harden: pin node timezone to UTC, and TEST the guard/value coupling that bit us

Two debt items, both about making a latent problem impossible rather than fixed.

=== 1. Node timezone pinned to Etc/UTC (node_baseline, `system` tag) ===

The prod nodes disagreed, measured from k3s's own etcd snapshot annotations:
prod-1/2 at -05:00 (Central), prod-3 at -04:00 (Eastern). Functionally harmless —
Kubernetes and etcd are UTC internally, and in UTC those snapshots are ~4 minutes
apart, which is correct staggering — but it makes cross-node log correlation
actively misleading, and this cluster has had two unplanned reboots in two days.

`Etc/UTC` chosen on repo convention, not just principle: catalog/plex.yaml records
"no other service in the repo sets a timezone ... so use the safe default" with
TZ: Etc/UTC, and apps/wave-0/plex.yaml matches (platform/crafty is America/Chicago
DELIBERATELY — a user-facing game schedule, not a log clock). Decisive extra fact:
THE THREE DEV NODES ARE ALREADY Etc/UTC, so this makes prod match dev rather than
inventing a convention. UTC also removes the class — no DST discontinuity, node
time == platform time.

New knob `node_baseline_timezone`, overridable per environment via group_vars (the
same seam as node_baseline_backports_kernel) but deliberately NOT restated there:
no environment needs to differ, and a second copy is a second thing to disagree.
Guarded by an assert in the role's existing BLOCKED style before the module runs.

`--check --diff --tags system -e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod` INDEPENDENTLY CONFIRMS the
offset evidence, and is the whole verification — the play was never run for real:
  k3s-prod-1: -"America/Chicago"  +"Etc/UTC"  changed
  k3s-prod-2: -"America/Chicago"  +"Etc/UTC"  changed
  k3s-prod-3: -"America/New_York" +"Etc/UTC"  changed
The same --check against DEV reports the task `ok` on all three — idempotence
demonstrated against live hosts, in check mode only. `--list-hosts` confirms
`-e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod` selects the three prod nodes (the diagnostic plays take
their OWN var; the wrong flag silently targets dev).

*** AUTHORED, NOT APPLIED. *** Applying it is a live-cluster action and was
deliberately left for the operator to schedule: prod's Longhorn had only just
finished resyncing after a node reboot, and changing a node's clock config during
storage recovery is not an unattended move.

`ansible-inventory --list` was NOT used anywhere — it prints DECRYPTED vault values
(the passphrase is mounted into the dev container) and has leaked the prod
become-password to a transcript once already.

=== 2. New L0 check `placeholder-guard-coupling` (R-ENV-02, R-STATE-03) ===

On 2026-09-05 the PM changed a placeholder in clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml from
`TBD-PROD-S3-BACKUP-ENDPOINT` to `https://TBD-R2-ACCOUNT-ID...`. The guards in
bootstrap/standup.sh matched the glob `TBD-*` — a PREFIX. All three silently died,
and `resume` would have enabled velero on prod against a nonexistent hostname:
installs clean, reports healthy, no backups exist. Found by accident. A guard in
one file keyed on the SHAPE of a value in another file, with nothing tying them.

The check exercises the REAL predicate — it does not reimplement it. standup.sh is
not sourceable (top-level argv parsing hard-exits, cd, export, EXIT trap), so the
check extracts the predicate's own source lines and sources only those. Faithfulness
is pinned by: discovery of every `*_is_placeholder` (not a hardcoded name),
exactly-one-definition, "extracted block is a verbatim substring", a self-containment
gate, a canary (must refuse "", must accept a real URL), and a scan for a divergent
second copy. If the predicate grows a dependency the check FAILS LOUDLY and names
the remedy rather than degrading to testing a copy — the failure mode it exists for.

Both sides derive from real files: guarded knobs from a taint trace in standup.sh
(`x="$(cvar KEY)"` -> alias hop -> `*_is_placeholder "$x"`); values from base
cluster-vars plus each overlay's JSON6902 /data/KEY patches. The independent
detector is deliberately NOT the guard: seed idioms UNION the guard's own words with
glob anchors STRIPPED — so a prefix-anchored guard cannot pass, and deleting an arm
cannot make a value stop being placeholder-shaped.

Real tree: 32 assertions, 18 values through the extracted predicate, PASS.

NON-VACUITY VERIFIED BY ME, twice, on throwaway copies (the real repo and the
read-only spec repo untouched). My first perturbation tripped the self-containment
rail instead of the anchoring property, so I redid it shape-preserving — substring
globs -> prefix globs, nothing else — and it failed on exactly the right property,
naming mid-string and tail acceptances with the diagnosis "This is the 2026-09-05
failure exactly". Control: unperturbed copy exits 0.

=== 3. ci/touched-requirements.sh: bootstrap/ was UNMAPPED (found by the agent) ===

The path->requirement map had no `bootstrap/*` entry, so a change touching
standup.sh ALONGSIDE any already-mapped path scoped the L0 run to that other path's
requirements and silently excluded the new check — the one that exists to catch
exactly the 2026-09-05 class. A safety net with a hole where the incident was.
Mapped to R-STATE-03 R-GITOPS-01; verified the map now resolves bootstrap paths.

VERIFIED: full CI gate PASS. `run.sh --layer l0` 8/8 PASS including the new check.
Coverage unchanged at 45/51 (the new check tags existing requirements).

