Research 018 graduates: ADRs 0173–0177 and to-be 37, the operator's machine
Every configurable thing on a node is a module, the home included, and a module is whatever it declares (0173, extending 0040). A node varies a module only through a setting rendered into the file or a kept region, never an edit (0174, extending 0011; issue 168 first). One tool runtime per node serves every module's tools on the host side, never in a container; the console is its serving mode, renamed node-tools (0175, extending 0150; 0047/0150/0152 carry dated notes). The login shell is a node seat held by one shell module with `execute` as its contract (0176). A unit may be user-scoped and the service manager is a node seat held by systemd (0177). To-be 37 is handed off in-progress to mesh-host, mesh-controller, mesh-tools and mesh-catalog, with the build in order: the account on every node, the runtime, zsh, systemd, then the graphical stack. To-be 29 keeps ~/.ssh and points at 37; 33 §6 and 34 are amended; the glossary gains node tools, bundle, kept region, installed/holding, and retires flavor.
This commit is contained in:
jochen
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layer: to-be
|
||||
status: in-progress
|
||||
code: [mesh-host, mesh-controller, mesh-tools, mesh-catalog]
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-02
|
||||
decisions:
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0176-the-login-shell-is-a-node-seat-and-execute-is-its-contract.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0040-what-a-module-is.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0126-a-module-declares-its-own-seats.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0132-a-seat-carries-the-tools-its-holder-must-serve.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0161-what-deserves-a-seat.md
|
||||
- 02-DECISIONS/0102-the-mesh-writes-into-a-shared-file-never-over-it.md
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# 37 — The operator's machine
|
||||
|
||||
**Every configurable thing on a node is a module, the home included, and the same catalogue serves
|
||||
a server and a laptop.** One default configuration per module, varied per node by a setting or a
|
||||
kept region; roles a machine has once as node-scoped seats with tool contracts; one tool runtime
|
||||
per node serving every module's tools on the host side
|
||||
([ADR 0173](../../02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md)
|
||||
to [0177](../../02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md)).
|
||||
This is the design [to-be 29](29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) §2 called *a family* and
|
||||
[research 018](../../01-RESEARCH/018-the-operators-machine-as-modules/00-overview.md) measured.
|
||||
|
||||
## 1. What a module of the environment looks like
|
||||
|
||||
Worked on the first one, a shell. The `zsh` module declares:
|
||||
|
||||
- a **package**, `zsh`;
|
||||
- **files under the home**, owned by the account: the shell's rc file with the module's default
|
||||
configuration, carrying a kept region for the operator's own lines, and `${setting:…}`
|
||||
placeholders for the few values a node varies; the account and its home are machine facts the
|
||||
controller resolves ([ADR 0112](../../02-DECISIONS/0112-a-module-definition-names-no-node-mesh-or-path.md),
|
||||
to-be 29 §2);
|
||||
- a **seat declaration**, `login-shell`, node-scoped, with its one verb; and a **claim** on it;
|
||||
- a **`user` shape** naming the shell, applied only where the module holds the seat;
|
||||
- a **tools bundle**, the artifact kind for interpreted code, with `execute` and the module's own
|
||||
`show-config`.
|
||||
|
||||
No container, no unit, no service. It is assigned to every node with an operator account. The
|
||||
`fish` and `bash` modules are the same with another package and other files; one of the three
|
||||
holds the seat on each node.
|
||||
|
||||
The second shape is **system scope**: the login manager declares a package, two files under
|
||||
`/etc`, and a service, which is exactly what the ssh daemon module declares today. The third
|
||||
shape is **graphical**: the window manager declares a package, files under the home, a
|
||||
user-scoped unit or two, a claim on the display-session seat, a dependency on the display server
|
||||
being held, and a bundle with its tools. Nothing in any of them says which machine it is for.
|
||||
|
||||
## 2. Variation
|
||||
|
||||
A node differs from the default in two ways and no other
|
||||
([ADR 0174](../../02-DECISIONS/0174-a-node-varies-a-module-through-settings-and-kept-regions-never-an-edit.md)):
|
||||
a **setting** the module declared, set in the node's layer and rendered into the file; or lines in
|
||||
a **kept region** the file marks. The predecessor's ninety theme variables become the settings of
|
||||
the modules whose files read them. Until the settings record proposed alongside the
|
||||
container-runtime records ships — a setting names the file it lands in — environment modules carry
|
||||
defaults in their files and declare no setting; that is the order, not a preference.
|
||||
|
||||
## 3. The node tools runtime
|
||||
|
||||
One per node, started and restarted by the host as a sibling process, never a container
|
||||
([ADR 0175](../../02-DECISIONS/0175-one-tool-runtime-per-node-serves-every-modules-tools-on-the-host-side.md)).
