Timers 1.7.1: a failed LTC capture spawn retries instead of parking

When spawn() itself fails — EACCES on a helper that lost its execute
bit, as the 1.10.2 catalog install did on AB on 2026-10-04 — the child
emits 'error' with no 'exit' to follow. The handler reported the error
but left `child` set and scheduled nothing: the 250 ms eval loop then
kept reporting a misleading "No signal" over the dead child object, and
the listener was parked until a remount.

Null the child in the error handler and retry on the slow timer, the
way spl-listener already does (which is why SPL healed itself the
moment its binary was chmod +x'd, while Timers needed a remount). The
error report stays visible: the eval loop does not report while there
is no child.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

README.md

@@ -316,15 +316,10 @@ below. Nothing is installed without someone clicking.
   name, load a named layout (it becomes a local copy — browsers are never
   linked), or reset this browser's dashboard. Loading says what it did —
   *Loaded "FOH": 9 tiles, 2 not shown — Service, #ops aren't offered right
-  now; the Layouts menu can remove them* — with **Undo** in the message to
+  now* — with **Undo** in the message to get back the arrangement you had.
-  get back the arrangement you had. A tile whose module or picker entry
+  A tile whose module or picker entry isn't offered at the moment keeps its
-  isn't offered at the moment keeps its place and shows nothing, then
+  place and shows nothing, then appears when it is; it is never replaced by
-  appears when it is; it is never replaced by the module's default tile.
+  the module's default tile. Saving over an existing name asks first, and
-  While any tile is in that state the same menu has a **Not shown** section
-  listing each one with why — *not offered right now*, *module disabled*,
-  *module not installed* — and a ✕ that removes it and frees its cells, for
-  the tile that is not coming back (a module that stopped offering that
-  kind of tile). Saving over an existing name asks first, and
   the server keeps the copy it replaced: **Restore previous** in Admin →
   Saved layouts swaps it back (and swapping again undoes that). The menu's
   **Grid Size** stepper sets how many columns this browser cuts the board into —

docs/MODULE-GUIDE.md

@@ -688,11 +688,8 @@ module.exports = {
   tile added from an entry only when that entry (or one of its `aliases`) is
   in your list right now; otherwise the tile keeps its place in the layout,
   draws nothing, and appears the moment your list offers it again — a
-  Service timer waits for PCO Plan, a transcript for its channel. The
+  Service timer waits for PCO Plan, a transcript for its channel. So your
-  operator can remove such a tile from the Layouts menu's **Not shown**
+  client is never asked to render an entry you did not offer at mount time.
-  section, so an entry you retire for good (a send box that moved to another
-  module) leaves no dead cells behind. So your client is never asked to
-  render an entry you did not offer at mount time.
   One case is still yours: an entry that vanishes *after* the tile mounted
   (a timer deleted in ProPresenter mid-service). Render nothing for it — no
   placeholder, no error — and the shell folds the tile away at its next
@@ -1047,8 +1044,7 @@ client-side failures (a tile that fails to start says so in the tile).
 
 **Poke the pieces directly:**
 
-- `GET /api/modules` — what the shell sees (your manifest + non-secret
+- `GET /api/modules` — what the shell sees (your manifest + non-secret config).
-  config; `inactive` names the installed modules that are not running).
 - `GET /api/modules/<id>/...` — your routes, `curl`-able. For SSE:
   `curl -N http://localhost:24500/api/modules/<id>/stream`.
 - `GET /api/admin/state` — enabled flags, health, mount errors.

modules/propresenter-timers/ltc-listener.js

@@ -162,7 +162,14 @@ function createLtcListener({ device, channel, moduleDir, log, onUpdate }) {
     });
 
     child.on('error', (err) => {
+      // A spawn that fails (EACCES on a helper that lost its execute bit,
+      // ENOENT) emits 'error' with no 'exit' to follow. Leaving `child` set
+      // would let the eval loop report "No signal" over a dead child forever
+      // and nothing would ever retry — what parked LTC on AB on 2026-10-04.
+      // Null it and retry on the slow timer, the way spl-listener does.
       report({ error: TOOL_MISSING, detail: `LTC capture failed to start: ${err.message}` });
+      child = null;
+      scheduleRestart(BAD_CONFIG_RETRY_MS);
     });
 
     child.on('exit', (code) => {

modules/propresenter-timers/module.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "id": "propresenter-timers",
   "name": "Timers",
-  "version": "1.7.0",
+  "version": "1.7.1",
   "proddash": ">=1.4.0",
   "description": "Timers, Clocks, and LTC From configured Modules",
   "provides": [

