Solved: Debugging a possible upgrade issue from 0.4.1 to 0.5.0

[Taitava]

This discussion started originally in #16 . As the discussion evolved quite long on discussing about a possible upgrade bug, I decided to start a new discussion, because I'm writing quite a long post about testing this possible bug.

After restarting Obsidian (close and open) the fields are ignore !!!!!

* I was going to start selecting ignore to prepare the data.json and all shell commands are `ignore` again.

What I did too before writing this to you @Taitava:

* I changed one shell command to `Current File: caret position`

* Restart Obsidian to see if it will save my change

Perfect behavior: ignore` for all shell commands except the one that I changed.

Hmm, so the output settings change to Ignore for all commands (except the one you mentioned) without you needing to change them manually. It's odd. Even if this seems to be ok now, I need to test this more in the next few days. While a restart might solve some issues, it should not be needed. The plugin should work after an upgrade without needing Obsidian to be restarted.

I'm going to test this using the following method, and you can test this too, if you want and have time. The idea is just to see can we get the same problem occur again. If we can reproduce it, then it can possibly be fixed.

1. Close Obsidian.
2. Go to folder .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-shellcommands/.
3. Make a backup copy of data.json, name the copy e.g. data-original.json. Without this copy, your commands might be lost if some errors happen during this test.
4. Open data.json in a text editor. It's probably quite long when you have many commands in it, but if you read it with time, you'll understand approximately how the file's structure works for defining each shell command.
5. Let's take a look at this small example data.json:

{
  "working_directory": "",
  "preview_variables_in_command_palette": true,
  "shell_commands": {
    "0": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Hello world!\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": [],
      "output_channels": {
        "stdout": "ignore",
        "stderr": "notification"
      },
      "output_channel_order": "stdout-first"
    },
    "1": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Another command\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": [],
      "output_channels": {
        "stdout": "ignore",
        "stderr": "notification"
      },
      "output_channel_order": "stdout-first"
    }
  },
  "error_message_duration": 20,
  "notification_message_duration": 10,
  "commands": []
}

The lines that start with a number in quotes ("0": { and "1": { in this example) are start lines for a shell command. For example, the following part defines a single shell command:

    "0": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Hello world!\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": [],
      "output_channels": {
        "stdout": "ignore",
        "stderr": "notification"
      },
      "output_channel_order": "stdout-first"
    },

Now, for each shell command, you can do these two things:

1. Remove this small part:

         "output_channels": {
       "stdout": "ignore",
       "stderr": "notification"
     },
     "output_channel_order": "stdout-first"

2. On the line "ignore_error_codes": [], remove the trailing comma , so that the line becomes: "ignore_error_codes": []

Example result for one command:

    "0": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Hello world!\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": []
    },

Example result for a complete file:

{
  "working_directory": "",
  "preview_variables_in_command_palette": true,
  "shell_commands": {
    "0": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Hello world!\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": []
    },
    "1": {
      "shell_command": "echo \"Another command\"",
      "alias": "",
      "confirm_execution": false,
      "ignore_error_codes": []
    }
  },
  "error_message_duration": 20,
  "notification_message_duration": 10,
  "commands": []
}

When you have done this, the data.json file should have a quite similar structure as it had when SC version was 0.4.1. Now you can create a second copy of data.json, name it e.g. data-modified.json or something. When you open Obsidian next time, SC will automatically add all the fields to data.json that you just removed. The test idea is, that now you can see does SC set output again to Current file, caret position, or will it correctly use Ignore this time. Now that you have data-modified.json, you can repeat the test (if needed) to check again how the new fields' addition goes, just by copying data-modified.json over data.json and starting Obsidian.

SC always adds missing fields to the config file, so you can remove pretty much whatever field in the file and SC will recreate the field with a default value. But beware, all the special characters like { } [ ] : , " need to be excatly correct. (That's why I mentioned that the last comma , should be deleted). If there is a small error with these characters, Obsidian will not load the settings file at all, and it does not even tell that there was a problem. If you notice all your commands disappearing in the settings panel (or in command palette), close Obsidian and copy/rename data-original.json back to data.json and start Obsidian again.

[FelipeRearden]

Hello @Taitava !!!!

Now I can confirm with 100% of certainty that everytinhg is OK with 0.5.0.

• I have a Windows machine that I use to test CSS snippets
• I remember that I have Shell ommands there from my tests since your first version
• It was version 0.4.0 !!!
• I save the data.json from 0.4.0 version and update to 0.5.0

I can confirm that the default option to all Shell Commands (old and new) are ignore

I restart Obsdian and again ignore

I changed some commands to current position and notification and it keep the value after restart Obsidian.

I have the data.json from both versions if you need :)

Sorry again for the false alarm @Taitava . I will pay more attention in the next versions :)

I wish you a fantastic Monday :)

[Taitava]

No problem! 🙂 It's good to ask if you are uncertain! 😉

[FelipeRearden]

Hello @Taitava !!!!

Everything is OK with this topic when updating 0.5.0 --> 0.5.1.

Have a great day!

[Taitava]

Yea, so I expected, as 0.5.1 did not touch the settings. 🙂

[FelipeRearden]

Hello @Taitava !!!!

Everything is OK with this topic when updating 0.5.1 --> 0.6.0 on MacOS and Obsidian 0.12.15

What a great update 🎉 🎉 !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Taitava]

Thank you! 🌞