internal/apply/apply.go

@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ type Outcome struct {
 	wrote string
 	// into is what a file written into held before the mesh's keys (novox/hq ADR 0102).
 	into *store.Into
+	// kept is where this apply kept the original of a file it wrote over (novox/hq ADR 0100).
+	kept string
+	// stateless is a service whose unit's lifecycle is the machine's (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+	stateless bool
 	// reads is, for a container, the digest of each file it was created reading, by path — so
 	// the next apply can say which one changed (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/103).
 	reads map[string]string
@@ -441,20 +445,38 @@ func ApplyKeeping(
 			continue
 		}
 
+		// Where the original of what this file replaced was kept, carried for as long as the
+		// resource is recorded: kept by this apply, by a hold its module's cutover ends, or before.
+		held, wasHeld := known.HeldAt(resource.Identity())
+		kept := outcome.kept
+		if kept == "" && wasHeld {
+			kept = held.Kept
+		}
+		if kept == "" {
+			kept = was.Kept
+		}
 		// Only now. The record follows the fact, never leads it.
 		known.Record(store.Applied{
 			Origin: origin,
 			ID:     resource.Identity(), Type: string(resource.Kind()),
 			Target: outcome.Target, AppliedAt: time.Now().UTC(),
-			Wrote: outcome.wrote,
-			Into:  outcome.into,
-			Reads: outcome.reads,
-			Holds: holds(resource),
+			Wrote:     outcome.wrote,
+			Into:      outcome.into,
+			Kept:      kept,
+			Reads:     outcome.reads,
+			Stateless: outcome.stateless,
+			Holds:     holds(resource),
 		})
-		// Its module has been taken, and what was held for it is now the mesh's.
-		if held, wasHeld := known.HeldAt(resource.Identity()); wasHeld {
+		// Its module has been taken, and what was held for it is now the mesh's. A file written
+		// into, or a service whose lifecycle is the machine's, replaced nothing that was found, so
+		// its outcome says what the apply did, not that a cutover happened; a hold from when it was
+		// declared otherwise goes all the same — here, after the apply worked, so a failed one
+		// keeps the hold and where its original is.
+		if wasHeld {
 			known.Release(held.ID)
-			outcome.Detail = takenDetail(held)
+			if !replacesNothing(resource) {
+				outcome.Detail = takenDetail(held)
+			}
 		}
 		if svc, ok := resource.(*declaration.Service); ok && svc.TakesOver != nil && report.Tunnel != nil {
 			// The found interface is down and the mesh's is up in its place: the tunnel changed
@@ -669,6 +691,9 @@ func applyAccess(r *declaration.Access) (Outcome, error) {
 // keepFound, when not nil, is where the original of a file this host has no record of is kept
 // before it is written over (novox/hq ADR 0100): once, never overwritten, and named in the outcome.
 func applyFile(r *declaration.File, previous store.Applied, unseal Unseal, keepFound Keep) (Outcome, error) {
+	if r.Into == declaration.IntoBlock {
+		return applyBlock(r, previous)
+	}
 	if r.Into != "" {
 		return applyInto(r, previous)
 	}
@@ -837,6 +862,7 @@ func applyFile(r *declaration.File, previous store.Applied, unseal Unseal, keepF
 	default:
 		out.Action = "unchanged"
 	}
+	out.kept = kept
 	if kept != "" {
 		if out.Detail != "" {
 			out.Detail += "; "
@@ -897,6 +923,9 @@ type unitReloader interface {
 
 func applyService(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, r *declaration.Service, run Runner,
 	changed map[string]bool) (Outcome, error) {
+	if r.Stateless() {
+		return reflectOnly(ctx, sys, r, run, changed)
+	}
 	out := begin(r)
 	var changes []string
 
@@ -1007,6 +1036,73 @@ func applyService(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, r *declaration.Service
 	return out, nil
 }
 
+// reflectOnly is a service whose unit's lifecycle is the machine's (novox/hq ADR 0117): nothing is
+// started, stopped, enabled or disabled, and a changed trigger is acted on only where the unit is
+// already running. An inactive unit is left so — started, it would be a second network manager on
+// a machine that uses another — and it reads the change when whatever starts it does.
+func reflectOnly(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, r *declaration.Service, run Runner,
+	changed map[string]bool) (Outcome, error) {
+	out := begin(r)
+	out.stateless = true
+	restart := reflected(r, changed)
+	reload := restartedBy(r.ReloadOn, changed)
+	if len(restart) == 0 && len(reload) == 0 {
+		out.Action = "unchanged"
+		out.Detail = "its lifecycle is the machine's; nothing it reflects changed"
+		return out, nil
+	}
+	state, err := sys.ServiceState(ctx, run, r.Unit)
+	if err != nil {
+		return out, err
+	}
+	if state != "running" {
+		out.Action = "unchanged"
+		out.Detail = "not running; the change applies at its next start"
+		return out, nil
+	}
+	if len(restart) > 0 {
+		// The same as a stated service: the unit's own file may be what changed, and the manager
+		// reads that again only when told to.
+		if u, ok := sys.(unitReloader); ok {
+			if err := u.ReloadUnits(ctx, run); err != nil {
+				return out, fmt.Errorf("reloading the service manager's units for %s: %w", r.Unit, err)
+			}
+		}
+		if err := sys.SetServiceState(ctx, run, r.Unit, "stopped"); err != nil {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("restarting %s: stopping it: %w", r.Unit, err)
+		}
+		if err := sys.SetServiceState(ctx, run, r.Unit, "running"); err != nil {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("restarting %s: starting it again: %w", r.Unit, err)
+		}
+	} else {
+		reloader, ok := sys.(serviceReloader)
+		if !ok {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("%s must be reloaded for %s and this machine's service manager "+
+				"cannot reload a unit", r.Unit, strings.Join(reload, ", "))
+		}
+		if err := reloader.ReloadService(ctx, run, r.Unit); err != nil {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("reloading %s: %w", r.Unit, err)
+		}
+	}
+	// Read back: it was running, and a restart or reload that left it otherwise is a failure —
+	// the machine's network manager down is not a change to report and move past.
+	after, err := sys.ServiceState(ctx, run, r.Unit)
+	if err != nil {
+		return out, err
+	}
+	out.Action = "updated"
+	if len(restart) > 0 {
+		out.Detail = "restarted for " + strings.Join(restart, ", ")
+	} else {
+		out.Detail = "reloaded for " + strings.Join(reload, ", ")
+	}
+	if after != "running" {
+		return out, fmt.Errorf("%s was %s to pick up a change and is %s", r.Unit,
+			strings.Fields(out.Detail)[0], after)
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
 // remove undoes one resource the host applied and the declaration no longer names, and reports
 // what it actually did.
 //
@@ -1049,6 +1145,9 @@ func remove(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, a store.Applied, run Runner)
 		return "removed", "no longer declared, and empty", nil
 
 	case declaration.TypeFile:
+		if a.Into != nil && a.Into.Format == declaration.IntoBlock {
+			return removeBlock(a)
+		}
 		if a.Into != nil {
 			return removeInto(a)
 		}
@@ -1061,6 +1160,12 @@ func remove(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, a store.Applied, run Runner)
 		return "removed", "no longer declared", nil
 
 	case declaration.TypeService:
+		// A unit whose lifecycle was the machine's is left exactly as it is (novox/hq ADR 0117):
+		// stopping it here is how unassigning an uplink module would take down the machine's
+		// network manager, and with it the channel the mesh reaches the machine on.
+		if a.Stateless {
+			return "forgotten", "its state was never the mesh's", nil
+		}
 		// A unit that is no longer declared is stopped, not deleted. The host did not install
 		// it and does not own the unit file — only the state it put the unit into.
 		//

