Automated Bug-Reporting Tool

[Richard Ryniker]

I have two complaints about the implementation of what looks to be a good
idea:

/var/log/messages is littered with messages (every two minutes, using the
default configuration) that, in effect, say "Nothing interesting to say."

  Sep 15 23:07:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:09:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:11:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:13:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:15:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:17:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:19:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:21:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:23:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...
  Sep 15 23:25:40 vista abrtd: Scanning syslog...

This may be caused by some test code that should have been removed before
the abrt package was built.  If it is intentional, the
/etc/abrt/abrt.conf file ought to have some statement that suppresses
"nothing to say" messages until the user changes it to request them.

While the full name of the tool is descriptive, I think the abbreviated
name of the daemon makes it appear some program aborted during
examination of the system log file.  Instead of "abrtd" a name such as
"bugreportd" would be less alarming, and still better name choices may be
easy to find.

Names are personal things, and I have learned now what "abrtd" means in
this context.  What matters is whether a name change will make any
significant reduction in the number of other users who mistake "abrtd"
for "aborted".  After my experience, I cannot be naive about this (Alas!
No longer a virgin.) and ask others to consider the worth of a different
name for this daemon.