Crash when trying to export without a project

[KoBeWi]

Tested versions

4.3 beta1 and earlier

System information

Windows 10.0.19045 - Vulkan (Forward+) - dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (NVIDIA; 31.0.15.4633) - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz (8 Threads)

Issue description

When exporting from empty folder, the engine crashes:

CrashHandlerException: Program crashed
Engine version: Godot Engine v4.3.beta.custom_build (705b7a0b0bd535c95e4e8fb439f3d84b3fb4f427)
Dumping the backtrace. Please include this when reporting the bug to the project developer.
[0] EditorSettings::create (C:\godot_source\editor\editor_settings.cpp:1061)
[1] EditorNode::EditorNode (C:\godot_source\editor\editor_node.cpp:6429)
[2] Main::start (C:\godot_source\main\main.cpp:3706)
[3] widechar_main (C:\godot_source\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:179)
[4] _main (C:\godot_source\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:206)
[5] main (C:\godot_source\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:220)
[6] WinMain (C:\godot_source\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:234)
[7] __scrt_common_main_seh (D:\a\_work\1\s\src\vctools\crt\vcstartup\src\startup\exe_common.inl:288)
[8] <couldn't map PC to fn name>
-- END OF BACKTRACE --

The culprit seems to be this code:

godot/main/main.cpp

Lines 1770 to 1783 in 705b7a0

	if (globals->setup(project_path, main_pack, upwards, editor) == OK) {
	#ifdef TOOLS_ENABLED
	found_project = true;
	#endif
	} else {
	#ifdef TOOLS_ENABLED
	editor = false;
	#else
	const String error_msg = "Error: Couldn't load project data at path \"" + project_path + "\". Is the .pck file missing?\nIf you've renamed the executable, the associated .pck file should also be renamed to match the executable's name (without the extension).\n";
	OS::get_singleton()->print("%s", error_msg.utf8().get_data());
	OS::get_singleton()->alert(error_msg);
	goto error;
	#endif

If the project is found, everything works normally.
If it's not found:

• in non-editor build go to error and abort
• in editor build, disable editor and continue normally... 🤦‍♂️

So it continues and tries to do editor stuff without editor hint. The above crash happens in editorless EditorNode, which can't create EditorSettings, because it's not in editor. There is a variation of this crash that happens in EditorFileSystem, which tries doing filesystem scan.

Steps to reproduce

Run godot --headless --export-release "anything" in an empty folder (no project.godot).
If you omit "anything" you'll get a different crash.

Minimal reproduction project (MRP)

New folder.zip

[akien-mga]

Duplicate of #91527, or the other way around, whichever is clearer.

With several reports on dev 6 / beta 1, is that a recent regression?

[KoBeWi]

The comments in #91527 are unrelated to the original issue, which doesn't involve any crash. They are 2 separate bugs.

[RealMadvicius]

If you look at this section

godot/editor/editor_settings.cpp

Lines 1059 to 1067 in 96a386f

	singleton = ResourceLoader::load(config_file_path, "EditorSettings");
	singleton->set_path(get_newest_settings_path()); // Settings can be loaded from older version file, so make sure it's newest.
	if (singleton.is_null()) {
	ERR_PRINT("Could not load editor settings from path: " + config_file_path);
	goto fail;
	}
	singleton->save_changed_setting = true;

You can see that we call singleton->set_path before checking if "singleton" is null, which lead to some "undefined behaviour". To improve things, we should have the if (singleton.is_null()) done just after the call to singleton = ResourceLoader::load.

Same thing here :

godot/main/main.cpp

Lines 3704 to 3709 in 96a386f

	for (const String &path : paths) {
	Ref<GDScript> gdscript = ResourceLoader::load(path);
	for (const DocData::ClassDoc &class_doc : gdscript->get_documentation()) {
	docs.add_doc(class_doc);
	}
	}

We call gdscript->get_documentation() without checking if gdscript isnt a null pointer which can lead to crash aswell potentially

[jsjtxietian]

You can see that we call singleton->set_path before checking if "singleton" is null, which lead to some "undefined behaviour". To improve things, we should have the if (singleton.is_null()) done just after the call to singleton = ResourceLoader::load.

Yes I noticed this nullptr too.

IMHO culprit is here, it will set the editor flag not matter what.

else if (E->get() == "--export-release") {
	editor = true; //needs editor
	_export_preset = E->next()->get();
} else if (E->get() == "--export-debug") {
	editor = true; //needs editor
	_export_preset = E->next()->get();
	export_debug = true;
} else if (E->get() == "--export-pack") {
	editor = true;
	_export_preset = E->next()->get();
	export_pack_only = true;

I also has crash here, f is null :

String extension_list_config_file = GDExtension::get_extension_list_config_file();
if (extensions.size()) {
	if (extensions_added.size() || extensions_removed.size()) { //extensions were added or removed
		Ref<FileAccess> f = FileAccess::open(extension_list_config_file, FileAccess::WRITE);
		for (const String &E : extensions) {
			f->store_line(E);
		}
	}
}

[KoBeWi]

The crash was fixed by #94593. Now exporting results in some errors:

ERROR: Class 'EditorSettings' can only be instantiated by editor.
   at: _instantiate_internal (core/object/class_db.cpp:521)
ERROR: Could not load editor settings from path: C:/Users/Tomek/AppData/Roaming/Godot/editor_settings-4.3.tres
   at: create (editor/editor_settings.cpp:1067)
ERROR: Cannot save project metadata to file 'res://.godot/editor/project_metadata.cfg'.
   at: (editor/editor_settings.cpp:1326)
ERROR: Cannot create file 'res://.godot/editor/filesystem_cache8'. Check user write permissions.
   at: (editor/editor_file_system.cpp:418)
ERROR: This project doesn't have an `export_presets.cfg` file at its root.
Create an export preset from the "Project > Export" dialog and try again.
   at: _fs_changed (editor/editor_node.cpp:1028)

None of them really tell what's the problem, so maybe we could detect this and print a proper error.

[jsjtxietian]

With godot --headless --export-release I still get a crash:

================================================================
CrashHandlerException: Program crashed
Engine version: Godot Engine v4.3.rc.custom_build (3978628c6cc1227250fc6ed45c8d854d24c30c30)
Dumping the backtrace. Please include this when reporting the bug to the project developer.
[0] EditorFileSystem::doing_first_scan (E:\godot\editor\editor_file_system.h:341)
[1] EditorFileSystem::doing_first_scan (E:\godot\editor\editor_file_system.h:341)
[2] Main::iteration (E:\godot\main\main.cpp:4192)
[3] OS_Windows::run (E:\godot\platform\windows\os_windows.cpp:1666)
[4] widechar_main (E:\godot\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:181)
[5] _main (E:\godot\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:206)
[6] main (E:\godot\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:220)
[7] WinMain (E:\godot\platform\windows\godot_windows.cpp:234)
[8] __scrt_common_main_seh (D:\a\_work\1\s\src\vctools\crt\vcstartup\src\startup\exe_common.inl:288)
[9] <couldn't map PC to fn name>
-- END OF BACKTRACE --
================================================================

I think part pf my pr #92783 can solve the unclear log when exporting with godot --headless --export-release "anything",

With it the log looks like

ERROR: Please provide a valid project path when exporting, aborting.
   at: (main\main.cpp:3336)