fix(api): a paused viewer keeps its HLS session, a refused subtitle publish backs off, and a NUL is a 422 everywhere

Deep-review round 4, backend half.

- The periodic HLS reaper (round 3) applied the "finished and unfetched for 30 s" rule that only a
  NEW session request may apply. A remux finishes long before the film, and a paused player with a
  full buffer fetches nothing, so a one-minute pause killed the session and playback died ~30 s after
  resuming. The periodic pass is `reap_abandoned` now (the long idle limit, finished or not).
- A subtitle `publish` that could not keep its output (full / read-only cache volume) returned
  quietly, so every poll queued the window and the whole-container pass again. It reports failure
  and the pass is backed off like a failed read; a cached VTT that cannot be READ is answered
  `unavailable` (`cache_unreadable`) instead of scheduling reads that can never land.
- The subtitle routes bound `rating_key` / `sub_ord` (they become a cache file name: a 250-digit
  one was ENAMETOOLONG, which pathlib's exists() re-raises -> a 500), and the cache helpers no longer
  throw on such a name.
- One app-wide handler turns psycopg's "text fields cannot contain NUL" DataError into a 422: round 3
  guarded only the by-rating_key lookup, and `contains=`, `contains_group=`, reorder/bulk key lists
  and the collection search still 500'd.
- The hand-written `db.get(...) is None -> 404 "Unknown ..."` siblings use `get_or_404` with a
  `what` (channel / video / user), so the Hungarian UI no longer shows English for a gone row.

backend/app/main.py

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ log = logging.getLogger("siftlode.app")
 from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
 from fastapi.responses import FileResponse, HTMLResponse, JSONResponse
 from fastapi.staticfiles import StaticFiles
+from sqlalchemy.exc import DataError
 from starlette.middleware.sessions import SessionMiddleware
 
 from app import state
@@ -109,11 +110,13 @@ async def _reap_hls_sessions() -> None:
     """The periodic reaper plex/stream.py's docstring promises. `reap_idle` used to run only inside
     the NEXT session request, so after the last playback of the day an abandoned session — its
     ffmpeg still working through the film, its directory a whole segmented copy of it — lived until
-    somebody pressed play again or the process restarted."""
+    somebody pressed play again or the process restarted.
+
+    `reap_abandoned`, not `reap_idle`: a finished session is also a paused viewer's."""
     while True:
         await asyncio.sleep(_HLS_REAP_EVERY_S)
         try:
-            await asyncio.to_thread(plex_stream.reap_idle)
+            await asyncio.to_thread(plex_stream.reap_abandoned)
         except Exception:
             log.exception("HLS session reap failed")
 
@@ -147,6 +150,21 @@ async def _validation_error(request: Request, exc: RequestValidationError) -> JS
     )
 
 
+@app.exception_handler(DataError)
+async def _nul_in_text(request: Request, exc: DataError) -> JSONResponse:
+    """A NUL byte in a string the request sent is a 422, on every route at once. Postgres cannot hold
+    NUL in text, so the driver refuses to even send the query — and a `%00` in a query parameter or
+    an escaped NUL in a JSON body (a playlist's `contains=`, a reorder's key list, a collection
+    search) was a 500 with a traceback wherever it reached a comparison. Guarding each site did not
+    hold: round 3 guarded the by-rating_key lookup and missed the rest. Any other DataError is left
+    alone — re-raised, it stays the 500 it always was."""
+    if "NUL (0x00)" not in str(exc.orig):
+        raise exc
+    return JSONResponse(
+        status_code=422, content={"detail": {"code": "invalid_input", "reason": "nul"}}
+    )
+
+
 app.add_middleware(
     SessionMiddleware,
     secret_key=settings.secret_key,

backend/app/plex/lookups.py

@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ def by_rating_key(db: Session, model: type[_M], rating_key: str) -> _M | None:
     tables (PlexItem / PlexShow / PlexSeason / PlexCollection); the return type is that model, so call
     sites keep their `Model | None` static type.
 
