Megatest

    (if (member cmd '(blah))
      (begin
	(mutex-lock! *send-receive-mutex*)
	(if (not *runremote*)(set! *runremote* (make-remote)))
	(let ((ulex:conn (remote-ulex:conn *runremote*)))
	  (if (not ulex:conn)(remote-ulex:conn-set! *runremote* (rmtmod:setup-ulex *toppath*)))
	  (rmtmod:send-receive-ulex ulex:conn cmd rid params attemptnum area-dat)))
      (rmt:send-receive-orig *default-log-port* runremote *rmt-mutex* areapath *db-multi-sync-mutex* cmd rid params attemptnum: attemptnum area-dat: area-dat))))

;; RA => e.g. usage (rmt:send-receive 'get-var #f (list varname))
;;
;;  add multi-sync-mutex 
;;
(define (rmt:send-receive-orig log-port runremote rmt-mutex toppath multi-sync-mutex cmd rid params #!key (attemptnum 1)(area-dat #f)) ;; start attemptnum at 1 so the modulo below works as expected

  #;(common:telemetry-log (conc "rmt:"(->string cmd))
                        payload: `((rid . ,rid)
                                   (params . ,params)))
                          
  
  ;; do all the prep locked under the rmt-mutex

      (exit 1))

     ;; readonly mode, read request-  handle it - case 2
     ((and readonly-mode
           (member cmd api:read-only-queries)) 
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case 2")
      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd 0 params)
      )

     ;; readonly mode, write request.  Do nothing, return #f
     (readonly-mode (extras-readonly-mode rmt-mutex log-port cmd params))

     ;; This block was for pre-emptively resetting the connection if there had been no communication for some time.
     ;; I don't think it adds any value. If the server is not there, just fail and start a new connection.
     ;; also, the expire-time calculation might not be correct. We want, time-since-last-server-access > (server:get-timeout)
     ;;
     ;; reset the connection if it has been unused too long
     ((and runremote
           (remote-conndat runremote)
	   (> (current-seconds) ;; if it has been more than server-timeout seconds since last contact, close this connection and start a new on
	      (+ (http-transport:server-dat-get-last-access (remote-conndat runremote))
		 (remote-server-timeout runremote))))
      (debug:print-info 0 log-port "Connection to " (remote-server-url runremote) " expired due to no accesses, forcing new connection.")
      (http-transport:close-connections area-dat: runremote)
      (remote-conndat-set! runremote #f) ;; invalidate the connection, thus forcing a new connection.
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (rmt:send-receive-orig log-port runremote rmt-mutex toppath multi-sync-mutex cmd rid params attemptnum: attemptnum))
     

     ;; on homehost and this is a read
     ((and (not (remote-force-server runremote)) ;; honor forced use of server, i.e. server NOT required
	   (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote))       ;; on homehost
           (member cmd api:read-only-queries))   ;; this is a read
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case  5")
      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd 0 params))

     ;; on homehost and this is a write, we already have a server, but server has died
     ((and (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote))           ;; on homehost
           (not (member cmd api:read-only-queries))  ;; this is a write
           (remote-server-url runremote)             ;; have a server
           (not (server:ping (remote-server-url runremote))))  ;; server has died. NOTE: this is not a cheap call! Need better approach.
      (set! *runremote* (make-remote))
      (remote-force-server-set! runremote (common:force-server?))
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case  6")
      (rmt:send-receive-orig log-port runremote rmt-mutex toppath  multi-sync-mutex cmd rid params attemptnum: attemptnum))

     ;; on homehost and this is a write, we already have a server
     ((and (not (remote-force-server runremote))     ;; honor forced use of server, i.e. server NOT required
	   (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote))           ;; on homehost
           (not (member cmd api:read-only-queries))  ;; this is a write
           (remote-server-url runremote))            ;; have a server
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case  4.1")
      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally  log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd 0 params))

     ;;  on homehost, no server contact made and this is a write, passively start a server 
     ((and (not (remote-force-server runremote))     ;; honor forced use of server, i.e. server NOT required
	   (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote))           ;; have homehost
           (not (remote-server-url runremote))       ;; no connection yet
	   (not (member cmd api:read-only-queries))) ;; not a read-only query
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case  8")
      (let ((server-url  (server:check-if-running toppath))) ;; (server:read-dotserver->url toppath))) ;; (server:check-if-running toppath))) ;; Do NOT want to run server:check-if-running - very expensive to do for every write call
	(if server-url
	    (remote-server-url-set! runremote server-url) ;; the string can be consumed by the client setup if needed
	    (if (common:force-server?)
		(server:start-and-wait toppath)
		(server:kind-run toppath))))
      (remote-force-server-set! runremote (common:force-server?))
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case  8.1")
      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally  log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd 0 params))

