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[itg]

I've had this problem for the last 7-8 years of my fortress. My dwarves butcher dead animals as normal, but when they run out of corpses that exist, they start trying to butcher some non-existent corpse and they're seriously pissed off that they can't do it. That is to say, I'm getting job cancellation spam. The problem is the same with every dwarf and every butchery. I've scoured the map looking for dead animals the dwarves might want to eat, but I can't find any. I suspect they're trying to butcher a corpse which was destroyed by obsidian casting. I've been working around the problem by keeping the job suspended until I know I have a dead animal, but I'd like to resolve the issue for real. Any ideas?

[Vid_the_Impaler]

Assuming you have a bookkeeper, you can look through the Stocks menu for any corpses or body parts,\.

[lazygun]

Unlikely to be a corpse hidden somewhere in the map, because the job doesn't seem to be auto-assigned unless the corpse is nearby.

Can also be caused by:

• carcass going rotten before being butchered
• multiple butcher shops. Each corpse generates a job in all nearby butcher ships. But clearly can't actually butchered in them all. You get cancel spam once there are no corpses left to butcher
• possibly stockpiles set to feed to a particular butchery are still generating jobs at other workshops.

[NotaPirate]

I've also had problems where my dorfs simply refuse to butcher corpses. The game knows there are butcherable ones out there, but unless said corpse is VERY nearby, or in a refuse stockpile somewhere, said dorfs just go 'nope'

Currently I don't really have a measure for that except for either telling everyone to bring in corpses from outside into stockpiles (including all those damned unbutcherable zombie ones) so that they can butcher them or just turning off auto butcher altogether.

[itg]

I checked all the corpses and body parts through the stocks menu before posting, and I couldn't find anything suspicious. However, I seemed to have stopped the cancellations by using the stocks menu to mass forbid all corpses and body parts. Now I should be able to isolate the problem corpse/part by unforbidding things a little at a time.

[nightwhips]

Good idea. There's a cool technique for this. Undo half at once. No spam? Try half of the half. Spam? You know it's in the half you unforbid. Etc.

It's a little quicker than doing a few at a time, and should allow you to zero in more quickly.

[krenshala]

Good idea. There's a cool technique for this. Undo half at once. No spam? Try half of the half. Spam? You know it's in the half you unforbid. Etc.

It's a little quicker than doing a few at a time, and should allow you to zero in more quickly.

Yup, binary tree search.  It is a 2ⁿ check, and it should only take n (or is it n+1?) checks to get to the specific item causing the problem.

[itg]

Sorry for the necro, but the butchery the cancellation spam has started up again, even after I forbid ALL corpses and body parts in the stocks menu. What could the butchers possibly want?

[WanderingKid]

Do you have workflow enabled (DFHack) and have a repeating job doing this protected by it?

[itg]

I've never used workflow, and as I far as I can tell I haven't enabled it by accident.

[WanderingKid]

If you can, check the job list.  Look for the 'butcher an animal' job or something similar.  Hit (v) to see what it's targetting.  If it's blank, you've got a bugged item on the map that the dorfs just can't locate.  If you can see what it is, head to stocks and try to locate it in corpses or body parts.

[itg]

Checked the job list, and yep, it's blank. Come to think of it, it was blank last time, too. Unfortunately, I've forbidden every single corpse and body part on the stocks menu, one by one, and the spam continues. Any idea how to locate a non-existent item?

[WanderingKid]

I wish I did.  I've got one in my 'store item in stockpile' that's spamming the daylights out of me, and two minecarts showing in stocks that don't exist anymore.

*shrugs*

[Ravendarksky]

just bite the bullet and use my alert replacement program no more butcher spam ever! or seed spam or web collect spam... etc.

I'm working on a new version now which should be out tonight or tomorrow.

[itg]

Sounds interesting. Is there a forum thread you could direct me to?