diff --git a/04-ISSUES/142-the-host-is-the-one-thing-the-mesh-does-not-deliver/01-progress.md b/04-ISSUES/142-the-host-is-the-one-thing-the-mesh-does-not-deliver/01-progress.md index cf8c83e..a501f6c 100644 --- a/04-ISSUES/142-the-host-is-the-one-thing-the-mesh-does-not-deliver/01-progress.md +++ b/04-ISSUES/142-the-host-is-the-one-thing-the-mesh-does-not-deliver/01-progress.md @@ -95,3 +95,26 @@ and then read by nothing: it does not reach the compiler, no machine is matched chooses between two artifacts by it. The host built here is x86-64 because the build machine is, not because anything in the declaration said so — correct for this mesh by coincidence. That is [issue 159](../159-an-artifacts-system-is-checked-and-then-ignored/00-report.md). + +## Delivered, started, and one fact short (2026-09-30, later) + +The loop closed. The launcher is delivered as a **file** resource rather than inside the archive, and +that difference is the safety: a file is written atomically — temp file, then rename — so the running +launcher keeps the inode it was started from, where an archive writes in place with truncate and would +cut the script a running shell is reading. The manifest carries a second copy of the launcher and a +test refuses any difference from `packaging/nox-mesh-host-launch`. + +On the workstation, in order: the version landed, the launcher was replaced, the running host saw a +delivered version and stood aside, and after one restart of the unit the launcher started +`/usr/lib/nox-mesh-host/versions/637f65559d16/nox-mesh-host`. **A host the mesh compiled, published, +delivered and started.** + +It would then have refused the first declaration it was asked to apply. The host's Makefile links in +two facts the mesh's toolchain does not, and one of them — the system it was built for — is read before +anything is applied. That is +[issue 161](../161-a-delivered-host-carries-none-of-its-link-time-facts/00-report.md), and the machine +is back on its hand-placed binary until it is answered. + +**The fallback is what made that safe**, and it was not luck: the launcher runs the pinned version, or +the newest delivered one, or the one placed by hand — so moving the delivered versions aside restored +the machine in one step. diff --git a/04-ISSUES/161-a-delivered-host-carries-none-of-its-link-time-facts/00-report.md b/04-ISSUES/161-a-delivered-host-carries-none-of-its-link-time-facts/00-report.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d09a197 --- /dev/null +++ b/04-ISSUES/161-a-delivered-host-carries-none-of-its-link-time-facts/00-report.md @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +--- +status: located +opened: 2026-09-30 +located-in: + - mesh-host cmd/mesh-host/main.go (version and builtFor, both set at link time) + - mesh-controller internal/builder (the toolchain, which deliberately takes nothing from the module) +fixed-by: +amended-design: +--- + +# 161 — A host the mesh built carries none of the facts its Makefile stamps in + +## What was observed + +*2026-09-30, on the workstation, having just made the host self-updating.* + +The mesh compiled the host, published it, delivered it and the launcher started it. It ran, read the +machine correctly, and **would have refused the first declaration it was asked to apply.** + +The host's own Makefile links in two facts: + +``` +LDFLAGS := -s -w -X main.builtFor=$(SYSTEM) -X main.version=$(VERSION) +``` + +The mesh's Go toolchain links in neither, on purpose: a toolchain accepts nothing from the module, +because anything a module could override there it would be writing a Dockerfile to override +([ADR 0142](../../02-DECISIONS/0142-the-mesh-delivers-its-own-components-as-binaries.md)). So a +delivered host has `builtFor = ""` and `version = "development build"`. + +**`builtFor` empty is the one that bites.** Before applying anything, the host asks which system it +was built for: + +```go +sys, err := system.For(builtFor) +``` + +and that answers, for an empty name: + +``` +this host was built for "", which is not a system it knows. Built hosts are: … +``` + +It is called before any resource is applied, so the failure is in the safe direction — the machine is +not half-configured. It is still a host that cannot do its job, and nothing about it looks wrong: the +unit is active, the link to the bus is up, and the log says it is hearing what the node should be. + +Measured: after the crossover the machine logged nothing further, where the previous host had written +a reconcile line every five minutes. + +## Why this was found rather than reported + +Nothing reports it. The host does not check its own stamps at start, the mesh does not ask, and the +declaration that would fail is the same declaration that would deliver a fix — so **a machine in this +state cannot be repaired by the mesh.** It was restored by moving the delivered versions aside and +letting the launcher fall back to the hand-placed binary, which is the fallback working exactly as +designed. + +## What the records already say about half of it + +[ADR 0142](../../02-DECISIONS/0142-the-mesh-delivers-its-own-components-as-binaries.md) settles the +version and its answer is not implemented: + +> A component's version comes from where it sits, not from its linker. It is unpacked into a directory +> named for its version, so it can read its own version from its path. The stamp goes, and with it the +> need for a build to know what it will be called. + +That is exactly right and would also fix what the mesh reports: a delivered host would say +`637f65559d16` rather than `development build`, and +[issue 087](../087-the-controller-cannot-tell-a-host-is-too-old/00-report.md)'s host comparison would +mean something for delivered hosts. + +**The system pin has no answer yet**, and it needs one before any mesh-built host can apply anything. +The tension is real: the target is a property of the artifact and 0142 says so, but a toolchain that +passed it would be linking a value into a variable whose name belongs to the module — which is the +coupling the toolchain exists to avoid. Candidates, none decided: + +- the path carries it as well as the version, so the host reads both from where it sits, as 0142 does + for the version; +- the bundle carries a small file beside the binary saying what it was built for, written by the + builder from the artifact's declaration; +- the host stops being pinned at link time and refuses on a fact it reads from the machine instead — + which changes what [ADR 0005](../../02-DECISIONS/0005-the-node-host.md) decided and is the biggest of + the three. + +## What is true in the meantime + +Self-update works end to end and is one fact short of usable: the mesh builds the host, publishes it, +delivers it to a machine, the running host stands aside, and the launcher starts the delivered one. The +machine is left on its hand-placed binary until this is answered, which is one command to undo. + +## How a fix is checked + +A host the mesh built and delivered applies a declaration on a machine, shown by the machine's own +reconcile line; and it reports a version that names the build it came from rather than a placeholder.