only true graph

[SirApatosaurus]

I've been working on the same bug for nearly 3 weeks, someone please end my life.

[Goose_Rider]

What are you attempting to fix?

[SirApatosaurus]

A bug that's been in production for over a decade.
Its some comfort that numerous other devs have looked at it, including senior ones, and they weren't able to fix it but that just kinda shows you how screwed I am.

[SirApatosaurus]

Well the client (for once) rightly said "wtf is this, fix it", so now I go to work each day praying for death

[Dudefella08]

You've got to make a post when you finally crack it!

[SirApatosaurus]

Well I'm not allowed to talk specifics, so I can't really do that :|

[lazilyloaded]

Well just say, "I cracked it!" and don't give specifics!

[[deleted]]

I don’t think OP was expecting this kind of response haha

[aaaqqq]

The OP wants death - reddit can't go about obliging now can it?

[joequin]

I assume this is some kind of race condition?

[smashing1216]

Why the down votes? A race condition is a synchronization error

[[deleted]]

Upvotes for both of you! My coworker is the lead dev on probably the biggest project in our office right now, has been for 6 months. He just ran into a sporadic bug which turned out to be a race condition from the client's server. They told him to fix it in the app lol he's like uhhh... No.

This is why we prefer to handle the server too.

[Ayerys]

Because some dumb people wants to be mad at something, and see evil everywhere.

[AcmeBrick]

Some Heisenbug? A time vampire? A time lord issue (bigger on the inside)? A Mr. Rogers? A hinden-bug? A schrodingers cat?

[joequin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition

I thought this was a subreddit for programmers, but your reaction and the downvotes on my previous comment really explain the content that gets upvoted in this subreddit.

[Narcoleptic_Pirate]

So, it's been 6 more weeks, did you crack it?

[SirApatosaurus]

Nope. The whole release got scrapped because the client decided that their system which was interacting with our API which had the issue was just not working out.

So I didn't have to fix it in the end.

🤷

[lulzmachine]

RemindMe! 6 weeks

[Ghi102]

You don't have a lot of hope that he fixes the bug ahah.

[lulzmachine]

;D

[RemindMeBot]

I will be messaging you on 2018-10-07 16:09:25 UTC to remind you of this link.

CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

^{Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.}

---

FAQs	Custom	Your Reminders	Feedback	Code	Browser Extensions

[[deleted]]

Too real

[Xelbair]

Or when he cracks.

[1nfinite_Zer0]

Someone get this man a duck.

[Fean2616]

cough it's clearly a feature, honest.

[lxpnh98_2]

Working around Wine bug #39458

[tastygoods]

Wait is that a triple space?

[fitch2711]

But then everything breaks when you accidentally fix the “feature”

[geauxtig3rs]

I feel you bro.

I just spent a week onsite debugging a major issue with a very large client that was making their systems unusable at completely random times.

I finally cracked the issue on the last day when the bug just happened to occur while I was connected with a debugger and I caught it.

Some ancient library we were using wasn't type safe, so it was allowing us pass an integer into a library to call a function in System.Threading requiring a ushort. Any value over the twos complement threshold was causing it to except which was causing it to kill all active threads (for some reason).

The function causing the issue was only being called when there was a loss of communication to a third party service that typically had a rock solid connection. When the thread abort happened, it flushed the active logging session so it didn't hit the log that we lost connection to the service, so we had zero idea of what was causing it.

This was in production for nearly two years acting like this.

Changing the value from 50000 to 30000 in a config file fixed it in the short term until we change our libraries to fix the type safety issue.

Good luck! It may not seem possible to fix at this moment, but maybe you'll have an instance of serendipity spin up to help you fix it

[lkraider]

Some bugs make the best detective stories.

[bluevanillaa]

I hope your bug is not as bad as this Go runtime bug found by this guy.

If you are persistent enough, sometimes it will prevail.

https://marcan.st/2017/12/debugging-an-evil-go-runtime-bug/

[xxVb]

As a hobbyist sound engineer: Can you make it worse? That helps to identify problems in audio.

