Two defects from a Server 2019 run that got further than any before it - the
payload verified against the lock on a real server for the first time.
EMPTY EXIT CODE. "Python install failed (exit )" on an install that had actually
worked. Dropping -Wait to make -TimeoutSec enforceable left $p.ExitCode
unreadable: PowerShell only reliably populates it on a waited process. -Wait is
restored and the trade is now explicit - exit codes are load-bearing here, 1639
vs 1603 vs 3010 is the entire diagnosis, and a bounded wait is not worth losing
them for. -TimeoutSec is advisory: logged as an expected duration so a hang is
identifiable, not enforced. The code is also read defensively now, and an
unreadable one fails loudly rather than being taken for success.
That timeout has never worked - -Wait made the block dead code from the start -
so nothing is lost that was ever there. Trying to fix it broke something that
was working, which was the wrong trade to make silently.
STALE .env PREFERRED OVER A GOOD HANDOFF. The .dbpass fallback sat in the else
of "if .env exists", so it was consulted only when .env was absent. A
part-finished install HAS an .env, holding whatever password stage 2 last wrote;
if stage 0 has since regenerated the credential, .env is stale and .dbpass is
correct - and the installer preferred the stale one, giving "Access denied" with
the right password sitting unread on disk. The handoff is now applied before the
branch, so it covers both, and only when .env points at the local server so it
can never redirect a site whose database lives elsewhere.
f6b621d126