Upstream will simplify the support process and make it more efficient. It's quite common (especially in IRC channels) for users not to know what information they should provide so that their problem can be sorted out. People interested in helping them out typically have to ask for relevant files/logs.

Often this is time consuming, and many new users may even be unable to find / copy these logs. Occasionally, users may accidentally paste an entire log file in to the channel, earning them a ban, and confusing them in the process.

Upstream aims to solve these problems by putting together a set of tools that will enable a user to easily paste relevant log files to a specified pastebin or support request tracker. In developing Upstream, we have chosen to take a modular approach, breaking up the project in to input and output modules.

The input modules will include Gtk (Canoe) and Qt (Kanoe) GUIs as well as a CLI application (Upstream-base). The output modules will be pastebin specific modules - for example an ubuntu-nl module, and a pastebin.ca module. Thus, the application will be easily extensible.

Due to its open ended design, developers will also be able to integrate Upstream in to their existing support tracking systems by writing a small output module that communicates with their respective tracker platform.