[KUDU-2739] Better support for running servers ephemerally

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 1.9.0
• Component/s: test
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Adar Dembo
• Created: 07/Mar/19 21:31
• Updated: 15/Jun/19 18:57

Description

Often times during development it can be useful to run a Kudu server "ephemerally", which is just another way of saying "the server should create as few on-disk files as possible". We can't avoid creating WALs and data files, but it should be possible to avoid:

1. glog files
2. diagnostic log files
3. minidumps

Prior to the introduction of #2 and #3, running Kudu with --logtostderr was all one needed in order to minimize the footprint of the server. However, #2 and #3 both use the value of --log_dir (defaults to /tmp) to decide where to place their output.

To avoid introducing a new pattern, it'd be nice to once again consider --logtostderr as an indication that the user is trying to run the server ephemerally and to minimize output (by disabling diagnostic logs and minidumps). However, we do need to account for cases where log files are desirable, but the user ran Kudu with --logtostderr and shell redirection in order to manage the location of the logging.

One possible approach: disable diagnostic logs and minidumps if --logtostderr is set and if --log_dir is not set.