Components and Exceptions

When parsers parse input data, there are three likely outcomes:

  1. All data is parsed as expected

  2. Data is unparsable due to errors in the data and nothing can be retrieved by the parser

  3. Data is unparsable due to errors in the data but some useful information can be retrieved

    1. The useful information is from the parsable portion of the data

    2. The useful information is the fact that an error is present in the data

In each of these cases the parser should produce a response that is predictable to the insights framework and should produce output that is deterministic in terms of being processed by the rules.

Case 1 all Data is Parsed as Expected

In case 1 the parser should store the information in a representation that is consistent with the input data. For example, generally, log data should be stored in a python list, configuration data should be stored in a python dictionary, and discrete data items should be stored as attributes or properties of the parser.

Exceptions that are raised during parsing of the data are not anticipated by the parser, and if raised should be presumed to be potential errors in either the collection or the parsing of the data. These need to be logged and investigated.

Case 2 Data is Unparsable

In case 2 the parser is expecting to receive parsable data and instead receives data that is corrupt or not present as expected in a form that renders it impossible for the parser to have a substantial level of confidence in the data. The parser should provide logic to identify known issues in the data (such as error messages indicating the data was not present) and attempt to catch via python mechanisms issues that could reasonably be expected (conversion of a character to a number, missing values, etc.). When a parser makes the determination that the data is not usable, then it should explicitly raise a insights.core.exceptions.ParseException and provide as much useful information as is possible to help the Insights team and parser developer understand what happened. If any exception is expected to be raised it should be caught, and the insights.core.exceptions.ParseException raised in its place. No data will be made available to other parsers, combiners or rules in this case. It will be as if the data was not present in the input.

Case 3 Unparsable Data Provides Useful Information

Case 3a Parsable Data having Some Errors

In case 3 there are two subcases. The first subcase (a), is that the parser is able to detect errors in the input data but is also able to successfully parse at least some portion of the data. In this subcase the parser must do the following:

  1. Document how partial data will be handled in the module or class documentation so that a rule developer will understand how to determine what data is valid and what data is not valid.

  2. Do not leave any attributes or properties in an unknown state, meaning that all attributes should be initialized to known values and if unparsable they should either be removed or be reset to known values as documented in step 1.

  3. A specific attribute/property should be provided to allow rules to determine the quality of the data, rather than for example the rule having to check every attribute for None.

No exception will be explicitly raised by the parser in this case.

Case 3b Parsing Data to Find Errors (“Dirty Parser”)

In case 3 (b) the parser is specifically written to identify errors in the data. This is the desired case for known errors/vulnerabilities. For example for a known issue with RPM data one parser will parse the data to return valid information from the input data (“clean parser”), and a second parser will be responsible for identifying any exceptions in the data (“dirty parser”). This allows rules that don’t care about the exceptions to rely on only the first parser, and those rules will not run if valid data is not present. If the dirty parser identifies errors in the data then it will save information regarding the errors for use by rules. If no errors are found in the data then the dirty parser will raise insights.core.exceptions.SkipComponent to indicate to the engine that it should be removed from the dependency hierarchy.

Other Exceptions from Parsers

Parsers should not explicitly raise any exceptions that would be raised in a rule-calling context. Problems that could be detected in parse_content should be detected there and not pushed out to the rules. Parser methods and functions should however be prepared to handle common exceptional cases (such as an invalid argument type) via standard python exception handling processes. That is, try something and handle the exception where you can. Parsers probably shouldn’t eagerly check types since there are many cases where strict types aren’t important and such checks may limit expressiveness and flexibility.

Parsers should not use the assert statement in place of error handling code. Asserts are for debugging purposes only.

SkipComponent

Any component may raise SkipComponent to signal to the engine that nothing is wrong but that the component should be taken out of dependency resolution. This is useful if a component’s dependencies are met but it’s still unable to produce a meaningful result.

Exception Recognition by the Insights Engine

Exceptions that are raised by parsers and combiners will be collected by the engine in order to determine whether to remove the component from the dependency hierarchy, for data metrics, and to help identify issues with the parsing code or with the data. Specific use of insights.core.exceptions.ParseException and insights.core.exceptions.SkipComponent will make it much easier for the engine to identify and quickly deal with known conditions versus unanticipated conditions (i.e., other exceptions being raised) which could indicate errors in the parsing code, errors in data collection, or data errors.