Refs R-ENV-02, R-STATE-03, R-TEST-01, R-PLAT-01.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
This commit is contained in:
jakman85andClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-06 08:47:08 -05:00
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@@ -183,6 +183,15 @@ path_requirements() {
platform/image-automation/*) echo "R-UPD-01 R-UPD-02" ;;
conformance/*) echo "R-TEST-01 R-TEST-02 R-TEST-03 R-TEST-04" ;;
clusters/*) echo "R-GITOPS-01 R-ENV-02" ;;
# bootstrap/ was UNMAPPED until 2026-09-06, and the omission was load-bearing:
# bootstrap/standup.sh carries the placeholder guards that decide whether `velero` may be
# enabled against a real backup endpoint. A change touching standup.sh ALONGSIDE any
# already-mapped path scoped the L0 run to that other path's requirements and silently
# excluded conformance/tests/l0-static/placeholder-guard-coupling — the check that exists
# precisely to catch a guard/value mismatch. The 2026-09-05 guard bug (a prefix glob that
# stopped matching when the value it guards changed, in a different file) is exactly the
# class that omission would hide.
bootstrap/*) echo "R-STATE-03 R-GITOPS-01" ;;
.gitea/*|ci/*) echo "R-GITOPS-01 R-TEST-02 R-TEST-03" ;;
*) : ;;
esac
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
# =============================================================================
# L0 STATIC — a placeholder value in cluster-vars is REFUSED by the guard that owns it
# Catalog: docs/14 L0 row ("Pre-apply, in CI") — runs WITHOUT a cluster.
#
# THE BUG CLASS THIS CLOSES (it has now bitten three times in one file). A guard in
# `bootstrap/standup.sh` keys on the SHAPE of a value that lives in
# `clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml`, and nothing tied the two together. On 2026-09-05 the
# S3 placeholder changed from `TBD-PROD-S3-BACKUP-ENDPOINT` to
# `https://TBD-R2-ACCOUNT-ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com`; the three guards matched the glob
# `TBD-*`, a PREFIX match, and `fnmatch('https://TBD-R2-…','TBD-*')` is False. All three
# guards silently stopped matching, and `standup.sh resume` would have resumed `velero` on
# prod against a nonexistent hostname: installs clean, reports healthy, NO BACKUPS EXIST.
# It was found by accident. The guard is fixed (`s3_is_placeholder`, substring); the
# COUPLING was untested, which is what makes the class reintroducible.
#
# GIVEN the repository as authored,
# WHEN the REAL predicate is extracted from bootstrap/standup.sh and executed by bash
# (never reimplemented — see check.sh "HOW THE REAL GUARD IS EXERCISED"),
# THEN (1) every authored value of a guarded knob that is placeholder-shaped by an
# INDEPENDENT detector is actually refused by that guard, in base and in every
# environment overlay;
# (2) no environment overlay carries a placeholder-shaped value for a knob no guard
# refuses;
# (3) every function in standup.sh that reads a guarded knob applies the guard to it
# (the "three guards died at once" regression);
# (4) the guard matches its own vocabulary ANYWHERE in a value, not just as a prefix
# — the exact anchoring defect above — and still accepts a real endpoint;
# AND (5) the extraction is faithful, and the check fails LOUDLY rather than silently
# testing a copy if the guard stops being a self-contained predicate.
#
# STATUS: EXECUTABLE. `check.sh` is a pure offline assertion script (standard library +
# PyYAML + bash); conformance/run.sh --layer l0 runs it directly and this Chainsaw Test
# wraps the SAME script.
#
# NOT proven: that the endpoint is REACHABLE or that backups exist (runtime facts —
# `standup.sh s3check` probes the former from a pod, l3-fault-injection/dr-restore proves
# the latter); that guards for knobs OTHER than the placeholder-refusing ones are correct;
# and that the guard runs at all in a real standup (the dispatch path is shell, executed
# only against a live cluster). R-STATE-03 is tagged for the narrow static slice only: the
# authored backup target cannot be a placeholder that the guard fails to recognise.
# =============================================================================
apiVersion: chainsaw.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
kind: Test
metadata:
name: placeholder-guard-coupling
labels:
conformance.home.k3s/R-ENV-02: "true"
conformance.home.k3s/R-STATE-03: "true"
annotations:
conformance.home.k3s/requirements: "R-ENV-02, R-STATE-03"
conformance.home.k3s/layer: "L0"
conformance.home.k3s/safety-critical: "false"
conformance.home.k3s/executable: "true"
conformance.home.k3s/intent: >-
Every placeholder-shaped value authored in cluster-vars, for any environment
overlay, is actually recognised as a placeholder by the real bootstrap guard that
is supposed to refuse it — so a value change in one file cannot silently disarm a
guard in another and enable velero against an endpoint that does not exist.
spec:
steps:
- name: couple-authored-placeholders-to-the-real-guard
description: >-
Extract the real placeholder predicate from bootstrap/standup.sh, run it against
every authored cluster-vars value the repo actually carries, and assert the guard
refuses each one an independent detector calls a placeholder.
try:
- script:
content: bash ./check.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,516 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# =============================================================================