internal/apply/block.go

@@ -0,0 +1,433 @@
+package apply
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"net"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-host/internal/declaration"
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-host/internal/store"
+)
+
+// A file written into a marked block, never over (novox/hq issue 128, ADR 0102).
+//
+// **The file is the machine's; the mesh owns lines in it.** The machine's hosts file is the case
+// that needed it. The mesh wrote it whole — its own header, localhost, the machine's name and every
+// name in the mesh — and on a workstation that file is shared: the distribution's lines, a local
+// development tool's own marked blocks rewritten whenever its projects change, the operator's
+// hand-added names. Written whole, all of those went at the next change to the mesh's names, with
+// no failure anywhere: the tool believed it had written its block, and the mesh believed it owned
+// the file. It is ADR 0102's failure exactly, in a file ADR 0102's JSON verb cannot speak.
+//
+// So the host finds the lines between `# BEGIN mesh <id>` and `# END mesh <id>`, rewrites those and
+// nothing else, and records what they held before. Every line outside the markers is kept byte for
+// byte — including another tool's `# BEGIN …` blocks, which are that tool's. Undeclared, the region
+// is given back what it held, or taken out with its markers when it held nothing, and a file the
+// mesh created goes only if nothing but whitespace is left.
+
+// applyBlock writes a file's declared lines into its region of the file already at its path.
+//
+// **A link stays a link.** Where the path is a symbolic link — a hosts file some distributions keep
+// elsewhere and link into /etc — the file read, written and renamed over is the one it points to,
+// so the link and whatever manages it are left as they were. A file written whole, or into JSON,
+// still replaces a link with a file; that is unchanged here.
+func applyBlock(r *declaration.File, previous store.Applied) (Outcome, error) {
+	out := begin(r)
+	opening, closing := declaration.BlockMarkers(r.ID)
+	want := blockBody(r.Content)
+
+	real, err := realPath(r.Path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return out, err
+	}
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(real)
+	existed := err == nil
+	if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
+		return out, err
+	}
+	// What the file is, taken once with what it holds: its mode and owner are the machine's and
+	// go back onto what is written. A file read and then not there to stat is a failure, never a
+	// file with no owner.
+	var info os.FileInfo
+	if existed {
+		if info, err = os.Stat(real); err != nil {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("read %s and cannot see it: %w", r.Path, err)
+		}
+	}
+	existing := string(raw)
+
+	rec := store.Into{Format: declaration.IntoBlock}
+	var note string
+	rebuilt := false
+
+	// **A file the mesh once wrote whole** (novox/hq issue 128). The resource keeps its id when its
+	// module moves from writing the file whole to writing into it, and the file on the machine is
+	// then the mesh's own old write — its header, its loopback lines, its names. Adding the region
+	// after that would leave the old names above the new ones, and a resolver takes the first
+	// line that answers: the region would be shadowed by what it replaced. So the file is rebuilt:
+	// the original the mesh kept before its first write, with the region in it; or, where the mesh
+	// made the file itself, the loopback lines every machine needs, kept as the machine's, with the
+	// region beside them. Changed since the mesh wrote it, the file is somebody's again and is
+	// written into as it stands, and the outcome says so.
+	if existed && previous.Into == nil && previous.Wrote != "" {
+		if digestOf(existing) == previous.Wrote {
+			if previous.Kept != "" {
+				original, err := os.ReadFile(previous.Kept)
+				if err != nil {
+					return out, fmt.Errorf("%s was written whole by the mesh over an original kept at %s, "+
+						"which cannot be read to give it back: %w; it was left as it is", r.Path, previous.Kept, err)
+				}
+				existing = string(original)
+				note = "the mesh's old whole file replaced by the original kept at " + previous.Kept + ", with the region in it"
+			} else {
+				existing = loopbackOf(existing)
+				rec.Created = true
+				note = "the mesh's old whole file replaced by its loopback lines and the region"
+			}
+			// Not what was read: the whole of it was the mesh's, and the file is written afresh.
+			rebuilt = true
+		} else {
+			note = "a file the mesh once wrote whole, changed since; its old lines were kept"
+		}
+	}
+
+	lines := linesOf(existing)
+	at, found, err := regionIn(lines, opening, closing)
+	if err != nil {
+		// Refused, never guessed at: markers the host cannot pair are markers it cannot write
+		// between without risking lines that are not the mesh's.
+		return out, fmt.Errorf("%s: %w; it was left as it is", r.Path, err)
+	}
+
+	// A record of a block is carried; anything else — no record, a file once written whole, one
+	// once written into as JSON — is a file the host is seeing for the first time as a block.
+	recorded := previous.Into != nil && previous.Into.Format == declaration.IntoBlock
+	if recorded && existed {
+		rec.Created = previous.Into.Created
+		rec.Region = previous.Into.Region
+		rec.Separated = previous.Into.Separated
+		rec.At = previous.Into.At
+		rec.Ended = previous.Into.Ended
+	} else if !rebuilt {
+		// A file gone since the last apply is made again, and made by the mesh: what it held
+		// before went with it, so there is nothing to give back but the file's absence.
+		rec.Created = !existed
+		if found {
+			// **What the host may have written itself is not the machine's** — the same reasoning
+			// as a key in a JSON file (novox/hq ADR 0102). With no record, a region already holding
+			// exactly the declared lines cannot be told from one this host wrote a moment ago and
+			// died before saving; remembered as the machine's, it would be put back on undeclare
+			// for ever. So it is the mesh's, and undeclaring takes it out.
+			if held := at.body(lines); held != want {
+				rec.Region = &held
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Drift: the machine no longer holds, between the mesh's markers, what this host last put
+	// there. Judged only against a record of a block: a digest of a whole file says nothing about
+	// a region of it.
+	drifted := recorded && previous.Wrote != "" && existed &&
+		(!found || digestOf(at.body(lines)) != previous.Wrote)
+
+	var next string
+	switch {
+	case !existed:
+		next = regionOf(opening, closing, want)
+	case found:
+		// Where it is, whatever At says: the region is never moved, because moving it moves the
+		// machine's lines around it.
+		next = strings.Join(lines[:at.begin+1], "") + want + strings.Join(lines[at.end:], "")
+	case r.At == declaration.AtStart:
+		// Above everything, and one blank line between the region and the machine's first line
+		// unless there is one already — a line in some files means what the lines above it say.
+		rec.At, rec.Separated, rec.Ended = declaration.AtStart, false, false
+		next = regionOf(opening, closing, want)
+		if existing != "" && !strings.HasPrefix(existing, "\n") {
+			next += "\n"
+			rec.Separated = true
+		}
+		next += existing
+	default:
+		// At the end, apart from whatever is there: the file's last line is ended if it was not,
+		// and one blank line separates the region from the machine's lines unless there is one.
+		rec.At, rec.Separated, rec.Ended = "", false, false
+		next = existing
+		if next != "" && !strings.HasSuffix(next, "\n") {
+			next += "\n"
+			rec.Ended = true
+		}
+		if next != "" && next != "\n" && !strings.HasSuffix(next, "\n\n") {
+			next += "\n"
+			rec.Separated = true
+		}
+		next += regionOf(opening, closing, want)
+	}
+	// What was not the mesh's is what it was. By construction — and checked, because a slip in
+	// splicing lines is exactly the fault this mode exists to prevent, and it must never be written.
+	if found {
+		after := linesOf(next)
+		if where, ok, err := regionIn(after, opening, closing); err != nil || !ok || outside(after, where) != outside(lines, at) {
+			return out, fmt.Errorf("%s: writing the region would change lines outside it; it was left as it is", r.Path)
+		}
+	}
+
+	same := existed && next == string(raw)
+	if !same {
+		mode := os.FileMode(0o644)
+		if info != nil {
+			mode = info.Mode().Perm() // the machine's file keeps the machine's mode
+		} else if mode, err = modeOf(r.Mode, mode); err != nil {
+			return out, err
+		}
+		if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(real), 0o755); err != nil {
+			return out, err
+		}
+		if err := writeAtomically(real, []byte(next), mode); err != nil {
+			return out, err
+		}
