Files
mesh-controller/internal/catalogue/resolve.go
T
jschoubben 68b0d0c10a What answers a requirement is applied before what asked for it
The host does not sort, so the order written here is the order a machine
applies. Selection walks outward from what was assigned, which puts a consumer
before the thing it pulled in — and a service that reads a file another module
writes then starts before the file exists.

It fails, and the next reconcile fixes it. That is the worst shape a fault can
take: what gets remembered is that it works, and nobody looks again. It is
04-ISSUES/013 one level up from where that was found — there, the mesh's own
computed files came after a module's resources; here, a whole module comes
after the one that needed it.

Nothing had hit it because no module until now both required something with
resources of its own and had a resource depending on it. Writing the resolver
module was what made it reachable, and it would have shown up as dnsmasq
failing once on every fresh machine and working ever after.

Unrelated modules keep the order selection gave them — assigned first, then
what they pulled in. That order is meaningful, and reshuffling it would make
every declaration's diff unreadable for no gain.

Two modules requiring each other are both applied rather than refused: a cycle
is not a machine that cannot work, and refusing would make a cooperating pair
impossible to assign.
2026-08-31 12:54:27 +02:00

637 lines
24 KiB
Go

package catalogue
import (
"errors"
"fmt"
"sort"
"strings"
)
// Resolving is turning "these modules are assigned here" into "this is what the node runs".
//
// It refuses rather than guesses, everywhere. novox/hq ADR 0009: a requirement with several
// answers is refused and named, because counting candidates has no surprising behaviour and a
// solver that picks has to be understood before its answer can be trusted.
// Node is what resolution needs to know about the machine.
type Node struct {
Name string
Site string
// Capabilities the machine actually has, as its profile reported them. Only the present ones
// — a capability that was looked for and not found is the same as one nobody looked for, as
// far as deciding what may run here goes.
Capabilities map[string]bool
// At is this machine's own name on the private network, empty if it is not on one. Needed to
// tell whether it can reach the node answering its requirements at all.
At string
}
// World is what the rest of the mesh already has.
//
// Some requirements cannot be answered on the machine that has them — a database runs somewhere
// and is reached over the network — so resolving one node needs to know what the others offer.
type World struct {
// Held is the claims already taken, for the scopes wider than one node.
Held []Held
// Offered is what other nodes provide at mesh scope, and everything needed to use it.
Offered map[string][]Provider
// Pinned is which node this machine was told to get a provision from, by name. Only consulted
// when more than one node could answer -- a choice recorded before it was needed should not
// start meaning something the day a second provider appears, and one recorded and then made
// unnecessary should not quietly stop applying either.
Pinned map[string]string
// Licences is every provision answered by a **record rather than a node**, by provision name.
//
// novox/hq ADR 0024: a hosted model is on nobody's machine and is reached over the public
// internet, so the rule that refuses two ends sharing no private network must not apply to
// it. These are the candidates a refusal names.
Licences map[string][]Record
// Using is which record this node's modules were put on, keyed by module then provision.
//
// Per consumer, because that is the whole point: saying WHICH licence a given thing uses. Two
// modules on one machine using different accounts is ordinary rather than a collision.
Using map[string]map[string]Record
// Unchecked takes brokered requirements on trust instead of refusing when nothing answers
// them.
//
// For the first of two passes. Working out what a node offers the mesh needs that node
// resolved, and resolving it may need what the mesh offers — so the first pass answers only
// *what does each node offer*, and the second pass answers everything with that in hand. A
// declaration is never built from an unchecked resolution.
Unchecked bool
}
// Record is a provision answered by something the mesh holds rather than by a machine.
//
// The name is the operator's — *the personal account*, *the organisation's* — because the whole
// point is saying which one a consumer uses, and an anonymous credential hanging off a provider
// cannot be said (novox/hq ADR 0024).
type Record struct {
// Name is what a person calls it, and what a consumer is put on.
Name string
// Serves is what a consumer must know that is not secret — a base URL, a model name.
Serves map[string]any
}
// Provider is one node answering a mesh-scoped requirement.
type Provider struct {
// Node is the machine.
Node string
// At is its name on the private network, or empty if it is not on one. The mesh's half of
// the answer: a module can say it serves on port 5432, and only the mesh knows where.
At string
// Serves is what the providing module said a consumer needs to know, settled.
