[buildd-tools-devel] Bug#823788: Bug#823788: sbuild: non-error on stderr: "There are no foreign architectures configured"

[Johannes Schauer]

Control: severity -1 serious

Hi,

thanks a lot for testing the new sbuild version so quickly! :)

Quoting Adam Borowski (2016-05-09 04:19:23)
> I'm afraid that today's update introduced a spurious message, emitted both
> on package build and on chroot update:
> "There are no foreign architectures configured".
> 
> Putting aside the question whether this message fits places it's emitted, it
> definitely shouldn't be written to stderr.  This breaks scripts that assume
> stderr output means errors.  This includes for example cronjobs to update
> chroots.

I want to better understand what scripts using sbuild expect from it.

I don't think it has been the case before that sbuild only writes error
messages to stderr. I see lots of output done to stderr which is merely status
display. For example:

 | Checking available source versions...

or

 | Not removing foreign architectures: cloned chroot in use

or

 | Kernel: Linux 4.4.0-rc8-amd64 amd64 (x86_64)
 | Toolchain package versions:
 | [...]
 | Package versions:
 | [...]

or

 | Merged Build-Depends:
 | [...]
 | Filtered Build-Depends:
 | [...]

or

 | Not cleaning session: cloned chroot in use
 | Not removing foreign architectures: cloned chroot in use


As far as I understand the codebase, errors are differentiated by warnings and
informational messages by their prefix. Errors start with "E: ". So it is true
that many informational messages (see above) are not prefixed with a "I: " as
they should.

But I do not see that this situation is actually a regression because as I
showed above, sbuild already outputs lots of information of merely
informational value on stderr.

In case I misunderstand the problem, I marked this bug as serious to prevent
sbuild migrating to testing.

So I need to understand:

 - which scripts break?
 - what to scripts expect?
 - how was the situation before any different than the one now?

I'd also be very happy to do a sweep through the sbuild codebase and make sure
that all sbuild messages get their proper prefix ("D:", "I:", "W:" or "E:").

It would also be helpful if you could write me a command for me to try out such
that I see what exactly what breaks.

Thank you!

cheers, josch
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