Subj : Shared avatar issues - corrupted JSON data in SYNCDATA sub?
To   : All
From : Hm Derdoc
Date : Wed Oct 22 2025 11:11:34

Despite the fact that my AVAT-IN event seems to fire without warning, I have yet to
have received any avatars via the sharing feature.  It's possible that based on the
data I have in my SYNCDATA sub that might be expected behavior, but that is to also
say I have around 2900 messages in that sub but nearly 2000 messages in a row spit
out parse errors on JSON data.  That's TLDR ahead of time.

I am running this command to rescan the message base for avatars:

`./jsexec avatars.js import=DOVE-SYNCDATA -ptr=0 -all`

The initial parsing of the older messages goes fine, the initial logs (edited for
brevity) go smoothly until msg #109:

```
Opening msgbase /sbbs/data/subs/dove-syncdata
Importing msg #1 from Weatherman: parsed 4 avatarssuccess
Importing msg #3 from RickV: parsed 0 avatarssuccess
....
Importing msg #108 from Vela025: parsed 5 avatarssuccess
Importing msg #109 from Dark Angel: !invalid or missing JSON block, length: 1,
begin: undefined, end: undefined
FAILED
Importing msg #110 from digital man: !invalid or missing JSON block, length: 1,
begin: undefined, end: undefined
```

That parsing error repeats in my logs all the way until message #1801:

```
mporting msg #1800 from digital man: !invalid or missing JSON block, length: 1,
begin: undefined, end: undefined
FAILED
Importing msg #1801 from Fercho: !invalid or missing JSON block, length: 1, begin:
undefined, end: undefined
FAILED
Importing msg #1803 from Nelgin: parsed 14 avatarssuccess
```

We see a lot of "parsed # avatarsuccess" until we get to message #1955, which
according to logs is a message from me, and an error is thrown (maybe preventing
..bin files being written to text/avatars at end of process?):

```
Importing msg #1954 from StingRay: parsed 1 avatarssuccess
!JavaScript  /sbbs/exec/load/avatar_lib.js line 70: TypeError: netaddr is undefined
Importing msg #1955 from HM Derdoc: /sbbs/repo/exec/avatars.js executed in 0.77
seconds
!Module (avatars.js) set exit_code: 1
```

I'm not sure if the TypeError is from msg #1954 or #1955, but that's where it bails. I guess I could see if I can get that to fail more gracefully, probably could, but
I guess if it's a synchronet or dovenet data issue it's probably better to reach outbefore i implement a hack for it.

Anyone else not seeing any shared avatars lately?  (I actually have none, but I've
only been up and running ~2 months)

thanks,
derdoc

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