Re: [PATCH v2 5/5] compact: provide user more information on after-compaction failures

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+From: Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi>\r
+To: David Bremner <david@tethera.net>, Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org>,\r
+       notmuch@notmuchmail.org\r
+Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 5/5] compact: provide user more information on\r
+       after-compaction failures\r
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+\r
+On Sun, Nov 17 2013, David Bremner <david@tethera.net> wrote:\r
+\r
+> Tomi Ollila <tomi.ollila@iki.fi> writes:\r
+>\r
+>> The log hook in it's current form is problematic as it doesn't provide\r
+>> way to distinguish progress reporting from error reporting.\r
+>\r
+> Is this _more_ problematic than more output to stderr?\r
+>\r
+>>  Currently\r
+>> lib/database.cc writes error messages with fprintf(stderr, ...) everywhere.\r
+>\r
+> Sure. But I'm trying to understand why a partial fix isn't better than\r
+> nothing.  Is the argument just that the effort is wasted, or that the\r
+> result is somehow less satisfactory than the status quo.\r
+\r
+The partial fix (using current log hook) would mean we either write all\r
+messages to stdout or to stderr.\r
+\r
+To the end user this would mean inconsistent behaviour in compact compared\r
+to other commands (like 'notmuch new' which prints progress to stdout and\r
+errors to stderr).\r
+\r
+I personally think doing things this way for 0.17 is tolerable\r
+(considering current schedule and risks involved) so that user experience\r
+is stable.\r
+\r
+>> I suggest that this problem is fixed in one big sweep during 0.18\r
+>> development -- the suggestion Jani pastebin'd a few days ago is\r
+>> a good one and I'm willing to take part of that development...\r
+>> And now take this approach of fprintf()ing (basically I would\r
+>> also ask developers using the library wait for 0.18 before starting\r
+>> to use the compact functionality (if ever), as the we have yet\r
+>> another soname bump with changing interface coming...\r
+>\r
+> I guess we can mark this interface as unstable for the moment?\r
+> "Asking developers not to use it" sounds pretty bad.\r
+\r
+I was thinking naming the function notmuch_database_compact_internal ()\r
+as one option (I also though of notmuch_database_compact_unstable () -- but\r
+that sounds so "unstable" (at least outside Debian people ;D)) --\r
+could be one option. Then developers should understand the API is not\r
+fixed there...\r
+\r
+Although "Informing developers to prepare for upcoming changes to the API"\r
+(which is goind to happen early on 0.18 development cycle) should suffice.\r
+\r
+> d\r
+\r
+Tomi\r