[libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports

Andrea Bolognani posted 1 patch 1 year, 2 months ago
Patches applied successfully (tree, apply log)
git fetch https://github.com/patchew-project/libvirt tags/patchew/20230210093411.932458-1-abologna@redhat.com
.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
[libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Andrea Bolognani 1 year, 2 months ago
Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.

Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
---
 .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
--- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
+++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
@@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
 ## Additional information
 <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
 <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
+<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
-- 
2.39.1
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Daniel P. Berrangé 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:34:11AM +0100, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> ---
>  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
>  ## Additional information
>  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
>  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->

I think this is pretty user hostile. When filing bugs, the more rules a
project imposes on the bug report, the less likely I am to go ahead with
filing it, especially when the rules are worded in a very direct manner
that makes it feel like you'll be flamed for getting it wrong.

IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
some cases.

With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Andrea Bolognani 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 09:50:25AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:34:11AM +0100, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
>
> I think this is pretty user hostile. When filing bugs, the more rules a
> project imposes on the bug report, the less likely I am to go ahead with
> filing it, especially when the rules are worded in a very direct manner
> that makes it feel like you'll be flamed for getting it wrong.

For the person reporting the bug, taking a screenshot and attaching
it or copying and pasting the corresponding text shouldn't make any
difference in terms of effort. If anything, the latter is probably
going to be less work.

Yeah, the wording I've proposed can perhaps be seen as hostile. Any
suggestions on how to improve it, while still making it pop out so
that users aren't likely to miss it?

> IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
> sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
> problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
> which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
> some cases.

Sure, but there's a difference between asking for more details, which
can always be done as a follow-up, and asking users to provide
information as plain text instead of screenshots. In the latter case,
once the screenshot has been attached, that's it, there's no going
back.

-- 
Andrea Bolognani / Red Hat / Virtualization
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Daniel P. Berrangé 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 02:27:46AM -0800, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 09:50:25AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:34:11AM +0100, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
> >
> > I think this is pretty user hostile. When filing bugs, the more rules a
> > project imposes on the bug report, the less likely I am to go ahead with
> > filing it, especially when the rules are worded in a very direct manner
> > that makes it feel like you'll be flamed for getting it wrong.
> 
> For the person reporting the bug, taking a screenshot and attaching
> it or copying and pasting the corresponding text shouldn't make any
> difference in terms of effort. If anything, the latter is probably
> going to be less work.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I can very easily see people connecting
to Linux hypervisors from a Windows terminal client and finding it
easier to just hit 'PrtSr' key on their keyboard, instead of copying
the files over with an scp client.

> Yeah, the wording I've proposed can perhaps be seen as hostile. Any
> suggestions on how to improve it, while still making it pop out so
> that users aren't likely to miss it?

I'm not convinced the problem of screenshotting XML docs is frequent
enough top justify explicitly mentioning, certain not in the issue
template. As most something in the separate docs about how to improve
issue reports.

> > IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
> > sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
> > problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
> > which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
> > some cases.
> 
> Sure, but there's a difference between asking for more details, which
> can always be done as a follow-up, and asking users to provide
> information as plain text instead of screenshots. In the latter case,
> once the screenshot has been attached, that's it, there's no going
> back.

Why can't we ask users to add the XML as text afterwards ? I've often
done just that when people have attached images, if it was useful to
me to have it in text format.


With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|

Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Andrea Bolognani 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 11:11:03AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 02:27:46AM -0800, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 09:50:25AM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> > > IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
> > > sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
> > > problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
> > > which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
> > > some cases.
> >
> > Sure, but there's a difference between asking for more details, which
> > can always be done as a follow-up, and asking users to provide
> > information as plain text instead of screenshots. In the latter case,
> > once the screenshot has been attached, that's it, there's no going
> > back.
>
> Why can't we ask users to add the XML as text afterwards ? I've often
> done just that when people have attached images, if it was useful to
> me to have it in text format.

