Archive Cache Manager

[duerra]

  On 2/16/2025 at 1:43 AM, Clutz450 said:

First off, I know nothing about how to code.  But I found someone who was willing to give this a shot, even though he knows nothing about LaunchBox or this Plugin.  Here is what he did so far:

Even with all that, the plugin is failing with a 7-zip error when I try to launch a game.  If anyone that has more knowledge in this would be willing to take a look at what changes were made so far and help us take it the rest of the way, it would be much appreciated.  The source code and my latest error log are attached.  Thank you.

archive-cache-manager.7z 60.1 MB · 0 downloads Debug 2025-02-15 08-21-55 PM.log 8.29 kB · 0 downloads

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I've seen occasional 7-zip errors even with the older version of the plugin, but typically trying again allowed it to work.  Are you seeing ongoing and consistent errors trying to extract any files?

[Fursphere]

Has anyone tried running this code through ChatGPT or something to see if it can help update it?

[duerra]

Curious if anyone else has tried that secondary build from above.  If so, are you consistently getting 7-Zip errors?  I want to update LaunchBox, but losing this plugin would be huge for me.

[Clutz450]

  On 3/3/2025 at 4:41 PM, duerra said:

Curious if anyone else has tried that secondary build from above.  If so, are you consistently getting 7-Zip errors?  I want to update LaunchBox, but losing this plugin would be huge for me.

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If you are talking about the build that i posted, I hope i was clear in stating that it doesn't work.  I don't know how to code, but I did get in touch with someone who did, but unfortunately knows nothing about LaunchBox.  He did the best he could to update everything as far as he could, and what I posted was for someone else to hopefully take it the rest of the way.  Now with that said, it's possible that what he changed wasn't correct either.  Ultimately, what we need is for @fraganator to come back and create a fix.  But in the meantime, if anyone is willing to try and help, we can try and work together to do this ourselves.  

[Fursphere]

I ran the code through ChatGPT and it had a bunch of suggestions specifically around .net upgrades, calling out lots of individual code sections.  

I got distracted and never got back to it. 

[Clutz450]

  On 3/3/2025 at 6:31 PM, Fursphere said:

I ran the code through ChatGPT and it had a bunch of suggestions specifically around .net upgrades, calling out lots of individual code sections.  

I got distracted and never got back to it. 

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The original code or the code that I posted.  Because I believe the guy who made the changes for me already did all the upgrades.

[Clutz450]

So I reached out to the LaunchBox team and they were able to give me the last version of LaunchBox setup file that worked with Archive Cache Manager.  So I guess I'll continue to use this old version until either @fraganator comes back, or until LaunchBox adds a similar feature.

[Fursphere]

  On 3/9/2025 at 11:31 PM, Clutz450 said:

So I reached out to the LaunchBox team and they were able to give me the last version of LaunchBox setup file that worked with Archive Cache Manager.  So I guess I'll continue to use this old version until either @fraganator comes back, or until LaunchBox adds a similar feature.

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Are you using this plugin for the unzipping feature or the caching feature (like, caching from a NAS or network share)?

I was using it primarily for unzipping PS1 and PS2 titles - but now DuckStation and PCSX2 support CHD formats, so I'm converting all my PS1/PS2 files over to CHDs, which makes this program obsolete.

[duerra]

I'm using it for both of those purposes @Fursphere.  Still patiently holding out, but I'm a little anxious that we haven't heard from @fraganator.

[Fursphere]

  On 3/10/2025 at 5:10 PM, duerra said:

I'm using it for both of those purposes @Fursphere.  Still patiently holding out, but I'm a little anxious that we haven't heard from @fraganator.

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Let me crack open my old scripts.   I have a full(?) replacement for this, its just all command line based.  No gui.

[sundogak]

  On 3/10/2025 at 5:10 PM, duerra said:

I'm using it for both of those purposes @Fursphere.  Still patiently holding out, but I'm a little anxious that we haven't heard from @fraganator.

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Fraganator hasn't logged into LB forum since March 2024......

