Incomplete compatibility for mods without version files #8291

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T01:38:31Z

CKAN 1.29.2 shows, since KSP 1.11.0 came out, for several mods wrong version compatibility information. In particular, even older mod versions are displayed as only to be compatible with KSP 1.11.0, despite the respective mods being several months old and listed earlier as compatible with older KSP versions.

Examples: Snark's mods Missing History 1.8.2, Indicator Lights 1.7, Better Burn Time 1.10, Variant Persist 1.1.

I first thought it's related to Spacedock, but Chatter as well as other mods, which are also hosted there, show correct data.

Forum discussion: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126111-111-betterburntime-v110-provides-extra-burn-time-indicators-on-the-navball-for-suicide-burns-target-rendezvous/&do=findComment&comment=3900976

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T01:52:43Z

Just explained this on that thread, it's because it's on SpaceDock and @KSPSnark does not use .version files (Chatterer has one):

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126111-111-betterburntime-v110-provides-extra-burn-time-indicators-on-the-navball-for-suicide-burns-target-rendezvous/&do=findComment&comment=3901010

CKAN needs some trustable source for its compatibility info. In this case, all the author is providing is, "Compatible with 1.11.0" via SpaceDock's version selector. I'm happy to work with Snark to add a .version file, but so far it doesn't sound like he's interested.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T01:58:06Z

I see, and thank you already for your efforts and time :)

Btw, another mod coming to my mind is scatterer, latest version 0.0722 is as per the mod author and my own experience perfectly compatible with KSP 1.10.1, yet it is listed in CKAN for KSP 1.11.0 only.

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T01:59:22Z

Yes, same thing, Scatterer also doesn't have a version file.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T02:04:55Z

I see, yes. And every mod version shows only a single KSP version to be compatible, same with Snark's mods, and in contrast to say Chatterer which shows version ranges.

Long story short: probably not fixable with reasonable efforts?

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T02:08:29Z

I would say that from CKAN's point of view, it's more like "already fixed" since there is already a complete and flexible system in place to represent mod compatibility: .version files. Anything we would do on this front would essentially be a re-invention of what .version files already do. The quality of the metadata does suffer because some authors choose not to use them, but all we can do on that front is encourage and assist when someone wants to create one.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T02:14:03Z

And manually inserting .version files into the CKAN repository is not feasible, I reckon.
Oh well, I can live with that, knowing my mods. And beginners usually always go to the latest KSP version anyways (KSP 1.11.0 isn't an option for me due to too many game breaking bugs).

Question/suggestion: would it be possible to have a feature in CKAN like a checkbox "ignore warnings for this version of this mod" when starting KSP?

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T02:16:28Z

And manually inserting .version files into the CKAN repository is not feasible, I reckon.

Right, they need to be inside the mod's downloaded ZIP file.

Question/suggestion: would it be possible to have a feature in CKAN like a checkbox "ignore warnings for this version of this mod" when starting KSP?

There's a request for that on file at KSP-CKAN/CKAN#2955. So far it hasn't been worked on, but pull requests are welcome.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T02:20:18Z

Understood. Unfortunately I can't do programming... :(

Thanks again for your time and efforts, much appreciated! :)

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T02:29:19Z

Although maybe we can do something with "x_netkan_override": { "ksp_version_min" }...

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T02:40:23Z

Sounds promising, let me know if I can be of any help.

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T03:03:12Z

Notes to self in case I have to repeat any of this...

jq -rM 'select(.author == "Snark") | .identifier' ~/Downloads/KSP/CKAN-meta/*/*.ckan | uniq > identifiers
for ID in $(cat identifiers); do git -C ~/Downloads/KSP/CKAN-meta log -n 1 --name-only --pretty= -- $ID; done > files 
for F in $(cat files) ; do git -C ~/Downloads/KSP/CKAN-meta log --pretty=oneline --reverse -- $F | head -n 1 ; done > commits

That gets me the SHA of the original commit of the current release of each Snark mod. Now just need to pull the contents and extract the .ksp_version_* properties...

for SHA in $(cat commits|awk '{print $1}'); do git -C ~/Downloads/KSP/CKAN-meta show --pretty= $SHA | egrep '^\+[^+]' | sed -e 's/^.//' ; done > json
jq -rM '[.version, .ksp_version, .ksp_version_min, .ksp_version_max, .identifier] | @tsv' < json > compats

Here they are, the original compatibilities of each release!

