changelog¶

Note

This is the new changelog, only the most recent builds. For all versions, see the old changelog.

Version 494 ¶

QT6¶

thanks to a user's help, we are rolling out a Qt6 test build this week. we've been running Qt5 for a few years now. 6 is mostly a very large bugfix patch, and I am hopeful this update will relieve several legacy issues related to UI scale, colour support, draw flickering, and other unusual stuff. so far, it is working for me great. I'll be putting out joint 5 and 6 builds for 4-8 weeks, to iron out any big problems, and then I'll switch over to 6 releases exclusively. if you are an advanced user, please give it a go this or next week and let me know if you run into any traceback errors about deprecated method names or completely jank layout in the less used parts of the program
the actual changes you'll see are mostly style, just slightly different font spacing, things like that. if you have a system-baked Qt5 style that hydrus magically inherits, this will no longer work, you need to get a Qt6 version of the style (although I understand this is happening already for the popular styles, so you may already have them)
users on Windows 7 and similarly old OS versions are unable to run Qt6 programs, sorry!
I intend to keep the code 5-compatible, and users who run from source can choose whichever version of Qt they prefer, as here in the help: https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/running_from_source.html#qt
the linux Qt6 build also goes up from ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04. let me know if you have any trouble, but it feels like it is time to update this too

file import options overhaul¶

I wanted to do note parsing this week, but when I reviewed the whole job, there wasn't enough time to do it properly. so, in prep for a cleaner introduction of 'note import options' next week, I am overhauling how the other import options do some stuff
all file import options now support filetype filtering! it uses the same control as system:filetype or in import folders, but with some improved logic. on update, existing import folder filetype settings will be copied down to the file import options
file import options now work on a similar 'default' system as tag import options. existing file import options will stay as-is, but new ones will begin in a 'use the default settings at time of import' state. those defaults are editable under options->importing. for now I am not adding a 'use this file import options default for this web domain' system, but it might happen in future. let's see how this all shakes out first
the file import options button now has a right-click menu like the tag import options button
the manage subscriptions panel now has a 'overwrite file import options' button to mass-set FIO
cleaned up a bunch of old file import and import options code

misc¶

system:filetype now remembers meta filetypes better. if you select 'all video', it will now still select all video even if hydev adds support for a new video type in future. also if you select 'video + animations', it'll say that rather than listing out every possible specific-type
fixed an issue where loading a favourite search wasn't always setting 'include current/pending' values on the buttons correct
fixed up a status display in the gallery downloader and watcher pages--if you pause an importer while it is doing work, it now says 'pausing...' as its status until any current jobs are finished. it was giving empty text before, as if it were finished already
fixed some unusual behaviour with downloader highlighting where the first query pended to an empty page was secretly highlighted for the next session load, and fixed the 'subscription gap downloader' also doing this and not obeying the normal 'highlight new downloaders if nothing already highlighted' option
improved the error when the 'make sure this directory exists' function runs into a file with that pathname
fixed a rare selection position error, maybe Qt6 only, when clicking in the thumbnail grid as it is loading

boring Qt6 code cleanup¶

as a side thing, I set up quick-launch environments for QtPy5, QtPy6, PySide2, and PySide6 in my IDE this week, so I can now test all these situations and jump back in time no problem in future
integrated a user's patch to bring us up to Qt6 compatibility and did a little more work to get it backwards compatible with older qtpy and Qt5
refactored the critical Qt boot setup and monkeypatching from QtPorting to a new QtInit module
migrated the hydrus code for keyboardModifiers, event-pos, and globalPos all to the Qt6 equivalents so the monkeypatching is always going to be on older versions looking forward
fiddled with QPoint and QPointF conversions a little so I think Qt5 and Qt6 is always talking about the same type
updated build scripts and requirements.txts for the new situation
updated the help a bit for the new situation

