Addon hooks Conflict Finder

Intro

This tool allows the developer or the technician to discover the name of the hook that overrides the result and stops the execution of a given event name.

Available on GitHub: Addon hooks Conflict Finder

The problem

When an event is triggered, all the hooks (callbacks) added to it are executed in an unknown order. If the event name is listed here then this event has a default behavior, probably that from the base gamemode. For user-created event names, the event is triggered manually. If any hook returns a value then the event execution stops, so pending hooks are ignored as well as the default behavior. This can be correct, but some Lua coders make crap and accidentally stop the event execution list. That is why this addon has been created! If you have dozens of addons but do not know where to search for the conflict, this addon will help. This addon does not use hooks so it will always work!

Notes

• Event names and hook names are case-sensitive! • Because the table read order in Lua is unknown, if the failing addons work correctly right after you started the test then you may have to temporary disable the failing addons. • This addon cannot work with event names that are not strings. • This addon will not return a meaningful hook name if it is neither a string nor a number.

Step 1

At first, if you see an addon that obviously has an overridden behavior, look inside of the source code to find the event name. An overridden hook is never called.

-- In an addon, you will see this:
hook.Add( "EventName", "HookName", ThatHookFunction )

-- In the gamemode, you will more likely find this:
function GM:EventName( args )
	-- Something to do after all hooks created with hook.Add() have been executed.
end

Step 2

Once you get the hook that seems not to work, note the event name. The command name is find_conflicts_hook_sv to find a hook conflict serverside, or find_conflicts_hook_cl clientside. Only superadmins can use it serverside.

To start the test, use this command:

find_conflicts_hook_sv "EventName"

To stop the test then, use this:

find_conflicts_hook_sv "EventName" 0

Step 3

The screen will display something like the following each time the specified event gets a hook that returns a value: • for a value returned by a hook created with hook.Add():

Event "EventName", hook "HookName", returned:
	Arg #1 = table: 0x37e5a550

• for a value returned by the gamemode:

Event "EventName", GAMEMODE, returned:
	Arg #1 = table: 0x2c69db10

Step 4

Once you got the hook name that stops the event, you can look into the source code of your addons. The addon name is mostly already given in the reports. Be sure that the selected hook has both the right EventName and the right HookName. It is now up to you to correct / remove the addon that incorrectly stops the event! If you can't find the involved addon, for example with Notepad++ (hotkey Ctrl+Shift+F) you can look into every *.lua and *.gma file in the garrysmod\addons folder (+subfolders) by searching for HookName.

Good luck!