1.1	1.8.0			AntennaSleep
1.2	1.8.0			AttitudeAdjuster
1.2	1.8.0			AutoAGL
1.10	1.8.0			BetterBurnTime
1.4	1.8.0			BetterCrewAssignment
1.3	1.8.0			DefaultActionGroups
1.0	1.0.5			EveBiomesPlus
1.6.2	1.10.0			IndicatorLightsCommunityExtensions
1.7	1.10.0			IndicatorLights
1.1	1.2.1			JoolBiomes
1.9.1	1.11.0			MissingHistory
1.1	1.0.5			RadiatorToggle
1.4	1.8.0			SimpleFuelSwitch
1.2	1.5.1			Snarkiverse
1.2	1.8.0			VABReorienter
1.1	1.8.0			VariantPersist
1.0	1.0.5			VectorRepurposed
1.1	1.3.0			VesselCategorizer

Ugh.

2571 [1] FATAL CKAN.NetKAN.Program (null) - ksp_version mixed with ksp_version_(min|max)

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T04:08:57Z

Xref KSP-CKAN/CKAN#202. SpaceDockTransformer only sets ksp_version (and only if no ksp_version_* properties are already set), VersionedOverrideTransformer can only delete properties and add other properties. What we want in this case is to change ksp_version to ksp_version_max so we can add a minimum, and there's no way to do that.

What might be better would be to replace that "mixed with" check wtih some code to massage the values it finds, e.g. to turn this

    "ksp_version_min": "1.8.0",
    "ksp_version": "1.11",

... into this:

    "ksp_version_min": "1.8.0",
    "ksp_version_max": "1.11",

AvcTransformer already has similar capabilities, maybe they could be made more generic.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T06:21:26Z

Maybe we're thinking too complicated, what about if:

Snark marks the existing BBT 1.9.1 at Spacedock as compatible with KSP 1.10.1

He then adds a line to his changelog and uploads the mod again to Spadedock, this time telling Spacedock that the new upload is BBT version 1.9.2, being compatible with KSP 1.11.0

Result: two mod-wise identical uploads, but with different version numbers for different KSP version.
And he doesn't have to use .version files for this.

What do you think?

HebaruSan · 2020-12-30T06:53:07Z

Asking mod authors who don't use or care about CKAN to change what they're doing "just for CKAN" doesn't usually turn out very well.

Sinomen · 2020-12-30T07:00:38Z

Sigh... I guess you're right. :(

No idea how people can not care or use it, how else could I handle managing and updating 100+ mods?

Sent you a PM in the forums.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-14T21:10:25Z

OK, the problems with overrides are solved in KSP-CKAN/CKAN#3265, which allows us to add min version overrides to Snark's mods, which we did in #8309. Hopefully folks will point out any additional specific cases that would benefit from this.

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T03:59:03Z

Hey o/

Big thanks! :)

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T04:09:19Z

Ah, "Hopefully folks will point out any additional specific cases that would benefit from this." Scatterer is coming to my mind here too, I have 0.0723 installed, no issues with KSP 1.10.1

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T04:17:41Z

OK, based on the title of the forum thread and the release notes, it looks like the current Scatterer is supported back to KSP 1.9. Should be trivial to set that up now...

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T04:27:36Z

And then there are mods which are listed as compatible with older KSP versions, but actually aren't. Totally not a CKAN/NetCAN issue at all, but still annoying. Example:
KIS https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/149848-minimum-ksp-version-18-kerbal-inventory-system-kis-v126/&do=findComment&comment=3898830
The MJ team has thankfully changed the compatibility information in the meantime, recent dev versions #1035 and onward were flagged as compatible with KSP 1.10.1 but aren't..

Mentioning this as it will almost for sure cause question being posted in the technical support forums where we always tell the folks to be sure to have compatible mod versions to be installed.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T04:30:45Z

KIS has a version file; if you have corrections for its compatibility, you may submit them here:

https://github.com/ihsoft/KIS/edit/master/KIS.version

We have zero control over MJ's dev versions, that's all hand rolled by Sarbian himself.

