[Bug 973277] Re: Default MaxReports of 3 skews statistics in error database

[David Kalnischkies]

Just as a comment: After the first error you have a decent chance to report errors which depend on the previous error.
'example-data' can't be installed for whatever reason - the logical consequence is that 'example' will fail to install, too, resulting in a useless bugreport. After the first "valid" failure you can easily accumulate hundreds of followups…

3 is not a hard-coded limit btw. APT::Apport::MaxReports is the relevant
config option if you desire to play with different values.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/973277

Title:
  Default MaxReports of 3 skews statistics in error database

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  apt 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu6, Ubuntu Pangolin

  When more than 3 apt errors occur in some period, apt says "No apport
  report written because MaxReports has already been reached".

  That limit skews statistics of how often each error occurs, which will
  in turn skew priorities of which problems are most important to fix.

  That might have been a worthy tradeoff for saving people from the
  interaction required to report bugs. But when error reports are being
  sent to a database without user interaction, it is no longer relevant.

  Either the limit should apply only when the error storage requires
  interaction (e.g. Launchpad), or it should be removed altogether.

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