Posted by todsacerdoti 12/17/2025
A mail program not being to checks notes send emails sounds like an error to me. (Unless you implement retries.)
error_msg = "xyz went wrong"
log.warn(error_msg)
That said, the thing I've cone find being useful as a subcategory of error are errors due to data problems vs errors due to other issues.
Not everything that a library considers an error is an application error. If you log an error, something is absolutely wrong and requires attention. If you consider such a log as "possibly wrong", it should be a warning instead.
I hate the concept of “errors” in general. They’re an excuse to avoid responsibility, and ship broken software with known undefined behavior.
The very notion of an error basically means “there was behavior I chose to not handle and do anything about but which I knew would happen” which is essentially just negligence.
How do you know?
Expecting arbitrary services to be able to deal with absolutely any kind of failure in such a way that users never notice is deeply unrealistic.
I could live with 4
Error - alert me now.
Warning - examine these later,
Info - important context for investigations.
Debug - usually off in prod.