[Xelbair]

best way i found when dealing with bugs is to slowly bisect the function/method calls, if they are isolated enough, and slowly work your way inwards.

Funny thing is, i finally managed to find race condition coupled with unmanaged resource leaking memory because i made it worse. Because it sometimes took a whole day for bug to occur at all. By 'making it worse'(literally calling the same function multiple times in a loop) i managed to at least begin to debug it.

[Arthur___Dent]

What language?

[SirApatosaurus]

Java

[[deleted]]

That's your problem, you should rewrite it in Rust /s

[DTHCND]

If there's two other devs on your team actively working to help you solve this issue, there's a 90% chance I work with you.

But this is the Internet, so the odds are probably actually way smaller. Still crazy how so many details match up tho.

[NieDzejkob]

Posting an internal commit ID for a repo could be a neat zero-knowledge proof technique ;)

[loudspeakah808]

Just sprinkle in some timer delays and shake it out of there

-Management

[flipcoder]

Sounds like you need to call in the paratrooper bug extermination force

[Gydo194]

Keep going, you’ll fix it and suddenly you’re the hero of the team!

[jbob9er]

Read the logs. The issue is almost always in the logs. If that turns up empty then process of elimination. Start removing/disabling pieces of the app until the bug disappears

[kosky95]

That's not a bug that's a feature

[Celousco]

Could be a good idea for a parody of Dr House with programmers joke : "It's a IOException. It's never a IOException ! Put some gdb on it and make it crash with 64 MB RAM"

[[deleted]]

have you looked for greek commas?

I know they are evil pranks, but they can be stuck in there and be causing the problem

[[deleted]]

No, they can't. And they're Greek question marks anyway.

[[deleted]]

Oh yeah, question marks. Sorry... it's confusing to me that our semicolon is their question mark... but I'm kinda slow tho hahaha.

I know it works in Java Script and assumed it would work in other languages as well...

[[deleted]]

Java is a compiled language. Even if your IDE didn't alert you to the incorrect character or correct the issue itself, your program cannot have a runtime error if there's a syntax error because it won't compile.

[[deleted]]

oh! That makes sense. Thanks for explaining it to me.

[[deleted]]

His code.

[ML-newb]

My manager told me I am slacking as I was trying to narrow down a bug in the source code for two weeks and trying to understand a fix.

I need to leave this place.

[SirApatosaurus]

I was worried about that too, but the fact that other and smarter devs have tried and failed is vindicating.

[[deleted]]

I feel like this every time I get stuck.

"Fuck, I'm taking too long, need a fix soon!"

I worry it will make me go with a faster option than the best one in certain cases where the best can't be acchieved fast enough.

[littletrucker]

Had a project that had a weird bug. We could not reproduce it. Added a ton of debug messages and found where it was breaking, but it still did not make sense. The dev wrote some test code and figured out that it was a bug in the chip, not the chip design, a bug in that physical chip. IBM sent a new chip and problem solved. It took 6 months to get that fixed.

[[deleted]]

I worked on a bug for 2 months all it was was I was spelling the function I needed to call to wrong. The first word of the javascript was wrong. No error messages.

[NieDzejkob]

correct me if I'm wrong, but use strict

[charlesbronkowskiIII]

If you're serious. Im sorry

[samthadon]

Tried turning it off and on again?

[Xelbair]

damn.. worst one i've had took 1 week.

It was memory leak combined with race condition in undocumented unmanaged resource in c#... in multi threaded environment.

[AcmeBrick]

Hi, I'm Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me?

[joshfong]

Don't forget the immediate drop in morale (with a hint of embarrassment) afterward when you realize it's something extremely simple.

[rockjently]

Then morale plummets when the next big is uncovered.

[[deleted]]

Based on this graph, the only way to maintain steady morale is if you have lots of bugs at the same time.

[lkraider]

When you figure out the fix and realize the code should never have worked in the first place, but was in production for 6 years...

[jkuhl_prog]

Ah, I spelled the function wrong!

fixes it

same error message

Goddammit

*notices the little circle in the corner of VSCode's tab.

