fix(db): stop losing the database pointer, and never lose it silently

An operator spent three hours setting up, accepted the update, and reopened a
program that had forgotten everything. It is the second such report.

The updater is not the culprit — it touches its own exe and nothing else. The
pointer is. config.json is the only record of WHERE the database is, and it was
written with os.WriteFile: truncate, then fill. A process that stops between
those two steps — a crash, a power cut, an update's watchdog force-exiting the
old instance — leaves the file empty. readBootstrap then swallowed the parse
error, returned an empty pointer, and startup read that as "no database chosen":
it created a NEW one at the default path and opened it. Three hours of work
still on disk, and an application presenting itself as freshly installed.

Three changes, in the order they defend:

  - The write is atomic. A temporary file, fsync'd, renamed into place — and a
    rename within a volume cannot publish half a file. The previous contents are
    kept as config.json.bak, because a pointer is a few dozen bytes and an
    evening of configuration is not.
  - A pointer that EXISTS and cannot be read is no longer treated as no pointer.
    It is restored from the backup, and when there is nothing to restore from
    the broken file is KEPT as config.json.broken — it is evidence, and it may
    still be readable by hand.
  - Creating a new, empty settings database in a folder that already holds a
    full one is now said out loud, in the startup log and on screen. Nothing is
    deleted and nothing is guessed — guessing which file is theirs is how the
    wrong one gets opened — but the message names the other file, which is where
    their settings still are.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-10 00:14:08 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent e2fe406445
commit b0a973d390
5 changed files with 247 additions and 4 deletions
+4
View File
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
"version": "0.27.22",
"date": "",
"en": [
"If OpsLog is about to create a new, empty settings database in a folder that already holds a full one, it says so — in the startup log and on screen — instead of opening quietly as though nothing were configured. Nothing is deleted and nothing is guessed: the message names the other file, which is where your settings still are.",
"config.json — the one file that records WHERE your database is — is now written atomically, and a copy of the previous one is kept beside it. It was written by truncating the file and then filling it, so a process that stopped in between (a crash, a power cut, an update closing the old instance) left it empty; OpsLog then read \"no database chosen\", opened a new empty one, and started having forgotten everything. An unreadable config.json is now restored from its backup, and one that cannot be restored is KEPT as config.json.broken rather than silently replaced.",
"The antenna readout no longer flickers in and out during a pass. The rotator is asked where it is every three seconds, but the tracking status was rebuilt from scratch every second and dropped the answer in between — so the antenna appeared for one second in three, which reads as a rotator that keeps disconnecting.",
"While tracking, the two frequencies and the antenna bearing sit beside the Tracking button. During a pass an operator watches the radio and the antenna, not a column on the far side of the window — and that column is the first thing hidden to get the map full width. The compass spins while the antenna is still slewing: a mast takes tens of seconds to cross a pass, and the difference between \"on its way\" and \"stuck\" is the whole reason to look at it.",
"Satellite frequencies are shown to a hundred hertz instead of one. The Doppler moves about sixty hertz a second on 70 cm, so the last two digits changed every tick and the display was a blur of numbers nobody could read and nobody needed. The radio still gets the whole figure — this is only how much of it is worth putting in front of you. The shift beside it now reads \"+9.7 kHz\" rather than \"+9741 Hz\".",
@@ -10,6 +12,8 @@
"FlexRadio, satellite: the uplink slice is properly armed. Creating a slice is asynchronous — the radio reports its number afterwards — and OpsLog carried on without waiting, so everything meant for the uplink went nowhere: it was never tuned (it sat at the 435.100 it was created with), never got its sideband, its antenna or its CTCSS tone, and never became the transmitter, leaving the radio transmitting on the DOWNLINK slice. Arming now waits for both slices, adopts one that the radio announces without a reply of its own, and gives a late-arriving uplink everything it was owed."
],
"fr": [
"Si OpsLog sapprête à créer une base de réglages neuve et vide dans un dossier qui en contient déjà une pleine, il le dit — dans le journal de démarrage et à l’écran — au lieu de souvrir sans bruit comme si rien n’était configuré. Rien nest supprimé et rien nest deviné : le message nomme lautre fichier, là où vos réglages sont toujours.",
"config.json — le seul fichier qui note OÙ se trouve votre base — est désormais écrit de façon atomique, avec une copie de la version précédente conservée à côté. Il était écrit en tronquant le fichier puis en le remplissant : un processus interrompu entre les deux (plantage, coupure de courant, mise à jour fermant lancienne instance) le laissait vide. OpsLog lisait alors « aucune base choisie », en ouvrait une neuve et vide, et démarrait en ayant tout oublié. Un config.json illisible est maintenant restauré depuis sa sauvegarde, et celui quon ne peut pas restaurer est CONSERVÉ sous le nom config.json.broken au lieu d’être remplacé en silence.",
"Laffichage de lantenne ne clignote plus pendant un passage. Le rotor est interrogé toutes les trois secondes, mais l’état du suivi était reconstruit de zéro chaque seconde et perdait la réponse entre-temps — lantenne apparaissait donc une seconde sur trois, ce qui se lit comme un rotor qui se déconnecte sans arrêt.",
"Pendant le suivi, les deux fréquences et le cap de lantenne sont affichés à côté du bouton Tracking. Pendant un passage, on regarde la radio et lantenne, pas une colonne à lautre bout de la fenêtre — et cest la première chose quon masque pour avoir la carte en pleine largeur. La boussole tourne tant que lantenne est en mouvement : un pylône met des dizaines de secondes à traverser un passage, et distinguer « en route » de « bloqué » est toute la raison de la regarder.",
"Les fréquences satellite sont affichées à la centaine de hertz au lieu du hertz. Le Doppler se déplace denviron soixante hertz par seconde en 70 cm : les deux derniers chiffres changeaient à chaque tick et laffichage était une bouillie de chiffres illisible et inutile. La radio reçoit toujours la valeur complète — il ne sagit que de ce qui vaut la peine d’être mis sous vos yeux. Le décalage à côté indique désormais « +9,7 kHz » plutôt que « +9741 Hz ».",