samba-tool error messages: what needs fixing most?

[Douglas Bagnall]

hi,

If you have used samba-tool, you will be aware that it often reports 
simple problems with long messages talking about exceptions and line 
numbers and file names and all-caps error codes. Sometimes, well, 
usually, these messages turn out to mean something like "bad username or 
password" or "samba.example.com is not a real address".

Every so often (but less often than you'd expect) somebody has the 
genius idea that samba-tool could just describe the underlying issue, 
and refrain from the detailed account of subsequent woe. Even Samba 
Developers have that idea, sometimes, but then they look and think "no, 
too hard" and get back to debugging clustered inter-forest symlink 
tevent races with S4U2SELF SPOOLSS ntlmssp_states (or winbind for the 
extremophiles). But NOW I, fully sober, have decided to *actually* try. 
Which leads to the question in the subject: which messages need fixing?

So *please* reply to this message with a samba-tool line that says 
something really stupid, and suggest a better message.

It won't be possible to fix every example, and I will try to be 
cautious. It is worse to hide real problems than to expose everyone to 
horrible noise.


Q: But won't this break the Application Search-engine Interface (ASI)? 
How will we be able to find old posts on stac^H^H^H^H 
https://lists.samba.org that quote the old nonsensical message?

A: Yes. ASI stability is never guaranteed. But you can always get the 
old traceback by appending -d3 to your samba-tool line.

Q: But I like things the way they are. It makes me look like that guy in 
the Matrix.

A: You don't want to look like that guy. Also, try -d10.

Q: When?

A: 4.18, and don't expect too much.


cheers,
Douglas