From: Aghiles <aghilesk@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:13:53 GMT
Subject: Re: Useless error message?
Message-ID: <l2x3abd05a91004221313s2cb89697i3bcbfbcd6ccf6820@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20100422115625.GJ3563@machine.or.cz>

Hello,

>
> I have seen a lot of users who plainly had a lot of trouble even
> _understanding_ the error message - it is phrased in super-dense
> networking jargon. I think something like
>
>        "fatal: Server terminated the connection for unknown reason"
>
> might come a long way (though of course specific error messages would
> still be far more helpful).
>

I would say that:

  "fatal: Server terminated the connection."

Is best and actually says what it has to stay. "Unknown reason" sounds like a
godly intervention into the git protocol. Sometimes, the "hung up" message is
given as an extra information that actually causes more harm than good:

 % git pull hummus
 fatal: 'hummus' does not appear to be a git repository
 fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

  -- aghiles