Serves map[string]any
}
// Held is a claim somebody already has, used for the scopes wider than one node.
type Held struct {
Claim string
Scope string
Node string
Module string
Site string
}
// Resolution is what a node should run, and why.
type Resolution struct {
// Node is which machine this was resolved for, so a generator can be asked about it.
Node string
// At is this machine's own name on the private network, empty if it is not on one. Kept
// because a consumer bound to something answered on this same machine still has to be told
// where it is — the answer being local does not make the port guessable.
At string
// Modules in the order they were resolved: assigned first, then what they pulled in.
Modules []Manifest
// Because says why each module is here — assigned, or required by something.
Because map[string]string
// Claims is what this node's set holds, so wider scopes can be checked against it.
Claims []Held
// Needs is what this node's set gets from other nodes. Recorded rather than resolved away,
// because it is where a credential will have to be handed back once there is a mechanism for
// that, and because "what does this machine depend on that is not on it" has no other answer.
Needs []Needed
}
// Needed is one thing this node's set takes from elsewhere in the mesh.
type Needed struct {
// Name is the provision, as required.
Name string
// From is the node providing it.
From string
// At is where that node is on the private network.
At string
// Serves is what the providing module said a consumer needs to know.
Serves map[string]any
// ByRecord means this was answered by something the mesh holds rather than by a machine, so
// there is no node to reach and no private network to share. Its credential comes from
// wherever that record's does, not from the pair-wise secret two machines share.
ByRecord bool
// Sealed is the credential, closed to this node. Filled in after resolving, because whose
// credential it is only becomes answerable once which node answers has been settled.
Sealed string
// For is the module that wanted it.
For string
}
// Refusal is why a set of assignments cannot become a declaration.
//
// Every reason at once rather than the first, and each says what to do about it. A person
// resolving these fixes them in one pass or in four.
type Refusal struct{ Problems []string }
func (r *Refusal) Error() string {
return "these assignments cannot be applied:\n - " + strings.Join(r.Problems, "\n - ")
}
// ErrAmbiguous is returned inside a Refusal when a requirement has more than one answer.
var ErrAmbiguous = errors.New("more than one module provides that")
// Resolve works out everything a node runs, from what was assigned to it.
//
// The catalogue is every module the mesh knows about; assigned is what a person put on this node.
// What comes back is the closure — assigned modules plus everything they require — or a refusal
// naming every reason it could not be closed.
func Resolve(catalogue map[string]Manifest, assigned []string, node Node, world World) (Resolution, error) {
elsewhere := world.Held
var problems []string
// Which names are answered from elsewhere in the mesh rather than from this machine. A
// property of the name, not of each provider: two modules disagreeing about whether a
// database is local would make the same requirement mean different things depending on which
// one happened to answer it.
brokered := map[string]bool{}
local := map[string]bool{}
for _, m := range catalogue {
for _, o := range m.Provides {
if o.At() == ScopeMesh {
brokered[o.Name] = true
continue
}
local[o.Name] = true
}
}
for want := range brokered {
if local[want] {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"the catalogue disagrees about %q: some modules provide it here and others from "+
"anywhere in the mesh, so the same requirement would mean two things", want))
}
}
// What each name can be satisfied by. Built once from the whole catalogue, because "how many
// modules provide this" is the question the whole rule turns on.
offers := map[string][]string{}
for _, m := range catalogue {
for _, o := range m.Offers() {
offers[o] = append(offers[o], m.Module)
}
}
for k := range offers {
sort.Strings(offers[k])
}
chosen := map[string]bool{}
because := map[string]string{}
var order []string
var needs []Needed
// What the set already offers, which is the first thing a requirement is checked against.
//
// Without this, assigning zsh does not satisfy something that requires a shell: the
// requirement is counted against the catalogue, three modules provide it, and the answer is
// still "choose one" after somebody has chosen one. That makes the remedy useless, and it is
// how this read when first used.
satisfied := map[string]bool{}
// Everything a person assigned goes in first. Those are choices already made, and a
// requirement one of them answers is not a choice to put back to anybody.
queue := append([]string{}, assigned...)
for _, a := range assigned {
because[a] = "assigned"
if m, known := catalogue[a]; known {
for _, o := range m.Offers() {
satisfied[o] = true
}
}
}
// What has already been complained about. A requirement can be wanted by several modules at
// once, and saying the same thing twice makes a person hunt for the difference between two
// identical lines before realising there is none.
