HelloZeroNet / HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet

Updates of cert-based content.json's may be lost

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#2,476 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
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JavaScript
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Description

ZeroNet version: rev 4462, from the official docker image

### Describe the problem:

On a long-running ZeroNet instance, that periodically goes offline for long time intervals as well, I noticed, that some sites miss the content available on several fresh ZeroNet instances.

I've looked through the source code, and as far as I could understand, here is the place where we prefer to save the network traffic and time at the risk of getting an incomplete update:

```
if since is None: # No since defined, download from last modification time-1day
since = self.settings.get("modified", 60 * 60 * 24) - 60 * 60 * 24
```

So, looks like we actually get incomplete updates. On long-running instances, those incomplete updates tend to accumulate, and the user silently misses an undetermined amount of the cert-based data, such as forum posts, comments, likes etc.

#### Steps to reproduce:

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1TaLkFrMwvbNsooF4ioKAY9EuxTBTjipT"])`
Result: no files to update

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1TaLkFrMwvbNsooF4ioKAY9EuxTBTjipT", false, 0])`
Result: "Updating: 70 left"

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1Apr5ba6u9Nz6eFASmFrefGvyBKkM76QgE"])`
Result: no files to update

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1Apr5ba6u9Nz6eFASmFrefGvyBKkM76QgE", false, 0])`
Result: "Updating: 160 left"

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1SunAWK2VUT9GQK32MpwRfFPVgcBSJN9a"])`
Result: no files to update

Command: `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["1SunAWK2VUT9GQK32MpwRfFPVgcBSJN9a", false, 0])`
Result: "Updating: 70 left"

And so on.

Currently, I found no way to force the core to make the full update from UI.

* ZeroHello -> site -> Update doesn't work. (Fetches no missing files.)
* ZeroHello -> site -> Check files doesn't work either.

The only way to force the full update is to run `zeroframe.cmd("siteUpdate", ["address", false, 0])` from the browser console.

Contributor guide

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Research direction

Start at the siteUpdate entry point invoked through zeroframe.cmd and inspect the since calculation using the modified setting. Reproduce the difference between the default update and the explicit false, 0 call, then verify that ordinary updates no longer miss cert-based content and that the UI offers an equivalent full-update path.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
distributed-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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