Changes for version 0.192 - 2026-10-02
- Fixed
- These were reported in an independent review of 0.191 by Joshua S. Day (Astra-Review.md, github.com/haxmeister/SimpleFlow, commit 5e9b03d).
- **Moving a failed step's outputs aside could destroy them.** A name declared twice had its `.failed` deleted by its own second pass; an output named like another's `.failed`, as `out` and `out.failed`, was deleted to make room for the other; and a file inside a declared directory was reported under a name that no longer existed. Each path is now moved once, a file inside a moved directory goes with it under its own name, and the longest names are moved first.
- **`parallel()` could write a broken trace.** Its workers wrote through one inherited handle with nothing to keep them apart, and a long trace line could be split by another worker's, which `report()` then refused. Each worker now writes its record holding a lock.
- **`stale.cmd` could take one command's outputs for another's.** A run without `stale.cmd` that replaced the outputs left the previous command on record; it now records its own when there is a record to replace. The digest also ignored the word boundaries of a wrapper, container or executor argument holding a space, and ignored `threads` on a local step; both now count.
- **`lock` died on an output name with a character above 255**, "Wide character in subroutine entry".
- **`stdout.file` or `stderr.file` lost earlier attempts when it was also an output.** A failed attempt moved it aside, so a retry began a new file. Such an output now stays in place until the step has failed for good.
- **The failure message left out stderr when `stderr.file` was an output,** because the file had been moved aside before it was read.
- **A `STDIN` on an in-memory scalar made `task()` die** "cannot restore STDIN" on perl 5.44.0, after the command had succeeded. A `STDIN` that is not descriptor 0 is now left alone, and descriptor 0 itself is redirected and put back.
- **`timeout` never fired for a caller that had raised `$^F`,** which gave the command the pipe that reports a failed exec, so `task()` waited for the command to end before it set the alarm. The pipe is now marked close-on-exec explicitly.
- **`parallel()` waited for ever when the caller ignored `SIGCHLD`,** or reaped its children itself. A worker that is no longer there to wait for now counts as finished.
- **A worker in `parallel()` that failed to store its record ran on** as a second copy of the caller's program; it now always exits.
- **Without a timeout, a signal reached only the command's first process.** A `TERM` or `HUP` sent to the caller went to the shell at the head of a pipeline, and the rest ran on as orphans; an `INT` sent to the caller alone, by `kill`, was ignored. Every command now leads a process group of its own, as a timed one already did, and a signal is passed to the group. Ctrl-Z, and a command that opens the terminal itself, are handled as a shell handles a job.
- **A die from one of the caller's own signal handlers left the command running**, never waited for. Its group is now killed and reaped first.
- **`.simpleflow/` and its files were used through symbolic links.** A link at `.simpleflow` or `.simpleflow/cmd` is now refused, the lock files and command records are opened without following one, and a command record is staged under a `File::Temp` name rather than a predictable `<record>.<pid>` that was opened with truncation.
- **`protect` tested for a symbolic link and then changed the permission by name,** so a link swapped in between had its target changed. It now changes a handle opened without following links, where it can open one.
- **`lock` treated two names for one output as two outputs,** such as `out` and `sub/../out`, and a directory output did not exclude a step whose output was a file inside it.
- **`report()` read more than JSON:** bytes that were not UTF-8, raw control characters, unpaired surrogates and unbounded nesting, and it died "isn't numeric" on a time that was not a number. Each is now refused with a message naming the line and what is wrong with it.
- **`report()` encoded a `title` given as UTF-8 bytes a second time.**
- Added
- `env.secret`, the names of `env` variables whose values are shown as `(secret)` in the record, the log, the trace and argument errors. The record has an `env.secret` field on every path.
- Changed
- Without a `timeout`, a command now has its own process group, and a Ctrl-C at the terminal reaches the caller, which passes it on, rather than reaching the command directly. The step's result is the same.
- A lock is named for the output's real path, so the lock files of 0.192 differ from those of 0.191, and the two do not see each other's locks.
- A `stale.cmd` step that sets `threads` on a local executor, or whose wrapper, container or executor arguments hold a word with a space, has a new digest, and runs once more after the upgrade. Every other digest 0.191 recorded is still valid.
- A step run without `stale.cmd` now writes `.simpleflow/cmd/` when, and only when, a record for its outputs is already there.
- `failed.outputs` no longer lists a file inside a directory output that was moved aside; the directory's own entry covers it.
- Documentation
- The tables of arguments and of the record's fields were HTML only, and `perldoc`, `pod2text` and man pages showed neither. `md2pod.pl` now also writes each as a POD list for those readers.
- Installing from a git checkout needs `dzil build` first; the checkout has no `Makefile.PL`.
- `SECURITY.md` says what SimpleFlow trusts: the working directory, the trace `report()` reads, and what a record writes out.
- Tests
- `t/09.fixes.t` covers each of the above, and fails against 0.191.
Documentation
easy, simple workflow manager (and logger); for keeping track of and debugging large and complex shell command workflows
Modules
easy, simple workflow manager (and logger); for keeping track of and debugging large and complex shell command workflows