# L0 static check (offline, no cluster) — placeholder-guard-coupling
# Serves: R-ENV-02 ("Same GitOps config promotes dev/test -> prod (authored once)."
# — spec docs/02-environments-and-provisioning.md)
# R-STATE-03 ("Scheduled off-cluster backups + restore (DR)."
# — spec docs/04-storage-and-state.md)
#
# WHY THIS EXISTS — A GUARD KEYED ON A VALUE THAT LIVES IN ANOTHER FILE
# --------------------------------------------------------------------
# `bootstrap/standup.sh` refuses to resume tiers whose configuration is still a
# placeholder. Three of those guards keyed on the SHAPE of `S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT`, which is
# authored in `clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml`. On 2026-09-05 the placeholder changed
# from `TBD-PROD-S3-BACKUP-ENDPOINT` to `https://TBD-R2-ACCOUNT-ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com`
# (the MinIO -> Cloudflare R2 move). The guards matched the glob `TBD-*` — a PREFIX match —
# and `fnmatch('https://TBD-R2-…','TBD-*')` is FALSE. All three guards silently stopped
# matching. `standup.sh resume` would then have resumed `velero` on prod against a hostname
# that does not exist: the HelmRelease installs clean, the Kustomization reports Ready, and
# NO BACKUPS EXIST. The only reason it was not shipped is that someone noticed by accident.
#
# The predicate is fixed (`s3_is_placeholder`, substring match). The COUPLING is what was
# never tested: a guard in one file keying on a value in another, with nothing tying them
# together. This check is that tie, and it is derived from BOTH real files — no current
# string is hardcoded here, so it does not rot when the placeholder or the guard changes.
#
# HOW THE REAL GUARD IS EXERCISED (and why not a copy)
# ---------------------------------------------------
# `bootstrap/standup.sh` is NOT sourceable: at top level it parses argv, hard-exits when
# --kubeconfig/--expect-server/<step> are absent, `cd`s to the repo root, exports
# KUBECONFIG, installs an EXIT trap and finally dispatches steps against a live cluster.
# So this check EXTRACTS the predicate's own source lines from the file and sources ONLY
# those, then calls the real function. That is the real bytes, not a reimplementation:
# * every function whose name ends `_is_placeholder` is discovered, not named here;
# * a duplicate definition of one is a failure (which of the two would run?);
# * the extracted body must be a SELF-CONTAINED predicate — `case`/`return` and nothing
# else, no command substitution, no call to another function. If the guard ever grows
# a dependency, extraction stops being faithful and THIS CHECK FAILS LOUDLY, naming the
# remedy (move the predicate into a small sourceable library that standup.sh sources)
# rather than quietly falling back to testing a copy of the logic;
# * a CANARY pins the extraction itself: the extracted function must refuse the empty
# string and accept a realistic endpoint. An extraction that grabbed the wrong lines,
# or a predicate degraded to always-true / always-false, fails there — this repo has
# already been bitten by a check that passed when perturbed because it asked a question
# that was always satisfiable.
# There is deliberately NO second implementation of the matching logic anywhere in this file.
#
# THE INDEPENDENT DETECTOR (the other half of the comparison)
# ----------------------------------------------------------
# Asking "does the guard agree with the guard?" proves nothing, so the set of
# placeholder-shaped values is decided by a detector written HERE, whose vocabulary is the
# UNION of two independent sources:
# * SEED — universal loud-placeholder idioms (TBD, TODO, FIXME, PLACEHOLDER, REPLACE-ME,
# CHANGE-ME, FILL-ME, SET-ME, XXXX), plus `<angle-bracket>` templates and the empty
# string. These are NOT derived from the guard, so DELETING a guard arm cannot make a
# value stop being placeholder-shaped — it makes assertion (1) fail, which is the point.
# A value using an idiom the guard does not know is a finding either way: fix it by
# giving the knob a real value, or by teaching the guard the idiom.
# * the guard's OWN vocabulary, read out of its case-arms with the glob anchors STRIPPED.
# Stripping the anchors is what makes the comparison non-circular in the dimension that
# actually broke: the detector matches a word ANYWHERE, case-insensitively, and the
# guard must agree. A prefix-anchored guard cannot pass.
#
# GIVEN the repository as authored,
# WHEN the real predicate(s) are extracted from bootstrap/standup.sh and executed,
# THEN (1) VALUES: for every knob a guard is responsible for, every authored value — the
# base default AND each environment overlay's value — that the independent
# detector calls placeholder-shaped is REFUSED by the real guard, and every value
# it calls usable is ACCEPTED (a guard that refuses a real endpoint leaves velero
# suspended forever, which is the same class of silent failure);
# (2) OVERLAYS: no environment overlay's EFFECTIVE cluster-vars carries a
# placeholder-shaped value for a knob that no guard refuses. (Base alone is
# exempt: it is not a bootstrap target — `flux bootstrap --path=clusters/<env>` —
# and its loud sentinels exist precisely to be overridden. A base placeholder an
# overlay forgets to override IS caught, because it becomes that overlay's
# effective value.)
# (3) CONSUMERS: every function in standup.sh that reads a guarded knob (via `cvar`,
# following one hop of variable aliasing) applies a placeholder guard to it. This
# is the "all three guards died at once" regression stated as a property: the
# guard being correct is worthless if a consumer stops calling it.