+		if info != nil {
+			// The write is a new file renamed over the old, so it belongs to whoever wrote it. The
+			// machine's file keeps the machine's owner, as it keeps its mode.
+			if err := keepOwner(real, info); err != nil {
+				return out, err
+			}
+		} else if err := own(real, r.Owner); err != nil {
+			return out, err
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Read back: the region holds what was declared. Only the region — another tool writing its
+	// own lines in the moment after the rename is not a failed write. What remains is the moment
+	// between reading the file and renaming over it: a line another tool writes there is lost, and
+	// found again at its next write. Nothing short of a lock every writer honours closes that, and
+	// the other writers of a hosts file honour none.
+	written, err := os.ReadFile(real)
+	if err != nil {
+		return out, fmt.Errorf("wrote into %s and cannot read it back: %w", r.Path, err)
+	}
+	back := linesOf(string(written))
+	if where, ok, err := regionIn(back, opening, closing); err != nil || !ok || where.body(back) != want {
+		return out, fmt.Errorf("%s does not hold the mesh's region after writing into it", r.Path)
+	}
+
+	out.into = &rec
+	out.wrote = digestOf(want)
+	switch {
+	case note != "" && !same:
+		out.Action = "updated"
+		out.Detail = note
+	case !existed:
+		out.Action = "created"
+		out.Detail = "written into; the file was not there"
+	case same:
+		out.Action = "unchanged"
+	case drifted:
+		out.Action = "corrected"
+		out.Detail = "the mesh's region had been changed on the machine; every line outside it was kept"
+	case !found:
+		out.Action = "updated"
+		where := "end"
+		if rec.At == declaration.AtStart {
+			where = "start"
+		}
+		out.Detail = "the mesh's region added at the " + where + "; every other line kept as it was"
+	default:
+		out.Action = "updated"
+		out.Detail = "the mesh's region rewritten; every line outside it kept as it was"
+	}
+	return out, nil
+}
+
+// removeBlock gives back what a file written into a block held before the mesh's region.
+func removeBlock(a store.Applied) (string, string, error) {
+	real, err := realPath(a.Target)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(real)
+	if errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
+		return "forgotten", "no longer there", nil
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	info, err := os.Stat(real)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("read %s and cannot see it: %w", a.Target, err)
+	}
+	opening, closing := declaration.BlockMarkers(a.ID)
+	lines := linesOf(string(raw))
+	at, found, err := regionIn(lines, opening, closing)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "kept", err.Error() + ", so nothing was taken out of it; remove the mesh's region by hand", nil
+	}
+
+	next, action, detail := string(raw), "forgotten", "the mesh's region was no longer in it"
+	switch {
+	case found && a.Into.Region != nil:
+		next = strings.Join(lines[:at.begin+1], "") + *a.Into.Region + strings.Join(lines[at.end:], "")
+		action, detail = "restored", "no longer declared; the region was given back what it held"
+	case found:
+		from, to := at.begin, at.end+1
+		// The blank line the host added beside the region, when a blank line still stands there.
+		// Whether it is the same one the host added cannot be known from the file; a blank line
+		// is the one line whose going changes nothing any program reads, so it is taken. A line
+		// that is not blank is never taken, whoever put it there.
+		if a.Into.Separated {
+			if a.Into.At == declaration.AtStart {
+				if to < len(lines) && lines[to] == "\n" {
+					to++
+				}
+			} else if from > 0 && lines[from-1] == "\n" {
+				from--
+			}
+		}
+		next = strings.Join(lines[:from], "") + strings.Join(lines[to:], "")
+		// And the line end the host gave the machine's last line, if that line is still last.
+		if a.Into.Ended && strings.Join(lines[to:], "") == "" {
+			next = strings.TrimSuffix(next, "\n")
+		}
+		action, detail = "restored", "no longer declared; the mesh's region was taken out and every other line kept"
+	}
+
+	if a.Into.Created && strings.TrimSpace(next) == "" && real == a.Target {
+		if err := os.Remove(real); err != nil {
+			return "", "", err
+		}
+		return "removed", "no longer declared; the mesh had created it and nothing else was in it", nil
+	}
+	if next == string(raw) {
+		return action, detail, nil
+	}
+	if err := writeAtomically(real, []byte(next), info.Mode().Perm()); err != nil {
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	if err := keepOwner(real, info); err != nil {
+		return "", "", err
+	}
+	return action, detail, nil
+}
+
+// realPath is the file a path names, through any links; a path that is not there yet is itself.
+// A link to nothing is refused: writing through it would replace the link with a file.
+func realPath(path string) (string, error) {
+	real, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(path)
+	if err == nil {
+		return real, nil
+	}
+	if _, lerr := os.Lstat(path); errors.Is(lerr, os.ErrNotExist) {
+		return path, nil
+	}
+	return "", fmt.Errorf("%s is a link the host cannot follow to a file: %w; it was left as it is", path, err)
+}
+
+// loopbackOf is the lines of a file that answer for the machine itself — localhost, its own name on
+// 127.0.1.1, ::1 — and nothing else: what the mesh's old whole hosts file carried that the machine
+// needs, without the mesh's header or its names.
+func loopbackOf(text string) string {
+	var b strings.Builder
+	for _, line := range linesOf(text) {
+		fields := strings.Fields(line)
+		if len(fields) < 2 {
+			continue
+		}
+		if ip := net.ParseIP(fields[0]); ip != nil && ip.IsLoopback() {
+			b.WriteString(strings.TrimSuffix(line, "\n") + "\n")
+		}
+	}
+	return b.String()
+}
+
+// outside is every line of a file but the mesh's region, markers included, as one string.
+func outside(lines []string, at region) string {
+	end := at.end + 1
+	if end > len(lines) {
+		end = len(lines)
+	}
+	return strings.Join(lines[:at.begin], "") + "\x00" + strings.Join(lines[end:], "")
+}
+
+// blockBody is the declared lines as they stand in the region: ending in exactly one line end, or
+// nothing at all when there are no lines.
+func blockBody(content string) string {
+	trimmed := strings.TrimRight(content, "\n")
+	if trimmed == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return trimmed + "\n"
+}
+
+func regionOf(begin, end, body string) string {
+	return begin + "\n" + body + end + "\n"
+}
+
+// linesOf splits text into lines that keep their line ends, so joining them again gives back
+// exactly the bytes that were read — a last line without one included.
+func linesOf(text string) []string {
+	return strings.SplitAfter(text, "\n")
+}
+
+// region is where the mesh's markers stand, as indices into the lines of a file.
+type region struct{ begin, end int }
+
+// body is what stands between the markers.
+func (r region) body(lines []string) string {
+	return strings.Join(lines[r.begin+1:r.end], "")
+}
+
+// regionIn finds the mesh's markers for one resource. A line is a marker only if it is exactly the
+// marker, so another tool's block and another resource's region are never it. Markers that do not
+// form one pair — a begin with no end, an end before its begin, either twice — are an error rather
+// than a best guess, because a guess is how the host would rewrite lines that are not its own.
+func regionIn(lines []string, begin, end string) (region, bool, error) {
+	at := region{begin: -1, end: -1}
+	for i, line := range lines {
+		switch strings.TrimSuffix(line, "\n") {
+		case begin:
+			if at.begin >= 0 {
+				return at, false, fmt.Errorf("%q is in it more than once", begin)
+			}
+			at.begin = i
+		case end:
+			if at.end >= 0 {
+				return at, false, fmt.Errorf("%q is in it more than once", end)
+			}
+			at.end = i
+		}
+	}
+	switch {
+	case at.begin < 0 && at.end < 0:
+		return at, false, nil
+	case at.begin < 0:
+		return at, false, fmt.Errorf("%q is in it with no %q before it", end, begin)
+	case at.end < 0:
+		return at, false, fmt.Errorf("%q is in it with no %q after it", begin, end)
+	case at.end < at.begin:
+		return at, false, fmt.Errorf("%q stands before %q", end, begin)
+	}
+	return at, true, nil
+}
+
+// keepOwner gives a file rewritten through a new one back to whoever owned what it replaced.
+// Changed only where it differs, so a host that is not root can still write a file it owns.
+func keepOwner(path string, was os.FileInfo) error {
+	uid, gid, ok := ownerOf(was)
+	if !ok {
+		return nil
+	}
+	now, err := os.Stat(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if u, g, ok := ownerOf(now); ok && u == uid && g == gid {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if err := os.Chown(path, uid, gid); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot give %s back to its owner %d:%d: %w", path, uid, gid, err)
+	}
+	return nil
+}

