posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

Kernel Supervisor: Show environment when language runtime fails to start

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#579 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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area: core area: kallichore
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Currently, we show the terminal output from a language runtime that fails to start, like this.

image

However, every single time I have tried to debug a startup failure, I have wanted to know what the environment variables were set to when the kernel was launched (as well as the exact launch command), and have wound up hacking print statements into kernel-wrapper.sh so I can see them. We should log these somewhere so that they can be brought up for debugging.

They don't need to be front-and-center, since showing all the environment variables at once creates a wall of text that makes the actual startup error hard to find, but they should be accessible somewhere.

Contributor guide

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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 by reading kernel-wrapper.sh, which the issue identifies as the current place for debugging startup failures. Trace where the kernel supervisor records failed runtime output and decide where the launch command and environment can be accessed without obscuring the startup error. Done means both are available for diagnosing a failed runtime launch.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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