Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

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ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

Post by ThinkSome »

Hello,

The next version of Springlobby will hopefully have the ability to automatically upload engine crash logs: https://framagit.org/specing/springlobby/issues/3

What I'd like engine developers in particular to provide is:

1) Improvements to the troubleshooting message (top part of crash reporter dialog)
2) What additional data would you like Springlobby to provide (its version, lobby nickname, ...). See the tags field of http://logs.springrts.com/logfiles/161/ as an example of what is provided in the current state.
3) Other suggestions, before things are "cast in stone".

Perhaps the springlobby log should also be uploaded along with the infolog. In this case a convention on how to do this should be agreed upon:
1) Provide another object "lobbyLog" along with "text"?
2) Upload everything in a single "zip" into "text"?
3) ?

There are three more problems:
1) Such a service is only good if someone is looking at it. I've noticed that Forb seems to be looking at the logfiles and I hope others are subscribed to its feed as well! The feed is here: https://logs.springrts.com/feed/latest/
2) The logfiles service is currently viewable in plain sight, please protect it somehow: https://github.com/springfiles/springrts_logs/issues/11
3) Provide some kind of feedback for the reporter. Perhaps an email with "caseID" for those who have an e-mail address associated with their lobby account?
gajop
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Joined: 05 Aug 2009, 20:42

Re: Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

Post by gajop »

spring-launcher uses this service and I include the launcher log in one file with engine log. In particular I do this because it allows me to see data in a synchronized fashion which makes lobby issues easier to debug.

Any reason this would cause problems for engine devs or otherwise complicate parsing?

Originally I asked for a simple tag system because I didn't want various to deal with a restrictive structured format, but maybe some things can be made more uniform, such as the name of the program that sent the log. Just keep in mind it won't always be a lobby program (spring-launcher is not a lobby), and I might not have a nickname to include (and if I did, it may not be from the Spring official server)

Regarding "securing" logs, the first step should be not to send any potentially confidential data and to clearly ask for user permission, and explaining the data will be public. Lets just avoid false security by hiding it from the "public" while still showing it to everyone interested in a non-anonymized fashion.
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ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

Re: Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

Post by ThinkSome »

How about .. renaming "text" to "object" and have this hold an uploader-defined JSON object tree. SL would then have at minimum 3 objects underneath: "lobbyLog", "engineLog" and "replay".

I don't know if anyone is parsing / processing them yet. I briefly saw a mantis bug that forb had opened with a log file taken from this service. So it could still be a very manual process.

I am abusing the tags list to hold key=value objects for things like lobby name+version and user nickname (for later contact), while still allowing the tags to work as they should (for sorting?). Perhaps the "lobbyClient" part of key should be changed to "uploaderSoftware", to be more generic.

Yes indeed, but that would require engine changes. I don't think it is feasible for Springlobby to go around filtering anything. Currently, there is an opt-out checkbox (but it is checked by default) and pressing any of the rightmost three buttons will upload if the user has not opted out. The report bug button just opens the wikipage on reporting bugs and does not close the dialog. Where should the "data will be public" explanation go and how should it be worded? In tooltip on the opt-out checkbox?
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Silentwings
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Joined: 25 Oct 2008, 00:23

Re: Automatic uploads of engine (crash) logs

Post by Silentwings »

Regarding "securing" logs
The policy (which is part of the server agreement) on what should / should not happen to user data is here: https://springrts.com/wiki/Data_Usage#D ... ther_users

Amongst other things, its clear that you can't auto-upload them from passworded battlerooms & single player modes without explicit (per battle) consent, since these are contexts in which user would reasonably expect privacy. Aside from that it depends on what info is uploaded and who it is visible to. I haven't read much of this thread, nor am I going to.
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