internal/apply/block_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,618 @@
+package apply
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-host/internal/store"
+)
+
+// Defends novox/hq issue 128 and ADR 0102: a text file the mesh shares with software it did not
+// install is written into a marked block, never over — every line outside the mesh's markers is
+// the machine's and is kept byte for byte, and undeclaring gives the file back.
+
+const namesID = "mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names"
+
+func blockDecl(t *testing.T, path, content string, extra ...string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	more := ""
+	for _, e := range extra {
+		more += "," + e
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":%q,"type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":%q%s}
+	]}`, namesID, path, content, more)
+}
+
+func applyBlockDecl(t *testing.T, raw string, known store.State) (Report, store.State) {
+	t.Helper()
+	report, state, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), parse(t, raw), known, store.OriginDeclared, nil, nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return report, state
+}
+
+func undeclare(t *testing.T, known store.State) (Report, store.State) {
+	t.Helper()
+	report, state, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), somethingElse(t), known, store.OriginDeclared, nil, nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return report, state
+}
+
+func readText(t *testing.T, path string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+	raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	return string(raw)
+}
+
+func marked(id, body string) string {
+	return "# BEGIN mesh " + id + "\n" + body + "# END mesh " + id + "\n"
+}
+
+// A workstation's hosts file, the way issue 128 found it: the distribution's lines, a development
+// tool's own marked blocks, and the operator's hand-added names.
+const workstationHosts = "127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\n" +
+	"127.0.1.1\tg14.localdomain g14\n" +
+	"\n" +
+	"# BEGIN devtool project-a\n" +
+	"127.0.0.1 a.test api.a.test\n" +
+	"# END devtool project-a\n" +
+	"# BEGIN devtool project-b\n" +
+	"127.0.0.1 b.test\n" +
+	"# END devtool project-b\n" +
+	"192.168.1.20 printer   # the operator's\n"
+
+const meshNames = "10.42.0.1 ace\n10.42.0.2 novox\n"
+
+func TestABlockKeepsEveryLineOutsideItsMarkers(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	if err := os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o640); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	report, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	want := workstationHosts + "\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("the file after writing into it:\n%q\nwant\n%q", got, want)
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "updated" {
+		t.Errorf("adding the region was %q", got)
+	}
+	if info, _ := os.Stat(path); info.Mode().Perm() != 0o640 {
+		t.Errorf("the machine's file mode was changed to %o", info.Mode().Perm())
+	}
+	rec, _ := state.Find(namesID)
+	if rec.Into == nil || rec.Into.Format != "block" || rec.Into.Region != nil || rec.Into.Created {
+		t.Fatalf("recorded as %+v", rec.Into)
+	}
+
+	// Again, with nothing changed: nothing written.
+	report, state = applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state)
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "unchanged" {
+		t.Errorf("a second apply was %q", got)
+	}
+
+	// The development tool rewrites its block, and the operator adds a line after the mesh's
+	// region; the mesh's names change. Only the region moves.
+	edited := strings.Replace(readText(t, path), "127.0.0.1 b.test\n", "127.0.0.1 b.test c.test\n", 1) +
+		"10.0.0.5 nas   # added after\n"
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(edited), 0o640)
+	changed := meshNames + "10.42.0.3 shanks\n"
+	report, state = applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, changed), state)
+	want = strings.Replace(edited, marked(namesID, meshNames), marked(namesID, changed), 1)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("rewriting the region moved something else:\n%q\nwant\n%q", got, want)
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "updated" {
+		t.Errorf("rewriting the region was %q", got)
+	}
+
+	// Undeclared: the region, its markers and the blank line the host put before it go; every
+	// other line is where it was.
+	report, _ = undeclare(t, state)
+	want = strings.Replace(edited, "\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames), "", 1)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("undeclaring left:\n%q\nwant\n%q", got, want)
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "restored" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring was %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestUndeclaringABlockAddedAtTheEndGivesTheFileBackExactly(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, original := range map[string]string{
+		"ending in a line":       "127.0.0.1 localhost\n",
+		"ending in a blank line": "127.0.0.1 localhost\n\n",
+		"empty":                  "",
+	} {
+		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+			_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original), 0o644)
+			_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+			undeclare(t, state)
+			if got := readText(t, path); got != original {
+				t.Errorf("undeclaring left %q, the machine had %q", got, original)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestABlockAddedAtTheEndIsSetApartFromTheMachinesLines(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, c := range map[string]struct{ before, after string }{
+		"no line end":            {"127.0.0.1 localhost", "127.0.0.1 localhost\n\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+		"a line end":             {"127.0.0.1 localhost\n", "127.0.0.1 localhost\n\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+		"a blank line already":   {"127.0.0.1 localhost\n\n", "127.0.0.1 localhost\n\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+		"empty":                  {"", marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+		"only a blank line":      {"\n", "\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+		"content without an end": {"x\n\n", "x\n\n" + marked(namesID, meshNames)},
+	} {
+		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+			_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(c.before), 0o644)
+			applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+			if got := readText(t, path); got != c.after {
+				t.Errorf("got %q, want %q", got, c.after)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestTheRegionEndsInExactlyOneLineEnd(t *testing.T) {
+	for content, body := range map[string]string{
+		"10.42.0.1 ace":       "10.42.0.1 ace\n",
+		"10.42.0.1 ace\n":     "10.42.0.1 ace\n",
+		"10.42.0.1 ace\n\n\n": "10.42.0.1 ace\n",
+		"":                    "",
+		"\n\n":                "",
+	} {
+		path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+		_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, content), store.State{})
+		if got := readText(t, path); got != marked(namesID, body) {
+			t.Errorf("content %q was written as %q", content, got)
+		}
+		// And the same content again is not a change.
+		report, _ := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, content), state)
+		if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "unchanged" {
+			t.Errorf("content %q applied twice was %q", content, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestARegionAlreadyThereIsRewrittenInPlaceAndGivenBack(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	before := "127.0.0.1 localhost\n"
+	after := "# BEGIN devtool x\n127.0.0.1 x.test\n# END devtool x\n192.168.1.20 printer\n"
+	found := "10.42.0.9 old-name\n"
+	original := before + marked(namesID, found) + after
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original), 0o644)
+
+	report, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != before+marked(namesID, meshNames)+after {
+		t.Fatalf("the region was not rewritten in place: %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "updated" {
+		t.Errorf("rewriting a found region was %q", got)
+	}
+	rec, _ := state.Find(namesID)
+	if rec.Into.Region == nil || *rec.Into.Region != found {
+		t.Fatalf("what the region held before was recorded as %v", rec.Into.Region)
+	}
+
+	// Undeclared: what the region held goes back, where it was.
+	report, _ = undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != original {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring left %q, the machine had %q", got, original)
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "restored" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring was %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestARegionWithNoRecordHoldingExactlyTheDeclaredLinesIsTheMeshs(t *testing.T) {
+	// A host that wrote the region and died before saving its state: what is between the markers
+	// is exactly what the mesh declares, and remembered as the machine's it would never go.
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	original := "127.0.0.1 localhost\n"
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames)), 0o644)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	if rec, _ := state.Find(namesID); rec.Into.Region != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("the mesh's own lines were recorded as the machine's: %q", *rec.Into.Region)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); !strings.HasPrefix(got, original) || strings.Contains(got, "BEGIN mesh") {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring left the mesh's region behind: %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestADriftedRegionIsCorrected(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	written := readText(t, path)
+
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(strings.Replace(written, "10.42.0.2 novox\n", "10.42.0.2 novox\n6.6.6.6 evil\n", 1)), 0o644)
+	report, _ := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state)
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "corrected" {
+		t.Errorf("a region edited on the machine was %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != written {
+		t.Errorf("the region was not put back: %q", got)
+	}
+
+	// The region taken out by hand is drift too, and it is put back.
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	report, _ = applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state)
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "corrected" {
+		t.Errorf("a region removed on the machine was %q", got)
+	}
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != written {
+		t.Errorf("the region was not put back: %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestTwoRegionsInOneFileAreEachTheirOwn(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	raw := fmt.Sprintf(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":"a.names","type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":"10.42.0.1 ace\n"},
+	  {"id":"b.names","type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":"10.43.0.1 lab\n"}
+	]}`, path, path)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, raw, store.State{})
+	want := workstationHosts + "\n" + marked("a.names", "10.42.0.1 ace\n") + "\n" + marked("b.names", "10.43.0.1 lab\n")
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("two regions:\n%q\nwant\n%q", got, want)
+	}
+	report, state := applyBlockDecl(t, raw, state)
+	for _, o := range report.Outcomes {
+		if o.Action != "unchanged" {
+			t.Errorf("%s applied twice was %q", o.ID, o.Action)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// One undeclared: only its region goes.
+	only := fmt.Sprintf(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":"b.names","type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":"10.43.0.1 lab\n"}
+	]}`, path)
+	applyBlockDecl(t, only, state)
+	want = workstationHosts + "\n" + marked("b.names", "10.43.0.1 lab\n")
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring one region:\n%q\nwant\n%q", got, want)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestABlockInAFileThatWasNotThereIsCreatedAndRemovedWithIt(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "conf.d", "mesh.conf")
+	report, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames, `"mode":"0600"`), store.State{})
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("a created file holds %q", got)
+	}
+	if info, _ := os.Stat(path); info.Mode().Perm() != 0o600 {
+		t.Errorf("a created file is mode %o, declared 0600", info.Mode().Perm())
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "created" {
+		t.Errorf("creating was %q", got)
+	}
+	if rec, _ := state.Find(namesID); !rec.Into.Created {
+		t.Error("the mesh creating the file was not recorded")
+	}
+	report, _ = undeclare(t, state)
+	if _, err := os.Stat(path); !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		t.Errorf("a file the mesh created, holding only its region, was left behind")
+	}
+	if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "removed" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring was %q", got)
+	}
+
+	// Somebody else wrote into it meanwhile: it is no longer only the mesh's, and it stays.
+	_, state = applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(readText(t, path)+"their = line\n"), 0o600)
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != "their = line\n" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring a created file somebody wrote into left %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestMarkersThatDoNotPairAreRefusedAndLeftAlone(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, text := range map[string]string{
+		"a begin with no end":   "a\n# BEGIN mesh " + namesID + "\nb\n",
+		"an end with no begin":  "a\n# END mesh " + namesID + "\n",
+		"an end before a begin": "# END mesh " + namesID + "\n# BEGIN mesh " + namesID + "\n",
