[SERVER-69195] Document the guidelines for FCV related error messages Created: 26/Aug/22  Updated: 21/Feb/23

Status: Backlog
Project: Core Server
Component/s: None
Affects Version/s: None
Fix Version/s: None

Type: Improvement Priority: Major - P3
Reporter: Pavithra Vetriselvan Assignee: Backlog - Replication Team
Resolution: Unresolved Votes: 0
Labels: None
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified

Assigned Teams:
Replication
Participants:

 Description   

Currently, there aren't a set of guidelines around standardizing the way we write error messages related to FCV. This can lead to confusing instances such as SERVER-68206.

It would be nice to have a recommendation for how to format these messages and what information is necessary across the server. For example, should we mention the version specifically? Should we point users to official documentation?



 Comments   
Comment by Gregory Noma [ 26/Aug/22 ]

I think the issue is that it isn't really about FCV on its own so much as it is about the combination of FCV and feature flags. For instance, imagine a case where we have a feature that is released in 6.2 but the feature flag existed in 6.1. On a 6.1 binary (regardless of FCV), an error message like the one in SERVER-68206 makes more sense since in practice the feature does not exist yet on that version. The question is what should happen when the feature flag becomes enabled on 6.2, but the server is still on FCV 6.1. It seems like we'd need some state of "this feature can be enabled by upgrading the FCV" versus just "this feature is not enabled" and having a different error message based on that. Or we'd need to just manually update the error messages on the version that the feature becomes enabled in.

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