Debug log triage

What every line in a DebugWorld boot log means, and what to do about it. Read this BEFORE investigating any log message — most lines are either fixed, benign vanilla noise, or by design. Re-proving that wastes a session.

Keep this file current in the same change that alters a feature. A message that leaves this table without a verdict reads as an open bug to the next agent. When a new message shows up in a boot log: grep this file first; if absent, classify it, fix or file it, and add the row here.

Where logs live

• Workbench play: Documents/My Games/ArmaReforger/logs/<date>/console.log and error.log (or the session list via the MCP logs_list / logs_tail).
• Headless server (cli dev / cli test): the CLI parses the ELTEST markers and dumps [ELDebug:*] lines itself.
• Grep for real failures: ( E ), SCRIPT (E), VME:, Unable to find, Missing string ID, Virtual Machine Exception. Judge by specific patterns, never by total error counts (vanilla noise below produces dozens of lines that are harmless).

Triage table

Verdict legend: FIXED = was a mod bug, now resolved; OPEN = known mod bug, still to fix; VANILLA = base-game behavior/noise, do not touch; BY DESIGN = intended mod behavior; INFO = informational.

| [ELDebug:Crime] robbery refused: no account | BY DESIGN | A robbery with no server account is refused (no civilian gate or wanted bump could apply, so it must not pay). In a test it is a spawned body that is not a player. On a live server it means the robber's account was not created: check the [ELDebug:CharacterCreation] flow start line for that player. | | [ELDebug:Notify] notify player <id>: <message> / police alert sent to <n> officer(s) | INFO | Server-side record of a targeted toast or police alert. 0 officer(s) is normal when no police are on duty. | | [ELDebug:Notify] notify skipped: <entity> is not a player | BY DESIGN | A server feature (shop, robbery, duty) toasted an entity no player controls, e.g. a test-spawned body. Nothing to show. | | [ELDebug:Notify] notify to player <id> failed: no player controller | OPEN if seen live | The target disconnected between the action and the toast, or the id is wrong. Benign once; repeated lines for a connected player are a bug. | | [ELDebug:Notify] toast dropped: no EL_NotificationManagerComponent on this client | OPEN | The game mode prefab lost its EL_NotificationManagerComponent. Re-add it to the game mode prefab. | | [ELDebug:CharacterCreation] character refused ... | BY DESIGN | Server re-validation of the registration form failed (bad name/age, second character). The reason key is written on the form. | | [ELDebug:Duty] clock-in refused for <uid>: #LF-Duty_NotOnRoster | BY DESIGN | The player is not on the police roster (EL_WhitelistManager). The desk shows the same reason before the press. | | [ELDebug:Duty] clocked in <uid>: civilian inventory stored (N items), police starter kit issued / ... inventory restored / clocked out <uid>: police inventory stored (N items) | INFO | The duty desk swapped the two inventories (LF_DutyLocker). | | [ELDebug:Duty] clock-out for <uid> found no stored civilian inventory; issuing the civilian kit | BY DESIGN | A shift started before the second inventory existed (an old save). The officer gets the civilian kit. | | [ELDebug:Duty] shift ended by death for <uid>: civilian inventory returns at respawn=1 | BY DESIGN | Death on duty: the body keeps the police gear, the respawn carries the stored civilian inventory. | | [ELDebug:Wanted] crime report #N <offence> by <uid>: clothing='...' vehicle='...' place='...' identified=<0/1> | INFO | A crime recorded the description that goes on the wanted board. identified=1 means an on-duty officer was close enough to catch it in the act. | | [ELDebug:WantedBoard] board read refused for player N: not at a wanted board | BY DESIGN | The read RPC came from a player farther than m_fBoardReadDistance from any board. | | [ELDebug:Police] station sound SOUND_RANGECP_STARTBUTTON played at ...LF_PoliceDutyDesk.et (client log) | INFO | The punch-clock click reached this client through the officer's character (LF_BroadcastStationSound). ... skipped: no EL_DutyAction prop near the character means the officer was more than 3 m from the desk. | | [ELDebug:WantedBoard] poster N: name='...' offence=... place='...' (client log) | INFO | What the wanted card showed this reader. An empty name is an unidentified suspect; an empty place is the public poster. | | [ELDebug:IdCard] grant refused: character <id> already