reported := map[string]bool{}
for len(queue) > 0 {
want := queue[0]
queue = queue[1:]
if chosen[want] || reported[want] {
continue
}
// Already answered by something in the set. This is the case that makes assigning zsh do
// what a person meant by it.
if satisfied[want] && !isModule(catalogue, want) {
continue
}
// Answered from elsewhere in the mesh, if it is that kind of name. **Never installed
// here.** Choosing a machine to put a database on is a decision with consequences
// nobody would want made silently by something resolving a web application.
if brokered[want] {
reported[want] = true
where := world.Offered[want]
names := make([]string, 0, len(where))
for _, p := range where {
names = append(names, p.Node)
}
sort.Strings(names)
take := func(p Provider) {
if node.At != "" && p.At == "" || node.At == "" && p.At != "" || node.At == "" && p.At == "" {
// One of them is not on the private network, so there is no path between
// them. Said here rather than discovered as a connection timing out on a
// machine that the mesh reported as configured.
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s needs %q from %s, and they are not both on the private network — "+
"assign %s to whichever is missing it",
node.Name, want, p.Node, meshNetwork))
return
}
needs = append(needs, Needed{Name: want, From: p.Node, At: p.At,
Serves: p.Serves, For: because[want]})
}
switch {
case world.Unchecked:
// First pass. Whether anything answers this is exactly the question this pass
// exists to make answerable, so it is not asked here.
case len(where) == 0:
remedy := "and nothing in the catalogue could"
if answers := offers[want]; len(answers) == 1 {
remedy = "— assign " + answers[0] + " to a node"
} else if len(answers) > 1 {
remedy = "— assign one of these to a node: " + strings.Join(answers, ", ")
}
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"nothing in this mesh provides %q, wanted by %s %s",
want, because[want], remedy))
case len(where) == 1:
if chosenNode, pinned := world.Pinned[want]; pinned && chosenNode != where[0].Node {
// One provider, and it is not the one this machine was told to use. Silently
// using the other would be the mesh overruling a choice somebody made.
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s was told to get %q from %s, and only %s provides it",
node.Name, want, chosenNode, where[0].Node))
break
}
take(where[0])
default:
chosenNode, pinned := world.Pinned[want]
if !pinned {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%d nodes provide %q, wanted by %s — say which with `pin %s %s <node>`: %s",
len(where), want, because[want], node.Name, want,
strings.Join(names, ", ")))
break
}
var chosen *Provider
for i, w := range where {
if w.Node == chosenNode {
chosen = &where[i]
}
}
if chosen == nil {
// Pointed at a machine that does not answer this. Refused rather than
// falling back to another: a fallback would quietly move somebody's data to
// a machine they did not choose, which is the whole reason this is asked.
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s was told to get %q from %s, and %s does not provide it — these do: %s",
node.Name, want, chosenNode, chosenNode, strings.Join(names, ", ")))
break
}
take(*chosen)
}
continue
}
candidates := offers[want]
switch len(candidates) {
case 0:
if len(world.Licences[want]) > 0 {
// Answered by a record rather than by a module, and the post-pass below settles
// which one. Left alone here: the two questions a refusal must answer — *is
// there anything* and *which one* — have different remedies, and answering the
// first wrongly would send somebody looking for a module to install.
reported[want] = true
continue
}
if world.Unchecked {
// The first pass, which exists only to answer *what does this node offer*.
//
// **Refusing here makes the machine vanish** rather than reporting a problem: the
// caller takes a failed resolution to mean it learned nothing about this node, so
// one unanswerable requirement on one machine removes that machine from the
// private network as far as every OTHER machine is concerned — and they are then
// told, wrongly, that the two of them share no network.
//
// That is a wrong answer about a machine nobody asked about, caused by a fault on
// a third. The second pass refuses it properly, where the question is being asked.
reported[want] = true
continue
}
reported[want] = true
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"nothing provides %q, wanted by %s", want, because[want]))
continue
case 1:
// No choice to make, so none is made. This is the case that lets `install i3` bring
// in xorg without anybody being asked anything.
default:
reported[want] = true
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%q is wanted by %s and %d modules provide it — choose one and assign it: %s",
want, because[want], len(candidates), strings.Join(candidates, ", ")))
continue
}
m := catalogue[candidates[0]]
if chosen[m.Module] {
continue
}
chosen[m.Module] = true
order = append(order, m.Module)
for _, o := range m.Offers() {
satisfied[o] = true
}
if _, ok := because[m.Module]; !ok {
because[m.Module] = fmt.Sprintf("required by %s", because[want])
}
for _, r := range m.Wants() {
if _, ok := because[r]; !ok {
because[r] = m.Module
}
queue = append(queue, r)
}
}
// What is answered by a record rather than by a machine.
