528390 - Web UI for configuring 'uninteresting' stack frames

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 864381

(Socorro :: Infra, task)

Description

[Frank Griswold [:griswolf] [:fgriswold]]

Developers need to be able to configure the way 'uninteresting' frames are handled. 

Right now, this is done via a config file: IT updates the config and bounces the processors. This process takes as much as several days, requires at least two people's hands  on it (plus the developer who requests the change).

Proposal:
Extend the administrative interface to allow selected developers to add stack frame names that will be special handled. This can be done after the next step if needed

Add a database table, alter processor to use it instead of (in addition to?) text config options.

create table frame_specification (
  frame_name text primary key unique,
  spec_kind enum ('prefix', 'irrelevant', 'sentinel'),
  when_added timestamp);

(or similar)

Extend processor to query that database periodically to re-parse the data if the when_added timestamp is more recent than when last seen. (that check is optional: Maybe just arbitrarily update every so often).

Behavior: create regular expressions consisting of an alternation of all the frame_names of the same kind, and use those three regexes to manipulate the stack frame sequence into a signature.

Optional: Re-design the signature-munging entirely. For instance, we have interest in
 - do per module signature munging (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=514505#c5)
 - handle a given frame based on parent or child frame
 - provide two or more configurable views (and search on same) of the same underlying data
 - allow searches based on individual frames as well as 'signatures'

Comment 1

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

I'd say go for the simplest thing first. Currently, AIUI, the config file specifies two regexes: one for frames to skip entirely, and one for frames to prepend to the signature. I think we should just allow the admin panel to edit two lists, one for each of those types. I'd hazard a guess that all of the regexes we have in the config are currently just complete frame names (except for the "skip any pure-address frames" entry), so we might not need to allow regexes here, just simple string matching.

Comment 2

[Robert Kaiser]

It looks like this bug report covers multiple levels of a solution for this, from a simple-sounding "add UI to edit the already present config" to an elaborate redesign that adds other benefits than just managing the two lists currently used.

If going for the simple solution first is what should be done, we should care to have separate but dependent bugs for that and any more elaborate work and have clear definitions of what is within the scope of what bug.
That should make it easier for the team to get things onto actual plans to work on them.

Can someone with the knowledge of what's really wanted/needed step up and do that?

Comment 4

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

I think the most immediate benefit would be from allowing admin users to edit the existing parameters. We've had a flurry of bugs recently to edit the prefix / ignore lists to narrow down topcrashes, and being able to do that without developer and IT intervention would have been a great benefit.

If we have refinements beyond that we can spin them off to a separate bug.