This chapter covers
- Blog posts that share the thrill of finding and fixing some elusive bug
- Their purpose and audience
- How various authors approached this type of post
- Key elements of successful “Bug Hunt” posts
- Dos and don’ts for your own “Bug Hunt” post
The “Bug Hunt” blog post pattern is the programming world’s equivalent of a detective story. It has a theme, a main plot, side plots, a protagonist (you), and an antagonist (usually also you, having introduced the bug two weeks ago in the first place). It’s captivating, keeps readers in suspense, and ends with a satisfying plot twist or a tactical cliffhanger. And the best part is that it’s even more fun to write than to read!
Writing a bug-hunting article serves a few purposes, depending on the success of the hunt, where the fault ultimately fell, and a few other factors. Let’s tackle the potential purposes one by one.
8.1.1 Knowledge dump
The fact that a bug appeared and was fixed is undeniably important. But what’s way more important is reducing the chance that it happens again and knowing what to do if it does. While hunting for a bug, it’s likely you encountered
- A few dead ends
- A very convincing red herring
- A tool that looked helpful at first, but ended up being unrelated
- Another tool that proved immensely useful
- Some blog post from 2014 that led you to discover the root cause