A comment-only enabled: line in the server-wide config shadows a later enabled: false #27

An enabled: line in plugins/trace/config.yml whose value is only a comment is treated as the switch, so a later enabled: false is ignored and reporting stays on. A bare enabled: with no comment is treated differently: it is skipped, and a later line becomes the switch.

Where: src/main/java/software/stephenson/trace/TraceClient.java. ENABLED_LINE is ^\s*enabled\s*:\s*(\S+), and parseServerWideConfig keeps the first match as the switch (if (disables == null)).

• enabled: followed by enabled: false: the first line does not match (\S+ needs a character), so the second line is the switch and reporting is off.
• enabled: # set below followed by enabled: false: the first line matches with the capture #. isOff("#") is false, so the first line is the switch, the second is never consulted, and reporting stays on.

Unlike the tags: block and server-id:, the enabled: value is not passed through scalar(), which would strip the trailing comment and return null for a comment-only value. Issue #15 (quoted values) comes from the same missing step, so a fix for one would probably settle both.

Why it matters: this is the server-wide opt-out, and the case fails open. The Javadoc of parseServerWideConfig says "The first enabled: line outside a tags: block is the switch", but a comment-only value and a missing value behave differently today. Admittedly, two enabled: lines in one file is an unusual edit.

Options for the maintainer (this touches the opt-out contract, so it needs a human decision):

• run the enabled: value through scalar() and skip lines whose value is null, so a comment-only line is skipped like a bare one (resolves A quoted enabled: "false" in the server-wide config does not turn reporting off #15 at the same time); or
• keep the behaviour and make the Javadoc say which enabled: lines count.

The current behaviour is pinned by the characterization test serverWideConfig_aValuelessEnabledLineIsSkippedButACommentOnlyOneIsTheSwitch, added in the Stage B test-expansion PR from the same session.

This issue was drafted during a Gardener session (https://github.com/Stephenson-Software/gardener).

drafted by Claude on behalf of Daniel Stephenson