-    A key with a NUL in it (`%00` in a path segment) names no row — and Postgres refuses NUL in text,
-    so asking would be a DataError, i.e. a 500, from every route that looks an item up."""
+    A key with a NUL in it (`%00` in a path segment) names no row — a 404, like any unknown key.
+    Postgres refuses NUL in text, so asking would be a DataError; the app-wide handler turns the
+    places that DO ask (lists and filters compared to rating_key) into a 422 (see main.py)."""
     if "\x00" in str(rating_key):
         return None
     return db.execute(select(model).where(model.rating_key == str(rating_key))).scalars().first()

backend/app/plex/stream.py

@@ -820,14 +820,36 @@ def sweep_orphans(older_than: float | None = None) -> int:
     return dropped
 
 
-def reap_idle() -> int:
+# How long a session whose ffmpeg has FINISHED may go unfetched before a new session request reaps
+# it (see reap_idle).
+_FINISHED_IDLE_S = 30
+
+
+def reap_idle(finished_idle_s: float = _FINISHED_IDLE_S) -> int:
+    """Kill sessions nobody has fetched from for `_SESSION_IDLE_S` — or, once their ffmpeg has
+    finished, for `finished_idle_s`.
+
+    The short rule is only safe where a NEW session is being requested (the default, POST /session):
+    a finished session is also what a PAUSED viewer has. A remux runs far faster than realtime, so
+    ffmpeg is done a minute or two in and writes ENDLIST; hls.js then stops asking for the playlist,
+    and with its forward buffer full a paused player fetches nothing at all. The periodic reaper
+    therefore uses `reap_abandoned` — with the 30 s rule, a one-minute pause killed the session and
+    playback died ~30 s after resuming (deep-review round 4). A viewer paused for longer than
+    `_SESSION_IDLE_S` still loses it; the player restarts one at the playhead when a fetch 404s."""
     now = time.time()
     dropped = 0
     with _lock:
         for key, s in list(_sessions.items()):
             done = s.proc.poll() is not None
-            if now - s.last_access > _SESSION_IDLE_S or (done and now - s.last_access > 30):
+            idle = now - s.last_access
+            if idle > _SESSION_IDLE_S or (done and idle > finished_idle_s):
                 _kill(s)
                 _sessions.pop(key, None)
                 dropped += 1
     return dropped
+
+
+def reap_abandoned() -> int:
+    """The periodic reaper's pass: only what nobody has fetched from for `_SESSION_IDLE_S`, finished
+    or not (see reap_idle for why a finished session is not yet an abandoned one)."""
+    return reap_idle(finished_idle_s=_SESSION_IDLE_S)

backend/app/plex/subtitles.py

@@ -207,7 +207,17 @@ def read_meta(key: str) -> tuple[list[list[float]], bool]:
         raw = json.loads(_meta_path(key).read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
         return [[float(a), float(b)] for a, b in raw.get("ranges", [])], bool(raw.get("complete"))
     except (OSError, ValueError, TypeError):
-        return ([[0.0, _FULL_END_S]], True) if _vtt_path(key).exists() else ([], False)
+        return ([[0.0, _FULL_END_S]], True) if _exists(_vtt_path(key)) else ([], False)
+
+
+def _exists(p: Path) -> bool:
+    """`Path.exists` that answers False for a path the OS refuses outright: pathlib swallows only
+    ENOENT-like errors, so an over-long name (ENAMETOOLONG, from an absurd rating_key or ordinal)
+    escaped as a 500 from the status route."""
+    try:
+        return p.exists()
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        return False
 
 
 def _write_meta(key: str, ranges: list[list[float]], complete: bool) -> None:
@@ -305,8 +315,11 @@ def _last_cue_end(vtt: str) -> float:
     return end
 
 
-def publish(key: str, vtt: str, covered: tuple[float, float], complete: bool) -> None:
-    """Merge a freshly extracted region into the cached track and widen its covered ranges.
+def publish(key: str, vtt: str, covered: tuple[float, float], complete: bool) -> bool:
+    """Merge a freshly extracted region into the cached track and widen its covered ranges. False
+    when the region did not land (the cache is unwritable, or the VTT there cannot be read) — the
+    caller must then record a FAILED pass: returning quietly let the next poll schedule the same read
+    again, a whole-container pass every time, while the player said "preparing" for good.
 
     A read-merge-write, so it runs under `_PUBLISH_LOCK`: two jobs publish into the same keys (a
     window and the full pass, and every embedded track of the file rides each of them), and without
@@ -319,7 +332,7 @@ def publish(key: str, vtt: str, covered: tuple[float, float], complete: bool) ->
             # There, but unreadable (`cache_read` swallows the OSError). Merging into "" would replace
             # a whole track with this one region while its sidecar still claimed all of it.
             log.warning("subtitle cache %s unreadable; not publishing into it", key)
-            return
+            return False
         old_ranges, was_complete = read_meta(key)
         if old is None:
             # A sidecar with no VTT behind it claims cues that are not there, so it is not merged
@@ -330,8 +343,10 @@ def publish(key: str, vtt: str, covered: tuple[float, float], complete: bool) ->
             old_ranges, was_complete = [], False
             _write_meta(key, [], False)
         if not cache_write(key, merge_vtt(old or "", vtt)):
-            return  # the region never landed, so the sidecar must not claim it
+            log.warning("subtitle cache %s could not be written", key)
+            return False  # the region never landed, so the sidecar must not claim it
         _write_meta(key, merge_ranges(old_ranges + [list(covered)]), complete or was_complete)
+        return True
 
