better error messages

[qgib]

Author Name: Jeremy Palmer (@palmerj)
Original Redmine Issue: 11480

Redmine category:processing/core
Assignee: Victor Olaya

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When using the processing toolbox and trying to double click and run any grass tool (not version 7) I get a "Missing dependency.This algorithm cannot be run :-( " error. When I check the log I get a grass error "Sorry, is not a valid flag". The full log is here:

https://gist.github.com/palmerj/3fc05f2a4ceabfafde12

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 64bit, QGIS master 64bit and grass 6.4.1. All installed from packages.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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are you sure you have GRASS 6.4.1 installed?

that flag (-z) used by v.out.ogr to export GRASS vectors to shapefiles is indeed available in GRASS 6.4

http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/manuals/v.out.ogr.html

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• status_id was changed from Open to Feedback
• subject was changed from Grass Missing dependency.This algorithm cannot be run to Processing: GRASS issue in v.out.ogr code

[qgib]

Author Name: Jeremy Palmer (@palmerj)

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Pretty sure. I can start grass from the commandline.

jpalmer@xxxxx:$ which grass
/usr/bin/grass
jpalmer@xxxxx:$ grass --version
GRASS GIS 6.4.1

Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is Copyright,
1999-2011 by the GRASS Development Team, and licensed under terms of the
GNU General Public License (GPL) version >=2.

This GRASS 6.4.1 release is coordinated and produced by the
GRASS Development Team with contributions from all over the world.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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Jeremy Palmer wrote:

Pretty sure. I can start grass from the commandline.

jpalmer@xxxxx:$ which grass
/usr/bin/grass
jpalmer@xxxxx:$ grass --version
GRASS GIS 6.4.1

do you have multiple grass versions installed? if yes what it using processing?
please have also a look to v.out.ogr man page in your installation and see if it says that a -z flag is available.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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if that flag is not available in grass 6.4.1 from the official ubuntu repositories than you may want to consider to update version using the ubuntugis repository (don't be afraid by the "unstable" name, it is not unstable software, on the contrary):

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntugis/+archive/ubuntu/ubuntugis-unstable?field.series_filter=precise

[qgib]

Author Name: Jeremy Palmer (@palmerj)

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I don't think I have multiple copies installed:

dpkg -l | grep grass
ii grass 6.4.1-1ubuntu2 Geographic Resources Analysis Support System
rc grass-core 6.4.3RC3-4 GRASS GIS core components
ii libqgisgrass2.5.0 2.5.0+git20141012+659cadaprecise1 QGIS - shared grass library
ii qgis-plugin-grass 2.5.0+git20141022+f2b7c0fprecise1 GRASS plugin for QGIS
ii qgis-plugin-grass-common 2.5.0+git20141022+f2b7c0f~precise1 GRASS plugin for QGIS - architecture-independent data

Yes my current install is sourced from precise/universe. man pages says it doesn't support -z. I will try ubuntugis-unstable.

But really does seem like QGIS should support better support this situation. Rather than say there's a missing dependency, it should state this version is not supported. Even better would be to support versions that don't have the -z option. After all it's only for 3D shapefiles.

Thanks
Jeremy

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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But really does seem like QGIS should support better support this situation. Rather than say there's a missing dependency,
it should state this version is not supported.

yes we know, error message when something goes wrong is not optimized for all situations, but given the number of different sw that is possible to run with Processing it is also hard to make things better.

Even better would be to support versions that don't have the -z option. After all it's only for 3D shapefiles.

without it if you create a 3d vector with a GRASS module, then it will become 2d when outputted by Processing. So it seems to me that is important to have it. The real option would be to have a check for the GRASS version and do not use it in case GRASS version does not support it, but it is worth the effort? After all GRASS releases without the -z v.out.ogr option are pretty old.

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• subject was changed from Processing: GRASS issue in v.out.ogr code to better error messages
• operating_system was changed from ubuntu to
• fixed_version_id was changed from Version 2.6 to Future Release - Nice to have
• status_id was changed from Feedback to Open
• category_id was changed from Processing/GRASS to 94
• tracker_id was changed from 1 to 2

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• category_id was changed from 94 to Processing/Core

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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error messages have been improved in qgis master recently.

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• resolution was changed from to fixed/implemented
• status_id was changed from Open to Closed