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Message #48136
[Bug 2074211] Re: Consider hiding error messages in apt-news.service to avoid being percived as "pro is broken"
This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-advantage-tools - 34~18.04
---------------
ubuntu-advantage-tools (34~18.04) bionic; urgency=medium
* Backport 34 to bionic (LP: #2075543)
ubuntu-advantage-tools (34) oracular; urgency=medium
* d/rules: check that version.py is consistent with changelog (GH: #3154)
* New upstream release 34: (LP: #2075543)
- apt-hook: redirect errors away from users (LP: #2074211, LP: #2055239)
- detach: ensure apt bearer tokens are always cleaned up
- fips-preview: add warnings and prompts similar to fips and fips-updates
- fips and realtime-kernel: add warning when the new kernel may have
different hardware support than the current kernel based on the flavor
(GH: #3115)
- fix: use more reliable api query param when looking up CVE fixes
- help:
+ change help output for base pro command
+ remove service descriptions from output (GH: #3126)
+ show help content when run without a subcommand
- timer: recover from corrupted job status file (LP: #2078737)
- update manpage
-- Grant Orndorff <grant.orndorff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Fri, 06 Sep 2024
19:58:19 -0400
** Changed in: ubuntu-advantage-tools (Ubuntu Xenial)
Status: Fix Committed => Fix Released
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2074211
Title:
Consider hiding error messages in apt-news.service to avoid being
percived as "pro is broken"
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools package in Ubuntu:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Xenial:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Bionic:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Focal:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Jammy:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Noble:
Fix Released
Status in ubuntu-advantage-tools source package in Oracular:
Fix Released
Bug description:
[ Impact ]
When bugs unrelated to ubuntu-pro-client affect the apt-hooks in such a way that they print warning or error messages, ubuntu-pro-client is percieved to be at fault. Usually these warnings and errors cannot be fixed by ubuntu-pro-client and are indicative of an issue somewhere else, so their association with ubuntu-pro-client is not helpful.
In the case of bug 2055239, there is a bug in systemd which results in
unnecessary warnings on almost all `systemctl` commands. Those
appeared in the output of `apt update` (a highly used and visible
command) becuase of ubuntu-pro-client's apt-hook. This made ubuntu-pro
look bad even though the issue was in systemd.
The fix for this bug is to redirect the output of ubuntu-pro-client's
apt-hooks so that warnings and errors are not shown. We don't want to
completely lose the ability to notice these errors however, so `pro
collect-logs` will be modified to collect any warnings or errors that
may have occurred.
[ Test Plan ]
In a noble lxd container
# Reproduce the issue before upgrading
apt update # no warnings
sudo apt install systemd=255.4-1ubuntu8 # install affected version of systemd
systemctl enable bug32939 # trigger https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/32959 aka bug 2055239
apt update # see warnings
# Install fixed version here
# Show that warnings are no longer shown
apt update # no warnings
systemctl enable bug32939 # trigger https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/32959 aka bug 2055239
apt update # you should NOT see warnings
# create some logs and rotate them
sudo pro status
ls -la /var/log/ubuntu-advantage*.log
logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf
# Confirm rotation of non-zero logs, and zero logs are not rotated
ls -la /var/log/ubuntu-advantage*.log
# Write something to /var/log/ubuntu-advantage-apt-hook.log (the new log file)
echo hello > /var/log/ubuntu-advantage-apt-hook.log
# trigger rotation one more time
logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf
# confirm this time it was rotated
ls -la /var/log/ubuntu-advantage*.log
# Then run demonstrate that collect-logs will get the systemd warning
# and the simulated apt-hook err
pro collect-logs
tar -xvf pro_logs.tar.gz
# confirm rotated logs were collected
ls logs/
# see the hidden things were collected
cat logs/apt-news.service.txt # see the warning
cat logs/ubuntu-advantage-apt-hook*.log # see "hello"
[ Where problems could occur ]
Since we are hiding potential warnings and errors, we are less likely to notice real issues in the apt-hooks. It also likely would've taken a lot longer to notice bug 2055239 if it wasn't so prominent. If the apt-hooks silently break, then users will go without APT news or up to date ESM package update messages.
[ Original Description ]
Back in bug 2055239 users saw messages like
$ sudo apt update
Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of apt-news.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
And debugging that identified that snapd on install/update caused the
whole system to go into that bad state. But users rarely check so deep
and we might want to avoid false perception of Pro being broken (like
in this case where we neither caused it, nor can fix it, ...)
On the other hand we do not just want to hide it, so if we suppress
them and get STDERR we need to consider if they should go at least to
the log and if we need another way to flag "there is something wrong
here on your system" less associated with the pro client.
So the potential range from "suppress / quiet" to "very complex error redirection is huge".
While pondering, TBH we probably should go for the simpler method.
While hoping that the real fix of the root cause (not just hiding the symptom) will also soon be fixed in either in snapd (triggering it) or systemd (https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/32959 part of the reason snapd triggers it).
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