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T04:32:00Z

"KIS has a version file" - that's up to Igor as the author, isn't it?

And sarbian & team did correct it, all good :)

As I said, totally not a CKAN issue.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T04:32:47Z

"KIS has a version file" - that's up to Igor as the author, isn't it?

Yes. The way it works is that you can edit the file, and then GitHub will present your changes to the owner to approve or reject them.

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T04:49:16Z

Ohkay... it's probably just old fashioned me then, I'd see it as common courtesy. Then, I'm the guy who still opens the door for the lady, help her with her coat and chair, and insist paying the bill in the restaurant.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T04:55:05Z

Oh believe me, we reach out to mod authors all the time for more complex stuff, for example this chat with Angel-125 about a revamp of how his mods are handled:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/121397-min-ksp-181-pathfinder-space-camping-geoscience/&do=findComment&comment=3903394

But in this case it's as simple as, the mod author said what the compatibility was, CKAN wasn't reflecting it, and now it is. Nobody's going to be confused or inconvenienced. Sometimes it's better to just make things work smoothly and stay out of the way. 🐕‍🦺

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T05:03:53Z

I take your word for it! :)

I guess you're right. Won't (and can't ) step out of my shoes though, me being me.

And yes, seeing how it went with Snark's mods, which were what made me open this issue in the first place, Which kind of closes the circle.

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T22:31:03Z

As anticipated, not-so-experienced players run into the issue of mods wrongly being flagged as compatible with older KSP versions when they are actually not.
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/149848-minimum-ksp-version-111-kerbal-inventory-system-kis-v128/&do=findComment&comment=3909956

Igor told me "I assume it may not be compatible" when I asked him about KIS 1.27 and KSP 1.10.1
He also stated explicitly that 1.28 is only compatible with KSP 1.11.

May I suggest that you change the CKAN compatibility information accordingly?

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T22:33:46Z

@ihsoft is in full control of KIS's compatibility metadata:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/197082-ckan-the-comprehensive-kerbal-archive-network-v1292-freedman/&do=findComment&comment=3910123

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T22:42:51Z

Submitted ihsoft/KIS#385 to try to help. 🤞

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T23:28:19Z

Ok, now that would be my 1st ever PR, can you please check that I didn't botch anything.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T23:35:02Z

Nice! You've got a fork and a branch and your changes are committed, so far so good. But there are a few more steps to get the pull request created. If you go here:

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN-meta

... there should be a link or button somewhere that mentions creating a pull request. Clicking that will give you one more set of title/body to edit, and then there's another submit button towards the bottom.

Normally I do this with a button that shows up after saving changes, but it's easy to miss if you aren't used to it.

DasSkelett · 2021-01-16T23:36:24Z

Alternatively, click on this link and it should take you to the pull request creation page:
https://github.com/Sinomen/CKAN-meta/pull/new/patch-1

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T23:39:16Z

OK, done, is it correct?

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T23:40:17Z

Yeah, looks great! The validation scripts are installing KIS with your changes to test them out:

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN-meta/pull/2235/checks

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T23:45:16Z

Thank you for your patience with old me!

But even though I feel a bit like a toddler now, I think it's better to ask before botching something up.

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T23:50:57Z

Nah, I did botch it up :(

Should have been min. KSP version, but stupid me changed max version.

I'm sorry.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-16T23:51:49Z

Nah, I did botch it up :(

Should have been min. KSP version, but stupid me changed max version.

I'm sorry.

Don't worry about it, those changes are safely isolated until they're approved and merged. No harm done.
And thanks for helping out! Things like this come up all the time and it's great when folks are willing to pitch in!

Sinomen · 2021-01-16T23:56:15Z

Thanks to @DasSkelett, I could correct that mistake, should be fine now. wiping the sweat from my eye brows

But even as I had a bad start, let me know if I can help in any way.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-17T00:23:59Z

But even as I had a bad start, let me know if I can help in any way.

Less than an hour for getting your first pull request merged is pretty fast. And the hope is that you will tell us when you can help, since you're clued in to which mods are compatible!