+		"a begin twice":         marked(namesID, "x\n") + "# BEGIN mesh " + namesID + "\n",
+	} {
+		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+			_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(text), 0o644)
+			if _, _, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), parse(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames)),
+				store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared, nil, nil, nil); err == nil {
+				t.Fatal("markers that do not pair were written between")
+			}
+			if got := readText(t, path); got != text {
+				t.Errorf("the file was changed: %q", got)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAMarkerOfAnotherIDIsNotThisRegion(t *testing.T) {
+	// The id is part of the marker: a region whose id merely starts with this one is not it.
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	other := marked(namesID+"-extra", "10.9.9.9 other\n")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(other), 0o644)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != other+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != other {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring touched the other region: %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestABlockAtTheStartStandsAboveEverything(t *testing.T) {
+	// dhcpcd scopes every line after `interface X` to that interface, so the mesh's global options
+	// go above all of it.
+	dhcpcd := "hostname\nduid\n\ninterface enp6s0\nstatic ip_address=192.168.1.5/24\n"
+	opts := "nohook resolv.conf\ndenyinterfaces mesh0\n"
+	for name, c := range map[string]struct{ before, after string }{
+		"a file with content":     {dhcpcd, marked(namesID, opts) + "\n" + dhcpcd},
+		"an empty file":           {"", marked(namesID, opts)},
+		"a file opening blank":    {"\n" + dhcpcd, marked(namesID, opts) + "\n" + dhcpcd},
+		"a last line with no end": {"interface enp6s0", marked(namesID, opts) + "\ninterface enp6s0"},
+	} {
+		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "dhcpcd.conf")
+			_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(c.before), 0o644)
+			report, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, opts, `"at":"start"`), store.State{})
+			if got := readText(t, path); got != c.after {
+				t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", got, c.after)
+			}
+			if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "updated" {
+				t.Errorf("adding the region was %q", got)
+			}
+			report, state = applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, opts, `"at":"start"`), state)
+			if got := report.Outcomes[0].Action; got != "unchanged" {
+				t.Errorf("a second apply was %q", got)
+			}
+			undeclare(t, state)
+			if got := readText(t, path); got != c.before {
+				t.Errorf("undeclaring left %q, the machine had %q", got, c.before)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+
+	t.Run("a file that was not there", func(t *testing.T) {
+		path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "dhcpcd.conf")
+		applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, opts, `"at":"start"`), store.State{})
+		if got := readText(t, path); got != marked(namesID, opts) {
+			t.Errorf("got %q", got)
+		}
+	})
+}
+
+func TestARegionAlreadyThereIsNotMovedWhereverAtSaysItGoes(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, at := range []string{`"at":"start"`, `"at":"end"`} {
+		path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "dhcpcd.conf")
+		original := "hostname\n" + marked(namesID, "old\n") + "interface enp6s0\n"
+		_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original), 0o644)
+		applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, "nohook resolv.conf\n", at), store.State{})
+		want := "hostname\n" + marked(namesID, "nohook resolv.conf\n") + "interface enp6s0\n"
+		if got := readText(t, path); got != want {
+			t.Errorf("%s: a found region was moved: %q", at, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAFileWrittenIntoABlockIsNeverHeldOnAnAdoptedNode(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	resource := fmt.Sprintf(`{"id":%q,"type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":%q}`, namesID, path, meshNames)
+	d := adopted(t, `{"taken":[],"untaken":{"mesh-wireguard":["`+namesID+`"]}}`, resource)
+	report, state := applyAdopted(t, d, store.State{}, &machine{}, t.TempDir())
+	if got := outcomeOf(report, namesID).Action; got == "held" {
+		t.Fatal("a file written into a block was held, though it replaces nothing that was found")
+	}
+	if len(state.Held) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("something was held: %+v", state.Held)
+	}
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != workstationHosts+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Errorf("the adopted node's file was not written into: %q", got)
+	}
+
+	// Held from when it was declared whole, the hold does not keep the region out.
+	path2 := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path2, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	known := store.State{Held: []store.Held{{ID: namesID, Module: "mesh-wireguard", Kind: "file", Target: path2}}}
+	resource2 := fmt.Sprintf(`{"id":%q,"type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":%q}`, namesID, path2, meshNames)
+	d2 := adopted(t, `{"taken":[],"untaken":{"mesh-wireguard":["`+namesID+`"]}}`, resource2)
+	report, state = applyAdopted(t, d2, known, &machine{}, t.TempDir())
+	if got := outcomeOf(report, namesID).Action; got != "updated" {
+		t.Errorf("the file was %q, not written into", got)
+	}
+	if len(state.Held) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("the old hold outlived the block declaration: %+v", state.Held)
+	}
+
+	// And the preview says the same: written into, not held.
+	for _, s := range Plan(d2, known, store.OriginDeclared) {
+		if s.ID == namesID && s.Verb == "hold" {
+			t.Errorf("the preview holds a file written into a block: %+v", s)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestTheRecordOfABlockSurvivesTheStateFile(t *testing.T) {
+	// What undeclaring needs is in the state a host saves, not only in memory.
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	original := "a\n" + marked(namesID, "old\n")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(original), 0o644)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames, `"at":"start"`), store.State{})
+	raw, err := json.Marshal(state)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var back store.State
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &back); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, back)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != original {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring from a saved state left %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// The mesh's old whole hosts file, as the controller composed it before issue 128.
+const oldWholeHosts = "# Generated by the mesh. Do not edit — this file is replaced whenever a machine\n" +
+	"# joins or leaves, and an edit would survive until then and vanish.\n\n" +
+	"127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\n" +
+	"::1\t\tlocalhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback\n" +
+	"127.0.1.1\tg14\n" +
+	"\n" +
+	"10.42.0.1\tace.internal\tace\n" +
+	"10.42.0.9\tg14.internal\tg14\t# this machine\n"
+
+func wholeDecl(path, content string) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":%q,"type":"file","path":%q,"content":%q}
+	]}`, namesID, path, content)
+}
+
+func applyKeepingIn(t *testing.T, raw string, known store.State, keepDir string) (Report, store.State) {
+	t.Helper()
+	report, state, err := ApplyKeeping(context.Background(), archHost(t), parse(t, raw), known,
+		store.OriginDeclared, (&machine{}).run, nil, nil, KeepIn(keepDir))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("apply failed: %v", err)
+	}
+	return report, state
+}
+
+func TestAFileTheMeshWroteWholeAndMadeItselfKeepsOnlyItsLoopbackLines(t *testing.T) {
+	// Written whole into a file that was not there, then declared as a block under the same id:
+	// the old names must not stay above the region, where a resolver would answer from them first.
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_, state := applyKeepingIn(t, wholeDecl(path, oldWholeHosts), store.State{}, t.TempDir())
+	report, state := applyKeepingIn(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state, t.TempDir())
+	floor := "127.0.0.1\tlocalhost\n::1\t\tlocalhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback\n127.0.1.1\tg14\n"
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != floor+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("the old whole file became:\n%q", got)
+	}
+	o := outcomeOf(report, namesID)
+	if o.Action != "updated" || !strings.Contains(o.Detail, "loopback lines") {
+		t.Errorf("the rebuild was reported as %q: %s", o.Action, o.Detail)
+	}
+	if rec, _ := state.Find(namesID); !rec.Into.Created {
+		t.Error("a file the mesh made itself was not recorded as the mesh's")
+	}
+	report, _ = applyKeepingIn(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state, t.TempDir())
+	if got := outcomeOf(report, namesID).Action; got != "unchanged" {
+		t.Errorf("applied again, the rebuilt file was %q", got)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != floor {
+		t.Errorf("undeclared, the file holds %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAFileTheMeshWroteWholeOverAnOriginalGetsTheOriginalBack(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	keep := t.TempDir()
+	_, state := applyKeepingIn(t, wholeDecl(path, oldWholeHosts), store.State{}, keep)
+	if rec, _ := state.Find(namesID); rec.Kept == "" {
+		t.Fatal("where the original was kept was not recorded")
+	}
+	report, state := applyKeepingIn(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state, keep)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != workstationHosts+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("the old whole file became:\n%q", got)
+	}
+	if d := outcomeOf(report, namesID).Detail; !strings.Contains(d, "original kept at") {
+		t.Errorf("the rebuild was reported as: %s", d)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != workstationHosts {
+		t.Errorf("undeclared, the machine did not get its original back: %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAFileTheMeshWroteWholeAndSomebodyChangedIsWrittenIntoAsItStands(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_, state := applyKeepingIn(t, wholeDecl(path, oldWholeHosts), store.State{}, t.TempDir())
+	edited := oldWholeHosts + "192.168.1.20 printer\n"
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(edited), 0o644)
+	report, _ := applyKeepingIn(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), state, t.TempDir())
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != edited+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("an edited whole file became:\n%q", got)
+	}
+	if d := outcomeOf(report, namesID).Detail; !strings.Contains(d, "changed since; its old lines were kept") {
+		t.Errorf("the outcome does not say so: %s", d)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestALinkedFileStaysALink(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	real := filepath.Join(dir, "static", "hosts")
+	_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(real), 0o755)
+	_ = os.WriteFile(real, []byte(workstationHosts), 0o644)
+	link := filepath.Join(dir, "hosts")
+	if err := os.Symlink(real, link); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, link, meshNames), store.State{})
+	if info, err := os.Lstat(link); err != nil || info.Mode()&os.ModeSymlink == 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("the link was replaced by a file")
+	}
+	if got := readText(t, real); got != workstationHosts+"\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Errorf("the file the link names holds %q", got)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if info, err := os.Lstat(link); err != nil || info.Mode()&os.ModeSymlink == 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("undeclaring replaced the link with a file")
+	}
+	if got := readText(t, real); got != workstationHosts {
+		t.Errorf("undeclared, the file the link names holds %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestALastLineWithNoEndIsGivenBackWithNone(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte("x"), 0o644)
+	_, state := applyBlockDecl(t, blockDecl(t, path, meshNames), store.State{})
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != "x\n\n"+marked(namesID, meshNames) {
+		t.Fatalf("got %q", got)
+	}
+	undeclare(t, state)
+	if got := readText(t, path); got != "x" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring left %q, the machine had %q", got, "x")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAFailedBlockWriteKeepsItsHold(t *testing.T) {
+	// Held from when it was declared whole, then declared as a block into a file whose markers do
+	// not pair: the write is refused, and the hold — with where its original is — stays.
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "hosts")
+	broken := "a\n# BEGIN mesh " + namesID + "\n"
+	_ = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(broken), 0o644)
+	known := store.State{Held: []store.Held{{ID: namesID, Module: "mesh-wireguard", Kind: "file",
+		Target: path, Kept: "/var/lib/mesh/kept/hosts"}}}
+	resource := fmt.Sprintf(`{"id":%q,"type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":%q}`, namesID, path, meshNames)
+	d := adopted(t, `{"taken":[],"untaken":{"mesh-wireguard":["`+namesID+`"]}}`, resource)
+	_, state, err := ApplyKeeping(context.Background(), archHost(t), d, known,
+		store.OriginDeclared, (&machine{}).run, nil, nil, KeepIn(t.TempDir()))
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("a write into unpaired markers was not refused")
+	}
+	h, held := state.HeldAt(namesID)
+	if !held || h.Kept != "/var/lib/mesh/kept/hosts" {
+		t.Errorf("a failed write released the hold: %+v", state.Held)
+	}
+}

