mesh-delivery: a check that answers keeps the hour running, and a started head is unanswered (issue 438)

Review of #195: the clock restarted on any change in what a head waits on, so a
check answering pushed the line back by the time it took; it now restarts only on
a newer ask. A head whose check started was announced, so its line no longer says
unannounced; pending times are given in UTC like the module's other lines.

modules/gitea/README.md

@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ Every new head of an open pull request is announced as `pull.updated`, once, and
   `mesh/repo-check` with neither for ten minutes since it first saw it so is a delivery held past its bound
   (`delivery.<id>.stalled`, state `unannounced`), which the controller raises like any other (issue 347).
   Each of the head's statuses comes with its state and when it was set, so a head whose check started and never
-  answered — a required check pending, or never set beside one that is — is said the same way once that has lasted
-  the delivery table's bound for a check asked and not answered, an hour (issue 438).
+  answered — a required check pending, or never set beside one that is — is said as a stalled line in the state
+  `unanswered` once that has lasted the delivery table's bound for a check asked and not answered, an hour, counted
+  from its first sight and again only when a check is asked anew (issue 438).
 - **How to see it work.** A pull request opened more than a minute after its branch was pushed — this fix's own
   was one, and the announcer it fixes never saw it — has `mesh/merge-gate` pending within a pass of the next sweep
   at the latest, and `mesh-controller.conditions` names none for it.

modules/mesh-delivery/cmd/mesh-delivery/issue438_test.go

@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ func TestAHeadWhoseCheckStartedAndNeverAnsweredIsSaid(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	l := lines[0]
 	if l.ID != IDOf("novox/mesh-controller", "c11222026a3b26a0cc4b277119e1ea059b82a36b") || l.Number != 212 ||
-		l.State != Unannounced || l.Bound != Bounds[Proposed].For.String() || l.For != "1h1m0s" {
+		l.State != Unanswered || l.Bound != Bounds[Proposed].For.String() || l.For != "1h1m0s" {
 		t.Fatalf("the line is not this head's, past the table's bound: %+v", l)
 	}
 	for _, want := range []string{"mesh/merge-gate", "pending since 2026-10-11T00:11:39Z", "mesh/repo-check", "never set",
@@ -73,12 +73,42 @@ func TestAHeadWhoseCheckStartedAndNeverAnsweredIsSaid(t *testing.T) {
 	w.h.PullUpdated(pr("novox/mesh-controller", 212, "c11222026a3b26a0cc4b277119e1ea059b82a36b", "fix/402"))
 	w.h.SeeOpenPulls()
 	for _, l := range w.h.Stalled() {
-		if l.State == Unannounced {
+		if l.State == Unannounced || l.State == Unanswered {
 			t.Fatalf("an announced head is still said unannounced: %+v", l)
 		}
 	}
 }
 
+// **A check that answers does not start the bound again**: merge-gate answers at fifty minutes, repo-check is never
+// set, and the head is said on the bound from this owner's first sight of it, not fifty minutes later.
+func TestACheckThatAnswersDoesNotStartTheBoundAgain(t *testing.T) {
+	w := newWorldOver(t, newMemStore(), newFakeController(), newFakeForge(), time.Date(2026, 10, 11, 0, 12, 5, 0, time.UTC))
+	w.forge.open = openPullsOf(t, startedNeverAnswered)
+	w.h.SeeOpenPulls()
+	w.later(50 * time.Minute)
+	w.forge.open = openPullsOf(t, strings.Replace(startedNeverAnswered, `"state": "pending", "description": "the mesh is mapping`,
+		`"state": "success", "description": "pass: the mesh is mapping`, 1))
+	w.h.SeeOpenPulls()
+	w.later(11 * time.Minute)
+	w.h.SeeOpenPulls()
+	lines := w.h.Stalled()
+	if len(lines) != 1 || lines[0].For != "1h1m0s" || !strings.Contains(lines[0].Says, "mesh/repo-check never set") ||
+		strings.Contains(lines[0].Says, "mesh/merge-gate") {
+		t.Fatalf("a head whose merge-gate answered at fifty minutes is not said at sixty-one on what is left: %+v", lines)
+	}
+}
+
+// A forge time with an offset is said in UTC, as the module's other lines say their times.
+func TestAPendingTimeIsSaidInUTC(t *testing.T) {
+	w := newWorldOver(t, newMemStore(), newFakeController(), newFakeForge(), time.Date(2026, 10, 11, 0, 12, 5, 0, time.UTC))
+	w.forge.open = openPullsOf(t, strings.Replace(startedNeverAnswered, "2026-10-11T00:11:39Z", "2026-10-11T02:11:39+02:00", 1))
+	w.h.SeeOpenPulls()
+	w.later(Bounds[Proposed].For + time.Minute)
+	if lines := w.h.Stalled(); len(lines) != 1 || !strings.Contains(lines[0].Says, "pending since 2026-10-11T00:11:39Z") {
+		t.Fatalf("the pending time is not said in UTC: %+v", lines)
+	}
+}
+
 // A check asked again — its pending status set anew, as a recheck or a new announcement does — starts the bound again:
 // the head is said only once that ask too has gone unanswered past it.
 func TestACheckAskedAgainStartsItsBoundAgain(t *testing.T) {