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "proddash",
-  "version": "1.13.0",
+  "version": "1.12.0",
   "private": true,
   "description": "Modular production dashboard for Waters Church \u2014 zero-dependency Node server + vanilla client",
   "license": "UNLICENSED",

public/shell.js

@@ -188,10 +188,6 @@ function menuItem(label, onClick, { sub = '', danger = false, disabled = false,
 /* ── module registry ────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
 let registry = new Map(); // module id -> manifest from GET /api/modules
-/* The installed modules that are not running — disabled, or needing a newer
-   shell — id -> { id, name, reason }, from the same GET. Read for one thing:
-   to say why a tile one of them left in the layout is not drawn. */
-let inactiveModules = new Map();
 
 /** fetch that gives up after `ms`. A request the browser has queued behind
     held connections would otherwise pend forever, and so would anything
@@ -212,7 +208,6 @@ async function loadRegistry() {
     if (!res.ok) throw new Error('modules ' + res.status);
     const body = await res.json();
     registry = new Map((body.modules || []).map((m) => [m.id, m]));
-    inactiveModules = new Map((body.inactive || []).map((m) => [m.id, m]));
     return true;
   } catch {
     return false;
@@ -492,9 +487,7 @@ const GEAR_SVG = '<svg viewBox="0 0 90 90" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true
    registry offers them again: a Service timer waits for PCO Plan, a
    transcript for its channel. Never the module's default in their place —
    a wall of "All timers" where five different timers were is worse than
-   five gaps that fill themselves in. For the one that is not coming back
+   five gaps that fill themselves in. */
-   (a module stopped offering that kind of tile) the Layouts menu lists them
-   under Not shown, each with a ✕ — the only way to let its cells go. */
 
 function tileIsOffered(tile) {
   const man = registry.get(tile.module);
@@ -528,7 +521,6 @@ function reconcileOfferedTiles() {
   if (changed) rebuildDividers();
   scheduleOfferedRecheck();
   refreshEmptyState(); // the registry may have gone from nothing to something
-  repaintUnshown(); // a Not shown row goes the moment its tile is drawn again
 }
 
 /* A module's entry list can change without anyone saving admin config: PCO
@@ -548,90 +540,10 @@ function scheduleOfferedRecheck() {
   }, OFFERED_RECHECK_MS);
 }
 
-/** The tiles a layout holds that the board is not showing, each with what
-    to call it and, in a few words, why it is not drawn. */
-function unshownTiles() {
-  return tiles.filter((t) => !tileEls.has(t.id)).map((tile) => {
-    const man = registry.get(tile.module);
-    if (man) {
-      const title = tile.title || (tile.variant ? `${man.name} · ${tile.variant}` : man.name);
-      return { tile, title, reason: 'not offered right now' };
-    }
-    const off = inactiveModules.get(tile.module);
-    if (off) {
-      const reason = off.reason === 'incompatible' ? 'module needs a newer ProdDash' : 'module disabled';
-      return { tile, title: tile.title || off.name || tile.module, reason };
-    }
-    return { tile, title: tile.title || tile.module, reason: 'module not installed' };
-  });
-}
-
 /** The tiles a layout holds that the board is not showing, by name. */
 function unshownTileNames() {
-  return unshownTiles().map((u) => u.title);
+  return tiles.filter((t) => !tileEls.has(t.id))
-}
+    .map((t) => t.title || registry.get(t.module)?.name || t.module);
-
-/* Repaints the Layouts menu's Not shown section while the menu is open —
-   set by unshownSection(), called whenever tiles become offered or stop
-   being, so the list never lags the board behind it. */
-let repaintUnshown = () => {};
-
-/** The Layouts menu's Not shown section: one row per tile the layout holds
-    that the board is not drawing — its name, why in a word or two, and a ✕
-    that removes it — present only while there is one. A tile that waits for
-    its module (a Service timer before PCO Plan is up) is listed but can stay;
-    this exists for the one that will never be back, which would otherwise
-    hold its cells with no control anywhere to let them go. */
-function unshownSection() {
-  const wrap = document.createElement('div');
-  wrap.className = 'menu-unshown';
-  const signature = (list) => list.map((u) => `${u.tile.id}|${u.reason}`).join('\n');
-  let painted = '';
-  const paint = () => {
-    wrap.innerHTML = '';
-    const list = unshownTiles();
-    painted = signature(list);
-    wrap.hidden = !list.length;
-    if (!list.length) return;
-    const divider = document.createElement('div');
-    divider.className = 'menu-divider';
-    const title = document.createElement('div');
-    title.className = 'menu-title';
-    title.textContent = 'Not shown';
-    wrap.append(divider, title);
-    for (const { tile, title: name, reason } of list) {
-      const row = document.createElement('div');
-      row.className = 'menu-item menu-unshown-row';
-      const label = document.createElement('span');
-      label.textContent = name;
-      const sub = document.createElement('span');
-      sub.className = 'sub';
-      sub.textContent = reason;
-      label.appendChild(sub);
-      const remove = document.createElement('button');
-      remove.type = 'button';
-      remove.className = 'menu-x';
-      remove.setAttribute('data-tip', 'Remove');
-      remove.setAttribute('aria-label', `Remove ${name}`);
-      remove.innerHTML = CLOSE_SVG;
-      remove.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
-        // The row goes with the tile, so the click must not reach the
-        // document as one from outside the menu — the menu stays open
-        // to show the next row (or none), as the stepper and Alerts do.
-        e.stopPropagation();
-        removeTile(tile.id); // saves the layout and frees the cells, as a drawn tile's ✕ does
-        paint();
-      });
-      row.append(label, remove);
-      wrap.appendChild(row);
-    }
-  };
-  paint();
-  // Only when something changed: the registry is re-read every few seconds
-  // while a tile is folded away, and rows rebuilt under the pointer for
-  // nothing would lose the tooltip (and the click) the operator was on.
-  repaintUnshown = () => { if (wrap.isConnected && signature(unshownTiles()) !== painted) paint(); };
-  return wrap;
 }
 