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T00:35:00Z

Just created another PR :)

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T01:02:04Z

As Github is not specific to CKAN, is there kind of a manual where I can find these instructions instead of bothering you again and again with such questions?

HebaruSan · 2021-01-17T01:04:16Z

Yes, but there's quite a lot of it and it might not always be easy to find the one thing you need to know:

https://docs.github.com/en/github

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T01:12:40Z

I meant the CKAN specific stuff, which naturally won't be part of the Github help pages. Like: PR for current versions should be done in the mod author's repository, for older versions at CKAN. These kind of information.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-17T01:19:37Z

Hmm, good question. We have a wiki wth a "contributing" section, but it looks like those pages are about developing CKAN's C# code rather than maintaining metadata. The closest thing is probably the advanced section of the adding-a-mod-to-CKAN page:

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/wiki/Adding-a-mod-to-the-CKAN#advanced

At this point answering your questions as needed is probably going to be a lot easier than trying to write up a complete guide, but we can make a note about doing that at some point.

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T01:32:33Z

This one might be a bit tricky: KSP-CKAN/CKAN-meta#2237

Like the Snark mods, no min or max information, just ksp_version

As far as I can see, the mod author does not provide a version file, if I'm not mistaken.

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T01:50:38Z

That was my CKAN version-wise oldest mod (KSP 1.6), I think it's not worth the time to go through the many mods which are flagged compatible for KSP 1.7 and onwards, or is it?

HebaruSan · 2021-01-17T02:00:57Z

It's up to you what you want to work on. I'm happy to help with whatever. 👍

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T02:02:58Z

"I'm happy to help with whatever" nah, the idea here is that I try to help you and the KSP community, not that I create extra and unnecessary work for you :)

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T03:02:59Z

Interesting, why do I get this warning
https://i.ibb.co/cvJCSTt/CKAN-v1-29-2-KSP-1-10-1-2939-D-Kerbal-Space-Program-1-10-1-2021-01-17-03-59-21.png
despite seeing the correct version information?
https://i.ibb.co/s6hK71b/CKAN-v1-29-2-KSP-1-10-1-2939-D-Kerbal-Space-Program-1-10-1-2021-01-17-03-58-06.png
Restarted CKAN, reinstalled mod, no change.
Compatible KSP versions are set as 1.4 to 1.10. Tried to add 1.10.1.2939, but that isn't accepted.

HebaruSan · 2021-01-17T03:08:57Z

It may be remembering the compatibility that they had when you installed them. If so, reinstalling would fix that.

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T03:10:26Z

"reinstalled mod" - already done
Maybe uninstalling before reinstalling might help... yes, it does!

Sinomen · 2021-01-17T03:18:36Z

...and found another candidate, @HebaruSan : Snark's Missing History. MH 1.8.2 was released on July 11th 2020 for KSP 1.10.1 (https://spacedock.info/mod/1743/MissingHistory), yet it's listed as compatible with KSP 1.11.0 only.

HebaruSan transferred this issue from KSP-CKAN/CKAN Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan added Fix compatibility Question labels Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan changed the title ~~Wrong version compatibility listed for several mods~~ Incomplete compatibility for mods without version files Dec 30, 2020

This was referenced Jan 13, 2021

Better version overrides in Netkan KSP-CKAN/CKAN#3265

Merged

Minimum compatible version overrides for Snark's mods #8309

Merged

HebaruSan closed this as completed in #8309 Jan 14, 2021

HebaruSan mentioned this issue Jan 16, 2021

Revert version file's VERSION.BUILD to match current release ihsoft/KIS#385

Merged

Incomplete compatibility for mods without version files #8291

Incomplete compatibility for mods without version files #8291

Comments

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 • edited Loading

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 • edited Loading

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 14, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

DasSkelett commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 16, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021

HebaruSan commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 • edited Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Jan 17, 2021

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 • edited Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 • edited Loading

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 •

edited

Loading

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 •

edited

Loading

HebaruSan commented Dec 30, 2020 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Dec 30, 2020 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 16, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 •

edited

Loading

Sinomen commented Jan 17, 2021 •

edited

Loading