modules/mesh-delivery/cmd/mesh-delivery/unchecked.go

@@ -24,12 +24,18 @@ import (
 // required check pending or never set is said once that has lasted the delivery table's bound for a check asked and
 // not answered (Bounds[Proposed]): an announced head would be said after that bound too, and it is longer than the
 // controller lets one check run (its checkTimeout, 45 minutes), so a slow check or a status read a moment behind
-// (issue 423) is never said.
+// (issue 423) is never said. Such a head was announced — the controller set its status — so its line is not in the
+// state Unannounced but Unanswered, with words of its own.
 
 // Unannounced is a pull request's head the forge never announced: not a state of the table — no delivery exists —
 // only what a stalled line says.
 const Unannounced State = "unannounced"
 
+// Unanswered is a pull request's head whose merge check started and never answered, and no delivery of it is held
+// here (novox/hq issue 438): not a state of the table either, only what a stalled line says. The word is the table's
+// own for the proposed state's bound: its check was asked and not answered.
+const Unanswered State = "unanswered"
+
 // UncheckedAfter is how long a head may go without a merge check before it is said: the announcer passes every half
 // minute and the check is asked at once, so ten minutes is a fault, never a queue.
 const UncheckedAfter = 10 * time.Minute
@@ -68,16 +74,20 @@ type HeadCheck struct {
 type unchecked struct {
 	pull    OpenPull
 	waiting []string
+	// pending is when each required check that is pending was set so, as the forge says it: what tells a check
+	// asked again from one still waiting on the same ask.
+	pending map[string]string
 	first   time.Time
 }
 
 // unanswered are the merge checks the base requires that the head has no verdict of, each as it reads — "never
-// set", or pending and since when — and whether the head has any merge check at all: its check started. A head on
-// a base that requires none, or without a head, has nothing unanswered.
-func (p OpenPull) unanswered() (waiting []string, started bool) {
+// set", or pending and since when — when each pending one was set so, and whether the head has any merge check at
+// all: its check started. A head on a base that requires none, or without a head, has nothing unanswered.
+func (p OpenPull) unanswered() (waiting []string, pending map[string]string, started bool) {
 	if p.HeadSHA == "" {
-		return nil, false
+		return nil, nil, false
 	}
+	pending = map[string]string{}
 	started = slices.ContainsFunc(mergeChecks, func(c string) bool {
 		return slices.Contains(p.Statuses, c) || p.Checks[c].State != ""
 	})
@@ -93,10 +103,20 @@ func (p OpenPull) unanswered() (waiting []string, started bool) {
 		case !ok || got.State == "":
 			waiting = append(waiting, c+" never set")
 		case got.State == "pending":
-			waiting = append(waiting, c+" pending since "+orUnknown(got.UpdatedAt))
+			pending[c] = utcOf(got.UpdatedAt)
+			waiting = append(waiting, c+" pending since "+orUnknown(pending[c]))
 		}
 	}
-	return waiting, started
+	return waiting, pending, started
+}
+
+// utcOf is a forge time in UTC, as this module's other lines give their times; one it cannot read stays as given.
+func utcOf(at string) string {
+	t, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, at)
+	if err != nil {
+		return at
+	}
+	return t.UTC().Format(time.RFC3339)
 }
 
 func orUnknown(at string) string {
@@ -106,6 +126,18 @@ func orUnknown(at string) string {
 	return at
 }
 