# (4) ANCHORING: for each word in the guard's own vocabulary, the guard refuses a
# value carrying that word in the MIDDLE (not at the start) — the precise defect
# of 2026-09-05 — while still accepting a realistic endpoint.
# (5) HARNESS: exactly one definition per predicate, the extracted body is verbatim
# from the file and self-contained, the canary holds, no divergent second copy of
# the matching logic exists elsewhere in standup.sh, and a floor on the number of
# assertions run keeps a pass from degenerating into a no-op.
# AND (6) LOAD-BEARING: ci/l0.sh runs the L0 conformance layer on every gate run and
# ci/gate.sh sets the merge block when that stage fails.
#
# WHAT THIS DOES *NOT* PROVE (honest gaps)
# - Nothing about RUNTIME: not that the endpoint resolves, not that credentials work, not
# that a backup exists. `standup.sh s3check` probes reachability from a pod (operator-
# run, cluster-gated) and conformance/tests/l3-fault-injection/dr-restore proves restore.
# - It does not execute standup.sh's dispatch path, so it cannot prove the guard is
# REACHED in a real run — only that, when reached, it refuses what it must. The
# consumer property (3) is a static approximation of reachability: it is a text-level
# taint trace over one file, not an interpreter, and a guard whose result is computed
# and then ignored would satisfy it.
# - It says nothing about guards keyed on shapes OTHER than placeholders (e.g. the
# EXTERNALDNS_TXT_OWNER_ID == 'default' test), nor about placeholder-shaped values
# outside cluster-vars (the Ansible inventory's BLOCKED/NOT-A-DEVICE sentinels are
# asserted by the node_baseline role itself, at play time).
# - Stage 3b of ci/l0.sh scopes the conformance run to the TOUCHED requirements. An edit
# to bootstrap/* attributes NO requirement in ci/touched-requirements.sh's path map, so
# the touched set is empty and the FULL L0 layer runs (verified: ci/lib.sh
# load_touched_requirements) — this check runs. An edit to clusters/* maps to
# R-ENV-02, which this check carries, so a cluster-vars value change also selects it.
# A change that touches standup.sh ALONGSIDE some unrelated mapped path (say
# platform/cilium/) would scope the run away from this check; closing that needs a
# `bootstrap/*` entry in the path map, which is not this check's file to edit.
# =============================================================================
set -euo pipefail
DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
ROOT="$(cd "${DIR}/../../../.." && pwd)" # repo root
PYTHON="${PYTHON:-python3}"
STANDUP_REL="${STANDUP_REL:-bootstrap/standup.sh}"
cd "${ROOT}"
if [ ! -f "${ROOT}/${STANDUP_REL}" ]; then
echo "check SKIPPED (placeholder-guard-coupling): ${STANDUP_REL} is absent — nothing to couple." >&2
exit 3
fi
WORK="$(mktemp -d)"
trap 'rm -rf "${WORK}"' EXIT
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# PHASE 1 (python): extract the real predicate(s), derive the corpus from the real files,
# and run every assertion that does not need a shell. Writes:
# ${WORK}/guards.sh the predicate source lines, verbatim, and nothing else
# ${WORK}/corpus.tsv <guard>\t<expect: placeholder|usable>\t<origin>\t<value>
# ${WORK}/findings.txt one line per failed assertion
# ${WORK}/counts.txt <assertions-run>
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"${PYTHON}" - "${ROOT}" "${WORK}" "${STANDUP_REL}" <<'PY'
import re
import sys
from pathlib import Path
try:
import yaml
except ImportError: # pragma: no cover
print("check FAIL: PyYAML is required (same dependency as catalog/render.py)",
file=sys.stderr)
raise SystemExit(1)
ROOT, WORK, STANDUP_REL = Path(sys.argv[1]), Path(sys.argv[2]), sys.argv[3]
FAILURES: list[str] = []
CHECKS = 0
def check(cond, msg):
global CHECKS
CHECKS += 1
if not cond:
FAILURES.append(msg)
def bail(msg):
"""A failure that makes the rest of the check meaningless: report and stop."""
print(f"CHECK FAIL (placeholder-guard-coupling): {msg}", file=sys.stderr)
(WORK / "findings.txt").write_text(msg + "\n")
(WORK / "counts.txt").write_text("0\n")
(WORK / "corpus.tsv").write_text("")
(WORK / "guards.sh").write_text("")
raise SystemExit(1)
TEXT = (ROOT / STANDUP_REL).read_text()
LINES = TEXT.splitlines()
# ------------------------------------------------------------------ (5) extract the guard
DEF_RE = re.compile(r"^([a-z0-9_]+_is_placeholder)\(\)\s*\{")
defs: dict[str, list[int]] = {}
for i, line in enumerate(LINES):
m = DEF_RE.match(line)
if m:
defs.setdefault(m.group(1), []).append(i)
if not defs:
bail(f"{STANDUP_REL} defines no *_is_placeholder predicate. Either the guard was renamed "
"(update this check's discovery pattern in the SAME change) or it was DELETED, which "
"is the 2026-09-05 failure with the guard removed instead of disarmed.")
# An "argument-shaped" call: <name> "<something>"
CALL_RE = re.compile(r"\b([a-z0-9_]+_is_placeholder)\s+\"([^\"]*)\"")
guard_src: list[str] = []
guard_words: dict[str, list[str]] = {}
ARM_RE = re.compile(r"^(?P<pats>[^()]*?)\)\s*return\s+[01]\s*;;$")
ALLOWED = (
re.compile(r"^$"),
re.compile(r"^#"),
re.compile(r"^case\s+\"\$\{?[0-9A-Za-z_]+\}?\"\s+in$"),
re.compile(r"^esac$"),
re.compile(r"^return\s+[01]$"),
ARM_RE,
)
for name, at in sorted(defs.items()):
check(len(at) == 1,
f"{STANDUP_REL} defines {name}() {len(at)} times (lines "
f"{', '.join(str(a + 1) for a in at)}) — which one runs depends on file order, and "
"this check can no longer say which one it extracted. Keep exactly one definition.")
if len(at) != 1:
continue
start = at[0]
