a verbose/trace mode for the govc CLI that says what action, request, and response is being done

[jtarchie]

We were using the cli for import.ova and had it sit there with a blank screen. We discovered that it was user error, as the VM name and VM folder had been specified inversely.

It took us a whole morning to find that out though.

The CLI provided no feedback that something was wrong besides it not exiting and obviously in some waiting state.

In our steps to debug, we used the --debug flag. It provided no immediate feedback to stdout/stderr of what the CLI was doing. We did eventually find that the hundreds of xml files in a directory.

From a user perspective, we assumed that --debug was similar to --verbose (ie curl --verbose http://google.com). Where it would give an indication of what action the CLI was trying to do. An action is something that the CLI is performing on your behalf -- interacting with a third party CLI, retrying in N seconds, etc.

This would be extremely useful for future debugging.

In our use case with import.ova, a verbose option turned on with our error might look like:

$ govc --verbose import.ova -options=options.json
* Attemping to create VM "OM_NAME" in "OM_FOLDER"
* Folder "OM_FOLDER" does not exist
* Retrying in 10 seconds
* Folder "OM_FOLDER" does not exist
* Retrying in 10 seconds
# ....

[jtarchie]

We experienced this with another issue when trying to create a folder with govc folder.create "testing_folder_name", the CLI just waits, with no output of what is happening to the user.

[dougm]

Agreed. We need to make --debug more usable. There is a script to help, but we shouldn't need a script: https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/blob/master/scripts/debug-xmlformat.sh

I like the idea of a new --verbose flag, this would be separate from --debug.

It also sounds like there's also an issue with the progress package and/or import.ova command, it should have errored out in this case.

[jtarchie]

cc: @kcboyle

[kcboyle]

@dougm Is this being actively worked on? If not we are happy to do the work and submit a PR?

[dougm]

@kcboyle haven't had a chance myself and don't think anyone else is working on it. That would be great if you can work on it and submit a PR!

[mooperd]

+1 - govc is very blackboxy and difficult to debug.

[dougm]

#1648 might be useful, but likely too verbose in many cases.