`pgrep -f FIFA17.exe` matched the remote shell executing it -- the SSH command line
contains the literal pattern -- so fifa_running() always returned True and the port
switcher could never edit openfut.cfg. It refused with "REFUSING to edit ... while a
FIFA client is running" moments after FIFA had actually exited.
Fail-closed, so nothing unsafe happened, but the guard was permanently stuck and
blocked the A/B entirely.
Now matches /proc/<pid>/comm exactly, which is the executable name: the invoking
shell reads as zsh and cannot self-match, while a genuine FIFA process still does.
Validated both directions with the same loop -- it found pid 36958 while FIFA was up,
and reports gone once it exited. Still fail-closed on read errors.
The lesson generalises: a pattern-matching process guard checked over a transport
that carries the pattern in its own argv is self-satisfying, and a guard that can
only ever say "yes" is not a guard.
The brief's gate: if the harness varies bidState AND coinsProcessed together, the
client's reaction is attributable to neither. The env knobs were already orthogonal
(--variant and --coins-processed are independent, cp defaults to 0), but
sold-wire-check.py was flipping BOTH for variant B as a convenience, which is exactly
the contaminated A/B the brief forbids. Fixed: the primary pair now holds
coinsProcessed at 0 and asserts the differing-field set is exactly ['bidState'].
New scripts/sold-ab-differential.py is the pre-live gate. It settles ONE synthetic
sale, then re-reads every seller-facing surface under each variant by restarting only
the host (same Core, same DBs, same sale), and diffs with explicit classification --
MISSING / EXTRA / TYPE_MISMATCH / VALUE_MISMATCH -- rather than a boolean "equal?".
Two orthogonal pairs:
PRIMARY bidState highest vs buyNow, coinsProcessed held at 0
ORTHOGONAL coinsProcessed 0 vs 1, bidState held at highest
Result, 36/36: the ONLY finding on /tradePile is
VALUE_MISMATCH auctionInfo[0].bidState A='highest' B='buyNow'; /trade/status differs
in exactly the same one path; counts are byte-identical. The orthogonal pair's only
finding is auctionInfo[0].coinsProcessed. C_cp0's sha256 equals A_highest's, so the
capture is reproducible rather than merely consistent.
Counts states the live run has to interpret, measured not guessed:
S1 0 active + 1 sold -> count 0, selling 0, sold 1
S2 1 active + 1 sold -> count 1 (active mode) vs 2 (membership mode)
That divergence IS the open question for the client; production is unchanged.
scripts/sold-client-ports.py switches ONLY the two client Blaze port lines, and is
built so restoration cannot depend on memory: it records the production values to a
sidecar on the client BEFORE the first edit and restore reads that sidecar, refusing
if it is absent. It rewrites only known keys (a missing key is an error, never a
silent append), re-reads and verifies afterwards, and REFUSES to edit while a FIFA
client is running because the hook reads the file at connect time.
Phase 0 evidence under docs/evidence/sold-ab-2026-08-18/ with a sha256 per surface,
one file per variant so A can never overwrite B.
Live client A/B NOT run: a production FIFA session is currently live on 10.10.0.105
(pid 32188), and live-session mutual exclusion applies. The client config was NOT
touched -- the switcher's guard refused, as designed.
Production untouched: prod-host pid 3631953, coins 29,843,976, /tradePile 0,
counts.sold 0, club 1966; nothing under /home/alex/openfut-promotion/state/ opened.
funman300