That feels worse, from the user's point of view, than being asked to
do that ahead of time, because it introduces friction and delays.


Anyway, clearly people are not into this patch and I don't care
enough about it to fiercely advocate for its inclusion, so let's all
grab our favorite

  SNACK

and move on :)

-- 
Andrea Bolognani / Red Hat / Virtualization
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Peter Krempa 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 09:50:25 +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:34:11AM +0100, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> > issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> > end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> > --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
> >  ## Additional information
> >  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
> >  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
> 
> I think this is pretty user hostile. When filing bugs, the more rules a
> project imposes on the bug report, the less likely I am to go ahead with
> filing it, especially when the rules are worded in a very direct manner
> that makes it feel like you'll be flamed for getting it wrong.
> 
> IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
> sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
> problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
> which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
> some cases.

Screenshots indeed can be useful, it's just whent the user posts a
screenshot of logs or the XML config which is extremely inconvenient.

Thus I agree that disallowing screenshots is not something we want to do
generally, but we should encourage users not to screenshot
text/logs/xmls.

As I wrote in a different subthread, we IMO need a minimalistic version
of the page which instructs what to do without the extra clutter. Where
we can write a bit more than here, but I agree that we should not add
much more information here.

The balance of simplicity vs putting all the required information is
hard to strike as it's to see in the 'debuglogs' kbase page which grew a
bit too much (by my hand unfortunately) after users were having repeated
problems with configuring logging. At this point the article is a big
wall of text and while there's guidance we IMO need also a minimal
version of that page to go with the bug reporting howto.
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Daniel P. Berrangé 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 11:02:23AM +0100, Peter Krempa wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 09:50:25 +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> > On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:34:11AM +0100, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > > Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> > > issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> > > end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> > > ---
> > >  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
> > >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> > > 
> > > diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > > index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> > > --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > > +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > > @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
> > >  ## Additional information
> > >  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
> > >  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> > > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
> > 
> > I think this is pretty user hostile. When filing bugs, the more rules a
> > project imposes on the bug report, the less likely I am to go ahead with
> > filing it, especially when the rules are worded in a very direct manner
> > that makes it feel like you'll be flamed for getting it wrong.
> > 
> > IMHO if someone provides a bug report with a screenshot and there is not
> > sufficient accompanying information, just nicely ask them to explain the
> > problem in a little more detail. We need todo that with plenty of bugs
> > which don't have screenshots either, and screenshots can be helpful in
> > some cases.
> 
> Screenshots indeed can be useful, it's just whent the user posts a
> screenshot of logs or the XML config which is extremely inconvenient.
> 
> Thus I agree that disallowing screenshots is not something we want to do
> generally, but we should encourage users not to screenshot
> text/logs/xmls.

Attaching screenshots of text/logs isn't really the common case though.
We should be careful of not getting into the trap of optimizing for
infrequent scenarios, such that we end up with a bunch of instructions
which are irrelevant for the common case.

If 30% of our bug reporters are getting something suboptimal, we should
give guidance on it. If 2% of our bug reporters do something suboptimal,
we should just deal with it after the fact. I feel like screenshots of
XML docs are in the latter category.

> As I wrote in a different subthread, we IMO need a minimalistic version
> of the page which instructs what to do without the extra clutter. Where
> we can write a bit more than here, but I agree that we should not add
> much more information here.
> 
> The balance of simplicity vs putting all the required information is
> hard to strike as it's to see in the 'debuglogs' kbase page which grew a
> bit too much (by my hand unfortunately) after users were having repeated
> problems with configuring logging. At this point the article is a big
> wall of text and while there's guidance we IMO need also a minimal
> version of that page to go with the bug reporting howto.

Yep, this is the trap I mention above. There is a natural tendency
to add more docs every time someone gets something wrong, which over
time ends up creating a huge set of instructions that no one will
want to read.

