Provide a way to get feedback on compiler error rates

37580e9
Opened by Esteban Kuber at 2023-08-03 19:08:11

As per https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/45452#issuecomment-339329308, and other conversations that have been had over time, there's a feeling that we should have ways of identifying what rustc features are being used/encountered. This can range from full featured telemetry support in rustc/cargo, to a simple webapp accepting people to post compiler output. Right now the only ways we receive feedback for confusing output are:

  • IRC/gitter
  • this issue tracker
  • stackoverflow
  • /r/rust

If we added telemetry support on rustc, it would also have to be opt-in, and it could start with being a simple flag passed to rustc to send a post request with the text output of the compiler. These reports could then be aggregated by type.

  1. I think we better keep rustc untouched, and telemetry (the post request sender) is better belong on cargo:

    • the "flag" can be part of ~/.cargo/config so you don't need to opt-in everytime
    • the "flag" can be configured when you install rustup the first time
    • rustc remains free of any network code
    • cargo already needs to connect to the internet (outside of airplane mode)

    kennytm at 2017-11-08 10:05:41

  2. @kennytm those sound like solid arguments to me

    Niko Matsakis at 2017-11-08 17:53:47

  3. Rustup already has a config flag for telemetry. https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/rustup.rs/issues/341

    bluss at 2017-11-10 16:36:50

  4. Oh in this case the entire thing can be implemented on top of rustup's rustc/cargo wrapper already?

    kennytm at 2017-11-10 16:40:29

  5. cc https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/pre-pre-rfc-automatically-generate-bug-reports/7736

    Esteban Kuber at 2018-06-15 23:01:33

  6. I don't believe that we've done anything in this area in the past few years.

    Steve Klabnik at 2019-11-15 16:34:51

  7. I've formalized some of my thoughts on the matter: https://estebank.github.io/rustc-metrics.html

    Esteban Kuber at 2023-08-03 19:08:11