end = next((j for j in range(start + 1, len(LINES)) if LINES[j] == "}"), None)
if end is None:
bail(f"{name}() at {STANDUP_REL}:{start + 1} has no closing brace at column 0 — the "
"extraction boundary this check relies on is gone. Restore the conventional "
"layout, or move the predicate into a sourceable library and point this check at it.")
body = LINES[start:end + 1]
block = "\n".join(body)
check(block in TEXT,
f"extracted {name}() is not a verbatim substring of {STANDUP_REL} — extraction bug; "
"the harness would be testing something the script does not contain")
words: list[str] = []
for raw in body[1:-1]:
s = raw.strip()
if not any(rx.match(s) for rx in ALLOWED) or "$(" in s or "`" in s:
bail(f"{name}() at {STANDUP_REL}:{start + 1} is no longer a SELF-CONTAINED "
f"case/return predicate (offending line: {s!r}). This check exercises the REAL "
"function by sourcing its own lines; a body that calls out to anything else "
"cannot be extracted faithfully, and silently testing a COPY of the logic is "
"exactly the failure mode this check exists to prevent. REMEDY: move the "
"predicate into a tiny library that standup.sh sources (e.g. "
"bootstrap/lib/placeholder.sh) and point STANDUP_REL/this extractor at it — do "
"NOT reimplement the matching here.")
m = ARM_RE.match(s)
if not m:
continue
for pat in m.group("pats").split("|"):
pat = pat.strip()
if pat in ('""', "''", ""):
continue # the empty-value arm: covered by the canary
words.append(pat.strip("'\"").strip("*"))
check(len(words) >= 1,
f"{name}() has no non-empty placeholder pattern left — every arm that recognises a "
"loud placeholder string has been removed, so the guard now only refuses the empty "
"value and any 'TBD'-style endpoint would sail straight through it")
guard_words[name] = words
guard_src.append(block)
(WORK / "guards.sh").write_text("\n".join(guard_src) + "\n")
# ------------------------------------------------- no divergent second copy of the logic
# Any of the guard's own vocabulary appearing in EXECUTABLE text outside the predicate means
# a second, independently-drifting implementation of the same test (which is how three
# guards came to disagree with one value in the first place).
guard_line_nums = {j for name, at in defs.items() if len(at) == 1
for j in range(at[0], next(k for k in range(at[0] + 1, len(LINES))
if LINES[k] == "}") + 1)}
all_words = sorted({w.upper() for ws in guard_words.values() for w in ws if w})
divergent: list[str] = []
for j, line in enumerate(LINES):
if j in guard_line_nums or line.strip().startswith("#"):
continue
code = line.split("#", 1)[0]
hit = [w for w in all_words if w in code.upper()]
if hit:
divergent.append(f"{STANDUP_REL}:{j + 1} ({', '.join(hit)}): {line.strip()!r}")
check(not divergent,
"the guard's own placeholder vocabulary appears in EXECUTABLE text outside the "
f"predicate — a SECOND implementation of the same test, which is precisely how a value "
f"change disarmed three guards at once. Call the predicate instead. Sites: "
+ " | ".join(divergent))
# ------------------------------------------------------------- cluster-vars, as authored
CV = ROOT / "clusters" / "base" / "cluster-vars.yaml"
if not CV.is_file():
bail("clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml is absent — the authored half of the coupling is "
"missing and this check cannot mean anything")
base: dict[str, str] = {}
for d in yaml.safe_load_all(CV.read_text()):
if isinstance(d, dict) and d.get("kind") == "ConfigMap" \
and (d.get("metadata") or {}).get("name") == "cluster-vars":
base = {str(k): "" if v is None else str(v) for k, v in (d.get("data") or {}).items()}
check(len(base) > 5, f"clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml yielded {len(base)} knob(s) — the "
"ConfigMap parse failed, so every value assertion below would be vacuous")
overlays: dict[str, dict[str, str]] = {}
for overlay in sorted((ROOT / "clusters").glob("*/kustomization.yaml")):
env = overlay.parent.name
if env == "base":
continue
eff = dict(base)
try:
k = yaml.safe_load(overlay.read_text()) or {}
except Exception as exc: # noqa: BLE001
check(False, f"clusters/{env}/kustomization.yaml does not parse as YAML ({exc}) — this "
"check cannot compute that overlay's effective values")
continue
for p in (k.get("patches") or []):
tgt = p.get("target") or {}
if tgt.get("kind") != "ConfigMap" or tgt.get("name") != "cluster-vars":
continue
try:
ops = yaml.safe_load(p.get("patch") or "") or []
except Exception: # noqa: BLE001
continue
for op in ops if isinstance(ops, list) else []:
if not isinstance(op, dict):
continue
m = re.match(r"^/data/([A-Za-z0-9_]+)$", str(op.get("path", "")))
if m and str(op.get("op", "")) in ("replace", "add"):
eff[m.group(1)] = "" if op.get("value") is None else str(op["value"])
overlays[env] = eff
check(len(overlays) >= 1,
"no clusters/<env>/kustomization.yaml overlay was parsed — assertion (2) would be vacuous")
# ------------------------------------------------ which knobs is a guard responsible for?
# Function bodies of standup.sh, then a one-hop taint trace from `x="$(cvar KEY)"` to a
# `*_is_placeholder "${x}"` call. Both halves are read out of the file; nothing is named here.
FUNC_RE = re.compile(r"^([a-z0-9_]+)\(\)\s*\{")
funcs: dict[str, list[str]] = {}
i = 0
while i < len(LINES):
m = FUNC_RE.match(LINES[i])
if m:
end = next((j for j in range(i + 1, len(LINES)) if LINES[j] == "}"), len(LINES) - 1)
funcs[m.group(1)] = LINES[i + 1:end]
i = end + 1
continue
i += 1
check(len(funcs) > 5, f"parsed only {len(funcs)} function(s) out of {STANDUP_REL} — the "
