Re: [OE-core] [PATCH v3 09/11] image_types_wic.bbclass: capture verbose wic output by default

[Mikko Rapeli <mikko.rapeli@linaro.org>]

Hi,

On Mon, Apr 14, 2025 at 04:43:58PM -0400, Trevor Woerner wrote:
> On Fri 2025-04-04 @ 07:29:30 PM, Mikko Rapeli via lists.openembedded.org wrote:
> > Call wic with --debug to capture logs from wic internals
> > so that it's clear which partitions get created and which
> > files get copied where. wic plugins contain for example
> > race conditions which don't install files at all and thus
> > images fail to boot and it's not possible to debug these without
> > something in wic task logs.
> > 
> > For example core-image-initramfs-boot do_image_wic
> > log is now 576 lines which is not excessive but very
> > important when debugging problems, especially race
> > conditions which are only hit in some builds in CI.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Mikko Rapeli <mikko.rapeli@linaro.org>
> > ---
> >  meta/classes-recipe/image_types_wic.bbclass | 2 +-
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/image_types_wic.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/image_types_wic.bbclass
> > index 1b422b6280..10888bc12b 100644
> > --- a/meta/classes-recipe/image_types_wic.bbclass
> > +++ b/meta/classes-recipe/image_types_wic.bbclass
> > @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ IMAGE_CMD:wic () {
> >  	if [ -z "$wks" ]; then
> >  		bbfatal "No kickstart files from WKS_FILES were found: ${WKS_FILES}. Please set WKS_FILE or WKS_FILES appropriately."
> >  	fi
> > -	BUILDDIR="${TOPDIR}" PSEUDO_UNLOAD=1 wic create "$wks" --vars "${STAGING_DIR}/${MACHINE}/imgdata/" -e "${IMAGE_BASENAME}" -o "$build_wic/" -w "$tmp_wic" ${WIC_CREATE_EXTRA_ARGS}
> > +	BUILDDIR="${TOPDIR}" PSEUDO_UNLOAD=1 wic create --debug "$wks" --vars "${STAGING_DIR}/${MACHINE}/imgdata/" -e "${IMAGE_BASENAME}" -o "$build_wic/" -w "$tmp_wic" ${WIC_CREATE_EXTRA_ARGS}
> >  
> >  	# look to see if the user specifies a custom imager
> >  	IMAGER=direct
> 
> When I need to debug a wic issue, I add "--debug" to WIC_CREATE_EXTRA_ARGS in
> my conf/local.conf, debug the issue, then submit the patch which modifies the
> layer without any debugging remnants left behind. I can then either leave wic
> debugging turned on, or turn it off for my builds as I see fit. Turning on
> debugging by default for everyone using wic is not what we should be doing.
> It will slow down builds, and will inflate log files... by miniscule amounts,
> sure, but not the direction we should be taking.

I just disagree. Default logging should not be excessive but logs should
show at high level what the task and tools executed there are doing.
wic logs without --debug are completely useless in understanding what
happened when image was created. wic logs with --debug are not excessive
but show which partitions got created and which files copied where.
Full rootfs content is not shown so logging is not excessive.

> If you feel there are messages that should be logged on every wic invocation
> (on which I doubt there will be consensus) then they should be moved out from
> behind a --debug flag. The whole point of a debug flag is to identify messages
> that do not need to be logged on every build, but only under special
> circumstances. Lots of software projects have debug flags; I can't think of any
> that turn their debug flags on by default.

I want to see which files wic copies and where, e.g. ESP boot partition, and
which partitions it created. Without --debug wic does not log these.

Some people want all logs to be empty by default, I want them to be usable
when things go wrong in builds which I did not start or even fully control.

Cheers,

-Mikko