[Bug 30399] New: Improve reporting of broken CMs

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30399

           Summary: Improve reporting of broken CMs
           Product: Telepathy
           Version: git master
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: medium
         Component: tp-spec
        AssignedTo: telepathy-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: david.laban at collabora.co.uk
         QAContact: telepathy-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org


One of Telepathy's advantages is the ability to carry on/recover when one of
the CMs dies and falls off the bus. Another potential failure mode for a CM is
deadlocking. In this case, method calls will fail with a timeout, but most
programs (read: Empathy) don't escalate these failures. Also, the CM falling
off the bus isn't reported as such in empathy (should I report a bug for this
there too?)


Proposal:

Extend Account.ConnectionStatusReason's enum (== Connection's
Connection_Status_Reason enum) to include a value Local_Component_Failure

Define an equivalent error for putting in Account.ConnectionError

Have a method Account.Ping() which either succeeds, or [returns an error and]
sets the above properties. This way, clients can call this method in response
to all timeout failures, and the AccountManager will do the right thing. (or
make the AccountManager prod the CMs periodically to check for lockups anyway)

Document that clients should probably not try to kill/restart locked up CMs
without user confirmation, because this would make using gdb to debug CM
problems impossible.

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