48 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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status: resolved
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opened: 2026-10-02
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located-in:
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- mesh-host
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- 00-META/how-we-build.md
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fixed-by: mesh-host PR #79 (the host's half; who keeps a machine current is still a decision to take)
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amended-design:
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---
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# 205 — A package resource fails against a stale package database, and nothing keeps it fresh
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## What was observed
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2026-10-02. The node tools runtime's manifest declares the interpreter as a package. On three machines
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the package installed. On the control node the host failed the declaration three times and reported the
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machine wrong, stuck:
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```
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applying "node-tools.interpreter": installing nodejs: pacman exited 1:
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error: failed retrieving file 'nodejs-26.5.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from <mirror>: 404
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… (every mirror)
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error: nodejs: signature from "<packager>" is invalid
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```
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The machine's package database was from 24 July, ten weeks earlier; the mirrors had long moved on from
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the version it asked for, and its keyring was as old. The host asks the package manager to install from
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whatever database the machine has and does not refresh it; refreshing on the host's own initiative is
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not safe either, because on a rolling distribution a refreshed database plus a single install is a
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partial upgrade, which the distribution warns against. The way out was a full system upgrade by the
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operator, outside the mesh.
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## Why it matters beyond this instance
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A `package` resource is one of the host's shapes and every environment module leans on it (design 37).
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Its success depends on a machine fact the mesh neither records nor keeps: how old the package database
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is. A machine that has not been upgraded in months fails every new package the mesh declares, with an
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error that reads as a mirror outage. The mesh says the operator's machine is the mesh's
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([ADR 0173](../../02-DECISIONS/0173-the-operators-machine-is-the-meshs-and-a-module-is-what-it-declares.md));
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nothing in it says who keeps the machine current enough for its own declarations to apply, or checks.
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## Questions HQ must answer
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- Is keeping a machine's package database and keyring current a module's job (a `package-manager`
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seat holder with a schedule), the host's, or the operator's — and how is it checked?
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- Should a `package` resource's failure distinguish "the database is stale" from "the mirror is down",
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so the report says what to do?
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