The user facing error string in cloud-init status --long is not very user friendly

[ubuntu-server-builder]

This bug was originally filed in Launchpad as LP: #1889291

Launchpad details

affected_projects = []
assignee = None
assignee_name = None
date_closed = None
date_created = 2020-07-28T17:45:23.800243+00:00
date_fix_committed = None
date_fix_released = None
id = 1889291
importance = undecided
is_complete = False
lp_url = https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init/+bug/1889291
milestone = None
owner = townsend
owner_name = Christopher Townsend
private = False
status = confirmed
submitter = townsend
submitter_name = Christopher Townsend
tags = []
duplicates = []

Launchpad user Christopher Townsend(townsend) wrote on 2020-07-28T17:45:23.800243+00:00

When there is an error and issuing cloud-init status --long, the details string is not very user friendly. For example:

$ cloud-init status --long
status: error
time: Tue, 28 Jul 2020 15:12:48 +0000
detail:
('timezone', OSError('Invalid timezone America/New_York, no file found at /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York',))

The detail section has a Python-y OSError part and the structure of reading that is not a good experience.

The same goes for the strings stored in the "errors" array in the '/run/cloud-init/result.json' file.

[holmanb]

This user interface has seen numerous updates, and exceptions should no longer be printed in this form. Closing.

Please re-open with more details if you believe this still to be an issue.