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jschoubben 105ae9a56a Issue 169: network-share is the module responsible for a node's network shares — a node role 2026-09-30 13:56:24 +02:00
jschoubben ee801a6441 Issue 169: the consumer half is a module (network-share), not a host resource kind; the access-on-a-mountpoint check is the data-loss case 2026-09-30 13:56:07 +02:00
jschoubben 90b89aa1c9 Issue 169: the consumer's half — the host mounts the share, a mount is a resource of the consuming module, not a client module 2026-09-30 13:53:32 +02:00
jschoubben e33191161d Issue 169: two module-defined seats, and the gap — a seat definition has no neutral home
nfs-share and smb-share share an intent, not a contract; one seat would be
a union with every field optional. What the exemplar exposes is that a
seat declared inside one module cannot be implemented by another without
depending on it.
2026-09-30 13:52:20 +02:00
jschoubben a0a930b1cd Issue 169: file sharing is a core seat, one per protocol
The operator's call: a node-scoped system seat family (node-nfs-share,
node-smb-share, …) defined by the control plane, one per protocol as
package registries are (ADR 0109), so several modules occupy it and a
machine may hold both.
2026-09-30 13:50:31 +02:00
jschoubben 8d9c9ab6b5 Issue 169: a machine shares its files, and the mesh does not know
ace exports the operator's media library over NFS and Samba with host
services no module declares: they close at converge, nothing owns their
configuration, and no module elsewhere can require the share. Proposes a
file-sharing module that accesses the paths, holds a node-scoped seat it
defines, and provides file-share to consumers.
2026-09-30 13:49:25 +02:00
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
---
status: open
opened: 2026-09-30
located-in:
- mesh-catalog (no module shares a path over the network)
- hq 02-DECISIONS (a file-share seat, per ADR 0126, is a module's own to define)
fixed-by:
amended-design:
---
# 169 — A machine shares its files, and the mesh does not know
## What was observed
ace serves the operator's media library to the home network with two host services no module
declares and HAL never managed either:
```
/etc/exports: /storage/media 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,root_squash,…) nfs-server active, :2049
/etc/samba/smb.conf: [media] path = /storage/media/ valid users = media smb active, :139/:445
```
Two LAN clients were connected at survey (2026-09-30). The library itself is operator data
(ADR 0051: ~40 TB on ZFS, the mesh owns nothing about it — [issue 153](../153-an-adopted-machines-data-cannot-be-placed-where-it-is/00-report.md)
is about modules reaching it in place).
Under the mesh as it stands, this arrangement has no expression and one failure mode:
- **Nothing declares the listens.** At `converge ace` the filter is the sum of what modules listen
on (ADR 0045); 2049 and 445 are nobody's, so the shares close — silently, for the two clients
that mount them.
- **Nothing owns the configuration.** `/etc/exports` and `smb.conf` are hand-written files on one
machine; a second machine sharing a directory would be written by hand again.
- **Nothing can consume it.** A module on another node that wanted the library (a player, an
indexer, a backup) has no `requires` to state and no binding to read; it would mount by a
hand-typed host and path.
- The clients are LAN devices, so this also meets [issue 154](../154-a-machines-own-network-is-not-a-reach/00-report.md)
(no reach for the machine's own network).
## The proposal (the operator's, 2026-09-30, settled after two rounds)
**Two module-defined seats, one per protocol, because NFS and SMB share an intent and not a
contract.** A seat in the mesh's sense is a contract — what it accepts, emits and serves, and the
tools its holder must answer (ADR 0126, 0132) — and lined up, the two share almost none of it:
| | `nfs-share` | `smb-share` |
|---|---|---|
| serves | export path(s); the client ranges allowed (`sec=sys` authorises by address) | share name(s), path |
| pair credential | none | a user and password per consumer |
| consumer's mount | `at:/path` | `//at/share` with credentials |
| holder's tools | export / unexport a path for a range | add / remove a share, create a user |
One `file-share` seat would be the union with every field optional — a consumer could bind it and
still not know how to mount what it got (the emptiness ADR 0129 warns against). "Export a path to
the network" is a category, and the mesh needs no seat category: a consumer requires the one it
can mount. If "give me the library, however" is ever needed, it is a provision an umbrella module
serves, not a seat.