"consumer assertion (3) would be vacuous")
CVAR_RE = re.compile(r"([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)=\"\$\(\s*cvar\s+([A-Z0-9_]+)\s*\)\"")
ALIAS_RE = re.compile(r"([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)=\"\$\{([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)[:}]")
guarded_keys: set[str] = set()
consumers: list[tuple[str, str, bool]] = [] # (func, key, guarded-in-this-func)
for fname, body in funcs.items():
text = "\n".join(body)
keys_of_var: dict[str, set[str]] = {}
for m in CVAR_RE.finditer(text):
keys_of_var.setdefault(m.group(1), set()).add(m.group(2))
# one hop of aliasing: ep="${live}" carries live's taint
for _ in range(3):
for m in ALIAS_RE.finditer(text):
src = keys_of_var.get(m.group(2))
if src:
keys_of_var.setdefault(m.group(1), set()).update(src)
called_on = {m.group(2) for m in CALL_RE.finditer(text)}
called_vars = {re.sub(r"^\$\{?|\}?$", "", a) for a in called_on}
# Aggregate per (function, knob): the knob is guarded HERE if ANY variable carrying its
# value is passed to a predicate — `live="$(cvar K)"; ep="${live}"; guard "${ep}"` counts.
guarded_here: dict[str, bool] = {}
for var, keys in keys_of_var.items():
for key in keys:
guarded_here[key] = guarded_here.get(key, False) or (var in called_vars)
for key, g in guarded_here.items():
consumers.append((fname, key, g))
if g:
guarded_keys.add(key)
if not guarded_keys:
bail(f"no cluster-vars knob in {STANDUP_REL} is passed to a *_is_placeholder predicate. "
"Either the guards were removed, or the way the script reads cluster-vars changed and "
"this check's derivation must be updated in the SAME change — it must never silently "
"verify an empty set.")
# (3) CONSUMERS: every reader of a guarded knob must apply the guard to it.
for fname, key, guarded in sorted(consumers):
if key not in guarded_keys:
continue # nothing claims responsibility for this knob at all
check(guarded,
f"{STANDUP_REL}: {fname}() reads cluster-vars knob {key} but never passes it to a "
"*_is_placeholder guard, while other functions do. On 2026-09-05 all three consumers "
"of S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT were disarmed at once; a consumer that reads the knob and skips "
"the guard is that failure in one function.")
# ---------------------------------------------------------------- independent detector
# Deliberately NOT derived from the guard alone (see the header): SEED is universal
# loud-placeholder vocabulary, and the guard's own words are added so that a guard whose
# ANCHORING is wrong still has its vocabulary tested against real values.
SEED = ["TBD", "TODO", "FIXME", "PLACEHOLDER", "REPLACE-ME", "REPLACEME",
"CHANGE-ME", "CHANGEME", "FILL-ME", "FILLME", "SET-ME", "XXXX"]
VOCAB = sorted({w.upper() for w in SEED} | set(all_words))
ANGLE = re.compile(r"<[^>\s]+>")
def placeholder_shaped(value: str) -> bool:
if value.strip() == "":
return True # an unset endpoint is not a target
up = value.upper()
return any(w in up for w in VOCAB) or bool(ANGLE.search(value))
rows: list[tuple[str, str, str, str]] = [] # guard, expect, origin, value
GUARD = sorted(guard_words)[0] if len(guard_words) == 1 else None
# (1) VALUES: base default and every overlay's value, for every guarded knob.
for key in sorted(guarded_keys):
seen: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
if key in base:
seen.append((f"clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml:{key}", base[key]))
for env, eff in sorted(overlays.items()):
seen.append((f"clusters/{env} effective:{key}", eff.get(key, "")))
check(bool(seen), f"guarded knob {key} is not defined in cluster-vars at all — the guard "
"protects a knob nothing authors")
for origin, value in seen:
expect = "placeholder" if placeholder_shaped(value) else "usable"
for name in sorted(guard_words):
rows.append((name, expect, origin, value))
# (2) OVERLAYS: a placeholder-shaped effective value for an UNGUARDED knob.
for env, eff in sorted(overlays.items()):
for key, value in sorted(eff.items()):
if key in guarded_keys or not placeholder_shaped(value):
continue
check(False,
f"clusters/{env}: knob {key} resolves to the placeholder-shaped value {value!r}, "
f"and NO guard in {STANDUP_REL} refuses it. Either give it a real value before it "
"reaches an overlay, or guard it the way the S3 endpoint is guarded — an overlay "
"that ships a placeholder no guard recognises is the 2026-09-05 failure with a "
"different knob's name on it.")
# (4) ANCHORING: the guard's own vocabulary must match ANYWHERE, not just as a prefix,
# and a realistic endpoint must still be accepted.
for name, words in sorted(guard_words.items()):
for w in sorted(set(words)):
rows.append((name, "placeholder",
f"anchoring:{name}:mid-string({w})",
f"https://account-{w}-id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"))
rows.append((name, "placeholder", f"anchoring:{name}:tail({w})",
f"https://r2-endpoint.example.invalid/{w}"))
rows.append((name, "placeholder", f"canary:{name}:empty", ""))
rows.append((name, "usable", f"canary:{name}:real-r2",
"https://0123456789abcdef0123456789abcd.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"))
rows.append((name, "usable", f"canary:{name}:real-minio", "http://192.168.1.9:9000"))
# Every guarded knob must reach the oracle once per authored source (base + each overlay),
# so a knob silently dropping out of the corpus is a failure rather than a quiet pass.
authored = [r for r in rows if not r[2].startswith(("anchoring:", "canary:"))]
expected_rows = len(guarded_keys) * (1 + len(overlays)) * len(guard_words)
check(len(authored) == expected_rows,