[duerra]

I tried the couple other builds that other users have provided in this thread and also get the 7-zip error.  It seems to be failing somewhere in here:
https://github.com/fraganator/archive-cache-manager/blob/main/src/Core/GameInfo.cs#L140

Unfortunately, there's no additional information on the exception other than that something is trying to process an empty string which is invalid for the invoked API call.  The only value in my game.ini which is empty maps to mSelectedFile, which doesn't appear to be used anywhere else in this segment of code.  There are a couple ini lines it looks for which don't have the key at all (for example, mEmulatorPlatformM3u), but purportedly they are not required.

I also tried replacing the exe and dll .original files from the plugin's 7-zip subfolder with newer versions (since the included version also has a severe security vulnerability), as well as the files in the ThirdParty LaunchBox subfolder, but this also did not make any difference.

Edited March 15 by duerra

[duerra]

Aha!  I bet it's here:
https://github.com/fraganator/archive-cache-manager/blob/main/src/Core/packages.config#L3

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
  <package id="ini-parser" version="2.5.2" targetFramework="net472" />
</packages>

net472

[duerra]

  On 2/14/2025 at 10:14 AM, srxz said:

Try this one:

ArchivePlugin9.0.zip 2.24 MB · 13 downloads

 

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Will this version build if you replace this line:
https://github.com/fraganator/archive-cache-manager/blob/main/src/Core/packages.config#L3

The targetVersion "net472" with "net9.0"?  

[duerra]

  On 2/16/2025 at 1:43 AM, Clutz450 said:

First off, I know nothing about how to code.  But I found someone who was willing to give this a shot, even though he knows nothing about LaunchBox or this Plugin.  Here is what he did so far:

Even with all that, the plugin is failing with a 7-zip error when I try to launch a game.  If anyone that has more knowledge in this would be willing to take a look at what changes were made so far and help us take it the rest of the way, it would be much appreciated.  The source code and my latest error log are attached.  Thank you.

archive-cache-manager.7z 60.1 MB · 10 downloads Debug 2025-02-15 08-21-55 PM.log 8.29 kB · 5 downloads

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In this source, I'm seeing src/ini-parser/src/IniParser/IniParser.csproj reference:
 

<TargetFrameworks>netstandard2.0</TargetFrameworks>

I think this needs to be updated, likely to

<TargetFrameworks>net9.0</TargetFrameworks>

 

[duerra]

Long story short, I don't believe the actual problem is 7-zip, but rather the ini-parser dependency in this project and its compatibility with the .NET 9.0 target framework.

[sbamsbamsbam]

Work in progress... Got past the 7-zip error but Select ROM in archive doesn't work properly. 

ArchiveCacheManager.zipFetching info...

[duerra]

  On 3/16/2025 at 12:32 PM, sbamsbamsbam said:

Work in progress... Got past the 7-zip error but Select ROM in archive doesn't work properly. 

ArchiveCacheManager.zip 50.96 MB · 0 downloads

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Unfortunately I'm still getting the 7-zip error in this version.  I'm also not getting any info in the logs about what could be going wrong.  It doesn't output any information indicating an error.

 

[sbamsbamsbam]

launchbox version 13.20 The errors in events.log : game.ini is being used by another process

events-2025-03-16.logFetching info...

[sbamsbamsbam]

  On 9/9/2023 at 3:29 PM, fraganator said:

Hi @W4rCh1ld - I believe I've found the issue. When a game is launched, Archive Cache Manager copies some files to the ThirdParty\7-Zip folder. Once the game has launched, the original 7-zip files are then restored. The issue in the logs showed those files were in use by another process. After a little debugging I think what is happening is LaunchBox is calculating RetroAchievement ID for the game in the background, which means the game is being extracted using 7-zip, and so the 7-zip files are in use.

I've attached a beta version which doesn't replace the 7-zip files on each launch, but instead replaces them once when LaunchBox is first launched. Any calls to 7-zip be LaunchBox should continue to operate as normal (unzipping metadata, creating start-up and shutdown backups, and RetroAchievement ID scans). Please let me know how it goes.

 

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I'm using Zstd version of 7zip now. My next step is to try to recreate this beta version. For now it works if I put manually the files to the ThirdParty\7-zip folder.  I have no more errors about game.ini in my events.log I still can't choose a specific game in a multi-roms archive. The problem seems to be game-index.ini, I had to delete it or the plugin wouldn't work. 

archive-cache-manager.v2.7zFetching info... events-2025-03-17.logFetching info...