 
 # --- background extraction ----------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -531,6 +546,12 @@ def ensure(rating_key: str, sub_ord: int, at: float = 0.0) -> dict:
     gen = generation(key)
     if complete and have:
         return {"state": "ready", "code": None, "gen": gen}
+    if not have and _exists(_vtt_path(key)):
+        # On disk but unreadable (permissions, a bad volume): nothing can serve it, and no extraction
+        # can help — `publish` refuses to merge into it, and a job whose sidecar covers the position
+        # skips as already done — so scheduling only kept the player on "preparing" for good. `gen` 0:
+        # there is nothing a <track> could fetch.
+        return {"state": "unavailable", "code": "cache_unreadable", "gen": 0}
     code = _recent_failure(key)
     if code and not covered:
         return {
@@ -616,7 +637,7 @@ def _already_done(key: str, window_start: float | None, at: float) -> bool:
     """A queued job looks again before it reads anything. While it waited, another job may have
     covered it: every embedded track rides each pass over its file, so a window for one language also
     publishes the others."""
-    if not _vtt_path(key).exists():
+    if not _exists(_vtt_path(key)):
         return False
     ranges, complete = read_meta(key)
     return complete or (window_start is not None and covers(ranges, at))
@@ -696,7 +717,8 @@ def _extract_and_publish(rating_key: str, sub_ord: int, window_start: float | No
             # identity is per ITEM (the embedded fan-out shares it), so a sidecar picked while an
             # embedded track's full pass was running sat behind that pass for minutes.
             vtt = _sidecar_vtt(db, want)
-            publish(cache_key(rating_key, sub_ord), vtt, (0.0, _FULL_END_S), True)
+            if not publish(cache_key(rating_key, sub_ord), vtt, (0.0, _FULL_END_S), True):
+                raise SubtitleUnavailable("extract_failed")
             return
         if want.get("index") is None:
             raise SubtitleUnavailable("not_fetchable")
@@ -721,13 +743,16 @@ def _extract_and_publish(rating_key: str, sub_ord: int, window_start: float | No
         # the track read "ready" for good while its subtitles stopped wherever ffmpeg did (the cache
         # has no eviction, so nothing would ever have extracted it again).
         covered_end = end if clean else start + _last_cue_end(vtt)
-        publish(
+        landed = publish(
             key,
             shift_vtt(vtt, -start),  # zero-based window clock → absolute cue times
             (start, covered_end),
             clean and length is None,
         )
-        if not clean:
+        if not landed:
+            # A read that could not be kept is a failed read (see publish) — backed off like one.
+            _pass_failed(rating_key, [key], window_start, (start, end))
+        elif not clean:
             _pass_failed(rating_key, [key], window_start, (covered_end, end))
 
 

backend/app/routes/channels.py

@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ from app.models import (
     User,
     Video,
 )
-from app.routes._common import owned_or_404
+from app.routes._common import get_or_404, owned_or_404
 from app.sync.explore import explore_ingest_page
 from app.sync.runner import backfill_channel_now, run_recent_backfill
 from app.sync.subscriptions import apply_channel_details
@@ -663,8 +663,7 @@ def block_channel(
     """Block a channel for this user: its videos won't appear in their live search (and won't be
     ingested for them) and are hidden from their feed / explore. Idempotent. The now-hidden
     un-kept search/explore videos are reclaimed by the discovery-cleanup job in due course."""
-    if db.get(Channel, channel_id) is None:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Unknown channel")
+    get_or_404(db, Channel, channel_id, what="channel")
     if not _is_blocked(db, user, channel_id):
         db.add(BlockedChannel(user_id=user.id, channel_id=channel_id))
         # Stop any active exploration of it so it can be cleaned up.

