`benilla.toc` enumerated every interface file, so a row the realm adds
in a client update was *silently* absent: no "not found", no warning,
just a global nobody defined. That is what `/xpboost` was, and the only
way to find it was to diff two MPQ archives by hand.
The manifest now decides order and substitution, and the realm's own
`FrameXML.toc` decides membership: every row it carries that the
manifest does not name loads after it, in the chain's order, and the
boot log names them. `DECLINED` is the short list of rows this client
must not run (`StatsFrame.xml`, whose OnUpdate is the only reader of a
`GetDebugStats` we do not have), each with its reason; a row we merely
have no verb for still loads and raises where it is used, which beats
silence. `WOW_FRAMEXML_TAIL=0` opts out and says what it is leaving out.
Finding that out turned up the reason the row was missing in the first
place, which is worse and is now fixed too. `Chain::open` mounts
`patch-?.MPQ` in the reference's order — case-folded, last wins — so
`patch-A.mpq` mounts **above** `patch-5.mpq`. The realm ships its
interface in `patch-5`; this update added six rows to that toc; and the
140-row copy inside an older `patch-A.mpq` kept winning. The interface
was loading August's list of files.
So `Chain::read_all` returns every archive's copy of a name in
ascending priority, and `realm_toc_rows` reads a shadowed copy when it
holds every row the winner does *plus* more. That case is unambiguous —
nothing was removed, so nothing can be lost — and it is a packaging
accident with no intent behind it either way. A copy that disagrees by
removal is a real change of mind we cannot arbitrate: the winner stands
and the log says what was passed over. Both paths say which archive, so
the clean fix on disk is one line of log away.
Verified against grom's own install and his addon corpus: with the
`OctoXpBoost` row deleted from the manifest — tomorrow's update,
simulated — the tail finds it, resolves it to a readable chain path, and
`/xpboost` is a live slash command with a function behind it. The tail
is empty with the manifest as it stands, which is the point: the
mechanism is armed and changes nothing today.
Tests: the merge takes both lists as arguments so it runs where there is
no client data, since that is the machine where a regression in it would
otherwise skip unseen; the letter-above-digit mount order is pinned on
its own, because that fact is what cost the six rows; `read_all`'s
ordering contract is checked against a real chain; and a `DECLINED` row
that the realm stops shipping now fails as stale. The 269 data-gated
failures are the same 269, name for name, as at HEAD.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SgstFWtn1RxEJ5kVrpgYwn
gromandClaude Opus 5
eaadc9f73b