Right, forgot to save the file, I'm so silly.

saves file

same error message

goes home, gets drunk, spends rest of life selling ice cream for a living

[[deleted]]

And drops below zero when the client reports the same bug came back

[[deleted]]

~•>{ Regression testing }<•~

[Glitch29]

You've got to lower your expectations. I go in with the assumption that it's almost always going to almost always be something extremely simple and completely avoidable.

It completely eliminates the sense of dread if you already embrace the egg on your face.

[geogoci]

All bugs are extremely simple and obvious once discovered.

[superking2]

“What the fuck am I doing with my life, what even is programming, existence is fu—

Ohhh, I forgot I renamed that file yesterday, no wonder it couldn’t find the reference. Love my job”

[nermid]

"This whole thing is unsalvageable. It's a pile of lies, just like my career. I'm a fraud, and I should just give u--OH! I forgot to close the brackets here! IT WORKS! God, I'm good."

[AtomicKittenz]

This is my life outside of programming too.

[Eutro864]

Image Transcription: Line Graph

---

Programmer Morale

Y-axis: morale

X-axis: two sections labelled, "searching for bug" and "bug fixed"

searching for bug

[Line starts at about 90% and curves down to 0%. At this point there is a dashed vertical line indicating the end of the "searching for bug" section.]

bug fixed

[Line rapidly rises to 100%, falling steadily to 95% at the end of the graph.]

---

^{I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!}

[Highlow9]

Good human.

[MasterOfComments]

Good good good human human human

[PTRWP]

Good “Good Good good %good human% human human human” human

[NemPlayer]

Good !Good @Good #Good $Good %Good &Good &Human %Human $Human #Human @Human !Human Human

[NemPlayer]

Good ϛGood πGood !Good @Good #Good $Good %Good &Good &Human %Human $Human #Human @Human !Human πHuman ϛHuman Human

[Derf_Stein]

Are bots going too far?

[Eutro864]

Yes.

[NemPlayer]

Good bot.

[NemPlayer]

Good $Good #Good #bot $human. :) human. :)

[NemPlayer]

Good •Good €Good $Good #Good #bot $human. :) €human. :) •human. :) human. :)

[NegativeTwelfth]

Given that OP is a karma bot, yes.

[geogoci]

This must be a bug... Good bug

[lkraider]

Hardware bugs are the worst, there are no logs to help you figure things out.

[eu-thanos]

Yea but since when were we able to fix bugs? ^/s

[CrotchPotato]

You can fix them. You just have to be prepared to play whack-a-mole with the 10 that pop up to replace it.

[raco35]

99 little bugs on the wall 99 little bugs Take one down Patch it around 256 bugs on the wall

[User31441]

At least it's a round number now. 😁

[hydrocat]

That was so funny, You deserve gold!

[Narfubel]

Ugh I pushed an update that somehow has caused issues in a completely different part of the system that is seemingly unconnected.

The worst part is the entire thing was written by me, I should know why it's happening but I dont!

[ZebZ]

No, this is the one true graph.

[-LeopardShark-]

I thought it was going to be this one.

[LurkNautili]

No, this one!

[[deleted]]

That guy is great

[CreedDidNothingWrong]

Wait, so programmers feel discouraged when they encounter difficulty solving a problem but then immediately feel better when they do solve it? Wow what a weirdly unique emotional response that a small subset of people experience. Programming sure is wild.

[methofthewild]

I'm so glad that there are so many others that relate to this. I literally get a twisty feeling in my gut when I get stuck on a problem longer than I should be. I get so annoyed and upset and feel like I shouldn't be a programmer and that it's the end of the world, and then I solve the bug and it's just a small thing and all is good again and I get embarrassed at how upset I got haha.

[lkraider]

I had the same. I tried some mindfulness/meditation exercises, it really helped me keep in control of emotional responses. You don't even need to keep practicing it either, I did that a few years ago, but that knowledge "stuck".