Version 493 ¶

EXIF¶

in the first step of 'official' EXIF support, the media viewer now has a 'cog' button on the top hover, enabled when looking at a jpeg, that will check the file for EXIF data. if found, it will throw it up on a simple new window that shows EXIF id, label, and value. this is a hacked-together prototype, not super user-friendly, but it works. let me know what you think, and please send me any files that have weird EXIF that doesn't parse right but you think should. I already discovered a file with a null character that wouldn't display in UI, that sort of thing
GPS EXIF values are also parsed and extracted
made it so you can double-click a row in this new window to copy an EXIF value to clipboard
in the duplicate filter, if one or both files have exif data, this is now noted in the comparison statements, just like ICC profile! (issue #469)
obvious future extensions here will be storing 'has exif' in the database and allowing its presence to be searchable and enabling the cog button (or a nicer 'exif' button) only when there is known data to see. a subsequent step would be actually caching the data in the database for full EXIF search
as a side thing, we're now set up on the hydrus end to pull TIFF EXIF, but PIL doesn't seem to offer it, so we'll have to wait for a different solution there

fixes and misc¶

fixed a problem that made saved page file sorts reset their sort order one time on update to v492. thank you to a user for noticing this and discovering the fix, and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience of changing your session and favourite search sorts. unfortunately there is no easy fix other than rolling back to a backup and jumping forward to this version
fixed a v492 message display error when setting various duplicate relationships to three or more thumbnails at once. it was a stupid typo, sorry for the trouble! (issue #1199)
if a page tab name elides to a 'shorter...' length, it now has its full name as the tooltip
fixed a typo in update code error handling (issue #1192)
the duplicate filter page now remembers if you are 'searching immediately'/'search paused' (issue #1193)
if you are on non-Windows and export files manually or with an export folder to an NTFS or exFAT partition, this is now detected, and NTFS-invalid characters in the pattern-generated folders or filename are now replaced with underscores (issue #1194)
'fixed' a system predicate bug in the 'OR*' advanced predicate parser--entering a logical expression that results in a negated system tag now causes an error. previously, it would strip the 'system:' and just enter the given text as an unnamespaced tag. furthermore, that dialog now reports specific error reasons when it fails to parse. I hope to improve support for negated system tags in future--some stuff, like archive/inbox, should be easy.
I think I fixed an instance where the archive/delete filter's confirmation dialog could present 'delete from hard disk' as an option when it wasn't appropriate
in an attempt to reduce the media-change flickering we've recently seen in the media viewer, I untangled a bunch of the canvas size/position code this week. I'm preparing a complete overhaul and neat Qt layout integration, which this starts. I think I've made some things less flickery on occasion, but we'll see IRL. much more to do
added a '--profile_mode' launch argument, which allows you to capture the performance of boot and also try out profile mode on the server (although support there is very limited atm)

Version 492 ¶

sort and collect updates¶

for big brain users, the collect control now has a tag domain button. it only shows if you are in advanced mode (issue #572)
the sort control also has a tag domain button hidden behind advanced mode. it applies to system:num tags and namespace sorting
the collect control now appears on all import pages

archived file delete lock¶

the duplicate processing action code now no longer archives files that are due for deletion right before that deletion. this was hitting the archive delete lock
if archive delete lock is on and the 'other' file in the duplicate filter is archived, the option to 'this is better, delete the other' is now disabled
if you attempt to delete a delete-locked file during normal browsing, or if an automatic system like export folders wants to but fails on some, a popup is now made with a button to show the files that were filtered out so you can review the situation and fix it if you want
I am considering adding a dialog to say 'hey, this is locked, want to send back to inbox?' to fix these situations in a nice way, but I think this is probably a bad idea in terms of workflow, design, and my sanity given all the edge cases and potential future expansions of lock rules. maybe I'll add a simple 'delete and override lock checks' option, but a lock is a lock tbh. for now, I will focus on this better UI feedback of currently delete-locked files and make it simpler for humans to remove any locks

misc¶

using black magic, I have made it so the shortcuts for 'move left/right one page' 'and 'move home/end' do not dip down to the lowest level of a neighbouring page of pages for the next command. it now stays on the current tab level for three seconds after the most recent move command. this works in testing but may be jank in some IRL situations, so if this matters to you, let me know how it works out
fixed a bug in 'do a full metadata resync' that meant unprocessed row orphans were not being deleted, which lead to lingering 1950/2000-style processed gauges that didn't actually cause any work to be done on 'process now'
the duplicate filter now shows if one or both files have an icc profile. for now the score for this is always 0, neutral
I think I have reduced general lag on some busy clients