internal/apply/hold.go

@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ func lookBefore(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, d *declaration.Declarati
 				}
 			}
 		case *declaration.Service:
-			if known.Recorded(string(declaration.TypeService), res.Unit) {
+			if res.Stateless() || known.Recorded(string(declaration.TypeService), res.Unit) {
 				continue
 			}
 			// **Found is a unit somebody put on this machine, or one the machine uses.**
@@ -261,6 +261,19 @@ func heldContainer(known store.State, name string) (store.Held, bool) {
 	return store.Held{}, false
 }
 
+// replacesNothing is a resource that takes nothing found on the machine from it, so on an adopted
+// node it is never held and never previewed as replacing what was found: a file written into
+// (novox/hq ADR 0102), and a service whose unit's lifecycle is the machine's (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+func replacesNothing(r declaration.Resource) bool {
+	switch res := r.(type) {
+	case *declaration.File:
+		return res.Into != ""
+	case *declaration.Service:
+		return res.Stateless()
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
 // holdOnAdopted decides whether a resource of an adopted node is held rather than applied, and
 // holds it (novox/hq ADR 0100, ADR 0103). For a module not yet taken, what is present with no
 // record is kept as it is: a file or a container under its name, a directory, a service's unit,
@@ -295,11 +308,11 @@ func holdOnAdopted(ctx context.Context, sys system.System, r declaration.Resourc
 	}
 
 	// A file written into replaces nothing that was found, so it is never held (novox/hq ADR
-	// 0102) — and a hold from when it was declared whole must not keep the mesh's keys out.
-	if f, ok := r.(*declaration.File); ok && f.Into != "" {
-		if already {
-			known.Release(r.Identity())
-		}
+	// 0102) — and a hold from when it was declared whole must not keep the mesh's keys out. That
+	// hold is released by the apply once the write has worked, not here: a write that fails keeps
+	// it, and with it where the original was kept. A service whose lifecycle is the machine's
+	// replaces nothing either (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+	if replacesNothing(r) {
 		return false, false, out, nil
 	}
 

internal/apply/plan.go

@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ func Plan(d *declaration.Declaration, known store.State, origin string) []Step {
 	for _, orphan := range known.Orphans(declared, origin) {
 		step := Step{Verb: "remove", Type: orphan.Type, ID: orphan.ID, Target: orphan.Target,
 			Why: "recorded here and no longer declared"}
+		if orphan.Stateless {
+			step.Verb, step.Why = "forget", "no longer declared; its unit's state was never the mesh's and is left as it is"
+		}
 		if d.Adoption == nil && strings.HasPrefix(orphan.ID, declaration.AdoptionPrefix) {
 			step.Why = "what protected this node while adopted; removed last, once everything else applied"
 			protecting = append(protecting, step)
@@ -139,11 +142,9 @@ func planned(r declaration.Resource, d *declaration.Declaration, known store.Sta
 				}
 			}
 		}
-		// A file written into replaces nothing that was found, so it is never held (ADR 0102).
-		into := false
-		if f, ok := r.(*declaration.File); ok && f.Into != "" {
-			into = true
-		}
+		// A file written into, or a service whose lifecycle is the machine's, replaces nothing that
+		// was found, so it is never held (ADR 0102, ADR 0117).
+		into := replacesNothing(r)
 		h, held := known.HeldAt(r.Identity())
 		module, untaken := d.Adoption.UntakenModuleOf(r.Identity())
 		switch {
@@ -182,6 +183,12 @@ func planned(r declaration.Resource, d *declaration.Declaration, known store.Sta
 		return step
 	}
 
+	if svc, ok := r.(*declaration.Service); ok && svc.Stateless() {
+		// Nothing is created: the unit and whether it runs are the machine's (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+		step.Verb, step.Why = "check", "its lifecycle is the machine's; reloaded or restarted only if "+
+			"running when what it reflects changes"
+		return step
+	}
 	was, recorded := known.Find(r.Identity())
 	if !recorded {
 		step.Verb, step.Why = "create", "no record of it on this node"

internal/apply/stateless_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+package apply
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-host/internal/store"
+)
+
+// Defends novox/hq ADR 0117: a service that omits its state leaves the unit's lifecycle to the
+// machine. The mesh reflects its triggers on a unit already running and does nothing else to it —
+// never starts, stops, enables or disables it, and forgets it when undeclared.
+
+// unitIn is a service manager whose one unit is active or not, recording what it is asked.
+func unitIn(active bool, commands *[]string) Runner {
+	return func(_ context.Context, name string, args ...string) (string, error) {
+		line := name + " " + strings.Join(args, " ")
+		*commands = append(*commands, line)
+		switch {
+		case strings.Contains(line, "is-enabled"):
+			return "enabled", nil
+		case strings.Contains(line, "show") && strings.Contains(line, "ActiveState"):
+			if active {
+				return "LoadState=loaded\nActiveState=active\nSubState=running", nil
+			}
+			return "LoadState=loaded\nActiveState=inactive\nSubState=dead", nil
+		}
+		return "", nil
+	}
+}
+
+func statelessDecl(path, content, triggers string) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":"uplink.conf","type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":%q},
+	  {"id":"uplink.manager","type":"service","unit":"NetworkManager.service",%s}
+	]}`, path, content, triggers)
+}
+
+// touched is whether any command would change the unit's lifecycle.
+func touched(commands []string) []string {
+	var changing []string
+	for _, c := range commands {
+		for _, verb := range []string{" start ", " stop ", " restart ", " enable ", " disable ", " reload "} {
+			if strings.Contains(c+" ", verb) {
+				changing = append(changing, c)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return changing
+}
+
+func TestAStatelessServiceRunningIsReloadedForItsTrigger(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "mesh.conf")
+	var commands []string
+	report, _, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t),
+		parse(t, statelessDecl(path, "[main]\ndns=none\n", `"reload-on":["uplink.conf"]`)),
+		store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared, unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	joined := strings.Join(commands, "\n")
+	if !strings.Contains(joined, "systemctl reload NetworkManager.service") {
+		t.Errorf("the running manager was not reloaded; commands were %v", commands)
+	}
+	for _, c := range touched(commands) {
+		if !strings.Contains(c, "reload") {
+			t.Errorf("the manager's lifecycle was touched: %s", c)
+		}
+	}
+	if o := outcomeOf(report, "uplink.manager"); o.Action != "updated" || !strings.Contains(o.Detail, "reloaded for uplink.conf") {
+		t.Errorf("reported as %q: %s", o.Action, o.Detail)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAStatelessServiceNotRunningIsLeftSo(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "mesh.conf")
+	for _, triggers := range []string{`"reload-on":["uplink.conf"]`, `"restart-on":["uplink.conf"]`} {
+		var commands []string
+		report, _, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t),
+			parse(t, statelessDecl(path, fmt.Sprintf("# %s\n", triggers), triggers)),
+			store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared, unitIn(false, &commands), nil, nil)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		if changing := touched(commands); len(changing) > 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: an inactive unit was acted on: %v", triggers, changing)
+		}
+		if o := outcomeOf(report, "uplink.manager"); o.Action != "unchanged" ||
+			o.Detail != "not running; the change applies at its next start" {
+			t.Errorf("%s: reported as %q: %s", triggers, o.Action, o.Detail)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAStatelessServiceIsRestartedOnlyForItsRestartTrigger(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "mesh.conf")
+	var commands []string
+	d := parse(t, statelessDecl(path, "x\n", `"restart-on":["uplink.conf"]`))
+	_, state, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), d, store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared,
+		unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(strings.Join(commands, "\n"), "stop NetworkManager.service") {
+		t.Errorf("not restarted for its restart trigger; commands were %v", commands)
+	}
+	// Nothing it reflects changed: nothing is asked of the unit at all.
+	commands = nil
+	report, _, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), d, state, store.OriginDeclared,
+		unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if changing := touched(commands); len(changing) > 0 {
+		t.Errorf("with nothing changed the unit was acted on: %v", changing)
+	}
+	if got := outcomeOf(report, "uplink.manager").Action; got != "unchanged" {
+		t.Errorf("with nothing changed it was %q", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAStatelessServiceUndeclaredIsForgottenNotStopped(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "mesh.conf")
+	var commands []string
+	_, state, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t),
+		parse(t, statelessDecl(path, "x\n", `"reload-on":["uplink.conf"]`)),
+		store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared, unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if rec, _ := state.Find("uplink.manager"); !rec.Stateless {
+		t.Fatal("the record does not say the service was stateless")
+	}
+	if steps := Plan(somethingElse(t), state, store.OriginDeclared); !hasStep(steps, "forget", "uplink.manager") {
+		t.Errorf("the preview does not forget it: %v", steps)
+	}
+	commands = nil
+	report, _, err := Apply(context.Background(), archHost(t), somethingElse(t), state, store.OriginDeclared,
+		unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if changing := touched(commands); len(changing) > 0 {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring acted on the unit: %v", changing)
+	}
+	o := outcomeOf(report, "uplink.manager")
+	if o.Action != "forgotten" || o.Detail != "its state was never the mesh's" {
+		t.Errorf("undeclaring was %q: %s", o.Action, o.Detail)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAStatelessServiceIsNeverHeldOnAnAdoptedNode(t *testing.T) {
+	path := filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "mesh.conf")
+	resources := fmt.Sprintf(`{"id":"uplink.conf","type":"file","path":%q,"into":"block","content":"x\n"},
+	  {"id":"uplink.manager","type":"service","unit":"NetworkManager.service","reload-on":["uplink.conf"]}`, path)
+	d := adopted(t, `{"taken":[],"untaken":{"uplink":["uplink.conf","uplink.manager"]}}`, resources)
+	for _, s := range Plan(d, store.State{}, store.OriginDeclared) {
+		if s.ID == "uplink.manager" && (s.Verb == "hold" || s.Verb == "create" || strings.Contains(s.Why, "replaces")) {
+			t.Errorf("the preview holds or replaces a stateless service: %+v", s)
+		}
+	}
+	var commands []string
+	report, state, err := ApplyKeeping(context.Background(), archHost(t), d, store.State{},
+		store.OriginDeclared, unitIn(true, &commands), nil, nil, KeepIn(t.TempDir()))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got := outcomeOf(report, "uplink.manager").Action; got == "held" {
+		t.Fatal("a stateless service was held, though it replaces nothing that was found")
+	}
+	if len(state.Held) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("something was held: %+v", state.Held)
+	}
+	for _, c := range touched(commands) {
+		if !strings.Contains(c, "reload") {
+			t.Errorf("the adopted node's manager lifecycle was touched: %s", c)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func hasStep(steps []Step, verb, id string) bool {
+	for _, s := range steps {
+		if s.Verb == verb && s.ID == id {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}

