improve error messages for LXC operations
Metadata
Current evaluation
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.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The issue has no labels, no assignee, and zero comments or maintainer acknowledgement in ~22 months, so it shows no sign of having been categorised or prioritised. It is not a candidate for close_stale because the underlying code (craft_providers/lxd/lxc.py copy() still raising 'Failed to copy instance ...' with details only surfaced at trace level) is unchanged and the request remains valid. It is a genuine enhancement, not a support question, so it needs triage and likely a cross-repo handoff to craft-providers.
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
19.25
Staleness:
82
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
72
Support Request:
15
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
19.25
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. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Improve LXC operation error messages to surface root causes like disk space issues instead of generic failures. Open with zero comments and over a year of inactivity. Needs triage and assignment to implement better error handling. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
craft-providers#161
(confidence 40%)
craft-providers PR 'lxd: improve error messages' is the closest prior work on LXD error wording; the copy() error this issue targets lives in craft_providers/lxd/lxc.py, so any fix is cross-repo.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1689695 Make the error message when LXC is not found a bit better | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Improved LXC not found error messaging for snapcraft cleanbuild was closed without implementation. Zero comments and no associated pull requests indicate the enhancement was abandoned or resolved without code changes. |