Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it is that simple, the why doesn't the code fix it itself? But no, usually there is 1/2/3 likely things, but it also could be anything else.. and that kind if unexpected errors even often have no default-fix. No, the most best thing is to point to the documentation which has that, and not printig out manpages of docs in error messages now. > I write software that is generally run low in the stack What stack, how l…
In the case at hand, where an environment variable isn't set, how exactly should the code fix itself? Human interaction is necessary, which is the reason the log message should spell out what the human needs to do. If I'm starting a service and see a pointer in the logs to documentation, that seems like an incredibly broken approach to me. Why would I look at missing or out-of-date documentation that may or may not b…
> Something went wrong, but I don't want to tell you what.
is somewhat disingenius of an example. Error logs should tell in exhausting detail what went wrong. Ops needs that to analyse the situation, and the vendor will have much less trouble reproducing the error. However, suggesting specific fixes could be disastrous. Furthermore, documentation should already be in a form that operations can be expected to work with also in crisis situations.