code cleaning and minor fixes¶

refactored file viewing stats management to a new database module
refactored file physical storage management to a new database module
cleaned up an ugly bridge that made inbox/archive work and moved it all to a clean new separate database module
improved some client file physical storage repair code, both in how it repairs and how it recovers in the current boot
updated the yes/no dialog texts when you apply 'not related' or 'alternates' to a selection
added a bunch of tooltips to the 'speed and memory' options panel. also clarified the example image sizes in number of pixels
improved how my grid layout propagates tooltips from the widget to the text when the widget is compound and in its own layout
consolidated where the delete lock test occurs to just one location for db, gui
added infrastructure to filter and report delete-locked files. callers no longer care about specific lock rules, opening this up to future expansion
cleaned and simplified some duplicate action processing code
cleaned up some file collect code, optimised it a bit too
the sort control now only changes sort type on mouse wheel events if the mouse is over that button
renamed 'tag search context' to 'tag context' across the program, mirroring a recent change with the location context, and gave it some bells and whistles. in future, the tag context will hold multiple tag services
wrote a new button to edit tag contexts

Version 491 ¶

system predicates¶

the advanced OR input, where you can type tags in complicated logical expressions, now supports system predicates! most system predicates are supported using their typical display strings. it uses the same engine as the client api, so check the examples here https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/developer_api.html#get_files_search_files sorry for the delay here
the advanced input also runs tags better through the hydrus tag 'cleaning' process, so things like whitespace between the namespace colon and the subtag are cleaned up correctly, and invalid tags should be excluded
it also starts with the keyboard focus in the text input
and I think I fixed an issue with '!'', 'not', or '-' negation prefixes not parsing
highlighted the example parseable system predicate texts in the Client API help, and added 'last viewed' to it

misc¶

altering your services in manage services no longer causes a full page refresh for all currently open search pages
in a related thing, if you click the file or tag domain of a file search page to be the same as it just was, you no longer get a page refresh
the rating widgets now show their current rating value on their tooltips
when setting a numerical rating by a drag, it no longer matters if your mouse strays above or below the widget--it will still set
the String Processing system has a new 'String Tag Filter' processing step. this applies the normal tag filtering object to your list of strings and also performs the hydrus 'tag cleaning' process on them, making them all lowercase and trimming whitespace and so on
the sibling/parent sync is now even more polite when told to do work in 'normal' time. this has been hitting a lot of new users really hard, so it should now really trickle work during normal time, throttling down when it hits a bump to avoid stunlocking you but also responding quickly to recent changes if you are fully synced
the database repair code is now better at healing damaged fast-text-search (FTS) tables. previously, in cases of partial damage to the virtual table, the repair code would error out
fixed a bug where certain search predicate calendar dates that are acceptable in Linux but not in Windows caused Windows to fail to load the session. if you put in 1965 as a search date, it should now revert to the current time one next load etc...
the test to see if a directory is writeable-to is improved and now handles Windows's Program Files directory correctly
improved how the boot scripts handle incorrect/bad database directory paths. the error handling works better, and it figures out a fallback location for crash.log better
a new button on 'review services' now lets advanced users copy the service key to the clipboard
the migrate tags dialog now lists file repositories, ipfs services, and 'all my files' as potential file filter domains
when checking it has space for a large transaction like a vacuum, hydrus now tries to check if you are running on a ramdisk or other severely space-limited temp dir and offers more text if this is true
updated the '4chan style thread api parser' to handle posts with multiple files, which fixes tvchan.moe and probably anything else running NPFchan
some logic testing around showing 'return to inbox' and the actual operation is fixed so it only applies to local files. in some weird advanced situations, you could previously send deleted files to inbox

new import/export framework¶

started a new modular metadata import/export pipeline. this thing starts out today by doing the work of newline-separated tags in a .txt sidecar file and will expand to do all sorts of metadata in other formats like JSON and XML. it will also, eventually, support arbitrary cross-type conversions like tags to urls or ratings to tags
export folders now support '.txt' sidecar tag exporting!
the '.txt' sidecar tag importing in import folders or manual imports is now handled by the new pipeline
the '.txt' sidecar exporting in the manual export dialog is now handled by the new pipeline
please expect the UI around '.txt' sidecar importing and exporting to change significantly in future. you'll be selecting different metadata types to import or export, make string processing steps to alter or filter what you get, and of course be able to compile it all into more complicated filetypes

cleanup and refactoring¶

mr bones gets two new columns to line up the numbers better
a bunch of export code got moved around. created a new module 'exporting', and moved ClientExporting.py to it, renaming to ClientExportingFiles.py
removed an old prototype for sidecar exporting and related plans for UI
the 'missing file folders on boot' dialog now points users to 'help my media files are broke.txt'
brushed up the 'help my x is broke.txt' documents in the database directory a little
fixed some surplus double backslashes in the help
a secret tiny label change/fix, let's see if anyone notices
cleaned up how the rating widgets manage and update rating state. it was ancient bad code
updated how different rating values are converted to UI text
misc cleanup of some free space checking code
fixed some bad quote characters in client api help JSON examples
improved some error handling for uploading pending content and sped up file uploads a little

