Features module .info file has "features_exclude" items vs "features" items for no apparent reason (fields can go "missing")

I think this was just introduced with 7.x-2.0-beta2 (release notes). I am not entirely sure what features_exclude[] is for yet but it is discussed in this issue http://drupal.org/node/1064472#comment-7196064

The features_exclude items are a bit confusing. I think we can propose a better name for them. It is also confusing since you only get them when you export via the GUI.

I just got this also.

features_excludes are suppose to be items you've deliberately excluded from having in the feature.. so.. odd that it adds the items you want XD

Could it be that you haven't deleted the featurename.features.field.inc file from your feature?
See http://www.phase2technology.com/blog/new-field-bases-and-instances-in-fe...

I think features should detect and warn users when they have both base/instance and deprecated field export in a feature.

My case happened while making a completely new feature

@RunePhilosof: see #1959076: Features does not remove the several known deprecated files, but as hefox says it isn't relevant to this issue.

This has also been bugging me with text filters - I'll build a feature via the GUI that has all of the pieces I want, then later update via Drush only to have it move some of the filters into features_exclude.

Not sure if this should have been part of this issue but I submitted a separate issue & patch for renaming features_exclude to features_ui_autodetect_exclude here -> #1990290: Rename features_exclude to features_ui_autodetect_exclude (less confusing)

Closed a duplicate: #1993824: features_exclude being generated in info file when not required?

The issue there was that errant lines were being added to the info file, e.g.:

features_exclude[field][node-blog-body] = node-blog-body
features_exclude[field][node-blog-field_blog_image] = node-blog-field_blog_image
features_exclude[field][node-blog-field_categories] = node-blog-field_categories
features_exclude[field][node-blog-title_field] = node-blog-title_field
features_exclude[field][node-blog-field_author] = node-blog-field_author
features_exclude[field][node-blog-field_comment_count] = node-blog-field_comment_count
features_exclude[field][node-blog-field_publish_date] = node-blog-field_publish_date

The field ones are likely coming from a contrib module that hasn't been updated for the field change. I noticed that got added to mine after adding a new component. Can't remember which contrib module it was.

However, seen this outside of 'field'

@hefox: One of the modules that used to do automatically add fields was field_group, but I'm running the patch from #1966624: Feature 7.x-2.0-beta2 defines fields in a new way and still seeing the problem.

That shouldn't be causing this, since

if (!empty($export['features']['field'])) {

would only run if $export[features][field] was already set

(I think I saw them starting to be added when a field_group was added, but looked and saw that ^)

... not contrib :<

function node_features_export($data, &$export, $module_name = '') {
      ..
      $fields = field_info_instances('node', $type);
      foreach ($fields as $name => $field) {
        $pipe['field'][] = "node-{$field['bundle']}-{$field['field_name']}";
        $pipe['field_instance'][] = "node-{$field['bundle']}-{$field['field_name']}";

I don't see any reason it still should be suggested by node anymore. Not sure why we're not automatically switching those using fields to field and field bases (perhaps due to multi uses of the field and only updating one?).

Anyhow posting this here, but think this is only a symptom (though a issue on it's own). If anyone debugs a more features_exclude specific problem and comes up with a patch, I'll open a new issue for this.

Thanks for directing me to this thread, I have read the links provided; my understanding is then that this version of Features has split the field settings into Base and Instance. The problem I am having is that the instance settings (weighting, visibility, etc) that are in code are being overriden by the presence of features_exclude lines which get automatically shoved into the .info file when I recreate/regenerate the feature.

The modules I'm having a problem with are old features (generated over a year ago) with added custom code. Perhaps it would be prudent to rebuild the feature from scratch in 2.0 and re-introduce the custom module code & clean up?

Apologies if I missed something in the thread, but have we a solution for how to stop this behaviour, or is this a bug?

Patch in #14 worked with the different test cases I tried it on. It removes the features_exclude[fields] stuff without affecting features_exclude[fields_base]. So I committed this to 42c003e.

This fixes the original issue, so if there is still any trouble with missing fields, please open a new issue to track it.

Note that some people may be experiencing this #2000238: Convert 'field' to 'field_instance' on features-update (fu) bug

Looks like some of us are a bit too quick for the new UI #2005596: If generate/recreate a feature before autodetection has returned, autodetected items end up in features_exclude

Based on mpotter's fixed message, please leave this closed and look over existing issues/open a new one with more information for additional bugs. This is one of the "several things can produce the same bug" things

I may have not noticed you created this issue XD