@@ -90,11 +90,11 @@
 (define *send-receive-mutex* (make-mutex)) ;; should have separate mutex per run-id
 
 ;; RA => e.g. usage (rmt:send-receive 'get-var #f (list varname))
 ;;
 (define (rmt:send-receive cmd rid params #!key (attemptnum 1)(area-dat #f)) ;; start attemptnum at 1 so the modulo below works as expected
-
+  (assert *toppath* "FATAL: rmt:send-receive called with *toppath* not set.")
   (if (> attemptnum 2)
       (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "INFO: attemptnum in rmt:send-receive is " attemptnum))
   
   (cond
    ((> attemptnum 2) (thread-sleep! 0.05))
@@ -348,11 +348,11 @@
     res))
 
 (define (rmt:open-qry-close-locally 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))
-	 (dbstructs-local (db:setup #t))  ;; make-dbr:dbstruct path:  dbdir local: #t)))
+	 (dbstructs-local (db:setup #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 dbstructs-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..