Version 490 ¶

misc¶

fixed a stupid bug that meant the image caches were initialising with default values (as under speed and memory) until you opened and OKed the options dialog (or did some other options-refresh events). sorry for the trouble, please enjoy some smoother image browsing.
mr bones now shows more numbers, and in a neater table. it should be clearer what the percentages are for now, too
the manage->regenerate thumbnail menu has additional quick maintenance commands for presence and integrity checks and regenerating data in the similar files system
wrote a new 'special duplicate' button for the edit shortcut set dialog. the list on this dialog doesn't allow duplicates (which meant the old 'duplicate' button was doing nothing), so this duplicates the current actions with 'incremented' shortcut keys. 'a' becomes 'b', 'ctrl+5' becomes 'ctrl+6', and so on. it doesn't always work, but if you want to make ten shortcuts for setting rating 1-10, this should help
fixed an issue where the thumbnail banner text and the media viewer background text was not changing size or font according to QSS stylesheet rules (issue #1173)
SIGTERM should now cause a clean program exit (previously it killed the GUI App but left some daemon threads alive for thirty seconds or more). unlike SIGINT, it will not ask you if you are sure you want to exit or if you would like to do shutdown maintenance--it just closes the client promptly
fixed a bug in last week's importer page status improvements--the hard drive import page wasn't showing all the updates it should have
brushed up some backup help

file services¶

fixed a bug where advanced users could set 'all known files'/'all known tags' on a search dropdown. this search domain is not supported
in the archive/delete filter, if the current location is 'all my files' and the files being deleted are only in one local file domain, the surplus 'all my files' will no longer appear at the top of the filter's commit dialog
the file services in the thumbnail select/remove menu are now sorted in the same order as the file domain button in search dropdowns
the thumbnail select/remove menus now exclude 'all my files' and 'all local files' if those choices are redundant (e.g. if you only have files in 'my files', 'all my files' will be hidden)
fixed some incorrect 'delete from x' actions appearing in thumbnail right-click menus

orphan files¶

there's a persistent processing bug some users have where some update files are missing but they won't redownload correctly. I think I fix that this week naturally so existing maintenance routines will now be able to fix it themselves after another round
fixed some issues related to deleting files from the repository updates file domain.
the 'clear orphan file records' maintenance command now fixes the 'all my files' umbrella services as well as the 'all local files' one. it also has nicer description, does some additional file-removal cleanup, and triggers a file recount if problems are found
moved 'clear orphan files' to the 'files' maintenance menu

Version 489 ¶

downloader pages¶

greatly improved the status reporting for downloader pages. the way the little text updates on your file and gallery progress are generated and presented is overhauled, and tests are unified across the different downloader pages. you now get specific texts on all possible reasons the queue cannot currently process, such as the emergency pause states under the network menu or specific info like hitting the file limit, and all the code involved here is much cleaner
the 'working/pending' status, when you have a whole bunch of galleries or watchers wanting to run at the same time, is now calculated more reliably, and the UI will report 'waiting for a work slot' on pending jobs. no more blank pending!
when you pause mid-job, the 'pausing - status' text is generated is a little neater too
with luck, we'll also have fewer examples of 64KB of 503 error html spamming the UI
any critical unhandled errors during importing proper now stop that queue until a client restart and make an appropriate status text and popup (in some situations, they previously could spam every thirty seconds)
the simple downloader and urls downloader now support the 'delay work until later' error system. actual UI for status reporting on these downloaders remains limited, however
a bunch of misc downloader page cleanup

archive/delete¶

the final 'commit/forget/back' confirmation dialog on the archive/delete filter now lists all the possible local file domains you could delete from with separate file counts and 'commit' buttons, including 'all my files' if there are multiple, defaulting to the parent page's location at the top of the list. this let's you do a 'yes, purge all these from everywhere' delete or a 'no, just from here' delete as needed and generally makes what is going on more visible
fixed archive/delete commit for users with the 'archived file delete lock' turned on

