[REPORTED] Recording is not possible -> corrupting mission in memory

applies to 1.5.8 and 2.5.0.15365.345 (any map)

Strings became corrupt in memory after a trying to overwrite a read-only mission.

Error dialog:

caption=Save mission

text=Can not open file, recording is not possible FILENAMEWITHPATH

The strings replaced with the following formats:

DictKey_WptName_### / DictKey_GroupName_### / Dictkey_UnitName_###

please respond ED

still not fixed in 2.5.2.20601 nor 2.5.3.21016

Possible to loose a ton of mission editing!

+If you hit exit editor no prompt for saving the corrupted final edited state.

log entry about unsuccessful saving:

"2018-08-30 20:50:37.487 ERROR VFS: VFS_open_write: CreateFile(C:\Users\pitwalker\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Missions\repair_fa18.miz): Unknown error"

loading midway (flight/prepare mission):

"2018-08-30 20:51:32.848 INFO WORLDGENERAL: loading mission from: "C:\Users\PITWAL~1\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openbeta\tempMission.miz""

log entrys during exit mission black screen and sim frozen:

"2018-08-30 20:53:37.951 ERROR VFS: VFS_open_write: CreateFile(C:\Users\pitwalker\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Missions\repair_fa18.miz): Unknown error

2018-08-30 20:53:37.951 ERROR Lua::Config: Call error onShowMainInterface:[string "./MissionEditor/modules/me_mission.lua"]:6245: can't open "C:\Users\pitwalker\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Missions\repair_fa18.miz" for 'wb'

stack traceback:

[C]: ?

[C]: in function 'assert'

[string "./MissionEditor/modules/me_mission.lua"]:6245: in function 'copyMission'

[string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:605: in function 'openReturnScreen'

[string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:678: in function <[string "./MissionEditor/MissionEditor.lua"]:669>.

"

connecting thread, why save needed strengthening:

Mission Editor Issues » ME errors causing save failure

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=211723

We need Read only missions for protecting our heavy work

because of this bug is not fixed fully: "ME errors causing save failure" https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=211723

Mission corruptions and save failures are a real possibility.

This issue is a possible accidental judgement to our effort.

just ideas for preventing loss of editing:

- .bak backup file creation of the old mission state in save function

- readback syntax check of mission after saving: I and an other guy at least experienced mission corruption in this forum, our missions recorded as in a unloadable state

Hello. I just came to here to make a self censor act, so not needed?

Of course manually make user a mission to read only, to save from an accidental overwrite.

A save menhanism should handle better a read only target file case than now.

We should not remember which missions set to read only in the long past. Made one by hand read only. And reproduction will be a success ;-)

For clarification

I made a video from the corruption - starring the two attachment mission.

I hope this time understanding will be complete.

set_read-only_file_attribute_on_this_file_and_edit_and_save_then_save_as.miz

damaged_strings_due_save_to_read_only.miz

:-( from Mr_sukebe a real world DCS wolrld scenario, when file is open to write (besause write is needed to read the mission in dedicated server)

"- If I attempt to save a mission whilst it's running in the dedicated server (yeah, pretty stupid of me I know), it corrupts the names of every unit"

source: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3965360&postcount=3

I need to set often tracks to read only because hard to reproduce errors sometimes etc...

With the latest 2.5.5.32533; the third way to trigger strings corruption

With NTFS folder permissions:

I have never seen any other editor which is unable to solve a save attempt failure.

-NTFS Write permission denied for user in "Backups-read" folder.

-Administrator is the owner of the folder.

DCS answer: set all group names to "DictKey_GroupName_xxx",

set all unit names to "DictKey_UnitName_xxx",

set all waypoint names to "DictKey_WptName_xxx"

IIRC (1.5.x) the same behaviour ("DictKey_GroupName_xxx") is seen if the .miz is being accessed by another program i.e. 7zip

When failure occured DCS clear the dictionary!

You will not find the originals set at creation, f.e.: New Airplane Group #xxx / Pilot #xxx / empty waypoint names

l10n/DEFAULT/dictionary in this case:

dictionary = 
{
   ["DictKey_WptName_11"] = "DictKey_WptName_11",
   ["DictKey_GroupName_30"] = "DictKey_GroupName_30",
   ["DictKey_UnitName_19"] = "DictKey_UnitName_19",
   ["DictKey_GroupName_24"] = "DictKey_GroupName_24",
   ["DictKey_WptName_28"] = "DictKey_WptName_28",
   ["DictKey_WptName_23"] = "DictKey_WptName_23",
   ["DictKey_WptName_8"] = "DictKey_WptName_8",
   ["DictKey_descriptionRedTask_2"] = "",
   ["DictKey_WptName_21"] = "DictKey_WptName_21",
   ["DictKey_UnitName_31"] = "DictKey_UnitName_31",
   ["DictKey_WptName_22"] = "DictKey_WptName_22",
   ["DictKey_UnitName_7"] = "DictKey_UnitName_7",
   ["DictKey_WptName_17"] = "DictKey_WptName_17",
   ["DictKey_WptName_33"] = "DictKey_WptName_33",
   ["DictKey_WptName_26"] = "DictKey_WptName_26",
   ["DictKey_WptName_14"] = "DictKey_WptName_14",
   ["DictKey_GroupName_12"] = "DictKey_GroupName_12",
   ["DictKey_WptName_20"] = "DictKey_WptName_20",
   ["DictKey_sortie_5"] = "",
   ["DictKey_GroupName_6"] = "DictKey_GroupName_6",
   ["DictKey_WptName_9"] = "DictKey_WptName_9",
   ["DictKey_descriptionBlueTask_3"] = "",
   ["DictKey_descriptionText_1"] = "",
   ["DictKey_WptName_35"] = "DictKey_WptName_35",
   ["DictKey_WptName_32"] = "DictKey_WptName_32",
   ["DictKey_UnitName_25"] = "DictKey_UnitName_25",
   ["DictKey_WptName_16"] = "DictKey_WptName_16",
   ["DictKey_UnitName_13"] = "DictKey_UnitName_13",
   ["DictKey_descriptionNeutralsTask_4"] = "",
   ["DictKey_GroupName_18"] = "DictKey_GroupName_18",
   ["DictKey_WptName_29"] = "DictKey_WptName_29",
   ["DictKey_WptName_27"] = "DictKey_WptName_27",
   ["DictKey_WptName_15"] = "DictKey_WptName_15",
   ["DictKey_WptName_34"] = "DictKey_WptName_34",
   ["DictKey_WptName_10"] = "DictKey_WptName_10",
} -- end of dictionary

Of course manually make user a mission to read only, to save from an accidental overwrite.

The accidental overwrite is a real problem, and can happen on almost any software ... there are two workarounds that I've used for this:

1) Use "Save as" instead of "Save", adding a "v###" at the end of the file, that way I can go back to a previous version easily if needed.

2) Store the missions on a drive that supports versioning, on my case I store the missions folder on MS OneDrive and put a link to it on /Saved Games/DCS; this way I can revert to a previous version if needed, like this:

A save menhanism should handle better a read only target file case than now.

You can wait for ED to fix it, but on the meantime you could try a workaround or a better practice than manually fiddling with the read-only flag of the files.

Regards,

Eduardo