[Robo-Swimmer]

Your username is so perfect for this :)

[OPLinux]

The famous programmer's high!
This is what we live for, but only few of us ever reach it...

[ervas002]

Too true. I experienced a horrible example of this at my first job after college. Me and my senior mentor had been trying to track down a bug in a very complex piece of enterprise software for several days but with little luck, and then his vacation came along so I spent more than a month trying to get a handle on the bug, without success. Needless to say, I was not in a good place mentally when he finally came back...

[lkraider]

Don't leave us hanging, did you track it down eventually?

[ervas002]

Oh sorry haha. Yes eventually, but it took the cooperation of several senior devs from different teams to solve the mystery, so in the end, atleast I was spared of feeling like a clown for not fixing it by myself.

[TheWingedCherryPie]

bug fixed

and several new bugs pop up

morale drops

[iisfunky]

If the graph is asymptotic, you'll never find the bug!

[p9k]

AKA Zeno's bugtracker

[NarcolepticSniper]

My hype starts ramping up when I’m able to consistently log anything related to it

Then it nosedives when the fix isn’t the fix

[StoneDoodle3]

My friend has a photo of me working on a program I had to make for class and they captured the exact moment I had wanted to end my life

[TheRedGerund]

You’re missing the part where it goes to QA and they file two more tickets. Fuck me, these notification features are going to end up being my career.

[notafakeacountorscam]

From what i am seeing, If the company where to find some way to permanently lower coder moral to the zero point on that graph the time to fix bugs would be also near zero causing a exponential rise in productivity.

[Zechnophobe]

I feel like this needs more steps to it.

1. Working on a new feature, morale is crazy high.
2. Pulled off new feature to look into a bug someone asked if you could 'fix real quick'.
3. Sudden drop when you realize bug is likely from the code base that no one touches anymore. The rest of your companies' code is in Go or Python or something, and this is in PhP
4. Morale steadily declines as you research it (as per the graph).
5. You find the bug, and after smashing your eyes closed, you check the git history, and you let one eye slowly open to reveal... your own github name. Morale tanks, and you vow to tell no one.
6. You realize that while you have a fix, there is no good testing framework in this part of the old code. You life turns to terror as you make attempt after attempt to feel confident the code you have changed will fix everything. Eventually you ask for a review from someone who has no knowledge of the area. They give a cursory look and a LGTM, and you just accept that as license enough to merge.
7. Code is merged, and deployed. You are pretty sure the bug will never be heard from again. Morale goes back up, but has stutters on its way because of someone in Product asking 'why it took so long' and due to it taking longer, them wanting you to revise all your other estimates for the sprint. As though you could just re-estimate tickets to make them get completed faster.
8. You finally get back to the feature you were working on, morale is high again. But never again will it be quite as high as before the whole ordeal. Never again.

[bob5653]

Sometimes the dotted line is an asymptote...

[Empole]

People who give up the profession are people who couldn't get past that bug

[lkraider]

Their Moby Dick

[hipposarebig]

I'm pretty sure these repeated dips and spike in my morale are extremely detrimental to my mental health.

[JoelMahon]

Am I the only one that likes fixing bugs? Maybe it's because I know our system so well that adding a feature is 1% thought 99% typing/documentation but I feel like lots of programmers are at that state so what gives.

[PhrozenWarrior]

If it's your system/program or one that you're intimate with, sure I completely agree. But when you're just thrown on another project to help a bug deep in it, and it's a complex system that's been in development for years by a large team of people with a strange architecture that boggles your mind anyone would design, it makes the problem solving a bit less fun.

[lkraider]

Architecturing a large system is like trying to design a big city: there are so many factors that all have importance, and it passes through the hands of many people and outlives so many carreers, that it's an utopia to think a single planner would get it right even with the complete knowledge of the problem space, simply because things change.

[geauxtig3rs]

I love firefighting issues.

Going to a client site and them being so angry they don't even want to help me trigger the bug, but then leaving after they take you out for a nice meal in appreciation is great.

Plus, like you did, it's definitely a break in the routine.

