"apport" automatic bug-reporting system doesn't (apparently) let you see what it reports to launchpad

[AlainKnaff]

Kubuntu gutsy has this nice feature that if something crashed on startup, logout or adept-upgrade, there will be a dialog box appearing (apport?) , that lets you automatically file info about the crash to launchpad.

Wanting to be a "good citizen", I occasionally clicked yes on this, and went through with reporting the problem. However, apart from the subject, it doesn't let you see _what_ it reports... Most notably, the actual output (DpkgTerminalLog.gz etc.) is not easily visible, and so you've got no way of deciding whether what you are reporting is actually a bug, or is rather due to some local circumstances. I've been bitten by this on bug #137442 .

Would it be possible to add a possibility to "view attachment" that is available before "Submit Bug Report"?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I don't think this bug has anything to do with Launchpad.

[Wojtek Kaniewski (wojtekka)]

Same here. Upgrade failed and apport asked if I want to file a report. I agreed, expecting that it will show me contents of the report that I will be able to review and cancel if it contains some sensitive data. But it didn't show anything except for a progress bar I couldn't event stop. That's completely unacceptable and I won't file _any_ automatic reports again. At least until I know this one is fixed.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

This is strange. Apport only directly uploads the report and guides you to a browser if you file a bug. For crashes it should present a dialog like [1], don't you get that one? If you expand "Content of the report' you see all the data it will report.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=apport-gtk-report.png

[Wojtek Kaniewski (wojtekka)]

I think I know what happened. I've looked at the code and now I see that report review is available only on "Crash" and "Kernel" problems, but not for "Package" etc. If I kill update-manager with SIGSEGV ("Crash" problem), it does show the dialog, but it didn't when dpkg-* failed during dist-upgrade ("Package" problem). Okay, I do understand that reports for failed dpkg-reconfigure without any core dumps, stack traces, process maps etc. are mostly harmless, but still I'm not comfortable with sending _any_ information without my confirmation.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

 status triaged

Hi,

Wojtek Kaniewski [2008-01-19 1:31 -0000]:
> I think I know what happened. I've looked at the code and now I see that
> report review is available only on "Crash" and "Kernel" problems, but
> not for "Package" etc. If I kill update-manager with SIGSEGV ("Crash"
> problem), it does show the dialog, but it didn't when dpkg-* failed
> during dist-upgrade ("Package" problem). Okay, I do understand that
> reports for failed dpkg-reconfigure without any core dumps, stack
> traces, process maps etc. are mostly harmless, but still I'm not
> comfortable with sending _any_ information without my confirmation.

Ah, I see what you mean. I was not concerned about this so far because
it does not contain any private data. But I see your point -- how can
you know that it's harmless until you could actually see it. :-)

I'll change apport to always display the confirmation dialog with the
details.

Thanks,

Martin

--
Martin Pitt http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer http://www.ubuntu.com
Debian Developer http://www.debian.org

[shawnlandden (shawnlandden)]

it is absurd that launchpad tells you it will include more information but not actually let you review that information before you send it.

This problem has been sitting here for over a year and it still hasn't been fixed, even Microsoft will tell you what you are going to send before you send it, also it sends it launchpad right when the browser window opens so even if the bug report is not submitted launchpad has everything.

this is not just when a program crashes but any time apport is triggered.

[Dimitris Athanasopoulos (motzin-deactivatedaccount)]

my problem seems to be like this and posted here in greek https://forum.ubuntu-gr.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25390&p=269300#p269300

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Apport does show you what it is going to send in the "Details" expander. It has always done this, so this has never been a bug in Apport itself.