+// askedAgain is whether a required check is pending on a newer ask than when this owner last saw the head: set
+// pending for the first time, set pending anew, or gone back to pending after it answered. A check that answers
+// never is: the head waits on what is left from the same first sight (novox/hq issue 438).
+func askedAgain(was, now map[string]string) bool {
+	for c, at := range now {
+		if before, ok := was[c]; !ok || before != at {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
 // SeeOpenPulls asks the forge for every open pull request and keeps the heads with a required merge check not
 // answered. A forge that cannot be asked changes nothing: what was seen stands, and nothing is guessed.
 func (h *Holder) SeeOpenPulls() {
@@ -119,7 +151,7 @@ func (h *Holder) SeeOpenPulls() {
 	now := h.Now()
 	seen := map[string]unchecked{}
 	for _, p := range open {
-		waiting, _ := p.unanswered()
+		waiting, pending, _ := p.unanswered()
 		if len(waiting) == 0 {
 			continue
 		}
@@ -127,24 +159,24 @@ func (h *Holder) SeeOpenPulls() {
 		if h.deliveries[id] != nil {
 			continue // announced: a delivery with its own bound
 		}
-		// The clock runs from when this owner first saw the head waiting as it waits now: a check that started, or
-		// was asked again — its pending status set anew — is given its whole bound from then.
-		first := now
-		if was, ok := h.unchecked[id]; ok && slices.Equal(was.waiting, waiting) {
-			first = was.first
+		// The clock runs from when this owner first saw the head waiting, and starts again only on a newer ask: a
+		// check that started, or was asked again — its pending status set anew — is given its whole bound from then.
+		// A check that answers does not start it again, so a head is said on the bound from its first sight.
+		u := unchecked{pull: p, waiting: waiting, pending: pending, first: now}
+		if was, ok := h.unchecked[id]; ok && !askedAgain(was.pending, pending) {
+			u.first = was.first
 		} else {
-			u := unchecked{pull: p, waiting: waiting}
 			h.Logf("[mesh-delivery] %s/%s#%d's head %s %s; said if so in %s", p.Owner, p.Repo, p.Number,
 				short(p.HeadSHA), u.what(), u.bound())
 		}
-		seen[id] = unchecked{pull: p, waiting: waiting, first: first}
+		seen[id] = u
 	}
 	h.unchecked = seen
 }
 
 // started is whether the head has any merge check: its check started, rather than was never asked.
 func (u unchecked) started() bool {
-	_, started := u.pull.unanswered()
+	_, _, started := u.pull.unanswered()
 	return started
 }
 
@@ -176,14 +208,16 @@ func (h *Holder) uncheckedLines(now time.Time) []StalledLine {
 		says := fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s#%d is open on %s, which requires the merge check, and its head has had no merge "+
 			"check: the mesh was never asked to check it. A new commit on its branch announces it",
 			u.pull.Owner, u.pull.Repo, u.pull.Number, u.pull.Base)
+		state := Unannounced
 		if u.started() {
+			state = Unanswered
 			says = fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s#%d is open on %s, which requires the merge check, and its head's check started "+
 				"and never answered: %s. No delivery of it is held here, so nothing asks it again. A new commit on "+
 				"its branch announces it and asks its check", u.pull.Owner, u.pull.Repo, u.pull.Number, u.pull.Base,
 				strings.Join(u.waiting, ", "))
 			h2 = "none: no delivery of it is held here, so there is none to close — the operator's"
 		}
-		out = append(out, StalledLine{ID: id, Number: u.pull.Number, State: Unannounced, For: now.Sub(u.first).Round(time.Second).String(),
+		out = append(out, StalledLine{ID: id, Number: u.pull.Number, State: state, For: now.Sub(u.first).Round(time.Second).String(),
 			Bound: u.bound().String(),
 			H2:    h2, Says: says})
 	}