f"{len(authored)} authored value(s) reached the guard, expected {expected_rows} "
f"({len(guarded_keys)} guarded knob(s) x base+{len(overlays)} overlay(s) x "
f"{len(guard_words)} predicate(s)) — a guarded knob is missing from cluster-vars or from "
"an overlay's effective values, and the coupling is only partly exercised")
# ------------------------------------------------------- (6) the check is load-bearing
L0 = (ROOT / "ci" / "l0.sh").read_text() if (ROOT / "ci" / "l0.sh").is_file() else ""
GATE = (ROOT / "ci" / "gate.sh").read_text() if (ROOT / "ci" / "gate.sh").is_file() else ""
check("--layer l0" in L0,
"ci/l0.sh does not run the L0 conformance layer — this check would never execute in the gate")
check(bool(re.search(r"^for s in .*\bl0\b.*; do", GATE, re.M)) and bool(re.search(r"fail\).*BLOCK=1", GATE)),
"ci/gate.sh does not set the merge block when the l0 stage fails")
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- handoff
with (WORK / "corpus.tsv").open("w") as fh:
for name, expect, origin, value in rows:
fh.write(f"{name}\t{expect}\t{origin}\t{value}\n")
(WORK / "findings.txt").write_text("".join(f"{f}\n" for f in FAILURES))
(WORK / "counts.txt").write_text(f"{CHECKS}\n")
print(f"guards: {', '.join(sorted(guard_words))} "
f"vocabulary: {', '.join(VOCAB)}")
print(f"guarded knobs: {', '.join(sorted(guarded_keys))} "
f"consumers traced: {len(consumers)} overlays: {', '.join(sorted(overlays))}")
for name, expect, origin, value in rows:
if not origin.startswith(("anchoring:", "canary:")):
print(f" authored {origin} = {value!r} -> expect {expect}")
PY
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# PHASE 2 (bash): source the REAL predicate lines and run the corpus through them.
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# shellcheck disable=SC1090,SC1091
source "${WORK}/guards.sh"
oracle_failures=0
oracle_rows=0
while IFS=$'\t' read -r guard expect origin value; do
[ -n "${guard}" ] || continue
oracle_rows=$((oracle_rows + 1))
if "${guard}" "${value}"; then verdict=placeholder; else verdict=usable; fi
if [ "${verdict}" != "${expect}" ]; then
oracle_failures=$((oracle_failures + 1))
if [ "${expect}" = placeholder ]; then
printf '%s\n' "${guard}() in ${STANDUP_REL} ACCEPTS '${value}' (from ${origin}) as a usable value, but it is placeholder-shaped. This is the 2026-09-05 failure exactly: the guard is asked about a value it does not recognise, returns 'fine', and the tier it protects is enabled against something that does not exist. Fix the predicate (match the idiom anywhere, not as a prefix) or stop authoring that idiom." >> "${WORK}/findings.txt"
else
printf '%s\n' "${guard}() in ${STANDUP_REL} REFUSES '${value}' (from ${origin}), which is a usable value. An over-matching guard leaves the tier it protects suspended forever and reports it as an operator decision — a silent failure in the other direction." >> "${WORK}/findings.txt"
fi
fi
done < "${WORK}/corpus.tsv"
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ verdict
py_checks="$(cat "${WORK}/counts.txt")"
total=$((py_checks + oracle_rows))
findings="$(cat "${WORK}/findings.txt")"
# NO-OP GUARD: this repo has been bitten by a check that passed when perturbed because it
# asked a question that was always satisfiable. The floors below are the minimum evidence
# for the verdict to mean anything, not a style rule.
if [ "${oracle_rows}" -lt 6 ]; then
findings="${findings}only ${oracle_rows} value(s) were put to the real guard — the coupling is not actually being exercised
"
fi
if [ "${total}" -lt 20 ]; then
findings="${findings}only ${total} assertions ran — the check degenerated to a near-no-op and its pass would be meaningless
"
fi
if [ -n "${findings}" ]; then
echo "CHECK FAIL (placeholder-guard-coupling): $(printf '%s' "${findings}" | grep -c . ) of ${total} assertions failed" >&2
printf '%s' "${findings}" | sed 's/^/ - /' >&2
exit 1
fi
echo "check OK: placeholder-guard-coupling — ${total} assertions; ${oracle_rows} value(s) run through the REAL extracted predicate(s) from ${STANDUP_REL} (no reimplementation), covering every authored cluster-vars value of every guarded knob in base and each overlay, the guard's own vocabulary matched mid-string, and the empty/real-endpoint canaries. Static slice only: refusal, not reachability — see the header."
+2 -1
View File
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
# Ansible Galaxy collections required by infra/ansible. Install with:
# ansible-galaxy collection install -r collections/requirements.yml
collections:
# node_baseline role: community.general.modprobe, community.general.filesystem
# node_baseline role: community.general.modprobe, community.general.filesystem,
# community.general.timezone
- name: community.general
# node_baseline role: ansible.posix.mount
- name: ansible.posix
@@ -81,6 +81,45 @@ node_baseline_kernel_modules:
- dm_crypt
- nfs