internal/bootstrap/control_test.go

@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ func TestAManifestWantingNoStoresIsRefusedWithTheShapeItShouldHave(t *testing.T)
 // a reply proves the sealed connections it was given are the ones the foundation made.
 func TestThePermanentControlPlaneIsAskedTheSameQuestion(t *testing.T) {
 	runtime := &asked{answer: aMeshThatAgrees(map[string]string{
-		"module list":                     "",
+		"module list":                           "",
 		"exec mesh-controller /mesh-controller": "1 node, 0 waiting\n",
 	})}
 	control := controlPlane{container: "temp-mesh-controller", run: runtime.run, timeout: time.Second}

internal/declaration/block_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+package declaration
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// Defends novox/hq issue 128: a file written into a block carries only its lines, in content,
+// never a line the host keeps as its own marker, and says where a new region goes only as a block.
+
+func TestAFileWrittenIntoABlockIsRefusedUnlessItIsOnlyItsLines(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, c := range map[string]struct{ resource, refusal string }{
+		"a begin marker in content": {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"a\n# BEGIN mesh f\nb\n"}`, "# BEGIN mesh f"},
+		"an end marker in content":  {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"a\n# END mesh other\n"}`, "# END mesh other"},
+		"a marker with a CR":        {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"# BEGIN mesh x\r\n"}`, "marker"},
+		"sealed":                    {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","sealed":"abc"}`, "not sealed"},
+		"bytes":                     {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","bytes":"YQ=="}`, "not sealed, bytes"},
+		"secrets":                   {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"${secret:s}","secrets":{"s":"abc"}}`, "secrets"},
+		"create-once":               {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"a","create-once":true}`, "create-once"},
+		"at on a whole file":        {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","content":"a","at":"start"}`, `at "start"`},
+		"at on a JSON file":         {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/x.json","into":"json","content":"{}","at":"end"}`, `at "end"`},
+		"at somewhere else":         {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"a","at":"middle"}`, `"start" or "end"`},
+		"an id ending in a space":   {`{"id":"f ","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"a"}`, "whitespace"},
+		"an unknown format":         {`{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"lines","content":"a"}`, `"json" or "block"`},
+	} {
+		_, err := Parse([]byte(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[` + c.resource + `]}`))
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), c.refusal) {
+			t.Errorf("%s: want a refusal naming %q, got %v", name, c.refusal, err)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAFileWrittenIntoABlockIsRead(t *testing.T) {
+	d, err := Parse([]byte(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[
+	  {"id":"mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names","type":"file","path":"/etc/hosts","into":"block","content":"10.42.0.1 ace\n# BEGIN devtool x\n"},
+	  {"id":"dhcpcd.options","type":"file","path":"/etc/dhcpcd.conf","into":"block","content":"nohook resolv.conf\n","at":"start"},
+	  {"id":"empty","type":"file","path":"/etc/x","into":"block","content":"","at":"end"}
+	]}`))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if f := d.Resources[0].(*File); f.Into != IntoBlock || f.At != "" {
+		t.Errorf("read as into %q at %q", f.Into, f.At)
+	}
+	if f := d.Resources[1].(*File); f.At != AtStart {
+		t.Errorf("at was read as %q", f.At)
+	}
+	if begin, end := BlockMarkers("mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names"); begin != "# BEGIN mesh mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names" ||
+		end != "# END mesh mesh-wireguard.fact-node-names" {
+		t.Errorf("the markers are %q and %q", begin, end)
+	}
+}

internal/declaration/declaration.go

@@ -161,8 +161,30 @@ type File struct {
 	// "json" is spoken — the content is a JSON object whose keys the host sets in the file's
 	// object, keeping every other key as it found it and recording what each of its keys held
 	// before, so undeclaring the file gives those back.
+	//
+	// "block" is the same idea for a file that is not structured (novox/hq issue 128): the
+	// content is the mesh's lines, and the host owns only the region between `# BEGIN mesh <id>`
+	// and `# END mesh <id>`, keeping every line outside it byte for byte. The machine's hosts file
+	// is the case that needed it — on a workstation the distribution, a local development tool and
+	// the operator all write into it, and the mesh writing it whole took their lines away at the
+	// next change to the mesh's names, silently. Marked blocks are the shape the other tools in
+	// that file already use, and `#` is the comment character of every file this serves.
+	//
+	// Written into, in either format, the file's mode and owner are the machine's: a declared mode
+	// and owner apply only to a file the host creates, and a file that was there keeps its own.
 	Into string `json:"into,omitempty"`
 
+	// At is where a file written into a block has its region added when the file does not hold
+	// one yet: "end", the default, or "start". A region already there stays where it is, whatever
+	// this says — moving it would move the lines around it, and those are the machine's.
+	//
+	// **Some files give a line its meaning by what stands above it.** dhcpcd's configuration scopes
+	// every line after `interface X` to that interface, and a real one ends with exactly that — an
+	// interface and its static address. A region added at the end would make the mesh's global
+	// options (`nohook resolv.conf`, `denyinterfaces mesh0`) options of one interface, and dhcpcd
+	// would read them without complaint. At the start, nothing stands above them.
+	At string `json:"at,omitempty"`
+
 	// Sealed is content encrypted to this node's sealing key, for a file the mesh must deliver
 	// without being able to read.
 	//
@@ -241,16 +263,50 @@ func (f *File) validate(where string, _ bool) []string {
 			problems = append(problems, where+
 				": a file written into JSON carries a JSON object of the keys it sets")
 		}
-		if f.Sealed != "" || f.Bytes != "" || len(f.Secrets) > 0 || f.CreateOnce {
+	case IntoBlock:
+		// The markers are how the host finds its region again. A marker in the content would be
+		// a second region, or the end of this one, the next time the file is read — and the host
+		// would then rewrite, or on undeclare take out, lines that were never the mesh's.
+		for _, line := range strings.Split(f.Content, "\n") {
+			if strings.HasPrefix(line, BlockBegin) || strings.HasPrefix(line, BlockEnd) {
+				problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+					"%s: a file written into a block carries the mesh's lines, and %q is a marker the "+
+						"host keeps for itself", where, strings.TrimRight(line, "\r")))
+				break
+			}
+		}
+		// The id is written into the markers, so it has to stay on one line — and whitespace at
+		// either end of it is whitespace the host would have to match exactly in a line some
+		// editor may trim.
+		if strings.ContainsAny(f.ID, "\r\n") {
 			problems = append(problems, where+
-				": a file written into says only its keys, in content — not sealed, bytes, "+
-				"secrets or create-once")
+				": a file written into a block names its region by its id, and this id spans lines")
+		} else if strings.TrimSpace(f.ID) != f.ID {
+			problems = append(problems, where+
+				": a file written into a block names its region by its id, and this id begins or ends in whitespace")
 		}
 	default:
 		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-			"%s: into %q; a file is written into \"json\", or omits it to be written whole",
+			"%s: into %q; a file is written into \"json\" or \"block\", or omits it to be written whole",
 			where, f.Into))
 	}
+	switch {
+	case f.At == "":
+	case f.Into != IntoBlock:
+		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+			"%s: at %q; only a file written into a block has a place its region is added", where, f.At))
+	case f.At != AtStart && f.At != AtEnd:
+		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
+			"%s: at %q; a block is added at \"start\" or \"end\", or omits it to be added at the end",
+			where, f.At))
+	}
+	if f.Into == IntoJSON || f.Into == IntoBlock {
+		if f.Sealed != "" || f.Bytes != "" || len(f.Secrets) > 0 || f.CreateOnce {
+			problems = append(problems, where+
+				": a file written into says only its part, in content — not sealed, bytes, "+
+				"secrets or create-once")
+		}
+	}
 	var said []string
 	for name, value := range map[string]string{
 		"content": f.Content, "sealed": f.Sealed, "bytes": f.Bytes,
@@ -589,10 +645,20 @@ func (d *Process) validate(where string, _ bool) []string {
 // (it will come back at boot), or disabled and running (started by hand, gone after a reboot).
 // Folding them into one field would make the second expressible only by accident.
 type Service struct {
-	ID    string `json:"id"`
-	Type  Type   `json:"type"`
-	Unit  string `json:"unit"`
-	State string `json:"state"`
+	ID   string `json:"id"`
+	Type Type   `json:"type"`
+	Unit string `json:"unit"`
+	// State is "running" or "stopped" — or absent, and then **the unit's lifecycle is the
+	// machine's; the mesh only reflects its triggers** (novox/hq ADR 0117). The uplink modules
+	// declare the machine's own network manager this way: the mesh writes into its configuration
+	// and needs it to read that again, and nothing more. Stated, the host would start the manager
+	// on a machine that uses another one — two managers fighting over the same links — and, when
+	// the module was unassigned, stop it: the machine's network, the channel the mesh itself
+	// arrives on, gone at the moment of a routine change. So a service without a state is never
+	// started, stopped, enabled or disabled, is reloaded or restarted only when a trigger changed
+	// and it is already running, and undeclared is simply forgotten. It says nothing unless it
+	// names a trigger, and it may not say boot or takes-over, which are both lifecycle.
+	State string `json:"state,omitempty"`
 	// Boot is "enabled" or "disabled" — whether the unit starts at boot. Optional: absent means
 	// the host asserts nothing about it and leaves whatever is there.
 	//
@@ -636,6 +702,10 @@ type TakeOver struct {
 	Config    string `json:"config"`
 }
 