carries their card | BY DESIGN | A spawn found the character's own card already in the inventory (carried inventory came back), so no second card. | | [ELDebug:IdCard] card not granted: no room in the inventory of character <id> | OPEN | The spawned body had no pocket for the card (loadout without clothing storage). The player has no ID until a grant succeeds. | | [ELDebug:IdCard] show refused: player <id> carries no ID card | BY DESIGN | Show ID with no printed card carried; the player gets #LF-ID_NoCard. | | [ELDebug:CharacterCreation] registration form put away unsigned, opening it again | BY DESIGN | MenuBack on form R-89; the form returns until signed. | | [ELDebug:Police] wanted list refused: ... / wanted list sent: <n> entries / wanted list received: <n> entries | INFO | Server and client halves of the police menu wanted-list RPC. A refusal means the requester was not an on-duty officer. | | [ELDebug:License] license <type> has no replication bit | OPEN | A new EL_ELicenseType was not appended to EL_LicenseBits.Order(); clients will not see it. Append it. | | [ELDebug:StaticReset] feature statics reset (run N) | BY DESIGN | LF_StaticReset.ResetAll from the EL_GameModeRoleplay destructor at world teardown. The reset is idempotent. | | [ELDebug:Session] disconnect cleanup player=N escorts=M | BY DESIGN | EL_GameModeRoleplay.OnPlayerDisconnected released that player's escort holds and convoy run. disconnect cleanup skipped: player N has no uid and no entity (Warn) means the identity was already gone; nothing to release. | | [ELDebug:Jail] second jail cell ignored at <pos> | BY DESIGN | Only the first placed LF_JailCellComponent owns the jail config and LF_Jail.Tick. A second cell is a world-authoring error; remove it. The robustness/single-jail-tick WORLD test spawns one on purpose, so one such line in a full-suite log is expected. | | [ELDebug:Jail] cell tick removed | INFO | The tick-owning jail cell was deleted (world teardown or test). | | [ELDebug:CarriedInventory] restore skipped missing prefab '<prefab>' (and anything inside it) | BY DESIGN | A saved carried inventory names a prefab that no longer loads (removed or moved). That item and its contents are skipped; the rest is restored. persist/carried-roundtrip injects Missing.et on purpose, so two such lines in a full-suite log are expected. Anywhere else: find the renamed prefab. | | [ELDebug:CarriedInventory] restore could not insert '<prefab>' into <owner> - deleting | OPEN | A restored item fits no storage of its saved parent or the character. The item is lost. Check whether the parent prefab's storage changed. | | [ELDebug:Breach] charge cancelled on <id>: <reason> | BY DESIGN | A charge whose fuse can no longer fire (no world, no LF_BreachTargetComponent on the door, timer not scheduled, or the door was deleted before the fuse fired) is dropped so the target is not armed forever. The robustness/lifetime LOGIC test emits one with reason robustness test. | | [ELDebug:Breach] fuse timer not scheduled: <id> is not a placed entity; Advance drives it | BY DESIGN | Script-driven (unplaced) breach targets, e.g. the LOGIC tests' logic-breach-fuse, advance only through LF_Breach.Advance. | | [ELDebug:Spawn] spawn abandoned for playerId N: UID/account did not resolve after 60 retries | OPEN if seen | The ~1 s registration retry is capped (EL_SpawnLogic.MAX_REGISTER_RETRIES). Seeing it means the backend never returned an identity or the account never loaded: check the persistence/identity lines above it. | | [ELDebug:Quantity] stale transfer intent ignored for <entity> | INFO | A keep-separate/merge intent older than EL_QuantityComponent.INTENT_TTL_MS (5 s) belonged to a move that failed; the later add ignores it. | | [ELDebug:Jobs] job equipment ... did not fit the inventory; left at the player's feet | BY DESIGN | Job tool grant (pickaxe/axe) found no room. The tool stays on the ground at the player. | | [ELDebug:Host] watching $profile:lf-host-stop / stop requested, closing the game | INFO | The playtest mission (LF_PlaytestTown.conf) listens for toolscli host stop, which writes that file; the server then closes normally and the engine writes its SHUTDOWN save. | | [ELDebug:Host] removed a stale stop file from an earlier run | BY DESIGN | A stop file survived a crash or a force kill. It is deleted at start so the new run does not close at once. | | [ELDebug:Persistence] session ended without a shutdown save logged right after system state ACTIVE -> SHUTDOWN and before save completed (SHUTDOWN) | FIXED | The check ran on the SHUTDOWN state change, which the engine enters before it writes the SHUTDOWN save. It now runs at component teardown (OnDelete), after the save. Seen on every host stop before the fix (2026-11-08). | | RplConnection::ValidationError remote script source code checksum does not match! then Disconnecting identity=... | BY DESIGN | The client compiled different script than the server, usually a -scrDefine on one side only. agent-box/session.mjs passes LF_SESSION_IDENTITY to the server and every client. A friend joining a host must run the same commit. | | [ELDebug:Spawn] persistent UID not available yet for playerId N, retrying repeating on a -noBackend dedicated server | BY DESIGN | Without the backend every client has the NULL identity, and a dedicated server keeps the strict identity path. The multi-client session sets LF_SESSION_IDENTITY so each player id gets its own identity. A hosted server needs the backend. | | NETWORK (E): Trying to register connection of possibly unauthorized client. on a -noBackend join | INFO | The client has no backend identity. The join continues. Seen on every multi-client session client (2026-11-08). | | RESOURCES : Out of memory. Free system <N> MB on the session server | INFO | The OS had little free RAM while two game clients loaded (16 GB PC, about 2.1 GB private each plus the server and Workbench). The session kept running. Close Workbench before session.mjs up if it repeats. | | Virtual Machine Exception ... Class: 'EL_BaseCrop' ... EL_BaseCrop.c:206 Function EOnFrame (NULL pointer) on a game client | FIXED | The client ran crop growth during load (IsOwner() is true before replication binds). Growth is server-only since #157. | | [ELDebug:Screenshot] file not found after capture: ...png on a game client | FIXED | A game client writes .bmp, Workbench play writes .png; the check now accepts either (#157). The image was there all along. | | [ELDebug:Contraband] convoy refused: not a member | BY DESIGN | A player with no organization, or one that does not hold the hideout, pressed Start convoy. They get a toast with the reason (#157). | | VME NULL pointer to instance in SCR_CharacterHelper.GetCharacterControlType right after [ELDebug:AgentHarness] ... died | HARNESS ONLY | The harness die verb kills through DamageManager.Kill with a bare self instigator; vanilla SCR_InstigatorContextData reads a control type that instigator lacks. The death, the death screen, and the hospital respawn still run. A real death does not take this path. | | [ELDebug:Respawn] death recorded for <uid> then wakes in hospital bed N of M and hospital bill <amount> charged | BY DESIGN | M1-26. One bill per death; a respawn or reconnect with no new death logs nothing. is in debt follows when the balance went negative. | | RESOURCES (E): Wrong GUID/name for a resource that has a .meta in the addon, and INVENTORY (W): Item ... not found in replication when it is spawned (stash, sentence slip, ... tests read 0 items) | not a feature bug | The gitignored resourceDatabase.rdb does not register that .meta: it was copied from the main checkout, and nobody opened Workbench there since the resource landed (2026-11-08: LF_HideoutStash.et from #179 failed hideout/stash, hideout/stash-save, e2e/pass1-write-save, and SentenceSlip.et failed jail/slip). In a worktree test (also --no-build), dev, serve, session up, host start, and wt e2e now check it first (tools/lib/rdb-fresh.mjs) and log resource database stale: N unregistered resource(s) ... -> refreshing, then refreshed in Ns (about 10 s, headless Workbench). toolscli rdb does it on demand; validate warns. The main checkout is only warned about: open Workbench there. If the line reads still stale, read server/profile/rdb/logs. | | [ELDebug:Film] recording suite_clip refused: no_renderer (SCRIPT (E)) in a suite run | BY DESIGN | film/recorder (LOGIC) asks the headless test server to record and proves it refuses cleanly. Anywhere else it means film start was sent to a dedicated server. |

How to add a row

When a new message appears:

1. Grep this file; if absent, classify it against the real source:
   • Is the emitting class in addons/LifeFramework/Scripts/ or a vanilla script (read it with tools\cli call game_read ...)? Vanilla emitter that is not mod-affected → VANILLA.
   • Mod emitter that is intentional (whitelist missing file, debug placeable) → BY DESIGN.
   • Mod emitter that is a defect → fix it, mark FIXED, reference the fix.
2. Add the row in the same change.