# --- NODE CLOCK / TIMEZONE (tag `system`) ---------------------------------------------
# EVERY NODE IS UTC. Measured drift that made this a knob rather than an assumption: the
# three prod nodes disagreed on their local zone (read off k3s's own etcd snapshot
# annotations, 2026-09-05) —
# k3s-prod-1 2026-09-05T16:31:28-05:00 (Central)
# k3s-prod-2 2026-09-05T16:29:07-05:00 (Central)
# k3s-prod-3 2026-09-05T17:27:35-04:00 (Eastern)
# In UTC those three are ~4 minutes apart, which is the CORRECT staggering: nothing was
# functionally wrong, because Kubernetes, etcd and the container runtime are UTC internally.
# What IS wrong is that any timestamp a node renders in LOCAL time — journald's default
# output, `ls -l`, a shell prompt, an etcd snapshot filename — cannot be compared across
# nodes without knowing each node's zone. Correlating three nodes' logs during an incident
# is exactly when nobody has that knowledge to hand, and this cluster took two unplanned
# node reboots in the 24h before this was written.
#
# WHY UTC AND NOT "STANDARDISE ON CENTRAL". Picking one local zone leaves the class of
# problem intact (a fourth node, or a DST boundary, re-creates it) and adds a translation
# step to every log read, because every timestamp the PLATFORM emits — Kubernetes events,
# Prometheus, Loki, Velero, CNPG WAL, the etcd snapshot annotations above — is already UTC.
# UTC removes the class: node-local time and platform time become the same clock, and there
# is no DST discontinuity in which a repeated or skipped hour breaks log ordering. This also
# matches the only timezone convention the repo already had — catalog/plex.yaml records
# "no other service in the repo sets a timezone ... so use the safe default" and both it and
# apps/wave-0/plex.yaml set TZ=Etc/UTC. (platform/crafty sets America/Chicago, deliberately:
# that is a USER-FACING game server's schedule, not a node's log clock.)
#
# WHY A KNOB AT ALL (R-ENV-02). The value is a node-level Ansible fact, so its override seam
# is inventory/group_vars/<env>, NOT clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml (a Flux postBuild
# ConfigMap no Ansible code reads) — the same seam node_baseline_backports_kernel and
# node_baseline_dns_servers use. NO ENVIRONMENT OVERRIDES IT TODAY, and one should not have
# to: dev and prod both want UTC and there is nothing environment-specific about a node
# clock. It is a variable rather than a literal in the task so a genuinely
# operator-facing one-off host (never a k3s node) can differ without forking the role.
#
# Must be a zoneinfo name present on the node (`timedatectl list-timezones`); the assert in
# tasks/main.yml rejects an empty or obviously-malformed value before the module runs, and
# community.general.timezone itself refuses a name /usr/share/zoneinfo does not have.
node_baseline_timezone: Etc/UTC
# --- DATA DISKS (tasks/disks.yml, tag `disks`) ----------------------------------------
# The SHAPE of a node's storage is DECLARED per environment, never inferred from whether
# a variable happens to be set. Two enums, defaulting to dev's two-dedicated-disks shape:
@@ -262,6 +262,52 @@
vars:
newest: "{{ (node_baseline_installed_kernels.stdout_lines | default([]) | first) | default('', true) }}"
# =====================================================================================
# NODE CLOCK — tag `system`: every node renders time in the SAME zone, and that zone is UTC
# =====================================================================================
# MEASURED DRIFT (2026-09-05), read off k3s's own etcd snapshot annotations on live prod:
# k3s-prod-1 2026-09-05T16:31:28-05:00 Central
# k3s-prod-2 2026-09-05T16:29:07-05:00 Central
# k3s-prod-3 2026-09-05T17:27:35-04:00 Eastern <-- a different UTC offset
# Functionally harmless (in UTC those three are ~4 minutes apart, which is the correct
# staggering — Kubernetes, etcd and containerd are UTC internally). Operationally it is a
# trap: any timestamp a node renders in LOCAL time (journald's default output, `ls -l`, an
# etcd snapshot filename) is not comparable across nodes without knowing each node's zone,
# and cross-node log correlation during an incident is precisely when nobody knows that.
#
# Rationale for UTC rather than standardising on one local zone, and for this being a knob
# whose override seam is inventory/group_vars/<env>: see node_baseline_timezone in
# defaults/main.yml. NOT a cluster-vars knob — no Ansible code reads that ConfigMap.
#
# IDEMPOTENCE / BLAST RADIUS. community.general.timezone is a converge-to-state module: it
# reports `changed` only when /etc/localtime + /etc/timezone do not already name this zone,
# and it does NOT step the clock (no time jump, no NTP interaction) — only the RENDERING of
# an unchanged monotonic clock moves. No reboot is required. Already-running services that
# render local time keep the old zone until they are next restarted (the module restarts
# cron itself, which is the one scheduler on these nodes that cares); k3s, etcd and the
# kubelet are unaffected either way because they emit UTC regardless.
- name: Assert this node's timezone has actually been decided
ansible.builtin.assert:
that:
- node_baseline_timezone is string
- node_baseline_timezone | length > 0
- "'BLOCKED' not in node_baseline_timezone"
- node_baseline_timezone is match('^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9+_-]*(/[A-Za-z0-9+_.-]+)*$')
fail_msg: >-
node_baseline_timezone is not a usable zoneinfo name (got:
'{{ node_baseline_timezone | default("<undefined>") }}'). It must be a name
/usr/share/zoneinfo actually carries — `timedatectl list-timezones` on the node — and
the repo default (Etc/UTC) is almost certainly what you want; see the rationale in
roles/node_baseline/defaults/main.yml. Empty is NOT "leave it alone": a node whose zone
nobody has decided is the config drift this task exists to remove.
quiet: true
tags: [system]
- name: Pin the node timezone (cross-node log correlation; UTC by default)
community.general.timezone:
name: "{{ node_baseline_timezone }}"
tags: [system]
- name: Persist kernel modules for k3s/Cilium/Longhorn
ansible.builtin.copy:
dest: /etc/modules-load.d/k3s-cilium-longhorn.conf