---
status: open
opened: 2026-09-26
located-in: [mesh-host internal/apply]
---

# 126 — a volume path is not in the spec comparison, and a roll-out raced a data move

## What was observed

Landing the "module data lives in /var/lib" change on novox (mesh-catalog #97), two
distinct faults surfaced in one hour:

1. **Building a module with a roll-out upgrade policy IS deploying it.** gitea's policy
   was roll-out; the `build` that registered its repathed manifest sent it to the node
   immediately, which recreated the container mounting the *not-yet-renamed* (empty)
   `/var/lib/gitea/data`. The forge came back as its own install page, fresh host keys
   and all, and every subsequent pipeline build died on `repository not found` — which
   also blocked the fix, since re-registering the other modules needed the forge. The
   operator narrative "build, then move data, then push" is only safe under the record
   policy; nothing warned that one module in the batch would skip the pause.

2. **Changing a container's volume paths does not recreate the container.** After the
   final push, five of the six repathed modules kept their old containers running
   ("Up 13–26 hours") — the new declaration's volume paths differ from the running
   containers' mounts, and the apply judged them current. Same class as mesh-host #27
   (`dns`/`ip` absent from the comparison): a field the comparison does not read is a
   field that can never change a running container. Benign here only because a rename
   on one filesystem preserves the mounted inode — the running containers keep serving
   the same bytes the new path names, and the next natural recreation converges. A
   cross-filesystem move, or a path change to *different* data, would have silently
   split the module between two worlds.

## What would have prevented it

- `build` printing the module's upgrade policy when that policy will act on the result
  ("gitea rolls out on build — the node will receive this immediately"), or a
  `--register-only` flag for exactly this choreography.
- Volumes (and every other container field) in the spec comparison, or the honest
  refusal: "this field changed and I cannot apply it without recreation."

## Recovery that worked

Instant renames both ways broke the circular dependency (forge needed for builds,
builds needed for the push, push needed for the forge): data back to the old path,
old-spec forge started, artifacts rebuilt, data renamed forward, push. Nothing lost;
the install-page junk was discarded twice.