mesh/merge-gate head 1835f0efad0f merged into trunk 39e7a06e6293 — pass: builds betterbird, sent nowhere; no bus step; 2 wait(s) for a person; every machin…
mesh/repo-check head 1835f0efad0f merged into trunk 39e7a06e6293 — pass: its merge-check.sh passed, each part in its toolchain: merge-check.sh (go), merge-…
The module owned only the accounts' server fields, so identities, signatures,
calendars, address books, filters and tags could differ between desktop nodes
unseen, and the operator's own preferences were shipped in the catalogue.
prefs becomes one entry per preference (a node's layer overrides one key) and the
defaults file keeps no value of the operator's; identities, calendars,
address-books, filters and tags become settings, adopted like accounts, filters
owned whole per account, and what Betterbird rewrites written only while it is
closed. New tools list each kind, derive the layers from every desktop node and
propose one at a time, and show drift; every answer passes a credential check.
A module that installs Betterbird but leaves every node to its own settings does not set Betterbird up.
The operator approved the configuration on 2026-10-12, and it now ships in three layers. The policy
locks what must never differ: telemetry, add-on updates, the vendor's notices and the start page. A
defaults file carries the laptop's setup, so a fresh node gets it untouched. The setting prefs stays a
node's exceptions.
A default loses to a value the profile saved. betterbird_config shows that drift, betterbird_check
reports it, and betterbird_config_apply clears it while Betterbird is quit. keep proposes a node layer
instead of writing user.js. betterbird_prefs now reads Betterbird's real defaults from omni.ja, and
withholds of mailnews.* only what names an account. The default-client ask is decided from its own
policy entry, not from the first thing the policy lacks.
The user.js answer carried declared addresses and hosts (ADR 0316 §16). An
adopted identity's outgoing server may be shared with an account the module
does not own, whose sending the declared values would change at every start:
refused with the remedy, since ADR 0317 §2 leaves the identity's server and
the lists as they are; a recorded adoption follows the identity's current
server. Owl installed by policy cannot be removed, so a newer Owl than the
pin is a fact whose remedy is moving the pin.
A module that cannot set Betterbird up is of little use (the operator,
2026-10-12). The module now declares the community package absent and
unpacks the pinned upstream release where that package had it, so the same
profile opens; places the enterprise policy that turns Betterbird's updater
off and force-installs Owl from the xpi the mesh pinned by its vendor's
digest (never in a repository); and takes the operator's accounts from the
trusted setting accounts, without any password or token: an account the
profile already holds is adopted under its own keys, a new one is created
under the module's mesh_ keys, an ambiguous one is refused with the remedy,
and the account lists are only written into. betterbird_accounts says the
profile's accounts by count and proposes the setting built from them for the
operator's Approve. Every new build waits for the operator's push. The
reminder test is visibly a test (MESH TEST band, event name) and its
description says it opens a window on the operator's screen.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds new: modules/betterbird, sent nowhere; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it did without (4 of 4 compose)
A composer window whose class is not Betterbird's own was not seen, so a restart could lose its message.
Each step of a restart now has a bound short enough that all of them together, taken in full, stay
under the runtime's 30 s: 3 s for the window tree, 8 s to quit, 3 and 5 s to start, 4 s to see it.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds new: modules/betterbird, sent nowhere; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it did without (4 of 4 compose)
A restart ended Betterbird with whatever a composer held; now it refuses while a Msgcompose window is
open unless discard_unsent says the operator agreed, and answers within the runtime's 30 s. A
preference's value could carry an address, a user%40domain@host URI, a host or the home; those are
masked, recent-folder, account and cloud-file preferences and every add-on preference but the theme's
id are withheld, and a request for everything is refused. A log kept the token after Bearer or Basic.
The reminder test's Betterbird counted as the operator's and left its profile behind when it ended on
its own; it is now left out everywhere and its unit removes the profile when it stops.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds new: modules/betterbird, sent nowhere; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it did without (4 of 4 compose)
A calendar reminder showed as a transparent, empty window on shanks and no tool could say which
window it was or which preferences Betterbird ran with. The module owns one file, the user.js its
setting prefs fills, which its tools place whole into the profile Betterbird uses and never over an
operator's own; it reads named preferences without credentials or accounts, restarts Betterbird under
the user manager so its output reaches the journal, checks what it promises, and shows a reminder on
demand from a throw-away profile so a fix can be proved without the operator's calendar. No package:
betterbird-bin is the AUR's.
jochen
jschoubben