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Comment by buserror | Hacker News Reader

Another essential point here is when you get 'fancy' error messages. Google is amazing at finding why (and usually, The Patch) when you fail to compile random packages.

I have my own little cross-distro builder[0] and I /rarely/ bother trying to dive into autoconf/make hell before cut+pasting the exact error message into google! That very likely saved my sanity many times over :-)

Otherwise I agree with the article -- Given the number of environments and languages around, actually 'knowing' trivialities like exact library names and such is a waste of good neuron..

[0]: http://github.com/buserror/minifs/

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Much like the sort algorithm that downloads and evals Stack Overflow answers until the list is sorted, someone should make a build tool that Googles any error output, installs possible patches, and restarts the build. It could even see if adding the patch caused a new error and decide whether to roll back or keep patching.

That seems like a pretty safe idea.

Do it in a VM, and it is.

A VM is also just software, plenty of quest-to-host escapes in the last few years...

I bet that many people that should know better here have never updated their VM, except those who are warned by the auto updater that is.

I always put my vm to host escapes in the sort section of stackoverflow.

Not to say that this is not actually a security threat, but I would say a VM is safe enough

This is spot on. Sometimes it's much quicker to just plug the error into Google than to search. Saves a lot of time and work.

Google is a DSL for troubleshooting.

I live in France, and I hate localized linux distributions, you can't google error messages when it's localized. I sometimes try to re-translate the message in English and google it.

Error messages are not messages for the users to diagnose anymore, they are keywords for google, give them a number. I google and if it fails, I'll try to use my brain.

Sounds like a good reason to use error codes (non-localized) alongside error messages (localized). E.g. "404: page not found".

Perhaps we need error messages that include a Google link for searching that error.

Microsoft has started to include QR codes in the bluescreens of death.

there is an ironic situation: in Google Chrome, when you get an error (like a rejected certificate, or something a bit browsery), they give you a link to a completely unhelpful "help" page about the chrome browser, instead of a google search "thatsite.com <certificate rejected error>".

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