Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:30:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@monkeys.com> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: bin/11987: vacation(1) documentation and error logging both suck Message-ID: <199906101830.LAA73460@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR bin/11987; it has been noted by GNATS. From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@monkeys.com> To: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za> Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: Re: bin/11987: vacation(1) documentation and error logging both suck Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:19:38 -0700 In message <72497.929037495@axl.noc.iafrica.com>, you wrote: > > >On Thu, 10 Jun 1999 10:23:20 MST, "Ronald F. Guilmette" wrote: > >> I still don't see where the specific syslog facility used by the program >> is mentioned. That is an _important_ bit of data. (The facility used >> for logging is the "user" facility.) > >vacation(1): > Fatal errors, such as calling vacation with incorrect arguments, > or with non-existent logins, are logged in the system log file, > using syslog(3). > >syslog(3): > LOG_USER Messages generated by random user processes. This > is the default facility identifier if none is > specified. That fact that "user" is the default facility for syslog, in general DOES NOT tell me that this is the facility that will be used, in fact, by this specific program. (Plenty of programs do syslog logging. Most _do_ select the facility they will use explicitly.) >> Right. But if the sysadmin is away on a three week vacation in the >> Bahamas, and if the poor end user just has to figure out the problem >> for himself/herself > >This is not a problem specific to vacation(1). How many other end-user-oriented programs write their error to syslog, rather than to stderr?? This is the *only* one that I know of. Maybe there are a few others, but this is certainly an unusual sort of a problem... i.e. an end-user-oriented utility program where the end user who uses it may not even be allowed to see the error messages it generates! >I really do think this is a simple case of reading too fast. I know it's >not easy to admit, and I only feel qualified to say so because I myself >am so good at it. In a word, no. I disagree. I do not believe that this is merely a case of me reading too fast. As I have noted (above) it requires an unjustified leap of faith to intuit from the _combination_ of the vacation(1) man page and the syslog(3) man page that in fact vacation(1) uses the "user" syslog facility. Consider: The default way of getting from place to place these days is by car. Chipmanzees do occasionally move from place to place. Therefore chipmanzees drive cars. The conclusion does not automatically follow from the premises. Also, as I have noted, vacation(1) is the _only_ end-user-oriented program I know of where the end user may not even be allowed to see the error messages produced by the program. (I think that even procmail, which in some ways has a similar sort of function, logs its errors into some file in the user's home directory so that the poor user can at least see them. Hummm... yes. I just looked in my own home directory and there is a nice big file called .procmail.log.) OK. So analogously, what I have proposed is a ~/.vacation.log file. This suggestion/request is _not_ prompted merely by an excessively speedy perusal of the relevant man pages. It is prompted by a real and legitimate need, i.e. the need of an ordinary end user to be able to see his own error messages when he invokes some end-user-oriented program. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message
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