PSA: Enable KCrash for you application

[Amber Schenck]

On 8/8/24 07:34, Magno Lomardo wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> Would be possible to put this info into the docs, if it isn't already there?
> 
> I believe this is really important and deserves a spotlight on the docs.
> Thoughts on that?
Yes please! I've searched through the docs for exactly these details in 
the past. Specifically what is needed: `find_package( KF5 Crash )`, 
`target_link_libraries( <target> KF5::Crash )`, and 
`KCrash::initialize()` after AboutData along with which parts of 
AboutData matter. A lot of "best practices" are missing, and using other 
applications as examples can be flaky because they may be way out of 
date too.

Thanks,
-Amber
> 
> Regards,
> Magno Lomardo
> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2024 at 11:24 AM Nicolas Fella <nicolas.fella at gmx.de 
> <mailto:nicolas.fella at gmx.de>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
> 
>     TL;DR: Call KCrash::initialize() after setting up KAboutData
> 
>     crash reporting via DrKonqi to Bugzilla and Sentry is powered by the
>     KCrash framework, which acts as the crash handler inside the
>     application.
> 
>     To install the crash handler you need to call KCrash::initialize() in
>     your application's main function. Since the crash handler relies on
>     information from KAboutData you should do it after the call to
>     KAboutData::setApplicationData(). For best results make sure to include
>     the application version in the about data.
> 
>     You can verify that it is working correctly by doing "killall -SEGV
>     myapp" and checking that DrKonqi appears and lets you submit a report.
> 
>     Why am I sending this now? Some background:
> 
>     In KF5 linking against KF5::Crash would automatically install the crash
>     handler for your application even without the explicity
>     KCrash::initalize(). This approach had some caveats:
> 
>     - It doesn't work when linking with -as-needed, which is the default in
>     some distributions
> 
>     - Similarly it won't work with static builds
> 
>     - It can result in the crash handler being installed for non-KDE apps
>     that happen to load KF5::Crash, e.g. via out platform plugins
> 
>     For these reasons for KF6 we dropped this approach (see
>     https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kcrash/-/merge_requests/51
>     <https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kcrash/-/merge_requests/51>), meaning
>     one must explicitly opt into our crash handling. A large number of our
>     applications does that already, but there's also a significant number
>     that doesn't. Please check your applications for that.
> 
>     Cheers
> 
>     Nico
> 

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