ABRT (Automatic Bug Reporting Tool) is a tool available in CentOS systems that automatically detects errors, crashes, and failures of applications running on the Linux operating system. Upon detecting a problem, ABRT automatically gathers information about the error and allows users to easily send this information to developers for analysis and resolution. This guide focuses on configuring ABRT for automatic crash reporting on CentOS 7, streamlining the error reporting process and increasing the chances of quick issue resolution.

Installation and Basic Configuration of ABRT

Before starting with the configuration of automatic reporting, ensure that ABRT is installed and running on your system.

1. Installing ABRT

   To install ABRT, run the following command in the terminal:

   sudo yum install abrt abrt-cli
   

2. Enabling ABRT Service

   After installation, ensure that the ABRT service starts automatically upon system boot:

   sudo systemctl enable abrtd.service
   sudo systemctl start abrtd.service
   

Configuring Automatic Reporting

After the basic installation and setup of the service, it's necessary to configure ABRT for automatic crash reporting.

1. Editing ABRT Configuration File

   ABRT configuration files are located in the /etc/abrt/ directory. For automatic reporting, the key file is abrt-action-save-package-data.conf, which influences what information gets collected about the crash.

   Open the file for editing:

   sudo nano /etc/abrt/abrt-action-save-package-data.conf
   

   Ensure that the OpenGPGCheck setting is set to yes to verify the package signature and ProcessUnpackaged to yes to allow processing errors from unpackaged packages.

2. Setting up the Reporter

   For automatic reporting, set up the reporter-ureport, which sends anonymized reports to public servers. Edit the /etc/libreport/plugins/ureport.conf file:

   sudo nano /etc/libreport/plugins/ureport.conf
   

   Ensure that the URL is set to the correct server for report submission. For default settings, you can use:

   URL=https://retrace.fedoraproject.org/faf/reports/
   

3. Activation and Testing

   After configuring all necessary settings, restart the ABRT service to apply the changes:

   sudo systemctl restart abrtd.service
   

   Test the functionality of ABRT and automatic reporting by triggering a test error (e.g., using will_segfault from the libreport-plugin-bugzilla package).

Automatic crash reporting with ABRT on CentOS 7 significantly simplifies the error reporting and management process, contributing to faster diagnostics and issue resolutions. It's important to regularly check and update ABRT configurations to ensure that reports are being sent correctly and efficiently.