Dedup compared a posted config against the latest revision for the ASSET,
which is only correct when a machine number means one PC. Several PCs share one
here: the part markers on 0613, 0615 and WJPRT are separate devices, differing
by COM port, filed under one machine number. Each marker's post therefore
differed from whichever marker had posted last, nothing ever deduped, and the
table grew by one row per PC per collection cycle.
A chain is now (asset, kind, source hostname). An unchanged config is a no-op
again, and each PC keeps its own history against the machine. NULL sources -
rows written before the column was populated, and hand-loaded ones - form their
own chain via IS NULL; `column == None` never matches in SQL, so without that
those rows would have re-posted forever.
Two consumers assumed the old key and are fixed with it. Retention pruned per
asset, so a busy marker's revisions could evict a quiet marker's only backup;
it now prunes each chain separately, protecting the newest and oldest of each.
The revision diff compared against the previous revision on the machine, which
across two markers reported one device's COM port as a change on the other; it
now compares within the source's own chain.
scripts/collapse_duplicate_backup_revisions.py cleans up what the old rule
wrote. It removes only a revision whose hash repeats the one before it in the
same chain - rows the fixed code would never have written - and keeps every
genuine change, every chain's newest and oldest, and every source. Dry run by
default. Its --report mode explains what grew each chain, which separates a
legitimately shared machine number from two PCs wrongly carrying the same one,
and from a value inside the config that changes on its own.
Every machine was getting a Part Marker Configuration panel, and only two of
the 147 known machines are part markers. A kind applies to an asset TYPE, but
whether a given asset ever carries that kind of backup is a property of the
individual machine, so type alone cannot decide what to show.
The generic renderer already handled this: a list panel is visible when it has
rows OR declares empty text. Declaring emptytext on both kinds defeated it and
forced them to render everywhere. emptytext now defaults to None on the base
class, neither bundled kind sets one, and the panel builder OMITS the key
rather than emitting null - a present-but-null 'empty' would still have kept
the panel on screen.
The DNC Info card carried empty text that could never be displayed, since
keyvalue visibility is decided purely on field count. Removed rather than left
to mislead.
A lathe now shows DNC Info and NTLARS history; 0600 and 0614 additionally show
Part Marker once something collects for them; a machine with no NTLARS data
shows no backup panels at all. The emptytext mechanism stays available for a
kind that genuinely wants to say "expected here, nothing yet".
Adds a kind-pluggable backups plugin. Configuration captured from a PC is
filed against the MACHINE it controls, with a revision history and download
back to the native format.
NTLARS/DNC is the first kind. Settings live in the controlling PC's registry
but describe the machine, so revisions attach to the machine's asset and carry
no foreign key to the PC: history survives a PC being replaced or deleted, and
sourcehostname records the handover.
Storage splits by kind. Parseable kinds store a dialect-neutral JSON
projection in ShopDB and re-render on download; opaque vendor formats (part
marker and similar) keep their bytes on the SFLD share with ShopDB holding
metadata and the UNC pointer.
Two .reg dialects exist in the wild: NTLARS's own Save... export omits the
WOW6432Node path segment, scripted exports include it. Parsing strips whichever
root matched, so a stored revision commits to neither and download offers both
(NTLARS Load... by default, WOW6432Node for direct reg import). Getting this
backwards is silent, so the dedup hash deliberately excludes sourcedialect and
both dialects of one config dedup to a single revision.
Dedup is load-bearing: the collector runs every GE-Enforce cycle across the
fleet, so a revision is inserted only when the content hash differs from that
asset's latest for that kind.
A freshly imaged PC opens NTLARS with a blank General tab. Recording that would
make an empty config the newest revision exactly when someone needs the last
good one, so a blank MachineNo is rejected rather than accepted as a change.
Two of the 320 known-good backups on the share already have that shape.
DNC Info card summarises the latest revision on the machine page: General
(Cnc, NcIF, HostType), eFocas, Serial, NTSHR when populated (only 18 of 147
machines), and MARK when the machine is a marker. MARK is gated on Cnc=MARKER
or the ShopDB machine type, not on the MARK key having content: MARK carries
serial defaults on 145 of 147 machines and DncPatterns reads YES on 103
including ordinary lathes, so neither identifies a marker.
The info card is owned by the kind (BackupKind.infopanel/buildinfo) and served
by a generic endpoint, so the expected successor to DNC ships its own card by
adding a class rather than changing the plugin or the panel wiring.
Also: schedule and retention settings with a prune that never drops the newest
or the oldest revision, and scripts/import_ntlars_backups.py to seed history
from the existing per-machine .reg files (144 of 147 resolve to assets).
Codec verified against all 320 real backups: round-trips clean through both
dialects. Bay-side generation verified on Windows against reg.exe export.
