In the wake of changes to hide away tracebacks from players, made the error report include the server log time stamp so as to make it easier to reconcile with the real traceback information.

evennia/commands/cmdhandler.py

@@ -80,16 +80,28 @@ _SEARCH_AT_RESULT = utils.variable_from_module(*settings.SEARCH_AT_RESULT.rsplit
 
 # Output strings
 
-_ERROR_UNTRAPPED = "An untrapped error occurred. Please file a bug report."
+_ERROR_UNTRAPPED = """
+An untrapped error occurred. Please file a bug report detailing the
+steps to reproduce. Server log time stamp is '{timestamp}'.
+"""
 
-_ERROR_CMDSETS = "A cmdset merger error occurred. Please file a bug report."
+_ERROR_CMDSETS = """
+A cmdset merger error occurred. Please file a bug report detailing the
+steps to reproduce. Server log time stamp is '{timestamp}'.
+"""
 
-_ERROR_NOCMDSETS = "No command sets found! This is a sign of a critical bug." \
+_ERROR_NOCMDSETS = """
-                  "\nThe error was logged. If disconnecting/reconnecting doesn't" \
+No command sets found! This is a sign of a critical bug.  If
-                  "\nsolve the problem, try to contact the server admin through" \
+disconnecting/reconnecting doesn't" solve the problem, try to contact
-                  "\nsome other means for assistance."
+the server admin through" some other means for assistance. Server log
+time stamp is '{timestamp}'.
+"""
 
-_ERROR_CMDHANDLER = "A command handler bug occurred. Please file a bug report with the Evennia project."
+_ERROR_CMDHANDLER = """
+A command handler bug occurred. Please file a bug report with the
+Evennia project. Include the relvant traceback from the server log at
+time stamp '{timestamp}'.
+"""
 
 _ERROR_RECURSION_LIMIT = "Command recursion limit ({recursion_limit}) " \
                          "reached for '{raw_string}' ({cmdclass})."
@@ -104,7 +116,7 @@ def _msg_err(receiver, string):
         string (str): string which will be shown to the user.
 
     """
-    receiver.msg(string.format(_nomulti=True))
+    receiver.msg(string.format(_nomulti=True, timestamp=logger.timeformat()).strip())
 
 
 # custom Exceptions

evennia/utils/logger.py

@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ log_typemsg(). This is for historical, back-compatible reasons.
 
 """
 
+from __future__ import division
+
 import os
+import time
+from datetime import datetime
 from traceback import format_exc
 from twisted.python import log
 from twisted.internet.threads import deferToThread
@@ -22,6 +26,36 @@ from twisted.internet.threads import deferToThread
 _LOGDIR = None
 _TIMEZONE = None
 
+def timeformat(when=None):
+    """
+    This helper function will format the current time in the same
+    way as twisted's logger does, including time zone info.
+
+    Args:
+        when (int, optional): This is a time in POSIX seconds on the form
+            given by time.time(). If not given, this function will
+            use the current time.
+
+    Returns:
+        timestring (str): A formatted string of the given time.
+    """
+    when = when if when else time.time()
+
+    # time zone offset: UTC - the actual offset
+    tz_offset = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(when) - datetime.fromtimestamp(when)
+    tz_offset = tz_offset.days * 86400 + tz_offset.seconds
+    # correct given time to utc
+    when = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(when - tz_offset)
+    tz_hour = abs(int(tz_offset // 3600))
+    tz_mins = abs(int(tz_offset // 60 % 60))
+    tz_sign = "-" if tz_offset >= 0 else "+"
+
+    return '%d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d%s%02d%02d' % (
+        when.year, when.month, when.day,
+        when.hour, when.minute, when.second,
+        tz_sign, tz_hour, tz_mins)
+
+
 def log_trace(errmsg=None):
     """
     Log a traceback to the log. This should be called from within an