Found while implementing #6736. Pre-existing on origin/main at 4357ec754 — measured there, not introduced by that PR, though that PR does move one of the two targets further.
The citation
scripts/js-comment-mask.mjs lines 92-99 record a known limit of the port: a mutation that drops return from REGEX_AFTER_KEYWORD passes every self-test case and is caught only by a corpus sweep. It then names the live shapes in this tree that the mutation would misread, as evidence that the limit is not theoretical:
The shape that mutation misreads is live in THIS tree too -- scripts/check-changeset-presence.mjs:555 and scripts/check-doc-links.mjs:616 both write return /.../ today
Both line numbers are wrong
Measured on origin/main at 4357ec754:
| cited | what is actually at that line | where the return-regex shape really is | off by |
|---|
check-changeset-presence.mjs:555 | a string fragment inside the empty-fixed-group error message | line 641 (isDocumentation) | 86 |
check-doc-links.mjs:616 | — | line 723 | 107 |
The shapes themselves are real and still present, so the note's conclusion holds. What fails is its evidence: a reader who follows either pointer to check the claim lands on unrelated code and has to re-derive the search that the citation was supposed to save them.
Why line numbers in cross-file citations are the defect, not the drift
Neither file is unusually churny; the numbers went stale because a line number into another file is a reference with no mechanism keeping it true. Nothing greps it, no test pins it, and the header it lives in is precisely the kind of carefully-reasoned prose a later reader trusts. #6736 shifts check-changeset-presence.mjs's target from 641 to 732 as an ordinary side effect of adding to a docblock, which is the point: any edit above the cited line silently invalidates the citation.
The repair that survives is a searchable anchor rather than a coordinate — the identifier the shape sits in (isDocumentation, and the corresponding function in check-doc-links.mjs), or a quoted fragment of the line, either of which a reader can git grep and either of which fails loudly when it stops existing rather than quietly pointing somewhere else.
Re-derive with
git grep -n "return /" -- scripts/check-changeset-presence.mjs scripts/check-doc-links.mjs
That is its own control: the shape is known-present, so zero hits means the search broke rather than that the shapes are gone.
Found while implementing #6736. Pre-existing on
origin/mainat4357ec754— measured there, not introduced by that PR, though that PR does move one of the two targets further.The citation
scripts/js-comment-mask.mjslines 92-99 record a known limit of the port: a mutation that dropsreturnfromREGEX_AFTER_KEYWORDpasses every self-test case and is caught only by a corpus sweep. It then names the live shapes in this tree that the mutation would misread, as evidence that the limit is not theoretical:Both line numbers are wrong
Measured on
origin/mainat4357ec754:return-regex shape really ischeck-changeset-presence.mjs:555fixed-group error messageisDocumentation)check-doc-links.mjs:616The shapes themselves are real and still present, so the note's conclusion holds. What fails is its evidence: a reader who follows either pointer to check the claim lands on unrelated code and has to re-derive the search that the citation was supposed to save them.
Why line numbers in cross-file citations are the defect, not the drift
Neither file is unusually churny; the numbers went stale because a line number into another file is a reference with no mechanism keeping it true. Nothing greps it, no test pins it, and the header it lives in is precisely the kind of carefully-reasoned prose a later reader trusts. #6736 shifts
check-changeset-presence.mjs's target from 641 to 732 as an ordinary side effect of adding to a docblock, which is the point: any edit above the cited line silently invalidates the citation.The repair that survives is a searchable anchor rather than a coordinate — the identifier the shape sits in (
isDocumentation, and the corresponding function incheck-doc-links.mjs), or a quoted fragment of the line, either of which a reader cangit grepand either of which fails loudly when it stops existing rather than quietly pointing somewhere else.Re-derive with
That is its own control: the shape is known-present, so zero hits means the search broke rather than that the shapes are gone.