Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC v3 2/3] qemu-error: Implement a more generic error reporting

[Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>]

"Daniel P. Berrange" <berrange@redhat.com> writes:

> On Thu, Jul 06, 2017 at 02:20:51PM +0200, Markus Armbruster wrote:
>> "Daniel P. Berrange" <berrange@redhat.com> writes:
>> 
>> > On Thu, Jul 06, 2017 at 01:27:15PM +0200, Markus Armbruster wrote:
>> >> "Daniel P. Berrange" <berrange@redhat.com> writes:
[...]
>> >> > Do we really need to care about compatibility of the precise way we output
>> >> > error messages. It has never been something we call a "stable API", as we
>> >> > don't guarantee error message text will remain the same across releases. So
>> >> > anyone relying on scraping QEMU stderr to match some error message has always
>> >> > been liable to break.
>> >> >
>> >> > IOW, just add an "error: " prefix to the text
>> >> 
>> >> I agree the error message format isn't ABI.
>> >> 
>> >> But what would adding "error: " buy us?
>> >
>> > It would clearly distinguish errors from any other output on stderr, which
>> > may not be error related (for example SPICE commonly pollutes stderr with
>> > lots of messages).
>> 
>> Changing the current error message format
>> 
>>     <TIMESTAMP><PROGNAME>:<LOCATION><MSG>
>> 
>> to
>> 
>>     <TIMESTAMP><PROGNAME>:<LOCATION>error: <MSG>
>> 
>> makes recognizing error messages a bit easier, but it also makes them
>> even longer.  Can't we make do with recognizing <PROGNAME>:?
>
> I'm not convinced 7 extra characters is a big deal compared with the
> size of the timestamps, program name, location & error message itself.
> We'll already have such a prefix for info & warnings, so consistency is
> good IMHO.

I don't see the value of consistency here.  What matters is whether
errors are easy to spot and recognize.

GCC doesn't put "error:" into its error messages.  Clang does.  Feels
like a matter of taste to me.

If adding "error:" solves a problem people have, let's do it.  If not, I
don't see why we should change what we have.

> If line length is a concern, perhaps we should make the error printing
> function able to intelligently line wrap at 80 chars, taking into account
> the size of the metadata (timestamp, program, location, msg type prefix).

Uh, that cure feels worse than the disease :)