     ((or (and (remote-force-server runremote)              ;; we are forcing a server and don't yet have a connection to one
	       (not (remote-conndat runremote)))
	  (and (not (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote)))        ;; not on a homehost 
	       (not (remote-conndat runremote))))           ;; and no connection
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case 9, hh-dat: " (remote-hh-dat runremote) " conndat: " (remote-conndat runremote))
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (if (not (server:check-if-running toppath)) ;; who knows, maybe one has started up?
	  (server:start-and-wait toppath))
      (remote-conndat-set! runremote (rmt:get-connection-info toppath)) ;; calls client:setup which calls client:setup-http
      (rmt:send-receive-orig log-port runremote rmt-mutex toppath multi-sync-mutex cmd rid params attemptnum: attemptnum)) ;; TODO: add back-off timeout as

     ;; all set up if get this far, dispatch the query
     ((and (not (remote-force-server runremote))
	   (cdr (remote-hh-dat runremote))) ;; we are on homehost
      (mutex-unlock! rmt-mutex)
      (debug:print-info 12 log-port "rmt:send-receive, case 10")
      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally  log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd (if rid rid 0) params))

     ;; not on homehost, do server query
     (else (extras-case-11 log-port runremote cmd params attemptnum rid)))))

;; bunch of small functions factored out of send-receive to make debug easier
;;

			     (if (> tot 10)
				 (cons newmax-cmd currmax)
				 (cons 'none 0))
			     (loop (car tal)(cdr tal) newmax-cmd currmax)))))))
    (mutex-unlock! *db-stats-mutex*)
    res))

(define (rmt:open-qry-close-locally log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd run-id params #!key (remretries 5))
  (let* ((qry-is-write   (not (member cmd api:read-only-queries)))
	 (db-file-path   (db:dbfile-path)) ;;  0))
	 (dbstruct-local (db:setup #t))  ;; make-dbr:dbstruct path:  dbdir local: #t)))
	 (read-only      (not (file-write-access? db-file-path)))
	 (start          (current-milliseconds))
	 (resdat         (if (not (and read-only qry-is-write))
			     (let ((v (api:execute-requests dbstruct-local (vector (symbol->string cmd) params))))
			       (handle-exceptions ;; there has been a long history of receiving strange errors from values returned by the client when things go wrong..
				exn               ;;  This is an attempt to detect that situation and recover gracefully
				(begin
				  (debug:print0 log-port "ERROR: bad data from server " v " message: "  ((condition-property-accessor 'exn 'message) exn))
				  (vector #t '())) ;; should always get a vector but if something goes wrong return a dummy
				(if (and (vector? v)
					 (> (vector-length v) 1))
				    (let ((newvec (vector (vector-ref v 0)(vector-ref v 1))))
				      newvec)           ;; by copying the vector while inside the error handler we should force the detection of a corrupted record
				    (vector #t '()))))  ;; we could also check that the returned types are valid
			     (vector #t '())))
	 (success        (vector-ref resdat 0))
	 (res            (vector-ref resdat 1))
	 (duration       (- (current-milliseconds) start)))
    (if (and read-only qry-is-write)
        (debug:print 0 log-port "ERROR: attempt to write to read-only database ignored. cmd=" cmd))
    (if (not success)
	(if (> remretries 0)
	    (begin
	      (debug:print-error 0 log-port "local query failed. Trying again.")
	      (thread-sleep! (/ (random 5000) 1000)) ;; some random delay 
	      (rmt:open-qry-close-locally log-port multi-sync-mutex cmd run-id params remretries: (- remretries 1)))
	    (begin
	      (debug:print-error 0 log-port "too many retries in rmt:open-qry-close-locally, giving up")
	      #f))
	(begin
	  ;; (rmt:update-db-stats run-id cmd params duration)
	  ;; mark this run as dirty if this was a write, the watchdog is responsible for syncing it
	  (if qry-is-write
	      (let ((start-time (current-seconds)))
		(mutex-lock! multi-sync-mutex)
		;; (set! *db-last-access* start-time)  ;; THIS IS PROBABLY USELESS? (we are on a client)
                (mutex-unlock! multi-sync-mutex)))))
    res))

(define (rmt:send-receive-no-auto-client-setup connection-info cmd run-id params)
  (let* ((run-id   (if run-id run-id 0))
	 (res  	   (handle-exceptions
		    exn
		    #f