 function buildTile(tile) {
@@ -2341,7 +2253,6 @@ wireDropdown('layout-btn', 'layout-menu', async (menu, stillOpen) => {
   // how one is arranged.
   menu.appendChild(gridStepper());
   menu.appendChild(alertsFold());
-  menu.appendChild(unshownSection()); // only while a tile the layout holds is not drawn
   const stepperDivider = document.createElement('div');
   stepperDivider.className = 'menu-divider';
   menu.appendChild(stepperDivider);
@@ -2433,7 +2344,7 @@ wireDropdown('layout-btn', 'layout-menu', async (menu, stillOpen) => {
         const count = `${tiles.length} tile${tiles.length === 1 ? '' : 's'}`;
         const gridNote = COLS !== gridBefore ? ` on a ${COLS}-column grid` : '';
         const note = unshown.length
-          ? `, ${unshown.length} not shown — ${unshown.join(', ')} ${unshown.length === 1 ? 'isn’t' : 'aren’t'} offered right now; the Layouts menu can remove ${unshown.length === 1 ? 'it' : 'them'}`
+          ? `, ${unshown.length} not shown — ${unshown.join(', ')} ${unshown.length === 1 ? 'isn’t' : 'aren’t'} offered right now`
           : '';
         toast(`Loaded “${l.name}”: ${count}${gridNote}${note}`, false, {
           ms: unshown.length ? 10000 : 7000,

public/style.css

@@ -368,33 +368,6 @@ body[data-alert="critical"] .tile.is-tinted {
   text-transform: uppercase;
 }
 
-/* the Layouts menu's Not shown rows: a tile the layout holds but the board
-   is not drawing, why in a word or two, and the ✕ that removes it */
-.menu-unshown[hidden] { display: none; }
-.menu-unshown-row { cursor: default; }
-.menu-unshown-row:hover { background: none; }
-.menu-unshown-row > span:first-child {
-  flex: 1;
-  min-width: 0;
-  overflow: hidden;
-  text-overflow: ellipsis;
-}
-.menu-x {
-  flex: none;
-  display: inline-flex;
-  align-items: center;
-  justify-content: center;
-  width: 22px;
-  height: 22px;
-  background: none;
-  border: none;
-  border-radius: 5px;
-  color: var(--muted);
-  cursor: pointer;
-}
-.menu-x:hover { background: var(--border); color: var(--danger); }
-.menu-x svg { width: 12px; height: 12px; display: block; }
-
 /* ── grid ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
 
 #gridwrap {

server.js

@@ -2336,17 +2336,8 @@ function handleRequest(req, res) {
 
   /* — shell API — */
   if (urlPath === '/api/modules' && req.method === 'GET') {
-    // Beside what dashboards may load: the installed modules that are not
-    // running, by id and name only, so a tile one of them left in a layout
-    // can say why it is not drawn ("module disabled") instead of guessing at
-    // "not installed". Nothing of their config travels with it.
-    const inactive = [...manifests.keys()].filter((id) => !isActive(id)).map((id) => ({
-      id,
-      name: String(manifests.get(id).name || id),
-      reason: isEnabled(id) ? 'incompatible' : 'disabled',
-    }));
     Promise.all([...manifests.keys()].filter(isActive).map(clientManifest))
-      .then((list) => sendJson(res, 200, { modules: list, inactive }))
+      .then((list) => sendJson(res, 200, { modules: list }))
       .catch((err) => {
         console.error('[proddash] /api/modules failed:', err);
         if (!res.headersSent) sendJson(res, 500, { error: 'Server error.' });