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authortv <tv@krebsco.de>2026-11-09 22:32:01 +0000
committertv <tv@krebsco.de>2026-11-11 23:29:29 +0100
commit61cb117a9b230371d7be36a15a055972ec7de56e (patch)
tree12bee005f52d3355975045872fdf0cbcd3fc71b3 /docs/lifecycle.md
parent5b2232b14aba5d72f07b9d1ae889f9951d6d2569 (diff)
screen: write as a fresh actor when another node writes as this one
With --keep-actor, a node on a document file that ends with a clean stop writes on as the actor the file names. Two nodes started on copies of one file (a copied data directory, a restored disk image while the original runs) both do, and both make that actor's next change number: peers holding one refuse the other as forged, and everything built on it. screen::apply_bytes, the way every received change comes in, now looks for a change of the actor the node writes as that the node doesn't hold: only another node can have made it. The node then writes on as a fresh actor at once, logs a warning, and its callers add the actor to the node's own (RemakeState::add_own_actor), which the document file's header follows. The change is judged as any other. lifecycle.md says not to start a copy of a node's data directory with --keep-actor, and what the switch leaves: what both wrote before stays refused where the other's came first.
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/lifecycle.md')
-rw-r--r--docs/lifecycle.md8
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/lifecycle.md b/docs/lifecycle.md
index d703fe3..900349d 100644
--- a/docs/lifecycle.md
+++ b/docs/lifecycle.md
@@ -95,7 +95,13 @@ document file holding a document is an error with no override.
each start, unless `--keep-actor` and it stopped cleanly (the file marks a clean
stop, and the mark is undone as the node starts on it, before it decides its actor):
then it writes on as the actor of before, as nothing it wrote is missing. Where the
- mark can't be undone (the disk full, say), it writes as a fresh one. Fewer actors mean fewer signatures in every
+ mark can't be undone (the disk full, say), it writes as a fresh one. Two nodes
+ started on copies of one file would both write on as that actor, and each one's
+ changes would be refused as forged by peers holding the other's: don't start a copy
+ of a node's data directory while the node runs, or after it, with `--keep-actor`. A
+ node receiving a change of its own actor that it didn't make writes on as a fresh
+ actor at once, and logs a warning; what both wrote before stays refused where the
+ other's came first. Fewer actors mean fewer signatures in every
transfer of the epoch's history (a writer each); a crash, a drop, or a switch or a
rejoin still starts a fresh one.
* **A backup** (`GET /admin/document`) is the whole document with its history, naming