#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Do the captures and the pages that cite them agree?
tools/re/check-capture-citations # assert
tools/re/check-capture-citations --selftest # can it fail?
tools/re/check-capture-citations --orphans # list the unreferenced files
`tools/port/check-citations` has checked `docs/port/*.md` since it was written.
**`docs/re/` has never had one**, and `docs/re/captures/` is 118 MB — the
largest thing in the repository, and the one place a file can be added, never
cited, and never noticed.
⚠️ 2026-09-19, issue #49: **game assets are no longer committed.** Screenshots
and savegame blobs live in the working tree and are gitignored, so the pages'
relative links still resolve on a machine that has them while nothing ships.
That inverts half of this check — "is it committed?" became "is it PRESENT?",
and a NEW failure appeared: an asset that IS tracked. Both are below.
Three failures, which are opposites and must not be conflated:
* a page cites a capture that **is not present** — a reader following it
gets nothing. That is an error, exactly as in `check-citations`.
* a game asset that **is tracked by git** — issue #49 says it must not be.
* a capture that **no page cites** — not an error. It may be evidence a page
should have cited, and deleting on that basis would silently ratify the
omission. Reported, counted, never failed on.
⚠️ THE NAIVE VERSION OF THIS CHECK REPORTS 10 DANGLING AND IS WRONG ABOUT 9.
A first pass with a plain path regex claimed ten; the real number is one. Eight
were **directory** references — `docs/re/captures/ui-layout/` — which resolve
perfectly well and are absent only from `git ls-tree`, which lists files. One
was a path at the end of a sentence, with the full stop pulled into the match.
Both are handled below, and both are in the selftest, because a checker that
cries wolf nine times out of ten is worse than none: it teaches you to ignore it.
"""
import os
import re
import subprocess
import sys
ROOT = "docs/re/captures/"
# A capture path, optionally with the `docs/re/` prefix, optionally a directory.
CITE = re.compile(r"(?:docs/re/)?captures/[A-Za-z0-9._/-]+")
# ⚠️ `git grep -E` is POSIX ERE: it has no `(?:`, and a pattern carrying one
# matches NOTHING while exiting 0. That silence read as "no page cites any
# capture" — 257 orphans, 0 citations — which is the same shape as the export
# table that returned empty and let the build succeed.
CITE_ERE = r"(docs/re/)?captures/[A-Za-z0-9._/-]+"
# Where a citation may live. Prose AND code: tests and tools open these files.
SEARCH = ["docs", "crates", "tools", "port", "authored"]
# 🔴 AND NOT THIS FILE. `SEARCH` includes `tools`, so the scan read *itself* --
# and `selftest()`'s planted fixture below is a literal capture path. The check
# therefore reported a dangling citation to a file that will never exist, and
# exited 1 on a clean checkout, for ever. A gate that is red before anyone
# changes anything teaches people to ignore it.
# Excluding only this one file keeps every other tool in scope; a real citation
# belongs in a page or a tool that opens the capture, never in the checker.
SELF = ":!tools/re/check-capture-citations"
def git(*args: str) -> str:
return subprocess.run(["git", *args], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout
def committed() -> tuple[set[str], set[str]]:
"""Every capture in the WORKING TREE, and every directory they imply.
⚠️ This read `git ls-tree HEAD` first, and that made the check useless for
the thing it is for: restoring a missing capture left it still reporting the
citation as dangling, because the fix was in the index and the check was
looking at the last commit. A pre-merge check must see the change being
proposed. `tools/port/check-citations` uses the working tree for exactly
this reason; so does this.