If we can optimize for the common case, and just accept that the
infrequent problems can be dealt with when they happen, we should
get a better balance

With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|

Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Michal Prívozník 1 year, 2 months ago
On 2/10/23 10:34, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> ---
>  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
>  ## Additional information
>  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
>  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->

Since we're changing our template, would it make sense to request users
to at least attempt to reproduce on something recent? I've seen reports
with ~3 years old libvirt. And given the pace libvirt's development is
moving it's very likely that the issue is fixed. And even if it wasn't -
we stop wasting our time trying to reproduce on current master only to
find out the issue was fixed a while ago.

I understand that some distros move slowly, but usually their users file
bugs against distro bugzilla.

Michal
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Peter Krempa 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:48:25 +0100, Michal Prívozník wrote:
> On 2/10/23 10:34, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> > issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> > end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> > --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
> >  ## Additional information
> >  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
> >  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
> 
> Since we're changing our template, would it make sense to request users
> to at least attempt to reproduce on something recent? I've seen reports
> with ~3 years old libvirt. And given the pace libvirt's development is
> moving it's very likely that the issue is fixed. And even if it wasn't -
> we stop wasting our time trying to reproduce on current master only to
> find out the issue was fixed a while ago.
> 
> I understand that some distros move slowly, but usually their users file
> bugs against distro bugzilla.

Originally I designed the bug template with way more prompts and during
review we've agreed to do something minimal and link to a bigger
document.

This is so that users are not discouraged by a wall of text.

I wonder whether we should do a better version of:

https://libvirt.org/bugs.html#how-to-file-high-quality-bug-reports

And add a more demanding prompt for users to read it. We can then
include the wording to encourage only filing with recent versions on
supported platforms, as well as ask to not attach screenshots.

In the end in many cases issue reports are incomplete regardless of even
the inline prompt which asks for VM XML and debug logs. 
Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Daniel P. Berrangé 1 year, 2 months ago
On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:48:25AM +0100, Michal Prívozník wrote:
> On 2/10/23 10:34, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
> > Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the
> > issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
> > end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
> > --- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > +++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
> > @@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
> >  ## Additional information
> >  <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
> >  <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
> > +<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
> 
> Since we're changing our template, would it make sense to request users
> to at least attempt to reproduce on something recent? I've seen reports
> with ~3 years old libvirt. And given the pace libvirt's development is
> moving it's very likely that the issue is fixed. And even if it wasn't -
> we stop wasting our time trying to reproduce on current master only to
> find out the issue was fixed a while ago.

We already link to:

  https://libvirt.org/bugs.html#how-to-file-high-quality-bug-reports

which could be expanded with a suggestion that reproducing on latest
upstream would be beneficial, rather than cluttering up the issue
template

With regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|

Re: [libvirt PATCH] gitlab: Ask users not to attach screenshots to bug reports
Posted by Ján Tomko 1 year, 2 months ago
On a Friday in 2023, Andrea Bolognani wrote:
>Hopefully including this request in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the

Using all caps on the internet can be interpreted as yelling and impolite.

>issue template will cut down on the number of screenshots that
>end up cluttering bug reports by at least a tiny bit.
>

I think it won't help in majority of cases and therefore is not worth
yelling and bug reporters.

Jano

>Signed-off-by: Andrea Bolognani <abologna@redhat.com>
>---
> .gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md | 1 +
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
>diff --git a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
>index f220671a06..b923be0ca0 100644
>--- a/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
>+++ b/.gitlab/issue_templates/bug.md
>@@ -17,3 +17,4 @@
> ## Additional information
> <!-- Attach XML configs, logs, stack traces, etc. Compress the files if necessary -->
> <!-- See https://libvirt.org/kbase/debuglogs.html on how to configure logging -->
>+<!-- Please DO NOT ATTACH SCREENSHOTS to the bug report. Provide all information as plain text -->
>-- 
>2.39.1
>