// The lab's base image: how old it is, and rebuilding it (novox/hq issue 698). // // Every bed machine that needs a container runtime is a clone of one base image, `mesh-lab/base`, which // mesh-lab's `base build` makes from the distribution's current image. A machine raised from it carries the // package database the image was built with. On a rolling distribution the mirrors stop serving what an old // database names within weeks, and a bed that installs a package then fails on a 404 that reads as a mirror // outage (novox/hq issue 205; seen 2026-10-14 when genesis-keeps-its-bus installed postgresql-libs from a // database six weeks old). So the lab names the image's age wherever it is asked, refuses a run on an image // older than the bound, and rebuilds the image when asked to. // // **The bound is 14 days** (BASE_MAX_AGE_DAYS). Arch's mirrors keep a package version for as long as it is // current and drop it soon after it is replaced; an image a fortnight old has reliably installed what beds // install, and the one that failed was 44 days old. A rebuild takes minutes, so a short bound costs little; // a run refused is cheaper than a bed that fails an hour in for a reason that is not the change under test. import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process"; /** The image every bed machine with a runtime is raised from, as mesh-lab names it (src/lifecycle/place.ts). */ export const BASE_IMAGE_ALIAS = "mesh-lab/base"; /** How old the base image may be, in days, before a run is refused (see the head of this file). */ export const BASE_MAX_AGE_DAYS = 14; const DAY = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000; export interface BaseImage { alias: string; /** Whether the image is there at all. */ exists: boolean; /** When this machine made it, ISO. */ built?: string; /** Its age in whole days. */ ageDays?: number; /** Why its age could not be read, when it could not. */ problem?: string; } /** * baseImageFrom reads `incus image list --format json`: the image whose aliases hold the base's * name, and when it was made here (its upload, which a publish sets). */ export function baseImageFrom(listed: string | undefined, now: Date): BaseImage { const alias = BASE_IMAGE_ALIAS; if (listed === undefined) return { alias, exists: false, problem: "incus could not list the lab's images" }; let images: Array<{ aliases?: Array<{ name?: string }>; uploaded_at?: string; created_at?: string }>; try { images = JSON.parse(listed); } catch { return { alias, exists: false, problem: "incus listed the lab's images as something that is not JSON" }; } const image = (Array.isArray(images) ? images : []).find((i) => (i.aliases ?? []).some((a) => a.name === alias)); if (!image) return { alias, exists: false }; const made = [image.uploaded_at, image.created_at].map((t) => (t ? Date.parse(t) : NaN)) .find((t) => Number.isFinite(t) && t > 0); if (made === undefined) return { alias, exists: true, problem: "incus gives no time the image was made" }; return { alias, exists: true, built: new Date(made).toISOString(), ageDays: Math.floor((now.getTime() - made) / DAY) }; } /** readBaseImage asks incus, on this machine, for the base image. */ export function readBaseImage(now = new Date()): BaseImage { const listed = spawnSync("incus", ["image", "list", BASE_IMAGE_ALIAS, "--format", "json"], { encoding: "utf8" }); return baseImageFrom(listed.status === 0 ? listed.stdout : undefined, now); } /** The base image's age in one sentence, as lab_check and lab_run say it. */ export function describeBase(b: BaseImage): string { if (b.problem) return `the base image ${b.alias}: its age is not known: ${b.problem}`; if (!b.exists) return `the base image ${b.alias} is not on this machine; rebuild it with lab_base {"rebuild": true}`; return `the base image ${b.alias} was built ${b.built} (${b.ageDays} day(s) ago; the bound is ${BASE_MAX_AGE_DAYS})`; } /** * staleBase is why a run is refused for its base image, or undefined when it is not: an image older than the * bound. An image that is missing or whose age cannot be read is not refused here — a bed that needs it says * so itself, and a bed that does not need it runs. */ export function staleBase(b: BaseImage): string | undefined { if (!b.exists || b.ageDays === undefined || b.ageDays <= BASE_MAX_AGE_DAYS) return undefined; return `the base image ${b.alias} was built ${b.built}, ${b.ageDays} days ago, older than the lab's bound of ` + `${BASE_MAX_AGE_DAYS} days: a bed machine raised from it carries a package database the mirrors no longer serve ` + `(novox/hq issues 205, 698). Rebuild it with lab_base {"rebuild": true}, then run again`; } /** * runRefusal is why lab_run starts no run for the base image, or undefined: a rebuild still going, which * replaces the image a bed raises its machines from, or an image older than the bound. */ export function runRefusal(base: BaseImage, rebuilding?: { id: string; started: string }): string | undefined { if (rebuilding) return `the base image is being rebuilt (${rebuilding.id}, since ${rebuilding.started}); run once lab_base says it is built`; return staleBase(base); }