misc¶

fixed a bug in the parsing sanity check that makes sure bad 'last modified' timestamps are not added. some ~1970-01-01 results were slipping through. on update, all modified dates within a week of this epoch will be retroactively removed
the 'connection' panel in the options now lets you configure how many times a network request can retry connections and requests. the logic behind these values is improved, too--network jobs now count connection and request errors separately
optimised the master tag update routine when you petition tags
the Client API help for /add_tags/add_tags now clarifies that deleting a tag that does not exist will make a change--it makes a deletion record
thanks to a user, the 'getting started with files' help has had a pass
I looked into memory bloat some users are seeing after media viewer use, but I couldn't reproduce it locally. I am now making a plan to finally integrate a memory profiler and add some memory debug UI so we can better see what is going on when a couple gigs suddenly appear

important repository processing fixes¶

I've been trying to chase down a persistent processing bug some users got, where no matter what resyncs or checks they do, a content update seems to be cast as a definition update. fingers crossed, I have finally fixed it this week. it turns out there was a bug near my 'is this a definition or a content update?' check that is used for auto-repair maintenance here (long story short, ffmpeg was false-positive discovering mpegs in json). whatever the case, I have scheduled all users for a repository update file metadata check, so with luck anyone with a bad record will be fixed automatically in the background within a few hours of background work. anyone who encounters this problem in future should be fixed by the automatic repair too. thank you very much to the patient users who sent in reports about this and worked with me to figure this out. please try processing again, and let me know if you still have any issues
I also cleaned some of the maintenance code, and made it more aggressive, so 'do a full metadata resync' is now be even more uncompromising
also, the repository updates file service gets a bit of cleanup. it seems some ghost files have snuck in there over time, and today their records are corrected. the bug that let this happen in the first place is also fixed
there remains an issue where some users' clients have tried to hit the PTR with 404ing update file hashes. I am still investigating this

Version 488 ¶

all misc this week¶

the client now supports 'wavpack' files. these are basically a kind of compressed wav. mpv seems to play them fine too!
added a new file maintenance action, 'if file is missing, note it in log', which records the metadata about missing files to the database directory but makes no other action
the 'file is missing/incorrect' file maintenance jobs now also export the files' tags to the database directory, to further help identify them
simplified the logic behind the 'remove files if they are trashed' option. it should fire off more reliably now, even if you have a weird multiple-domain location for the current page, and still not fire if you are actually looking at the trash
if you paste an URL into the normal 'urls' downloader page, and it already has that URL and the URL has status 'failed', that existing URL will now be tried again. let's see how this works IRL, maybe it needs an option, maybe this feels natural when it comes up
the default bandwidth rules are boosted. the client is more efficient these days and doesn't need so many forced breaks on big import lists, and the internet has generally moved on. thanks to the users who helped talk out what the new limits should aim at. if you are an existing user, you can change your current defaults under network->data->review bandwidth usage and edit rules--there's even a button to revert your defaults 'back' to these new rules
now like all its neighbours, the cog icon on the duplicate right-side hover no longer annoyingly steals keyboard focus on a click.
did some code and logic cleanup around 'delete files', particularly to improve repository update deletes now we have multiple local file services, and in planning for future maintenance in this area
all the 'yes yes no' dialogs--the ones with multiple yes options--are moved to the newer panel system and will render their size and layout a bit more uniformly
may have fixed an issue with a very slow to boot client trying to politely wait on the thumbnail cache before it instantiates
misc UI text rewording and layout flag fixes
fixed some jank formatting on database migration help

Version 487 ¶

misc¶

updated the duplicate filter 'show next pair' logic again, mostly simplification and merging of decision making. it should be even more resistant to weird problems at the end of batches, particularly if you have deleted files manually
a new button on the duplicate filter right hover window now appends the current pair to the parent duplicate media page (for if you want to do more processing to them later)
if you manually delete a file in the duplicate filter, if that file appears again in the current batch of pairs, those will be auto-skipped
if you manually delete a file in the duplicate filter, the actual delete is now deferred to when you commit the batch! it also undoes if you go back!
fixed a bug when editing the external program launch paths in the options
fixed an annoying delay-and-error-popup when clearing the separator field when editing a String Splitter. now the field just turns red and vetoes an OK with a nicer error text
also improved how string splitters report actual split errors
if you are in advanced mode, the review services panels now have an 'id' button that lets you fetch the database service id
wrote a new database maintenance routine under database->check and repair->resync tag mappings cache files, which is a lightweight way of fixing ghost files or situations where files with a tag are neither counted nor appear in file results. this fixes these problems in a couple minutes, so for this it is much better than a full regen of the cache

