Get rid of KSP.log file to simplify KSP and mod support

[ferram4]

TL;DR: KSP.log is not as useful as the output_log.txt (or Player.log) files, but is more prominent to the user. This causes users to inadvertently upload the less useful KSP.log file in place of the more detailed output_log.txt (or Player.log) files, delaying diagnosing issues for Squad and mod developers, and delaying providing users with solutions. KSP.log should either not be created by KSP, or it should be made as detailed as the output_log.txt (or Player.log) files to streamline support for the stock game and for modders.

For those who don't know, KSP currently writes to two different log files when it is playing. One is a detailed log file (henceforth output_log.txt) that (I believe) is created by Unity, and it differs for each OS; KSP_Data/output_log.txt for Windows, Player.log for Mac, and I believe something similar for Linux. The other is the less detailed KSP.log, which is universal across all OS's. The output_log.txt includes the valuable stack trace, which (in layman's terms) is a list of all the functions that were called when the error occurred; this allows the developers to quickly look at the stack trace and see where the error occurs, which gives a starting point for debugging. The KSP.log does not have a stack trace, and is therefore useless as a log for diagnosing severe issues. This is even acknowledged implicitly in the support guidelines, since they ask for the output_log.txt instead of KSP.log.

So we have two logs, one useful, the other useless. But the average user doesn't know that KSP.log is useless, and that output_log.txt is useful. So if a user makes a bug report (for the stock game or for a mod), there is a chance that they submit a useless log. It's even more likely that they submit the useless KSP.log since that exists in the KSP root, while the more useful logs are hidden away in subfolders.

So why does this matter? Well, if a user submits KSP.log instead of output_log.txt, one of two things happen:

1. User doesn't follow up, bug cannot be diagnosed, bug report becomes useless, bug doesn't get fixed.
   
2. User does follow up, becomes annoyed that what they've done so far is useless, everyone gets annoyed, especially if the initial report didn't include a log in the first place.
   

As things currently stand, this makes getting support a lot more difficult than it should be for users (since they're inadvertently providing useless files) and makes diagnosing issues more difficult for Squad and modders alike, since they're getting useless logs. KSP.log's existence does not serve to help with support of the stock game or mods and only serves to confuse users already suffering from issues. Therefore, KSP.log should either be removed or should be made into a copy of output_log.txt that is simply dropped into the KSP root for easy access.

Edited May 1, 2014 by ferram4

[Guest]

I endorse this product/service.

[vexx32]

There is one useful thing the KSP.log does over the output_log.txt -- it timestamps every line of the log. It does have less useful information, though, for the most part :/

Honestly, I'd prefer the KSP.log to be almost a direct copy of the output_log.txt, just with timestamps added, and then it's all fine and dandy and perfectly useful.

[NathanKell]

Ferram, a very good point. It's very tiring to include "not that log, no, your other log" in just about every request, and half the time have to say again (when the wrong log is inevitably posted) "no, not that log..."