Passing this along for consideration. ~spot -------- Forwarded Message --------> From: James Westby <jw+debian@jameswestby.net> > To: distributions@lists.freedesktop.org > Subject: Apport > Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 21:58:23 +0100 > > Hi all, > > I just wanted to let you all know about a little package that we > use in Ubuntu that may benefit other distributions. This package > is called "apport". > > Apport is an automatic bug reporting tool. It does a number of things, > the main one of which is to pop up on crashes of system programs. > To do this it installs a kernel core pattern in > /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern that pipes core files to it (available > since the .23 kernel I believe). This writes out a .crash file to > /var/crash. The user is then notified with a notification icon and > libnotify message that something has crashed. Clicking on the icon > tells them what and offers to report a bug. > > For Ubuntu this opens a new bug in launchpad with all the information, > and then opens the page in the users web browser for them to provide > more details. > > It also hooks in to python failures somehow to provide the same service, > and also has intergration with update-manager so that you can report a > bug if a package installation/upgrade fails. > > Some people may be disturbed by the thought of the flood of bugs that > would be generated. You''re right, it does generate a lot of > bug reports, but there are a few things that make it worthwhile. > > Firstly, it''s only active for development releases, as it''s easiest > to fix the bugs then, and those users will generally be more equipped > to provide the necessary information. > > Secondly, and this is what makes apport so great, it can detect > duplicates by itself. It takes the core file, enters a chroot, > and using some magic it "retraces" the bug report, using full symbol > table information. > > This means that it can detect duplicates on it''s own and mark them as > such, and also that without the users having to have debugging symbols > in their executable, or know what gdb is, provide full backtraces. > > In addition to this a package can provide an apport script that gathers > information from a user''s system before reporting the bugs. For instance > Firefox can report all of the extensions that the user has installed. > > It is obviously currently quite specific to Ubuntu, however it is surely > possible to make it work on other systems as well, and I''m sure Martin > would be happy to merge patches that did that. You can find more details > about the project at > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport > > and the code at > > https://launchpad.net/apport > > I think other distributions would do well to look at it, and even if you > don''t want to use it in your distribution there may be ideas that you > want to take. > > Does anyone else already have a system like this? Are there any aspects > that are covered by other tools used in your distro? Can anyone see > anything that would make it even better? > > Thanks, > > James > > > _______________________________________________ > Distributions mailing list > Distributions@lists.freedesktop.org > http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/distributions
On Friday 02 May 2008 05:54:55 pm Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:> Passing this along for consideration.iirc, Will Woods was working on making this usable with Fedora a while back...> -------- Forwarded Message -------- > > > From: James Westby <jw+debian@jameswestby.net> > > To: distributions@lists.freedesktop.org > > Subject: Apport > > Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 21:58:23 +0100 > > > > Hi all, > > > > I just wanted to let you all know about a little package that we > > use in Ubuntu that may benefit other distributions. This package > > is called "apport". > > > > Apport is an automatic bug reporting tool. It does a number of things, > > the main one of which is to pop up on crashes of system programs. > > To do this it installs a kernel core pattern in > > /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern that pipes core files to it (available > > since the .23 kernel I believe). This writes out a .crash file to > > /var/crash. The user is then notified with a notification icon and > > libnotify message that something has crashed. Clicking on the icon > > tells them what and offers to report a bug. > > > > For Ubuntu this opens a new bug in launchpad with all the information, > > and then opens the page in the users web browser for them to provide > > more details. > > > > It also hooks in to python failures somehow to provide the same service, > > and also has intergration with update-manager so that you can report a > > bug if a package installation/upgrade fails. > > > > Some people may be disturbed by the thought of the flood of bugs that > > would be generated. You''re right, it does generate a lot of > > bug reports, but there are a few things that make it worthwhile. > > > > Firstly, it''s only active for development releases, as it''s easiest > > to fix the bugs then, and those users will generally be more equipped > > to provide the necessary information. > > > > Secondly, and this is what makes apport so great, it can detect > > duplicates by itself. It takes the core file, enters a chroot, > > and using some magic it "retraces" the bug report, using full symbol > > table information. > > > > This means that it can detect duplicates on it''s own and mark them as > > such, and also that without the users having to have debugging symbols > > in their executable, or know what gdb is, provide full backtraces. > > > > In addition to this a package can provide an apport script that gathers > > information from a user''s system before reporting the bugs. For instance > > Firefox can report all of the extensions that the user has installed. > > > > It is obviously currently quite specific to Ubuntu, however it is surely > > possible to make it work on other systems as well, and I''m sure Martin > > would be happy to merge patches that did that. You can find more details > > about the project at > > > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport > > > > and the code at > > > > https://launchpad.net/apport > > > > I think other distributions would do well to look at it, and even if you > > don''t want to use it in your distribution there may be ideas that you > > want to take. > > > > Does anyone else already have a system like this? Are there any aspects > > that are covered by other tools used in your distro? Can anyone see > > anything that would make it even better?-- Jarod Wilson jwilson@redhat.com