|
||||
It is the tool runtime that exists, in the role it was written for: it reads the memberships of
|
||||
every module assigned to the node, loads each module's tools bundle, and serves every tool and
|
||||
every held seat's verb on the subjects issued. It holds the node's one bus credential and may call
|
||||
every tool on the mesh. Its serving mode on the machine's loopback is what the console was
|
||||
([to-be 34](34-the-console.md)); the module is renamed **node-tools** and declares the interpreter
|
||||
it needs as a package.
|
||||
|
||||
A bundle reaches the node as any artifact does. A push that adds or replaces one is a reload. A
|
||||
bundle that fails to load is named in the node's report and the others serve. A tool that needs
|
||||
root escalates itself.
|
||||
|
||||
## 4. The seats of the environment
|
||||
|
||||
Decided now: **`login-shell`** (module-declared; zsh, fish, bash; verb `execute`) and
|
||||
**`node-service-manager`** (the mesh's own; systemd; verbs over units in both scopes). The rest
|
||||
are candidates from [research 018](../../01-RESEARCH/018-the-operators-machine-as-modules/04-the-seats-of-the-environment.md),
|
||||
one record each when its first holder is written: display server, display session, terminal
|
||||
emulator, launcher, notifier, compositor, lock screen, bar, login manager, audio, clipboard, boot.
|
||||
Editors, browsers, media players, the agent, the downloads and scripts folders are modules with
|
||||
tools and no seat.
|
||||
|
||||
A module that needs a role filled depends on **the seat being held** on the node, not on a
|
||||
capability: the window manager needs the display server seat held, by xorg or by a compositor
|
||||
that is its own server. Whether a held seat can gate an assignment is the first question the
|
||||
resolver is asked by the second graphical module; the display server itself is gated by the
|
||||
`graphical-session` capability the profile already reports.
|
||||
|
||||
## 5. What the host gains, and what it does not
|
||||
|
||||
- `service` gains `scope: user`, applied as the account
|
||||
([ADR 0177](../../02-DECISIONS/0177-a-unit-may-be-user-scoped-and-the-service-manager-is-a-node-seat.md)).
|
||||
- The host starts and supervises the node tools runtime as it would any host-side process, and
|
||||
delivers bundles as artifacts.
|
||||
- Nothing else. No hooks, no actions: `chsh` is the `user` shape, enabling a unit is the `service`
|
||||
shape, rebuilding boot images is a verb of the boot seat when that seat is written.
|
||||
- A gap, recorded: the `package` shape drives the distribution's package manager and nothing
|
||||
outside its repositories. The login manager in use is such a package; it waits on an official
|
||||
package or a decision the host does not yet have.
|
||||
|
||||
## 6. The order of the build
|
||||
|
||||
1. **The operator account on every node** — `mesh-controller node` with the login name; empty on
|
||||
all four today. Nothing home-scoped composes before it.
|
||||
2. **The node tools runtime** — mesh-host supervises it; mesh-tools serves bundles from memberships
|
||||
and reloads; mesh-controller composes the bundle into the declaration and the memberships to one
|
||||
runtime per node; the catalogue renames the console. Proven when the packet-filter verbs answer
|
||||
from it and its container is gone.
|
||||
3. **`zsh`**, the first environment module: seat, `user` shape, home files, `execute`. Proven on a
|
||||
server first, then every node.
|
||||
4. **`systemd`** and user scope: the host's field, the seat seeded, the module. Proven by the
|
||||
desktop's reload watcher declared `scope: user` on a workstation.
|
||||
5. **The login manager**, system scope, once its package is installable; then the display server,
|
||||
the window manager, and the rest of the graphical stack, each seat its own record.
|
||||
6. **Settings** for the theme knobs, after the settings record ships and issue 168 closes.
|
||||
|
||||
## How it is checked
|
||||
|
||||
| Claim | Checked by |
|
||||
|---|---|
|
||||
| A module with a package, home files, a seat and a bundle resolves and composes on a node with an account, and is refused on one without | the controller's composition tests |
|
||||
| One runtime per node serves every assigned module's tools; a per-module tool container no longer exists | the runtime's tests; `docker ps` on a converged machine |
|
||||
| A user-scoped unit is applied as the account | the host's tests |
|
||||
| A node's difference from a module's default is visible as a setting with a source or a kept region | `mesh-controller.settings`; the host's write-into tests |
|
||||
| The same manifests assign to a server and a workstation; the graphical ones are refused on the server by name | the resolver's tests and the live mesh |
|
||||
|
||||
## References
|
||||
|
||||
- [Research 018](../../01-RESEARCH/018-the-operators-machine-as-modules/00-overview.md)
|
||||
- [To-be 29](29-a-node-has-operator-accounts.md) — the account and the home; this design is the
|
||||
family its §2 names, beyond `~/.ssh`.
|
||||
- [To-be 33](33-the-tools-the-mesh-answers.md), [to-be 34](34-the-console.md) — the tools and
|
||||
the console, amended by ADR 0175.
|
||||
- [To-be 05](05-the-node-host.md) — the host's vocabulary, widened by ADR 0177.
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user