Both are node-scoped, one holder per node (ADR 0110), so ace holds both. `nfs` and `samba` are the
first implementations; a second (Ganesha for `nfs-share`, ksmbd for `smb-share`) is what proves
0126's promise that "replacing the implementation changes nothing for any caller".
The holder module:
- declares the exported paths as `accesses` (ADR 0051: it owns nothing about them — never creates,
chowns or removes), and *which* paths as the assignment's settings (ADR 0046/0112);
- writes the share configuration (`/etc/exports`, `smb.conf`) as mesh-managed files and drives the
units, like `dnsmasq`/`sshd` do for theirs;
- declares its endpoints (`nfs` 2049/tcp; `smb` 445/tcp, …) so the reach — internal, or the LAN
once 154 has an answer — is the assignment's, and converge keeps them open;
- **provides** the seat's provision, so a consumer on another node `requires nfs-share` (or
`smb-share`) and reads `${bound:nfs-share:at}` and the path from its binding instead of a
hand-typed mount.
## The design gap this exposes
**A seat definition has no home outside the module that first declared it.** Today a seat is
declared inside a manifest (`showcase` declares `the-showcase`, `ca-trust` its own). If `nfs`
declared `nfs-share`, Ganesha could hold it only by depending on nfs's manifest — the coupling
0126 removed for callers, reintroduced for implementations. The protocol needs a neutral place in
the catalogue beside the modules (a seat definition registered like a manifest), with a module
saying which seats it implements. This is the first role with an obvious second implementation,
which is what makes it the exemplar for that mechanism.
## The consumer's half: a module mounts it (2026-09-30, third and fourth round)
A binding tells a consumer *where* the share is; it does not put the files on its machine. Mounting
is something done on a machine, and something done on a machine is a module's work — not the host's
(the vocabulary stays closed; no `mount` resource kind).
**A consumer-side module, `network-share` — the module responsible for setting up the network
shares a node uses** (the operator's framing). A node role, like `node-uplink` or
`node-dns-resolver`: each machine has it at most once, which is a reason for it to hold a
node-scoped seat, so two modules can never both be writing mount units on one machine. Assigned on
the node that wants the files:
- `requires nfs-share` (or `smb-share`); several shares on one node are several local names of
the requirement (ADR 0094);
- its manifest is a `package` (nfs-utils), a `file` writing a systemd `.mount` unit filled from
the binding — `What=${bound:nfs-share:at}:${bound:nfs-share:path}` — and a `service` enabling it
after the overlay is up: the same shape as `resolv-conf` or `sshd`, files and a unit;
- *where* it mounts is the assignment's setting (`/srv/media` on one machine, elsewhere on
another); which machine mounts what is an operator decision made at assignment, exactly as which
paths a machine shares is.
**The modules that use the files never learn about NFS.** A player, an indexer, a backup declares
the mounted path as an `access` — an operator-chosen, pre-existing path the mesh never owns
(ADR 0051), exactly as `/storage/media` is on ace. The same app manifest then runs on ace against
the local library and on another node against the mounted one, with only its assignment differing.
**The one check to add, because it is the data-loss case.** An `access` is confirmed today by the
path being present. For a mountpoint that is not enough: a writer whose container starts before the
mount is up writes into the empty directory underneath it, and the files vanish when the mount
lands. The access check must confirm the path is *a mountpoint* when the module says so (or the
module's unit is ordered before the consumer's container — which crosses modules and is exactly
what the mesh does not order). Which of the two is the decision's.
**Identity crosses the wire.** `sec=sys` NFS trusts the client's uid, so a consumer must run as the
library's owner on the server (ace: `media`, 1001:2000) — hq 153's `${access:<id>:uid}`, read from
the mounted tree, answers it on the consumer's side too.
## Open questions for the decision
- Whether an NFS export over the overlay is an `internal` reach of the same endpoint or a second
export line — NFS authorises by client address, so the mesh range and the LAN range are two
entries in one file.
- How a consumer's binding expresses a *path* to mount (today bindings carry `at`, `port`, `as` and
whatever the provider `serves`), and whether one share can serve several paths.