[Popcon-developers] Bug#610860: popularity-contest: abnormal termination while a package is uninstalled

[Serafeim Zanikolas]

Hi Bill,

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 05:46:27PM +0200, Bill Allombert wrote [edited]:
> As far as I understand, this is a warning, not an anormal termination.
> Yes, we could check the return value of open, but it this instance I
> feel that the warning is legitimate.

Agreed, but the user that sees the warning cannot tell that.

> For example, if the user set up a cron job that automatically update their system,
> it can alert them that there is a conflict.
> 
> Please note that this bug was also reported as #555790. I am still not quite sure
> how to address it.

Perhaps add a msg to make it clear that it is normal under certain
circumstances (along the lines of "failed to open xxx (this is normal if
dpkg was running at the same time)". This will save you from having to deal
with such bug reports in the future.

I would also consider to completely silence the msg when popcon runs via cron.
I don't want to get an email if it "fails" once a year, just because of a
coincidence for which I will do nothing about.

Cheers,
Serafeim

-- 
Every great idea is worthless without someone to do the work. --Neil Williams