Error logs should show version number.

Post Reply
Qon
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2091
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:27 am
Contact:

Error logs should show version number.

Post by Qon »

TL;DR
Error messages when a mod encounters an error should start with Factorio version number and the version numbers and hashes of the mods mentioned in the error message.

What?
We modders get crash logs too. While I'm grateful that people report bugs, there's often some missing crucial information: Version number of mod and Factorio. People copy paste the error log and it would be trivial for Wube to add this information while for most reporters it is unknown that this info is needed or they forget.

And finding this information can easily double the time it takes to report a crash when you have to go to your mod list, find the mod that crashed (no search functionality and I have 102 installed mods, was it called The Crashing Mod listed under C or Crashing Mod listed with mods starting with C?), read off version number for it and then also for Factorio.

Example:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/HandyHand ... 000d0a7e3e
I get version number a day or 2 later which lets me start debugging. But what if there were updates of my mod and Factorio and he had forgotten which version he was on at the point of the crash once sees my question and decides to deliver the info? And this is someone that goes through the effort of both reporting the crash and coming back to give more info. This is someone who really tries and delivers, but could use a helping hand from Wube.

The error should also show the hash of the mod so I can know that mod hasn't been modified by the user and that the version number is actually correct.

Bonus feature:
eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:30 pm
I would like see a hint about the log file location included in every error message. Something like "Please report this error to the mod author and include your factorio-current.log (located at: /path/to/logfile)." And if that were somehow clickable and would open a file explorer at that location... I guess now I am dreaming :D
Why here?
Why is this posted here? It's not really a game feature request since this only affects modders. It's not technically a modding interface request but this would really help all modders.
Last edited by Qon on Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

eduran
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 344
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 2:52 pm
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by eduran »

factorio-current.log already has that information. My MO is to ask people to post the log. Until they do so I am not going to spend much effort on their report.
This is not to say that adding versions closer to the actual error message would be bad. But people will still manage to leave it out of their copy-paste and provide incomplete information.

Edit: In your example you at least got the complete error message. I already consider it a decent bug report if that happens :lol:

Qon
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2091
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:27 am
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by Qon »

eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:53 am
factorio-current.log already has that information. My MO is to ask people to post the log. Until they do so I am not going to spend much effort on their report.
I didn't know that. Also, the purpose is to not have to ask for these details so that I can fix the bug immediately and not have to wait a few days for a response. I want to be able to respond with a fix minutes after I get a report if possible. Also if you ask for the log then it will be gone when they see your request for it. So it has the same problems as asking for a version number.

People volunteer the error message copied in full in my experience. They don't add more information. They probably don't even know that information is not in the error message because they don't read it and they don't know what I need to debug it. I don't tell people what to send, they see the error message so that is what they send. The purpose of this change is for us modders life to get easier without having to educate millions of untechnical users on how to properly spend several minutes digging up log files because the error message is too crappy for no reason. I want them to just continue to just paste the error message because that is what they are doing.
eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:53 am
Edit: In your example you at least got the complete error message. I already consider it a decent bug report if that happens :lol:
Yeah, but the missing info is not the fault of the user that is reporting the error message. The reporter did the right thing! Factorio left out the crucial info, not the user.

eduran
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 344
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 2:52 pm
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by eduran »

Can you copy-paste directly from the in-game error message? I did not know that and assumed people were opening the log and copying part of it (at which point posting the entire log instead should be trivial).
Qon wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:07 pm
Yeah, but the missing info is not the fault of the user that is reporting the error message. The reporter did the right thing! Factorio left out the crucial info, not the user.
I don't agree and think players ignoring advice on how to post bugs (e.g. this post or this post) are at fault and will have a wait a bit longer to get their issue resolved.

That said, I am not arguing against the error message displaying more info. Anything that makes good bug reports easier is welcome. Ideally, I would like see a hint about the log file location included in every error message. Something like "Please report this error to the mod author and include your factorio-current.log (located at: /path/to/logfile)." And if that were somehow clickable and would open a file explorer at that location... I guess now I am dreaming :D

Qon
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2091
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:27 am
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by Qon »

eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:30 pm
Can you copy-paste directly from the in-game error message? I did not know that and assumed people were opening the log and copying part of it (at which point posting the entire log instead should be trivial).
Yes, you can :)
eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:30 pm
Qon wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:07 pm
Yeah, but the missing info is not the fault of the user that is reporting the error message. The reporter did the right thing! Factorio left out the crucial info, not the user.
I don't agree and think players ignoring advice on how to post bugs (e.g. this post or this post) are at fault and will have a wait a bit longer to get their issue resolved.
I don't think they are ignoring the advice. They just don't know that there is advice to learn from. Or they forget. Or something else.

I don't just fix the bug for the reporter, I fix it for all my users. And I wrote the bug, so I want to get rid of it quickly. I don't think the reporters should "earn" a quick fix. All issues deserve a quick fix. I'm not saying that users shouldn't care about helping the programmers, just that the issue in the code is separate from the bug report that describes it. For practical purposes and as a show of good will and thankfulness it's nice to give detailed and correct bug reports and swift fixes. That is the ideal we strive for. But even if the reporter isn't doing as much as I wish then I still want my mod to be bug-free for others. And low effort reporting is better than no report if the error message contains enough info.
eduran wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:30 pm
That said, I am not arguing against the error message displaying more info. Anything that makes good bug reports easier is welcome. Ideally, I would like see a hint about the log file location included in every error message. Something like "Please report this error to the mod author and include your factorio-current.log (located at: /path/to/logfile)." And if that were somehow clickable and would open a file explorer at that location... I guess now I am dreaming :D
I'm stealing that for my OP q:

dewiniaid
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:50 pm
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by dewiniaid »

I'd also like to see this. I've one error report in particular where they only uploaded a partial factorio-current.log but it didn't have the first half which includes mod version numbers/etc. In that case, the issue was my mod relying on something added in 0.17.22 and them using it in an earlier version of 0.17. (I've since updated my mod's dependencies to avoid this happening in the future.)

Bilka
Factorio Staff
Factorio Staff
Posts: 3123
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2016 9:20 am
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by Bilka »

The mod version numbers were added to the error message at some point.
I'm an admin over at https://wiki.factorio.com. Feel free to contact me if there's anything wrong (or right) with it.

Qon
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 2091
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:27 am
Contact:

Re: Error logs should show version number.

Post by Qon »

Bilka wrote:
Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:43 am
The mod version numbers were added to the error message at some point.
Yep! I'm loving it!

Though I got a bug report where the user only copied the part after "please report this to the mod author", which excludes the version number... :roll:

Would be nice if the mod hash was displayed also, with a mod list available from the error dialog also. But I'm enjoying what I got right now though :D

Post Reply

Return to “Implemented mod requests”