backend/app/routes/downloads.py

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ from app.models import (
     MediaAsset,
     User,
 )
+from app.routes._common import get_or_404
 from app.security import hash_password
 from app.userscope import is_messageable_user, messageable_clauses
 from app.utils import iso
@@ -1091,8 +1092,7 @@ def admin_set_quota(
     admin: User = Depends(admin_user),
     db: Session = Depends(get_db),
 ) -> dict:
-    if db.get(User, user_id) is None:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Unknown user")
+    get_or_404(db, User, user_id, what="user")
     cur = quota.resolve(db, user_id)
     row = db.get(DownloadQuota, user_id)
     if row is None:

backend/app/routes/feed.py

@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ from app.models import (
     Video,
     VideoState,
 )
+from app.routes._common import get_or_404
 from app.sync.videos import parse_iso8601_duration
 from app.utils import iso
 from app.youtube.client import YouTubeClient, YouTubeError
@@ -235,8 +236,7 @@ def set_video_state(
     status = body.status
     if status not in VALID_STATES:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail=f"status must be one of {VALID_STATES}")
-    if db.get(Video, video_id) is None:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Unknown video")
+    get_or_404(db, Video, video_id, what="video")
 
     now = datetime.now(timezone.utc)
 
@@ -332,8 +332,7 @@ def set_video_progress(
     if position < 0:
         position = 0
 
-    if db.get(Video, video_id) is None:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Unknown video")
+    get_or_404(db, Video, video_id, what="video")
 
     # Decide whether this position is worth keeping (else clear it).
     near_end = duration > 0 and position > duration - FINISH_MARGIN_SECONDS

backend/app/routes/playlists.py

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from app.sync.playlists import (
     sync_user_playlists,
 )
 from app.ratelimit import RateLimiter
-from app.routes._common import not_found, owned_or_404
+from app.routes._common import get_or_404, owned_or_404
 from app.youtube.client import YouTubeClient, YouTubeError
 
 router = APIRouter(prefix="/api/playlists", tags=["playlists"])
@@ -292,8 +292,7 @@ def add_watch_later(
 ) -> dict:
     """Bookmark shortcut: add a video to the built-in Watch later playlist."""
     video_id = body.video_id
-    if db.get(Video, video_id) is None:
-        raise not_found("video")
+    get_or_404(db, Video, video_id, what="video")
     pl = _watch_later(db, user)
     _add_item(db, pl, video_id, mark_dirty=False)
     return {"saved": True, "playlist_id": pl.id}
@@ -513,8 +512,7 @@ def add_item(
 ) -> dict:
     pl = _own_playlist(db, user, playlist_id)
     video_id = body.video_id
-    if db.get(Video, video_id) is None:
-        raise not_found("video")
+    get_or_404(db, Video, video_id, what="video")
     _add_item(db, pl, video_id, mark_dirty=True)
     return {"playlist_id": pl.id, "video_id": video_id}
 

backend/app/routes/plex/playback.py

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ from fastapi import (
     BackgroundTasks,
     Depends,
     HTTPException,
+    Path,
     Query,
     Request,
     Response,
@@ -95,12 +96,19 @@ def image(rating_key: str, request: Request, variant: str = "thumb") -> Response
 # poster, not for a route that starts reads of the media library: a suspended or "log out
 # everywhere"-revoked cookie kept scheduling them. They are not bursty (one poll a second, one fetch
 # per track), so the DB user-load costs nothing that matters.
+#
+# Both path parameters are bounded, the same way on both routes: they become a cache FILE name
+# (`sub_<rating_key>_<ord>`), and an absurd one — a 250-digit key or ordinal — outgrew the OS's name
+# limit and turned the status poll into a 500. A Plex rating_key is a short number; the bound only
+# has to be generous.
+_RatingKey = Path(max_length=32)
+_SubOrd = Path(ge=0, le=9999)
 
 
 @router.get("/subtitle/{rating_key}/{sub_ord}/status")
 def subtitle_status(
-    rating_key: str,
-    sub_ord: int,
+    rating_key: str = _RatingKey,
+    sub_ord: int = _SubOrd,
     user: User = Depends(current_user),
     # Bounded both ways: a non-finite position used to reach the scheduler's arithmetic and 500, and
     # an absurd one reached ffmpeg's `-ss`, which refused it.
@@ -117,8 +125,8 @@ def subtitle_status(
 
 @router.get("/subtitle/{rating_key}/{sub_ord}")
 def subtitle(
-    rating_key: str,
-    sub_ord: int,
+    rating_key: str = _RatingKey,
+    sub_ord: int = _SubOrd,
     user: User = Depends(current_user),
     # Finite, like every float this router takes: `-inf` crashed the shift (a 500), `nan` stacked
     # every cue at 0. It can legitimately be negative (a subtitle nudged later than the session start).