors.py:class ServerInternalError(PublicError):
> >>> ipalib/errors.py:    >>> raise ServerInternalError(server='https://localhost')
> >>> ipalib/errors.py:    ServerInternalError: an internal error has occurred on
> >>> server at 'https://localhost'
> >>>
> >>> Apparently somebody was thinking about it in the past but ServerInternalError
> >>> is not used anywhere.
> >>>
> >>> How hard would it be to translate InternalError on client side to
> >>> ServerInternalError with appropriate server name?
> >>>
> >>> Can we extend InternalError with text like this?
> >>> 'See httpd error log on server %s for more details.'
> >>>
> >>> Does it make sense? Should I open a ticket about this?
> >>>
> >>
> >> It's a good idea.
> >>
> >> On a related note, I would also like the server to send tracebacks to
> >> the client if debugging is enabled on the server.
> >
> > I am not too hot on this idea, unless there is a specific switch to
> > allow sending tracebacks (default to off).
> 
> Emphasis on "if debugging is enabled".

If I enable debugging on the server, I still may not want all clients to
receive backtraces, especially if I am trying to resolve a problem in
production.

Simo.


-- 
Simo Sorce * Red Hat, Inc * New York