[1.14.x] What does the ordering in mods.toml actually do?

[The_Wabbit]

I'm trying to understand all the bits that you can declare in your mods.toml file and can't seem to get the ordering option for a dependency to have any meaning.

 

I have a mod "B" that depends on mod "A" so I assumed (uh-oh) that if I put "A" as a required dependency for "B" that it would be loaded after; I made the BMod.Amod 'ordering' field equal 'AFTER' as shown below. However, after some testing it seems that things get loaded in any which way as "B" would be created before "A" (I put a hard dependency in B's constructor to use an object created in A's constructor as a test; also logging).  I see no reference to the IModInfo.getOrdering method in the Forge code either. I have tried changing the order in the dependency (BMod.AMod)  to 'BEFORE' and that didn't seem to have any effect.

 

Has anyone tried using dependencies/ordering=AFTER (like for libraries or mod extensions where you really need the first mod created first)?

 

# Find more information on toml format here:  https://github.com/toml-lang/toml
modLoader="javafml"
loaderVersion="[25,)" #(25 is current forge version)
updateJSONURL="http://blabla.org/files/mcmods/versions/b.json"
issueTrackerURL="https://github.com/muserid/bproject/issues"
displayURL="https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/b-mod"
credits="Forge, Donald Trump's Hair"
authors="The_Wabbit"
# Mod List (usually just the one)
[[mods]]
    modId="b"
    version="1.0b1"
    displayName="Bestest Mod Ever"
    # Mod description (multi line!)
    description='''
Something witty said here
'''

# Dependency: BMod.Forge
[[dependencies.BMod]]
    modId="forge"
    mandatory=true
    versionRange="[25,)"
    ordering="NONE"
    side="BOTH"
# Dependency: BMod.Minecraft
[[dependencies.BMod]]
    modId="minecraft"
    mandatory=true
    versionRange="[1.14.3,1.15)"
    ordering="NONE"
    side="BOTH"
# Dependency: BMod.AMod
[[dependencies.BMod]]
    modId="a"
    mandatory=true
    versionRange="[1.0.0b5,2.0)"
    ordering="AFTER"
    side="BOTH"

 

[Draco18s]

I...haven't actually verified that my things are loading in the order I set, but 

https://github.com/Draco18s/ReasonableRealism/blob/1.14.4/src/main/resources/META-INF/mods.toml#L21

[The_Wabbit]

My mods.toml looks similar to yours. Best I can tell from the Forge debug logging: the initial construction of mods is done in parallel, independent of that particular mods.toml setting. For example some real IDE outputs (extendedfoodpantry wants to be loaded AFTER vanillafoodpantry per its mods.toml file).

[09Aug2019 08:48:11.748] [Client thread/DEBUG] [net.minecraftforge.fml.ModList/LOADING]: Dispatching parallel event LifecycleEvent:CONSTRUCT
[09Aug2019 08:48:11.752] [Client thread/TRACE] [net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.ModJarURLHandler/CORE]: Loading modjar...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.047] [modloading-worker-3/DEBUG] [net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer/LOADING]: Loading mod instance extendedfoodpantry of type...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.049] [modloading-worker-3/TRACE] [net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.ModJarURLHandler/CORE]: Loading modjar...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.074] [modloading-worker-1/DEBUG] [net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer/LOADING]: Loading mod instance vanillafoodpantry of type...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.077] [modloading-worker-1/TRACE] [net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.ModJarURLHandler/CORE]: Loading modjar...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.080] [modloading-worker-2/DEBUG] [net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer/LOADING]: Loading mod instance upsizer of type...SNIPPED
[09Aug2019 08:48:12.080] [modloading-worker-2/TRACE] [net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.ModJarURLHandler/CORE]: Loading modjar...SNIPPED

Notice the separate modloading-worker-xxx threads. The mods.toml ordering may only apply to event notification ordering after the mod's instance has been constructed (the ordering of which is undefined). The lesson here might be to put any ordering-dependent referential code into an event callback, not your constructor. Will close this thread once I've tried that...