new bug reports with attachments added generate blank email instead of including links to attachments

[Steve Langasek]

As of a few days ago, any time a new bug report is filed in Ubuntu that includes apport-provided attachments, a second follow-up email is sent that's empty. Previously the second email would include links to the attachments. That looks like a bug to me.

Example bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pam/+bug/667214

[Graham Binns (gmb)]

Hi Steve,

Can you paste examples of the two emails so that we can start to work up a test case for this?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Attached are examples of the two emails being sent. Sorry for the delay,
had to wait for a new one to come in as I wasn't hanging on to the blank
emails. :)

--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
<email address hidden> <email address hidden>

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: grub

The kernel-package is not upgradable from 2.6.32-25.44 and lower on Packard Bell MZ36.
Processor: Intel Celeron M CPU 520 @ 1.60 Ghz.
This is not to fix with the recovery option in Grub2
It even destroys the lower kernels as 2.6.24-xx and the recovery mode of it, they become useless for booting up.
By every software installation or removal it wants to create a /grub/menu.lst

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-25-generic 2.6.32-25.45
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.45-generic 2.6.32.21+drm33.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-25-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Nov 13 15:15:08 2010
ErrorMessage: subproces installed post-installation script gaf een foutwaarde 1 terug
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.1)
SourcePackage: grub
Title: package linux-image-2.6.32-25-generic 2.6.32-25.45 failed to install/upgrade: subproces installed post-installation script gaf een foutwaarde 1 terug

** Affects: grub (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Tags: apport-package i386 lucid

--
package linux-image-2.6.32-25-generic 2.6.32-25.45 failed to install/upgrade: subproces installed post-installation script gaf een foutwaarde 1 terug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/675050
You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to grub in
ubuntu.

--
package linux-image-2.6.32-25-generic 2.6.32-25.45 failed to install/upgrade: subproces installed post-installation script gaf een foutwaarde 1 terug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/675050
You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to grub in
ubuntu.

[Graham Binns (gmb)]

On 14 November 2010 03:04, Steve Langasek <email address hidden> wrote:
> Attached are examples of the two emails being sent.  Sorry for the delay,
> had to wait for a new one to come in as I wasn't hanging on to the blank
> emails. :)
>

Thanks, this will be some help. If it happens again, can you paste or
attach the emails with their headers too? (I should have asked for
that in the first place, my bad).

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 02:08:06PM -0000, Graham Binns wrote:
> On 14 November 2010 03:04, Steve Langasek <email address hidden> wrote:
> > Attached are examples of the two emails being sent.  Sorry for the delay,
> > had to wait for a new one to come in as I wasn't hanging on to the blank
> > emails. :)

> Thanks, this will be some help. If it happens again, can you paste or
> attach the emails with their headers too? (I should have asked for
> that in the first place, my bad).

Sure. I actually forwarded the messages as attachments with full headers,
but of course Launchpad stripped this when merging them into the comment
history... ahwell... :)

--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
<email address hidden> <email address hidden>

[Graham Binns (gmb)]

On 15 November 2010 20:13, Steve Langasek
<email address hidden> wrote:).
>
> Sure.  I actually forwarded the messages as attachments with full headers,
> but of course Launchpad stripped this when merging them into the comment
> history... ahwell... :)
>

Botheration. It's almost as if it doesn't want us to fix the bug.

... you know you've been working on software too long when you start
assigning intent to it.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Ok, here are the mails from another bug demonstrating this problem.

[Graham Binns (gmb)]

On 30 November 2010 23:39, Steve Langasek <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> ** Attachment added: "second-mail"
>   https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+bug/667604/+attachment/1750681/+files/second-mail
>

You don't happen to still have the headers for those emails do you? It
might help us work out what's triggering them.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

On Wed, Dec 01, 2010 at 11:15:34AM -0000, Graham Binns wrote:
> On 30 November 2010 23:39, Steve Langasek <email address hidden> wrote:

> > ** Attachment added: "second-mail"
> >   https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+bug/667604/+attachment/1750681/+files/second-mail

> You don't happen to still have the headers for those emails do you? It
> might help us work out what's triggering them.