cleanup and other boring stuff¶

the archive/delete filter now says which file domain it will be deleting from
if an archive/delete filter is launched on a 'multiple locations' file domain, it is now careful to only make delete records for the deleted files for the file services each one is actually in
renamed the 'default local file search location' option to 'fallback' and updated its tooltip a bit. this was really a hacky thing I needed to fill some gaps while rewriting from 'my files' to multiple local file services. the whole thing needs more attention to become more useful. I also fixed an issue where it could become invalid 'nothing' if you deleted a file service it was referring to (issue #1155)
I think I fixed a rare 'did not find info for that file' style problem when highlighting some watchers/downloaders
I think I have silenced some unhelpful BeautifulSoup (html parser) warnings that were spamming to the log in some situations
updated last week's big update to work with TRUNCATE journalling mode. I will be doing this for other big updates going forwards, since multi-GB WAL transactions cause problems for some users
last week's update also gives a time estimate in its pre-popup, based on 60k files per minute
removed some old database cache data that wasn't cleared in a previous update
a variety of misc UI text fixes and cleanup

Version 486 ¶

This week's release is for advanced users only! I make a big change, and I want to make sure the update is fast and there are no unusual problems before rolling it out to all users.

all my files¶

the client adds a new virtual file service this week, 'all my files', which is an umbrella covering all your local file domains. if you do not engage the multiple local file services system, you won't see it much, but if you do, you'll now have a convenient tool for saying 'all my stuff' without including trash and repository updates
it will take a minute or two to generate this new service on update. if you have a client with millions of files, it may take a while
'all my files' now appears in the file domain selector button on your tag entry box if you have more than one local file domain. selecting this searches the union of all your local file domains with fast and precise count (as opposed to 'multiple locations' of the full union, which will have imprecise counts and be slower). it also does duplicate file work laser-fast (again, unlike 'multiple locations', which is often slow due to UNION complexity)
'all my files' also appears in review and manage services, very similarly to 'all local files'
a heap of hacks I instituted when getting multiple local file services ready are now replaced with this clean 'yeah this file is valued and worth looking at' domain. for instance, downloader pages now view files in this way.
mr bones and the file history chart also use 'all my files', and are significantly faster to calculate. the chart also excludes repo update files and trash now
calls to delete or undelete on 'all my files' (this is mostly Client API and some 'default' situations) will be converted to a blanket 'force send to trash' and 'force undelete all deleted records'
the 'undelete files?' dialog is now a button selection dialog. it also now has an 'all the above' option when more than one local service may apply, which tells the client to undelete to all services the files have been deleted from
updated multiple local file services help to talk a little about the new domain
rearranged the sort in a couple of places where the different local file services appear. they should now be: local file domains, all my files, trash, repo updates, all local files
ADVANCED: the 'presentation import options' under 'file import options' now allows a full-fledged location context using the new multiple local file services system rather than the previous 'in your files(and trash too)' choice. it defaults to the new 'all my files' domain

misc¶

thanks to a user, the 'getting started with downloading' help has had a full pass. if you have had trouble with downloaders, particularly if you are unsure about what file import options are for, or what subscriptions are, please check it out!
the 'media viewers' shortcut set gets three new zoom actions: 'switch between 100% and max', 'switch between canvas and max', and 'zoom to max' (issue #1141)
if a media type is set to do 'exact zooms', it will now not exceed the otherwise specified max zoom
the file sort widget will now preserve ascending/descending status on sort type changes (rather than resetting to default) if the asc/desc strings do not change. so, if you are on 'import time'/'oldest first', and switch to 'archive time', it will now stay on 'oldest' rather than resetting to 'newest'
the manage tag siblings dialog now tries to automatically break loops for you, just like it will automatically break A->B, A->C conflicts. this works on manual entry or mass import
the manage tag siblings dialog now shows the stated 'reason' for any pair change (e.g. "AUTO-PETITION TO BREAK LOOP") in the 'note' column
the 'short' animation scanbar--when your mouse is away--now keeps a short disabled volume button beside it. I found it very annoying how the scan nub would jump a few pixels left/right as this popped up and down, so now it is the same width big and small
right-clicking on files when in pages with 'multiple locations' file domains is now much much faster
the filename tagging dialog now starts with the 'tags for all' focused, and the 'press up/down on empty input' shortcuts are now plugged in, so pressing up/down will change service
I believe I may have completely eliminated the additional superlag that sometimes occurs when adding or deleting a service. it was a database maintenance routine getting carried away with other outstanding work
move/add actions in the new multiple local file system now operate asynchronously and politely, spreading their work time out when the client is busy, and for large jobs they will also make a cancellable progress popup
cleaned up how the autocomplete entry sends some of its signals to other parts of the program
did some misc help and code edits/refactoring, including brushing up the Windows install section with more advanced options
removed the 'hydrus zooms big bad' warning from the 'media' options page. hydrus zooms big good now!