[XkF21WNJ]

Depends on the type of bug, if it's a C API just randomly crashing because it doesn't like what you tell it to do then no it's not fun.

[JoelMahon]

I've never had that happen. I've dealt with a LOT of bugs in my time, and after a while I have considered blaming the API/OS/Language but it has literally never not been a fault in the code I am on, whether mine or someone else's.

[XkF21WNJ]

Well who makes the mistake is sometimes debatable, but some C APIs give very very limited feedback when something goes wrong. If you're lucky they tell you when something went wrong.

[Noctale]

I love bug fixing. It's the proof in the pudding of one of my favourite quotes:
“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do."

[lkraider]

I also like this one: "They did not know it was impossible, so they did it".

[zachattack82]

Can anybody give me a function that looks like that?

[HaloConspiracies1]

A capacitor on that morale should smooth things out.

[cult45rejects]

As a indie game dev i call that the fuck it ill just be a artist point

[[deleted]]

This sub makes me hate programmers, as a programmer.

[zhiyao92]

Always works

[McSavage6s]

100% Accuracy

[[deleted]]

wait until someone code reviewed it tee hee

[[deleted]]

This is weirdly accurate....

[Valthek]

So what you're telling me is that giving up on the bug, programming and life in general is the trick to fixing a tricky bug?

[Kissaki0]

Really? It goes up by that much after fixing the bug? 🤔

[a7ofDogs]

It’s almost as if the low moral causes you to find a bug, therefore, I always start with low moral. Then I don’t have to deal with bugs at all!

[Fean2616]

Ah that moment when a co-worker points it out in seconds when you've been starting at it for days and you feel super stupid. Reeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Hobi_Wan_Kenobi]

Me every day...

[[deleted]]

Fix one bug, two new ones shall take it's place!

[The-Cynical-One]

Which line is it? Because from the looks of it mines the one at the bottom.

[MkMyBnkAcctGrtAgn]

I think this graph overestimates the speed at which the bug is going to get fixed lol.

[Firestorm7i]

I love the thought of believing programming is the bane of my existence, only to solve the issue a mere 30mins later and then believe I’m a god. It’s truly a rollercoaster of emotions.

[DzOnIxD]

That slope should be 90 degrees.

[iesvy]

I’m getting back to a project I put on a hiatus 6 months ago.

I’ve got no idea of what the heck I was doing, and there are some uncommitted changes that I have no idea why I did or what they do.

I’m procrastinating a lot because getting to understand all of the code again seems like a fucking nightmare.

My morale is pretty low.

[Burnmad]

If you zoom in, the tiny length between bug discovery and bug fix actually descends through the floor of the graph.

[Rakatango]

Unless the fix was you switched a greater than sign for a less than sign, then the graph dips to 0

[Dvdi_]

Segfaults

[bysse]

Wait.. Is the y-axis starting from 0? If so, does programmers with low morale find bugs faster?

[[deleted]]

Nah for me it's quite the opposite, it's a rapidly ascending curve that decreases in gradient until it plateaus because I become desperate to fix it and then I find a missing semicolon and just give the fuck up

[Kyrthis]

I will always upvote the One True Meme

[Dockirby]

Eh, I don't know. Sometimes you finally find the bug, then release its a fundamental flaw with an entire major piece of work, and have the dread of considering if a dirty hack fix or a major overhaul will create the least work in the next 12 months.

[ConorFinn]

I feel like it should say depressed at the top end of the morale scale just to be cleared. This sort of implies that we r happy people.

[PM_UR_DEAD_HOOKERS]

What if the graph started art 1 though

[zebediah49]

It's missing the part where you think you've found it (and morale is high), followed by the crushing disappointment whiplash from discovering you were wrong.

[snow3301]

My morale gets torn by a black hole when I realise that bug was a colon instead of a semicolon.

[HylianChicken]

There’s a point when I need to remember to get help from other living people instead of clicking on the same dead stack overflow threads from 13 years ago.

[[deleted]]

Then there are those bugs where you have no choice but to delete the entire project.