posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

Help server sometimes throws 502s when requesting help in fresh positron session

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area: help bug os-windows support
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

This bug is frustratingly hard to reproduce and seems to affect windows users.

Positron Version: 2024.06.0 (system setup) build 2024.06.0-770
Code - OSS Version: 1.90.0
Commit: 5d79ea68dceb5b734475af851b64cb3c0a323285
Date: 2024-06-14T05:20:19.073Z
Electron: 29.4.0
Chromium: 122.0.6261.156
Node.js: 20.9.0
V8: 12.2.281.27-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631

Sometimes (although not every time) when Positron has been recently started up and a help issue is requested, seemingly from R exclusively, the help pane simply doesn't show anything. When looking at the developer logs there are 502 bad gateway errors for the requested help documentation.
This can be fixed by restarting the R interpreter from the dropdown menu. Another method of fixing is to switch to python and request something from help there, then go back to R.

I can't reproduce this on a mac.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with a fresh Windows Positron session and request R help while watching the developer logs for the reported 502 errors. Compare the R help request with Python help and with behavior after restarting the R interpreter; done means R help reliably renders without requiring either workaround.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python, r
Domain
api, backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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