//
// A post-pass, deliberately: nothing about it depends on the order requirements were walked
// in, and putting it in the queue would mean the reachability rule — which must not apply
// here — sitting one branch away from a case it would be wrong for.
//
// **Refused when the consumer has not said which.** ADR 0024 warns this will be felt: a mesh
// holding three ways to reach a model refuses every consumer that has not chosen, which is
// correct and is a great deal of saying-which the first time. So the refusal names the
// candidates and the exact command, because being right is not the same as being usable.
for _, name := range order {
m := catalogue[name]
for _, want := range m.Wants() {
offered, byRecord := world.Licences[want]
if !byRecord || len(offered) == 0 {
continue
}
if satisfied[want] {
// Something in this node's own set answers it -- a model the mesh runs itself,
// most obviously. A record is not consulted when there is a local answer.
continue
}
using, said := world.Using[m.Module][want]
if !said {
if world.Unchecked {
continue
}
names := make([]string, 0, len(offered))
for _, r := range offered {
names = append(names, r.Name)
}
sort.Strings(names)
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s on %s needs %q and has not been told which one to use — say which with "+
"`licence use <name> %s %s`: %s",
m.Module, node.Name, want, node.Name, m.Module, strings.Join(names, ", ")))
continue
}
needs = append(needs, Needed{
Name: want, From: using.Name, Serves: using.Serves, ByRecord: true,
// The module that required it, not whatever first mentioned the name: the key is
// sealed per consumer, and a consumer here is a module on a machine.
For: m.Module,
})
}
}
resolution := Resolution{Node: node.Name, At: node.At, Because: because, Needs: needs}
for _, n := range providersFirst(order, catalogue) {
resolution.Modules = append(resolution.Modules, catalogue[n])
}
problems = append(problems, checkCapabilities(resolution.Modules, node)...)
claims, claimProblems := checkClaims(resolution.Modules, node, elsewhere)
problems = append(problems, claimProblems...)
problems = append(problems, checkResources(resolution.Modules)...)
resolution.Claims = claims
if len(problems) > 0 {
sort.Strings(problems)
return Resolution{}, &Refusal{Problems: problems}
}
return resolution, nil
}
// isModule reports whether a name is a module in its own right rather than only something
// modules provide.
//
// A requirement naming a module is not satisfied by something else providing that name: `i3`
// requires `xorg` and means xorg, not "anything calling itself a display server".
func isModule(catalogue map[string]Manifest, want string) bool {
_, ok := catalogue[want]
return ok
}
// checkCapabilities refuses a module the machine cannot run.
//
// Said as a fact about the machine rather than about the module, because that is what it is and
// because nothing can be installed to change it.
func checkCapabilities(modules []Manifest, node Node) []string {
var problems []string
for _, m := range modules {
for _, c := range m.Capabilities {
if !node.Capabilities[c] {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s needs the capability %q and %s does not have it — this is the wrong "+
"machine, not a missing module", m.Module, c, node.Name))
}
}
}
return problems
}
// checkClaims refuses two modules holding one singular thing.
//
// Within this node's own set, and against what is already held elsewhere for the wider scopes. A
// claim at mesh scope is the same idea as the mesh's one hub, said once instead of hard-coded.
func checkClaims(modules []Manifest, node Node, elsewhere []Held) ([]Held, []string) {
var problems []string
var held []Held
byScope := map[string]map[string]string{} // scope → claim → module
for _, m := range modules {
for _, c := range m.Claims {
scope := c.At()
if byScope[scope] == nil {
byScope[scope] = map[string]string{}
}
if other, taken := byScope[scope][c.Name]; taken {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s and %s both claim %q, and only one thing may hold it per %s",
other, m.Module, c.Name, scope))
continue
}
byScope[scope][c.Name] = m.Module
held = append(held, Held{Claim: c.Name, Scope: scope, Node: node.Name,
Module: m.Module, Site: node.Site})
}
}
// And against the rest of the mesh, for the scopes that reach past this machine.