+// Stateless reports whether the unit's lifecycle is the machine's, and the mesh only reflects the
+// service's triggers (novox/hq ADR 0117).
+func (s *Service) Stateless() bool { return s.State == "" }
+
 func (s *Service) Identity() string { return s.ID }
 func (s *Service) Kind() Type       { return TypeService }
 func (s *Service) Target() string   { return s.Unit }
@@ -645,9 +715,18 @@ func (s *Service) validate(where string, _ bool) []string {
 	if s.Unit == "" {
 		problems = append(problems, where+": a service needs a unit")
 	}
-	if s.State != "running" && s.State != "stopped" {
+	switch {
+	case s.State == "running" || s.State == "stopped":
+	case s.State != "":
 		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
-			"%s: state %q; a service is \"running\" or \"stopped\"", where, s.State))
+			"%s: state %q; a service is \"running\" or \"stopped\", or omits state to leave the "+
+				"unit's lifecycle to the machine", where, s.State))
+	case s.Boot != "" || s.TakesOver != nil:
+		problems = append(problems, where+": a service that omits state leaves the unit's lifecycle "+
+			"to the machine, and boot and takes-over are both its lifecycle")
+	case len(s.RestartOn) == 0 && len(s.ReloadOn) == 0:
+		problems = append(problems, where+": a service that omits state leaves the unit's lifecycle "+
+			"to the machine, and names no restart-on or reload-on — it declares nothing")
 	}
 	if s.Boot != "" && s.Boot != "enabled" && s.Boot != "disabled" {
 		problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf(
@@ -662,7 +741,7 @@ func (s *Service) validate(where string, _ bool) []string {
 		case t.Unit == s.Unit:
 			problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s: takes-over names %s, which is this service's own unit",
 				where, t.Unit))
-		case s.State != "running":
+		case s.State != "running" && s.State != "":
 			problems = append(problems, where+": a service that takes over a tunnel is running — stopping "+
 				"the found one for a service that will not run would leave the peers with nothing")
 		}
@@ -670,8 +749,31 @@ func (s *Service) validate(where string, _ bool) []string {
 	return problems
 }
 
-// IntoJSON is the one structured format a file is written into.
-const IntoJSON = "json"
+// What a file is written into (novox/hq ADR 0102): a JSON object whose keys the mesh sets, or a
+// text file in which the mesh owns one marked block of lines (novox/hq issue 128).
+const (
+	IntoJSON  = "json"
+	IntoBlock = "block"
+)
+
+// The lines that delimit the mesh's region in a file written into a block, each followed by the
+// resource's id. Exact lines, never patterns: another tool's `# BEGIN …` block in the same file is
+// that tool's, and a marker that merely resembled the mesh's must not be taken for it.
+const (
+	BlockBegin = "# BEGIN mesh "
+	BlockEnd   = "# END mesh "
+)
+
+// Where a file written into a block has its region added, when it has none yet.
+const (
+	AtStart = "start"
+	AtEnd   = "end"
+)
+
+// BlockMarkers are the two lines, without their line ends, that delimit a resource's region.
+func BlockMarkers(id string) (begin, end string) {
+	return BlockBegin + id, BlockEnd + id
+}
 
 // Opening is a port reachable on an adopted node, from where, and on which path.
 //

internal/declaration/stateless_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package declaration
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// Defends novox/hq ADR 0117: a service may leave its unit's lifecycle to the machine, and then
+// says nothing but its triggers.
+func TestAServiceWithoutAStateSaysOnlyItsTriggers(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, c := range map[string]struct{ resource, refusal string }{
+		"no trigger":       {`{"id":"s","type":"service","unit":"NetworkManager.service"}`, "declares nothing"},
+		"with boot":        {`{"id":"s","type":"service","unit":"NetworkManager.service","boot":"enabled","reload-on":["f"]}`, "boot and takes-over"},
+		"with takes-over":  {`{"id":"s","type":"service","unit":"a.service","reload-on":["f"],"takes-over":{"interface":"wg0","unit":"b.service","config":"/etc/x"}}`, "boot and takes-over"},
+		"an unknown state": {`{"id":"s","type":"service","unit":"a.service","state":"paused"}`, "omits state to leave the unit's lifecycle to the machine"},
+	} {
+		_, err := Parse([]byte(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/x","content":"x"},` + c.resource + `]}`))
+		if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), c.refusal) {
+			t.Errorf("%s: want a refusal naming %q, got %v", name, c.refusal, err)
+		}
+	}
+	d, err := Parse([]byte(`{"declaration":1,"resources":[{"id":"f","type":"file","path":"/etc/x","content":"x"},
+	  {"id":"s","type":"service","unit":"NetworkManager.service","restart-on":["f"]}]}`))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if s := d.Resources[1].(*Service); !s.Stateless() {
+		t.Error("a service without a state was not read as stateless")
+	}
+}

internal/store/store.go

@@ -70,6 +70,18 @@ type Applied struct {
 	// anywhere saying why.
 	Wrote string `json:"wrote,omitempty"`
 
+	// Kept is where the original of a file this host wrote over was kept (novox/hq ADR 0100):
+	// by the keep on its first write, or by the hold that was released when its module was taken.
+	// Recorded rather than only reported, because a file once written whole and now written into
+	// (novox/hq issue 128) is given back its original with the mesh's region in it — and a path
+	// said once in a log line is not a path the host can find again.
+	Kept string `json:"kept,omitempty"`
+
+	// Stateless is, for a service, that its unit's lifecycle was never the mesh's (novox/hq ADR
+	// 0117) — kept here because removal happens once the declaration that said so is gone, and a
+	// service removed as if it had a state is stopped: the machine's network manager, for one.
+	Stateless bool `json:"stateless,omitempty"`
+
 	// Into is set for a file written into rather than over (novox/hq ADR 0102): the format, what
 	// each of the mesh's keys held before it set them, which of them were absent, and whether the
 	// file itself was — so undeclaring it gives the machine back exactly what it had.
@@ -84,7 +96,7 @@ type Applied struct {
 	Reads map[string]string `json:"reads,omitempty"`
 }
 
-// Into is what a file written into held before the mesh's keys.
+// Into is what a file written into held before the mesh's keys, or before the mesh's block.
 type Into struct {
 	Format  string                     `json:"format"`
 	Before  map[string]json.RawMessage `json:"before,omitempty"`
@@ -94,6 +106,22 @@ type Into struct {
 	// to the machine's list — never a member that was already there. Undeclared, only these go,
 	// and drift is judged on these alone (novox/hq ADR 0102).
 	Added map[string][]json.RawMessage `json:"added,omitempty"`
+
+	// Region is, for a file written into a block (novox/hq issue 128), what the lines between the
+	// mesh's markers held before the mesh wrote them — nil when there was no region, which is
+	// different from a region that was there and empty. Undeclared, a recorded region is put back
+	// and an unrecorded one is taken out, markers and all. It is the block's "what each key held
+	// before": the one thing the host needs to give the file back.
+	Region *string `json:"region,omitempty"`
+	// Separated says the host put a blank line between the region and the machine's lines when it
+	// added the region — before it at the end, after it at the start, as At says — so taking the
+	// region out takes that line with it and nothing of the operator's.
+	Separated bool `json:"separated,omitempty"`
+	// At is where the host added the region: "start", or empty for the end.
+	At string `json:"at,omitempty"`
+	// Ended says the machine's last line had no line end and the host gave it one to add the
+	// region after it, so taking the region out takes that line end too.
+	Ended bool `json:"ended,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // State is the whole of what a node knows about what it has done.