[TYPO3-core] RFC: #15573: Disable deprecation log in config_default

[Dmitry Dulepov]

Hi!

Ernesto Baschny [cron IT] wrote:
> Nobody ever stumbled over this problem, because until now we never
> removed deprecated functions from the core. We will start doing so, and
> the preparation to be able to do so was done with the deprecation log
> with the release of 4.3.

Deprecation log will not help *after* functions are removed. People will
just see errors and fix them. It is much easier to fix the error message on
the screen than to dig through gigabytes of log entries.

> In my company we already did solve solve issues with extensions just by
> seeing that log file grow after an update, and becoming aware of the
> fact that some extensions are using "old functions" that will be removed
> later. It turns out that fixing one or two issues made our extensions
> "compatible" with the next 2 versions again. I would have never looked
> at that extensions again if it wasn't for that active log.

Valiad use case, I agree. I wonder how many more companies do this?

> On our servers we have a logrotate daemon rotating and archiving the
> deprecation log. This works for us, but of course I would love to see
> the core providing such functionality in environments where the admin is
> not able to do that.

Well, than it is still not helpful. More helpful would be to write a single
unique entry into the database. It would be better to get ten unique
entries than 10Gb of repeating entries. What do you think?

Not that I am not against a deprecation log, I am against the file, whioch
grows all the time and takes a lot of space. If somebody wanted to make it
useful, he would code it more carefully and take size and repeating entries
in mind :) Am I wrong?

> As soon as me or one of my collegues upgrade some site from <4.3 to 4.3
> or 4.4 and I start seeing the deprecation log grow, I know that we have
> to do something (inform the customer, fix the problem ourselves, upgrade
> some third party extension).

Do you really watch them for all installations? That must take a lot of time!

> - smaller freelancer doesn't even know about it, and only gets aware of
> it when space gets out: not the nicest way to get aware of it, but still
> a way to bring him attention to the problem.

Quite a rude and unfriendly way I would say... And useless if the
freelancer only uses extensions of others. I imagine that "Reports" module
would do better for this task.

>> I think the main problem with this log is not its size.
> 
> I consider that this is the main problem you are pointing at, because
> this is what you just wrote above ("more space lost for nothing").
> 
> Or do you really consider it conceptually harmful to log calls to
> deprecated methods?

No!!! As I wrote above, the purpose is right but the implementation is bad.

> We in the core have had a very strict policy of backwards compatibility
> until now which is very unique and quite uncommon when we compare with
> other open source products. Upgrading TYPO3 is fun and one can be
> (mostly) sure that everything still works as expected. I love it, people
> love it, and not only developers love it.
> 
> But at the moment we break this rule by deprecating and really
> *removing* stuff two versions later we end up having upset people. Who
> of the "regular users" really reads the "changelog" to see if something
> will brake? Who reads the "source code" to see if their used extensions
> still work? How many people just "upgrade and test if everyhing looks
> ok" but have a bad feeling that "something might be broken, we'll never
> know for sure"? What better tool than a deprecation log to help regular
> people know about the issues before they hit them?

I do not think many developers are aware of the deprecation log :) It is
known in this list because it is being discussed but how many devs outside
of this list know about this log?

> This is not a debug tool, or a tool for developers. Main benefit comes
> from the "regular small businesses" that just want to keep their site
> running but also with the potential to upgrade TYPO3 from time to time.

Again, how many of them know about this log?

-- 
Dmitry Dulepov
TYPO3 core&security team member
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmitryd
Read more @ http://dmitry-dulepov.com/