for _, h := range held {
for _, e := range elsewhere {
if e.Node == node.Name || e.Claim != h.Claim || e.Scope != h.Scope {
continue
}
switch h.Scope {
case ScopeMesh:
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s on %s claims %q, which %s on %s already holds — one per mesh",
h.Module, node.Name, h.Claim, e.Module, e.Node))
case ScopeSite:
if node.Site != "" && node.Site == e.Site {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s on %s claims %q, which %s on %s already holds at %s — one per site",
h.Module, node.Name, h.Claim, e.Module, e.Node, node.Site))
}
}
}
}
return held, problems
}
// checkResources refuses two modules writing the same thing.
//
// This costs no manifest field: the mesh already holds every resource of every module, so two
// declaring one path or one unit are visible without either having to know about the other. A
// declared claim is only for the abstract conflicts nothing in the resources reveals.
func checkResources(modules []Manifest) []string {
var problems []string
owner := map[string]string{}
for _, m := range modules {
for _, r := range m.Resources {
for _, field := range []string{"path", "unit", "name", "package"} {
value, ok := r[field].(string)
if !ok || value == "" {
continue
}
key := field + " " + value
if other, taken := owner[key]; taken && other != m.Module {
problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
"%s and %s both declare the %s %q", other, m.Module, field, value))
}
owner[key] = m.Module
}
}
}
return problems
}
// Offers is a list of node-scoped provisions, which is what nearly everything is.
func Offers(names ...string) []Offer {
out := make([]Offer, 0, len(names))
for _, n := range names {
out = append(out, Offer{Name: n})
}
return out
}
// FromAnywhere is a provision answered by whichever node in the mesh runs it.
func FromAnywhere(names ...string) []Offer {
out := make([]Offer, 0, len(names))
for _, n := range names {
out = append(out, Offer{Name: n, Scope: ScopeMesh})
}
return out
}
// meshNetwork is what to assign to a machine that needs to reach another one.
//
// A string here rather than an import, because the private network is a module the control plane
// ships and this package must not depend on the thing it resolves. The name being wrong would
// show up as a refusal naming a module nobody can assign, which a test checks.
const meshNetwork = "networking"
// providersFirst orders a node's modules so that what answers a requirement comes before what
// asked for it.
//
// **The host does not sort** (novox/hq ADR 0005), so the order written here is the order a machine
// applies. Selection walks outward from what was assigned, which puts a consumer before the thing
// it pulled in — and a module whose service reads a file another module writes then starts before
// the file exists.
//
// It fails, and the next reconcile fixes it. That is the worst shape a fault can take: what gets
// remembered is that it works, and nobody looks again
// ([04-ISSUES/013](novox/hq)). This is the same fault one level up from where that was found.
//
// **Stable where nothing requires anything.** Modules with no relation keep the order selection
// gave them, because that order is meaningful — assigned first, then what they pulled in — and a
// sort that reshuffled unrelated modules would make every declaration's diff unreadable.
func providersFirst(order []string, shelf map[string]Manifest) []string {
// Who offers what, among the modules actually chosen.
offeredBy := map[string]string{}
for _, name := range order {
for _, offered := range shelf[name].Offers() {
if _, taken := offeredBy[offered]; !taken {
offeredBy[offered] = name
}
}
}
needs := map[string][]string{}
for _, name := range order {
for _, want := range shelf[name].Wants() {
provider, known := offeredBy[want]
if !known || provider == name {
continue
}
needs[name] = append(needs[name], provider)
}
}
var out []string
placed := map[string]bool{}
var place func(string, map[string]bool)
place = func(name string, visiting map[string]bool) {
if placed[name] {
return
}
if visiting[name] {
// Two modules requiring each other. Left in the order selection gave them rather
// than refused: a cycle here is not a machine that cannot work — both are applied,
// and one of them starts before the other is ready and settles on the next pass.
// Refusing would make a pair of modules that cooperate impossible to assign.
return
}
visiting[name] = true
for _, provider := range needs[name] {
place(provider, visiting)
}
delete(visiting, name)
placed[name] = true
out = append(out, name)
}
for _, name := range order {
place(name, map[string]bool{})
}
return out
}