improve error messages for LXC operations
Metadata
Current evaluation
LXC copy failures hid useful stderr, including disk exhaustion, until trace verbosity; craft-cli 2.13.0 now displays error details in every non-quiet mode, resolving the report.
Suggested action: close resolved
Reason: The reported symptom was that LXC's stderr containing "No space left on device (28)" was visible only at trace verbosity. Craft-cli 2.13.0 explicitly changed this behavior to show error details in every mode except quiet, and its current implementation preserves LXC stderr in error details and displays those details outside quiet mode.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
31
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
96
Actionability:
91
Issue body
### What needs to get done
One of the errors I recently had was about lack of disk space. Only when going in `trace` verbosity mode I could see:
```
2024-10-11 13:37:13.303 Executing on host: lxc --project rockcraft copy local:base-instance-rockcraft-buildd-base-v7-c-a38d05774a6de0cf6ab1 local:rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341
2024-10-11 13:37:24.008 Failed to copy instance 'local:base-instance-rockcraft-buildd-base-v7-c-a38d05774a6de0cf6ab1' to 'local:rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341'.
2024-10-11 13:37:24.016 Detailed information: * Command that failed: 'lxc --project rockcraft copy local:base-instance-rockcraft-buildd-base-v7-c-a38d05774a6de0cf6ab1 local:rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341'
* Command exit code: 1
* Command standard error output: b'Error: Create instance from copy: Failed to run: rsync -a -HA --sparse --devices --delete --checksum --numeric-ids --xattrs --filter=-x security.selinux -q /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/storage-pools/default/containers/rockcraft_base-instance-rockcraft-buildd-base-v7-c-a38d05774a6de0cf6ab1/ /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/storage-pools/default/containers/rockcraft_rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341: exit status 11 (rsync: write failed on "/var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/storage-pools/default/containers/rockcraft_rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341/rootfs/var/lib/snapd/cache/3220c3b05acf2b11b7d0a577ed8b37a103b48c3d9770370f99b770d4653cc2ac45cec2b7f7699cbcdc0b27b239763cb7": No space left on device (28)\nrsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at receiver.c(374) [receiver=3.1.3])\n'
```
### Why it needs to get done
Because Rockcraft's output was not helpful in understanding the root cause:
```
Starting rockcraft, version 1.5.3.post56+g8f10e0a
Logging execution to '/root/.local/state/rockcraft/log/rockcraft-20241011-133648.146458.log'
Launching managed ubuntu 22.04 instance...
Creating instance from base instance
Failed to copy instance 'local:base-instance-rockcraft-buildd-base-v7-c-a38d05774a6de0cf6ab1' to 'local:rockcraft-pro-rock-demo-on-amd64-for-amd64-129341'.
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
31
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
96
Actionability:
91
|
close resolved | LXC copy failures hid useful stderr, including disk exhaustion, until trace verbosity; craft-cli 2.13.0 now displays error details in every non-quiet mode, resolving the report. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
17
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
84
Actionability:
67
|
needs triage | Rockcraft hides LXC stderr identifying "No space left on device"; the open, unlabeled issue is untriaged, while related craft-providers LXD error-message work has merged. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
14
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
60
Actionability:
60
|
needs triage | Issue requesting improved error messages for LXC operations in Rockcraft; currently open with no maintainer assessment. craft-providers#161 merged a related LXD error message improvement. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
19
Staleness:
82
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
72
Support Request:
15
|
needs triage | Request to improve LXC error messages so root causes (e.g. disk space) surface without trace verbosity. Filed by a maintainer, open ~22 months with no labels, comments, or maintainer response. The failing copy error originates in craft-providers, not rockcraft. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Request to improve LXC operation error messages to surface underlying causes like disk space issues. Currently open with no labels, assignees, or maintainer comments after over a year. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to improve Rockcraft LXC error messages that currently hide underlying LXC/rsync failures like disk space issues. The issue has been inactive for over 1.5 years with no maintainer response, labels, or progress. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Feature request to surface root causes in LXC operation errors instead of generic failure messages. Currently requires trace verbosity to diagnose underlying issues like disk space. Unassigned, zero comments, inactive for over a year. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
craft-providers#161
(confidence 90%)
Merged LXD error-message improvements are adjacent, while craft-cli 2.13.0 directly addresses the reported verbosity gap.
Related issues
No related issues found above the similarity threshold.