• (disco)

    It's not even labor day yet!

    On-topic: why not remove the email-sending routine beforehand?!

  • (disco) in reply to rc4

    Because they wouldn't get confirmation that their appointment was deleted of course! Obviously there is no success message on the front end...

  • (disco)

    Soo... what did Martin do with the 1137 separate emails he got for deleting one appointment series?

  • (disco)

    Is there a connection between the working from 11:30 to 3a.m. the next day and this wtf?

    There is a reason why NASA and Boeing engineers are not allowed to work more than a certain number of hours each week, and it isn't unions. It's that nobody, no matter how good they think they are, can really sustain more than a certain amount of effort without becoming tired and careless. The long hours culture explains a lot of things, from software foulups to stock market fat fingers.

  • (disco) in reply to ChrisH

    Should be more than that. Remember, he tried to delete the appointment several times.

  • (disco) in reply to Rhywden

    Yeah, but he only got spammed once, when the trigger worked "correctly" again.

    The single mails from the failed tries probably only contributed to the "it says it's working, but it isn't" impression.

  • (disco) in reply to ChrisH

    Continuing the discussion from Classic WTF: The Non-Deleting Delete:

    ChrisH:
    Soo... what did Martin do with the 1137 separate emails he got for deleting one appointment series?

    Shrug. No big deal. Notify him about it, warn him to turn his machine on, open up his email program, then go away and have a coffee while it updates. Then suggest that he sort by sender, or better (if he has such a beast) to filter by sender, then "just" select them all and delete them. Job done.

    If Martin is insufficiently tech-savvy to know what he is doing, offer to do it for him.

    Throughout the course of the above, explain honestly that a deep-seated long-standing bug has finally come to the surface and explain that while you have fixed it, it will take a little time to clean out the debris.

    Assuming you are working in an office whose internal politics are based on the fact that the staff are intelligent adults worthy of respect, this should be an appropriate way to manage the situation. If it is peopled by childish entitled ignoramuses, then you will have a somewhat rockier ride.

  • (disco)

    What I'm wondering is: how the hell did the email sending functionality work?

  • (disco) in reply to PoPSiCLe

    Shell exec to sendmail? SQL Mail? Queue table that is used by a background service? Does it matter?

  • (disco) in reply to Quite
    Quite:
    explain that while you have fixed it, it will take a little time to clean out the debris.
    Yeah, but the "fix" means that now every single time someone deletes an appointment series, he (and all attendees?) will get spammed.
    Assuming you are working in an office whose internal politics are based on the fact that the staff are intelligent adults worthy of respect
    Ass-U-me :stuck_out_tongue:
  • (disco) in reply to ChrisH
    ChrisH:
    Yeah, but the "fix" means that now every single time someone deletes an appointment series, he (and all attendees?) will get spammed.

    Messages --> Create Filter --> done.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf

    I sincerely hope that you are not involved in software development in any way whatsoever. Actually, anything technical at all.

    "Yeah, this nuclear reactor explodes every few days, but let's just publish some information on how to clean the fallout with an automated lawn mower. Can't be arsed to change the design."

  • (disco) in reply to ChrisH
    ChrisH:
    I sincerely hope that you are not involved in software development in any way whatsoever. Actually, anything technical at all.

    You'd be wrong. :smiley:

    My real point is that it's sometimes easier to patch the consequences, at least temporarily, than it is to fix the root cause. (A thousand email messages really aren't that many, even when dumped in one mailbox, unless you insist on reading every single one carefully. I've had systems drop far more than that on me; it was mildly irritating until I realised that it was because something was replaying the notifications from 15 years of SCM commits for some obscure reason.)

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    My real point is that it's sometimes easier to patch the consequences, at least temporarily, than it is to fix the root cause.
    Well, yes. But (IMHO) that's not the case here. Because as long as that broken trigger is there, people will have to keep "patching the consequences". Unless you propose to have every single user create an email filter (in which case you can drop the trigger altogether and save everyone the trouble).
  • (disco) in reply to ChrisH
    ChrisH:
    But (IMHO) that's not the case here.

    I thought it was going to a single mailbox. Fixing the trigger is obviously the right thing to do, but a mail filter is how to clear the mess out of one mailbox while you fix the real problem…

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    I thought it was going to a single mailbox.
    It goes "to the appointment owner", which I took as "whoever created the appointment you just deleted". So it might be anybody who uses the system. Or the one personal assistant that's responsible for managing all appointments.
  • (disco)

    This article reminded me of this other one: http://thedailywtf.com/articles/Feeling-Aggregated

    Jory cursed his stupidity for not just adding the INSERT trigger

  • (disco)

    Given that the problematic code only deleted one line, I suspect even the after delete trigger only ran once per delete, so there was no spam?

  • (disco) in reply to rc4
    rc4:
    It's not even labor day yet!

    On-topic: why not remove the email-sending routine beforehand?!

    The trigger might do a lot more than just emailing; dev did the right thing opening it up first and double-checking that there were no crazy side-effects before disabling, like updating some other table, or enforcing legal retention of records (setting a "deleted" column instead of deleting the row).

  • Axel (unregistered)

    You're all worried about poor Martin's inbox? I say Martin deserves a little grief in his life for scheduling a room 20+ years out. That's TRWTF, here.

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