"""
# 🔴 NOT `git ls-files`: since #49 the assets are deliberately untracked, so
# the index no longer knows they exist. Presence is a question about the
# working tree, and asking git would report every screenshot as missing and
# fail on all 203 citations.
files = set()
for dirpath, _dirnames, filenames in os.walk(ROOT):
for fn in filenames:
if fn == ".gitignore":
continue
files.add(os.path.join(dirpath, fn).replace(os.sep, "/"))
# 🔴 START AT 3, NOT 4 — 3 is `docs/re/captures` ITSELF. Starting at 4 built
# every sub-directory and never the root, so the eight pages that cite the
# directory as a whole ("evidence lives in `docs/re/captures/`") each looked
# like a citation of a file that does not exist, and the gate was red on a
# clean, correct tree. The selftest could not see it either: it took an
# arbitrary member of `dirs`, which is always a sub-directory.
dirs = set()
for f in files:
parts = f.split("/")
for i in range(3, len(parts)): # docs/re/captures[/
/...]
dirs.add("/".join(parts[:i]) + "/")
return files, dirs
ASSET_SUFFIXES = (".png", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bin")
def tracked_assets() -> list[str]:
"""Game assets that are committed — forbidden since issue #49.
The repo carries code, tooling and docs. A screenshot that sneaks back in
is invisible in review (a binary shows as "Bin 0 -> 1234567 bytes") and is
permanent once merged, because removing it later needs a history rewrite.
So this is the half of the check that has to be loud.
"""
out = []
for l in git("ls-files").splitlines():
if l.lower().endswith(ASSET_SUFFIXES):
out.append(l)
return out
def cited() -> set[str]:
raw = git("grep", "-rhoE", CITE_ERE, "--", *SEARCH, SELF).splitlines()
out = set()
for line in raw:
c = line.split(":")[-1]
# ⚠️ A path at the end of a sentence takes the punctuation with it.
c = c.rstrip(".,;:)`")
if not c.startswith("docs/"):
c = "docs/re/" + c
out.add(c)
return out
def resolves(c: str, files: set[str], dirs: set[str]) -> bool:
if c in files:
return True
# A directory reference, written with or without its trailing slash.
return c.rstrip("/") + "/" in dirs
def named_bare() -> set[str]:
"""Basenames that appear anywhere outside the capture tree itself.
🔴 A CAPTURE CAN BE USED WITHOUT ITS PATH. `tools/re-capture/screen_match.py`
opens `movie-frame-attract-a.png` and `-b.png` by **filename**, building the
directory separately. A path-only scan calls both orphans, and deleting them
on that basis breaks the tool — which is what nearly happened. Anything
named at all counts as used.
"""
out = set()
for line in git("grep", "-rhoE",
r"[A-Za-z0-9._-]+\.(png|jpg|csv|log|txt|json|jsonl|bin|tsv)",
"--", *SEARCH, SELF).splitlines():
out.add(line.split(":")[-1].strip())
return out
def scan():
files, dirs = committed()
refs = cited()
bare = named_bare()
dangling = sorted(c for c in refs if not resolves(c, files, dirs))
# 🔴 A FILE INSIDE A CITED DIRECTORY IS CITED. A page that says "see
# `docs/re/captures/hud-runtime/`" is citing the whole directory, so every
# file in it is referenced and none is an orphan. Without this rule the
# first prune deleted the entire contents of two such directories and the
# check then went red on the very citations that made them evidence — it
# caught its own damage, which is the only reason this rule exists.
cited_dirs = {c.rstrip("/") + "/" for c in refs if resolves(c, files, dirs) and c not in files}
orphans = sorted(
f for f in files
if f not in refs
and os.path.basename(f) not in bare
and not any(f.startswith(d) for d in cited_dirs)
)
return files, refs, dangling, orphans
def selftest() -> int:
"""🔴 A CHECK THAT CANNOT FAIL IS NOT A CHECK — and this one has three ways
to be wrong, not one. It must catch a real dangling citation, and it must
NOT flag a directory reference or a path ending a sentence, which is how
the naive version produced nine false alarms."""
files, dirs = committed()
real_dir = next(iter(dirs), None)
real_file = next(iter(files), None)
if not real_dir or not real_file:
print("selftest: 🔴 no captures present — nothing to test against")
return 2
cases = [
("planted dangling caught", "docs/re/captures/no-such-file-anywhere.png", False),
