The $year template variable was a blind release_date[:4] slice. When
something upstream poisoned release_date with a non-date value — the album
NAME — that slice emitted garbage: 'Mantras (Deluxe)'[:4] -> 'Mant', so
every download landed in 'Mantras (Deluxe) (Mant) [Album]/' instead of
'(2026)' (Tacobell444's screenshot).
Add _extract_year_from_release_date(): returns the leading 4 chars only
when they're a plausible year (isdigit, 1900 < y <= 2100), else ''. Matches
the guard the codebase already uses in soulid_worker._extract_year. A
non-year resolves to '' and the template's existing empty-() cleanup drops
it, so a poisoned release_date can never write rubbish into the path again.
This is the shared post-process path builder
(core/imports/paths.build_final_path_for_track) that DOWNLOADS, reorganize,
and imports all route through, so the guard covers every surface at once.
Defensive fix only — it stops the SYMPTOM regardless of which upstream
writes the album name into release_date. Pinning that upstream needs the
reporter's metadata source + the release_date value from app.log (the
Soulseek + AcoustID + future-dated-album combo is the discriminator);
tracked separately.
Tests (tests/imports/test_import_paths.py): unit coverage for the helper
(real dates kept, names/sentinels/short values rejected) + an integration
test reproducing #745 — a poisoned release_date yields 'Mantras (Deluxe)
[Album]' not '(Mant)' — differential-verified it produces the exact
'(Mant)' folder without the fix. Positive control keeps real (2026). 395
import + reorganize tests green.
BoulderBadgeDad