bug#53710: "guix pull" doesn't have nice error messages in case of network errors

[Jesse Gibbons]

On 3/2/22 06:14, Maxime Devos wrote:
> Ludovic Courtès schreef op wo 02-03-2022 om 12:19 [+0100]:
> > > ./guix/serialization.scm:80:6: In procedure get-bytevector-n*:
> > > ERROR:
> > >    1. &nar-error:
> > >        file: #f
> > >        port: #<input-output: file 10>
> > > guix pull: error: You found a bug: the program
> > > '/gnu/store/rx23w5k5nys4a2hjwcy4lampkhnslj3m-compute-guix-
> > > derivation'
> > > failed to compute the derivation for Guix (version:
> > > "787b13a5d9df8f0cc7170de1b80cead68b516c66"; system: "x86_64-linux";
> > > host version: "90a41fe388102d448b3f91a070e38a7680d2d568"; pull-
> > > version: 1).
> > > Please report the COMPLETE output above by email to
> > > <bug-guix@gnu.org>.
> > Thanks for reporting the issue.  Unfortunately, I suspect it was
> > “just”
> > a transient issue (probably a networking issue while downloading
> > substitutes for guile-ssh, which we see in the backtrace).  It’s
> > unfortunate that it crashed like that.
> Even if it's ‘only’ a networking issue, shouldn't it be reported
> better?  When "guix package -u" fails due to networking errors, the
> error messages are much clearer.  Why not the same for "guix pull"?
> Perhaps the issue should be reopened?
>
> Greetings,
> Maxime.
A proper error message would at least ensure this particular kind of 
crash does not prompt the end user to send a bug report. It would seem 
the real bug is communication to the user, "you found a bug, report it 
to the developers." instead of "Network error. Try later."

--
-Jesse Gibbons