<sigh> No, I assumed mutt save to file would have grabbed the headers too.
But here are headers from another one.

First mail:

Return-Path: <email address hidden>
X-Original-To: <email address hidden>
Delivered-To: <email address hidden>
Received: from fiordland.canonical.com (fiordland.canonical.com
        [91.189.94.145])
        by grenadilla.canonical.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 728CE14728D1
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:40:59 +0000
        (GMT)
Received: from cluster-j.mailcontrol.com (cluster-j.mailcontrol.com
        [85.115.54.190])
        by fiordland.canonical.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6AE35A18B32
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010
        23:40:59 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from arctowski.canonical.com (arctowski.canonical.com
        [91.189.94.158])
        by rly04j.srv.mailcontrol.com (MailControl) with ESMTP id
        oAUNewUC014883
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010
        23:40:58 GMT
Received: from fiordland.canonical.com ([91.189.94.145])
        by arctowski.canonical.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
        (envelope-from <email address hidden>)
        id 1PNZog-0007sz-Ut
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010
        23:40:58
        +0000
Received: from adelie.canonical.com (userdb.internal [91.189.90.139])
        by fiordland.canonical.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D7F32A186B9
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:40:58 +0000
        (GMT)
Received: from loganberry.canonical.com ([91.189.90.37])
        by adelie.canonical.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69 #1 (Debian))
        id 1PNZoe-0002R2-6p
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:40:57 +0000
Received: from loganberry.canonical.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
        by loganberry.canonical.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C94842E80D0
        for <email address hidden>; Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:40:54 +0000
        (UTC)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:33:36 -0000
From: Daniel de Souza Pereira <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 683432 <email address hidden>
Sender: <email address hidden>
X-Launchpad-Bug: distribution=ubuntu; sourcepackage=grub; component=main;
        status=New; importance=Undecided; assignee=None;
X-Launchpad-Bug-Tags: apport-package i386 lucid
X-Launchpad-Bug-Private: no
X-Launchpad-Bug-Security-Vulnerability: no
X-Launchpad-Bug-Commenters: daniel--souzap
X-Launchpad-Bug-Reporter: Daniel de Souza Pereira (daniel--souzap)
X-Launchpad-Bug-Modifier: Daniel de Souza Pereira (daniel--souzap)
References: <20101130233337.27343.56860.malonedeb@soybea...

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Do the LP guys need anything else? I get many of these each day.

[Michael Bienia (geser)]

Any update on this? I still get two mails for newly created bugs via apport. One mail with the bug description and one empty mail.

[William Grant (wgrant)]

This broke in r11634.2.9 (lib/lp/bugs/browser/bugtarget.py, seems to have been a somewhat accidentally included change). It is too expensive with the current mechanism to queue all the attachment notifications, so they're presently suppressed when they come from apport. We should probably suppress the empty mail entirely.

[Derek White (d-man97)]

I agree with William - to suppress the mail entirely. I believe a better solution already exists that serves both the needs of the user/reporter and the maintainer/developer: the inclusion of the "apport-package" tag in the original email.

As a 4+ year Ubuntu, and therefore Launchpad, user (not developer), I can say that I could care less about the original apport attachments and even less about receiving an email to indicate they were attached. This is because I did not manually attach them - they were brought along automatically and aren't for me (the user).

With "apport-package" being tagged, the developers (or whomever would benefit from looking at the apport attachments) know immediately that the attachments are available. Do they really need an itemized listing? Is there a benefit to having an itemized listing available in email form? I would assume that any maintainer would be intimately familiar with the logs that are generated by apport for their package and that it is redundant to be told they are attached every time.

[Launchpad QA Bot (lpqabot)]

Fixed in stable r16091 <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~launchpad-pqm/launchpad/stable/revision/16091>.