some database stuff¶

tl;dr: database cleans up after itself better now
some users have had trouble with database journal files (the 'wal' files in your db directory) on certain clients getting huge after lots of work, multiple GB, and causing the OS a headache if the journal is doing work through a computer sleep. these journals are 'supposed' to checkpoint and clean themselves up naturally, but I think a busy database chokes them. therefore, I have improved the hydrus maintenance this week: 1) the 'journal size limit' PRAGMA, which applies softly after every 30 seconds or so, is now 128MB down from 1GB. 2) databases in PERSIST (rare) mode will now specifically zero out their journal fifteen minutes. 3) databases in WAL mode (the default), in addition to regular PASSIVE checkpointing now every five minutes, will force an additional TRUNCATE checkpoint every fifteen. this should force a regular full flush and maybe help some other problems like gigantic memory bloat the same users sometimes saw. if you are a very advanced user and do active debug on the database while hydrus is using it, please note this new TRUNCATE command is aggressive and may block itself or you inconveniently. let me know how you get on!
moved the recent 'be careful of usb drives' section in 'installing' help to 'help my db is broke.txt'. it is very likely this problem was related to the above WAL stuff, and it was not just usb drives, I rewrote it as generalised help for anyone who gets 'delayed write failed' errors at the OS level
massively optimised several critical duplicate files filtering methods if the current location context has more than one file domain, and I think I cleared out the basic 'get duplicate info for this file' call of all slow calls in complex location contexts
the repair routine that regenerates mapping caches if any tables are missing on boot is now more reliable and covers the entirety of the mappings cache system using the new modules system. it also now regenerates just for the tag services with missing tables, not the whole cache
if multiple types of mapping cache tables are missing on boot, and multiple waves of regenerations covering different areas are planned, duplicate regenerations will now be skipped

Version 485 ¶

multiple local file services¶

multiple local file services are now available for everyone! you no longer need to be in advanced mode to create them. all are welcome, but in terms of skill level, I most recommend it for users who are comfortable with tag siblings and parents
the tl;dr: you can now have more than one 'my files', which lets you put things in isolated locations
I wrote a proper help document on multiple local file services--what they are, how they work, my recommendations, and a bit of extra info about hydrus file search in general, right here: https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/advanced_multiple_local_file_services.html
file searches in 'multiple locations' on large clients are now massively faster in almost all situations. the only place multiple location searches are still slow is whenever the duplicates system (system:file relationships) comes into play

misc¶

in the page tab menu, you can now sort pages by total file size
the 'force system:limit for all searches' option is moved from the 'speed and memory' to 'search' panel
when files download from sites, if the raw file is served by cloudflare and has a timestamp radically different to a parsed source time, that CF timestamp is saved under a different domain rather than overwriting the original domain timestamp. this seemed to affect danbooru on about 1 in 10-20 files. note this does not change much at the moment, but when you can see and sort on individual domain modified dates, this should improve the sort
updated the 'installing' help to talk about bad install locations for the database. network locations are bad, and thanks to user reports, we now know USB drives can be bad if the database is busy when the OS goes to sleep
if a 'database is malformed' error occurs on boot, the client now recognises it and points the user to 'install_dir/db/help my db is broke.txt' for the next steps

boring code cleanup¶

another 60KB or so of code pulled out of ClientDB.py:
created a new database module for url mappings and refactored various fetch and update routines to it
created a new database module for some rich file metadata and refactored some file filtering, history, and status testing code to it
created new database module for file searching and moved all tag-based file searching code to it
moved several other misc methods down to database modules