An artifact says which operating system it is built for

First of the steps in novox/hq ADR 0142, and it ships alone: a new manifest word
reaches the builder and the controller one release before any manifest uses it.

A toolchain deliberately accepts nothing from the module — anything a module
could override there it would be writing a Dockerfile to override — and yet a
compiled binary is per operating system, pinned at link time so a host refuses to
touch a machine it was not built for (ADR 0005). The way out is that the target
belongs to the artifact: one artifact per system, one build each, recipe still the
mesh's.

A bundle in a language that compiles to a binary must name a system, or it would
be built for whatever the build machine happened to be — which reads as portable
and is not. A bundle in a language that runs anywhere may not name one, because a
system that decides nothing reads as though it did. The list is the host's own
names, not a compiler's: the difference between two of them is a C library rather
than a kernel.

Nothing declares a system yet, and no toolchain compiles to a binary yet, so this
changes no build.
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-29 00:54:27 +02:00
parent 6215ff0760
commit 228d0226dd
3 changed files with 156 additions and 0 deletions
+59
View File
@@ -153,6 +153,26 @@ func (b *Build) problems(module string) []string {
"%s: %q is a bundle and says no language, so nothing can choose a compiler "+
"for it", module, a.Name))
}
// **A system, for a language that compiles to a binary** (novox/hq ADR 0142). A binary
// is pinned to one operating system at link time so a host refuses to touch a machine
// it was not built for (novox/hq ADR 0005); an artifact that says nothing would be
// compiled for whatever the build machine happened to be, which reads as portable and
// is not.
if compiled := compilesToABinary(a.Language); compiled && strings.TrimSpace(a.System) == "" {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s: %q is compiled to a binary and says no system, so it would be built for "+
"whatever the build machine happens to be. Declare one artifact per "+
"system: %s", module, a.Name, spokenSystems()))
} else if !compiled && strings.TrimSpace(a.System) != "" {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s: %q names the system %q and is written in %q, which compiles to code that "+
"runs anywhere — a system that decides nothing reads as though it did",
module, a.Name, a.System, a.Language))
} else if compiled && !knownSystem(a.System) {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s: %q is built for %q, and a system is %s",
module, a.Name, a.System, spokenSystems()))
}
} else {
if a.From == "" {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
@@ -193,3 +213,42 @@ func oneOrOther(n int) string {
}
return "them"
}
// Systems the mesh builds binaries for, which is the set a host may be pinned to (novox/hq ADR 0005).
//
// **A closed list, and the host's own, not the compiler's.** These are not the values a Go toolchain
// would call an operating system — the difference between two of them is a C library, not a kernel.
// They are what a machine reports itself to be and what a host is linked to refuse, so the list that
// matters is the one the host understands.
var systems = []string{"alpine", "android", "arch"}
// knownSystem is whether the mesh builds for it.
func knownSystem(system string) bool {
want := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(system))
for _, s := range systems {
if s == want {
return true
}
}
return false
}
// spokenSystems is the list as a refusal says it, so a reader is one edit from right.
func spokenSystems() string {
return strings.Join(systems, ", ")
}
// compilesToABinary is whether this language's bundle is a binary for one operating system rather
// than code that runs wherever its interpreter does.
//
// **Asked of the language, not of the artifact.** A module says what it is written in; what that
// implies is the mesh's to know, exactly as the compiler is (novox/hq ADR 0142). Asking the artifact
// would let two artifacts in one language disagree about whether they are portable.
func compilesToABinary(language string) bool {
switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(language)) {
case "go":
return true
default:
return false
}
}