I just noticed this really weird behavior with console.printfile recently. I am not sure when it started, but I'm currently running 3.21dd master/b3cec4b69 Mar 07 2026 01:38.

Video of the problem:
https://conchaos.synchro.net/media/printfile-example.mp4

As the video shows, occasionally when using console.printfile to play a file containing cursor movement sequences, it will display data from... someplace other than the file intended. In the video, it seems to be from recently read messages. Other times, it's from random json data files in my web directory. It's wild.

What's even more wild is, it only seems to happen with certain files, such as these .vt animations from artscene.textfiles.com (using an archived link since it seems to be dead now):

https://web.archive.org/web/20251204152741/http://artscene.textfiles.com/vt100

- bevis.butthead.vt
- monorail.vt (the one shown in the video)

I'm using AnsiView in the video to demonstrate, but it happens in my own scripts that use console.printfile as well.

If I open the file using the File class and use console.putmsg to output the contents, then it shows normally and the problem never happens.

Could console.printfile be recalling recently accessed memory that isn't getting closed? I dunno what else to think..

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Re: console.printfile displaying unexpected data
By: Codefenix to All on Wed Apr 29 2026 03:37 pm

I just noticed this really weird behavior with console.printfile recently. I am not sure when it started, but I'm currently running 3.21dd master/b3cec4b69 Mar 07 2026 01:38.

Video of the problem: https://conchaos.synchro.net/media/printfile-example.mp4

As the video shows, occasionally when using console.printfile to play a file containing cursor movement sequences, it will display data from... someplace other than the file intended. In the video, it seems to be from recently read messages. Other times, it's from random json data files in my web directory. It's wild.

What's even more wild is, it only seems to happen with certain files, such as these .vt animations from artscene.textfiles.com (using an archived link since it seems to be dead now):

https://web.archive.org/web/20251204152741/http://artscene.textfiles.com/vt1 00

- bevis.butthead.vt
- monorail.vt (the one shown in the video)

I'm using AnsiView in the video to demonstrate, but it happens in my own scripts that use console.printfile as well.

Could it be an issue with the clien/terminal side?

If I open the file using the File class and use console.putmsg to output the contents, then it shows normally and the problem never happens.

Could console.printfile be recalling recently accessed memory that isn't getting closed? I dunno what else to think..

I guess it's possible, though console.printfile() is really a thin wrapper around putmsg(). Can you update to at least the latest release (v3.21e) of sbbs and also try with different terminal/clients?
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Re: console.printfile displaying unexpected data
By: Codefenix to All on Wed Apr 29 2026 03:37 pm

- bevis.butthead.vt
- monorail.vt (the one shown in the video)

I downloaded those 2 files from http://artscene.textfiles.com/vt100/ (which is online) and added them a g-text file section and displayed them (using console.printfile) and see no issues. That's with SyncTERM 1.8 (the latest release) for Linux and SBBS v3.22a.
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David St. Hubbins: I envy us.
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Re: console.printfile displaying unexpected data
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Wed Apr 29 2026 01:03 pm

Could it be an issue with the clien/terminal side?

Doesn't appear so. It's repeatable in Netrunner:

https://conchaos.synchro.net/media/printfile-example-2.png

I guess it's possible, though console.printfile() is really a thin wrapper around putmsg(). Can you update to at least the latest release (v3.21e) of sbbs and also try with different terminal/clients?

I'll try updating to the latest dev update and repeat the tests.

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