("real file passed", real_file, True),
("directory reference passed", real_dir, True),
("directory without slash passed", real_dir.rstrip("/"), True),
# The root is the case the arbitrary `real_dir` above can never be.
("captures root itself passed", ROOT, True),
("captures root without slash passed", ROOT.rstrip("/"), True),
("sentence punctuation stripped", real_file + ".", True),
]
# 🔴 THE SELFTEST USED TO PASS WHILE THE SCAN RETURNED NOTHING. It exercised
# `resolves()` and never the gathering, so an ERE the grep could not compile
# produced "0 cited, 257 orphans" and five green ticks above it. A check
# whose selftest cannot see the failure that actually happened is decoration.
refs = cited()
gathering_ok = len(refs) > 50 and any(r.startswith(ROOT) for r in refs)
print(" %-34s %s (%d citations found)"
% ("citation gathering works", "ok" if gathering_ok else "🔴 FAILED", len(refs)))
# 🔴 REGRESSION GUARD FOR `SELF`. The planted fixture above is a literal
# capture path living in a file `SEARCH` covers. Before the exclusion
# existed the scan counted it as a real citation, so the check reported a
# dangling capture and exited 1 on a clean tree — permanently. If anyone
# drops `SELF`, this goes red here instead of in everybody else's run.
fixture_counted = cases[0][1] in refs
print(" %-34s %s"
% ("own fixtures not counted", "🔴 FAILED" if fixture_counted else "ok"))
# 🔴 THE #49 RULE NEEDS ITS OWN TICK. Presence now comes from the working
# tree, so a checkout with the captures present looks identical whether or
# not they are tracked — only this assertion can tell the difference.
stowaways = tracked_assets()
print(" %-34s %s%s"
% ("no game asset tracked", "ok" if not stowaways else "🔴 FAILED",
"" if not stowaways else " (%d tracked)" % len(stowaways)))
ok = gathering_ok and not fixture_counted and not stowaways
for name, path, want in cases:
got = resolves(path.rstrip(".,;:)`"), files, dirs)
mark = "ok" if got == want else "🔴 FAILED"
if got != want:
ok = False
print(" %-34s %s" % (name, mark))
print("selftest: %s" % ("ok" if ok else "🔴 BROKEN"))
return 0 if ok else 2
def main() -> int:
if "--selftest" in sys.argv:
return selftest()
files, refs, dangling, orphans = scan()
if "--orphans" in sys.argv:
for f in orphans:
print(f)
return 0
stowaways = tracked_assets()
print("captures present on disk : %d" % len(files))
print(" cited by a page or a tool : %d" % (len(files) - len(orphans)))
print(" cited by nothing : %d (reported, not failed —" % len(orphans))
print(" an orphan may be evidence a page owes)")
# 🔴 A BARE CLONE HAS NO CAPTURES AT ALL, and that is not a defect.
# Since #49 the assets are never committed, so a fresh clone, a worktree or
# a CI checkout legitimately has none — and the naive check calls all 134
# citations dangling and exits 1. A gate that is red on every clean checkout
# is one people learn to ignore, which is how the last wrong-by-default
# check in this file cost a session. Distinguish "none here" from "this one
# is missing": with some assets present, a gap is real and still fails.
assets_here = sum(1 for f in files if f.lower().endswith(ASSET_SUFFIXES))
if assets_here == 0 and dangling:
print(" ⓘ no captures on this checkout: %d citations unresolved" % len(dangling))
print(" Expected — captures are local-only (#49) and a fresh clone has none.")
print(" Copy them in, or read the evidence on the issue it is attached to.")
print(" 🔴 game assets TRACKED : %d" % len(stowaways))
return 1 if stowaways else 0
rc = 0
if dangling:
print(" 🔴 cited but NOT present : %d" % len(dangling))
for d in dangling:
print(" %s" % d)
print("\n🔴 a reader following those gets nothing. Restore the capture, fix the")
print(" path, or drop the citation.")
rc = 1
else:
print(" 🔴 cited but NOT present : 0")
if stowaways:
print(" 🔴 game assets TRACKED : %d (issue #49 — code, tooling, docs only)" % len(stowaways))
for a in stowaways[:10]:
print(" %s" % a)
if len(stowaways) > 10:
print(" … and %d more" % (len(stowaways) - 10))
print("\n🔴 run `git rm --cached` on those; they stay on disk and stay ignored.")
rc = 1
else:
print(" 🔴 game assets TRACKED : 0")
return rc
if __name__ == "__main__":
raise SystemExit(main())