The underscore is back with a vengeance

[Expf]

Another reason why variable localization is important! Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7005434873

So anyone got a good script that can do static code analysis on Lua files to detect global variables?

So recently I started doing a couple Challenge Modes and encountered this very annoying bug where the timer blows up and refuses to come back until /reloadui. Here's the error dump (truncated for your sanity):

FrameXML\WatchFrame.lua:670: WatchFrameLine2:SetPoint():
    Couldn"t find region named "Sabotage"
FrameXML\WatchFrame.lua:1811: in function "?"

There's a spell named "Sabotage" that occurs in Gates, but how did a spell name get mixed up with a region name?! Well, let's dig up the FrameXML\WatchFrame.lua, lines 669-670:

if ( anchor ) then
    line:SetPoint("RIGHT", anchor, "RIGHT", 0, 0);

So anchor is "Sabotage" for some odd reason. If we go back up a level to lines 1811, the source of the problem becomes obvious:

WatchFrame_SetLine(line, _, WATCHFRAMELINES_FONTSPACING - 6, IS_HEADER, stageName, DASH_NONE);

The underscore variable "_" here has not been referenced earlier, which means it's basically pulling the value from the global underscore variable. If all other addons behave correctly and do not use the global underscore variable, then this code will function correctly.

But if any code decides to corrupt the value of the global underscore variable, then WatchFrame_SetLine will break catastrophically. The easy fix (which only Blizzard can do) would be do just replace the underscore with nil. The hard fix would be to change every single addon to make sure that they do not use the global underscore variable.

To be fair, the mistake is really on both ends here, but not every addon author is prudent enough to localize their variables correctly. Furthermore, it's almost impossible to track down which addon is causing this bug -- unlike the taint bug, this bug doesn't inform the user of the source of variable corruption.

[cremor]

FindGlobals in combination with the nppExec scripts and settings found in the comments works great.

[funkydude]

Or if you don't want to use FindGlobals, simply set your taintLog to a value of 2 (though I recommend setting it back to 0 or 1 when you're done). That will record the "tainting" of every global variable and can help debugging which addon is the cause. Calling it "almost impossible to track down" is a bit of an overstatement.

[Expf]

Originally Posted by funkydude

Or if you don't want to use FindGlobals, simply set your taintLog to a value of 2 (though I recommend setting it back to 0 or 1 when you're done). That will record the "tainting" of every global variable and can help debugging which addon is the cause. Calling it "almost impossible to track down" is a bit of an overstatement.

I should change that to "very annoying to track down".

Thanks for the info.

[Lombra]

Before I go pulling my hair out trying to do this myself, any hints on how to use FindGlobals to.. oh, say looking for global underscores among all addons at once?

Edit: Hair still intact, and I managed somehow. Don't know if there's a better solution (or whether this actually works for all cases), but I changed line 115 in globals.lua

if globalName and GLOBALS[globalName] then

into

if globalName and GLOBALS[globalName] or globalName ~= "_" then

and then ran this

@echo off
set LUAC="C:\Games\Blizzard\World of Warcraft\Interface\luac-wow.exe"
set LUA="C:\Games\Blizzard\World of Warcraft\Interface\lua-wow.exe"
set FINDGLOBALS="C:\Games\Blizzard\World of Warcraft\Interface\FindGlobals.lua"

for /r %%a in ("\*.lua") do	%LUAC% -p -l "%%a" | %LUA% %FINDGLOBALS% "%%a"

pause

[Phanx]

Here is a GUI wrapper for FindGlobals:
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...OTANADDON.html

[myrroddin]

Originally Posted by Phanx

Here is a GUI wrapper for FindGlobals:
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...OTANADDON.html

OMG, YOU RULE!!! Caps are intended, Phanx. Also, Zarnyeg2 is to be commended.