init: a hang is as detectable as a death, and PID 1 comes back

docs/plan/init.md milestones I2 and I3. The rule change.

**I2 -- the heartbeat.** The failure the two-init scheme could not see is that
an init usually does not die, it *hangs*: wait() never returns for a process
that is merely stuck, so a supervisor watching a wedged init reports
everything normal for ever. PID 1 now pings every two seconds and expects an
answer within ten; silence means stuck, and stuck is worth acting on.

Exercised rather than reasoned about, as the plan asks: `sysrq w` wedges
schinitd by making the scheduler pass over it for ever. It stays alive, keeps
its descriptors and appears in every listing -- which is the point.

Two things that only showed up by running it:

  - kill() sets a flag the target checks when it next runs, and the premise
    here is that it is not running. Waiting for a corpse that may never be
    produced turns the recovery path into a second hang. PID 1 replaces the
    supervisor *without waiting*; the old one's socket is closed, so the moment
    it runs again its first write fails and it exits.
  - the replaced supervisor must notice the hangup. poll() reports POLLHUP and
    never POLLIN again, so a loop that only looks for POLLIN sits there
    complaining that PID 1 has stopped pinging it.

**I3 -- proc_reincarnate().** exit() on initproc panicked. Now the kernel
tears down nothing, keeps pid 1, and re-execs /bin/schinit in place with a
generation counter. The pid stays 1, so every orphan the kernel reparented is
still correctly parented; the children survive; the open files survive, which
is why this is the first line of exit() and not the last; and the job table
survives in /proc/schinit, which is what it is there for.

The escalation ladder: generations 2-3 carry on, generation 4 ignores
/etc/schinit and starts a console shell only -- a manifest that kills init
must not kill it for ever -- and generation 5 stops, with PSOGM rendering
INIT_RESURRECTION_FAILED, a call chain and a QR code.

Three bugs found by running it, each a lesson about exec():

  - exec() returns 0 on success; it does not fail to return. The new image
    starts when the kernel returns to userspace through the rewritten
    trapframe. Returning from exit() is the success path.
  - exit() was reached because `killed` was set, and the trap path checks it
    again on the way out. Leaving it set exits the new image before its first
    instruction: five generations in a few microseconds, a resurrection loop
    that looks exactly like the crash it was meant to survive.
  - exec() keeps open files, which is what gives the new image a console --
    and also keeps the previous life's socket, holding the old supervisor's
    channel up so it never sees a hangup.

Verified: `sysrq i`, and the shell being typed into keeps its pid across the
death and rebirth of PID 1, with /proc/schinit byte-identical either side.

schfs-check passes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VQ7Qx8E1q1M1bbCq8QLHS2
This commit is contained in:
Nexoniarz 2026-09-13 14:27:22 +02:00
commit 0def474272
8 changed files with 456 additions and 21 deletions

View file

@ -143,7 +143,20 @@ silent loop. The crash screen is the correct place for this to arrive.
## Milestones
**I0 and I1 are built.** `schinit` is 520 lines with no parser and no
**All four milestones are built.** `sysrq w` wedges the supervisor and PID 1
replaces it; `sysrq i` kills PID 1 and the kernel refills the role:
```
init: pid 1 exited with status 9 -- reincarnating, generation 2
schinit: reclaimed 2 running job(s) from /proc/schinit
schinit: SchOS process 1, generation 2 (reincarnated)
schinitd: adopting os.schos.console-shell
schinitd: adopting os.schos.tty2-shell
```
The shell being typed into keeps its pid across the death and rebirth of PID 1.
**I0 and I1 first.** `schinit` is 520 lines with no parser and no
allocation; `schinitd` holds the manifests. `kill 3` produces:
```
@ -168,8 +181,8 @@ believing it.
|---|---|
| **I0** ✅ | Split the program. PID 1 supervises one child; `schinitd` does everything else. Jobs still forked by PID 1. |
| **I1** ✅ | `/proc/schinit`, written and read back. Kill `schinitd` by hand and watch it return without disturbing a single job. |
| **I2** | The heartbeat both ways, with a `sysrq` key that wedges `schinitd` on purpose so the timeout path is exercised rather than assumed. |
| **I3** | `proc_reincarnate()` and the ladder, with a `sysrq` key that kills PID 1 on purpose. |
| **I2** ✅ | The heartbeat both ways, with a `sysrq` key that wedges `schinitd` on purpose so the timeout path is exercised rather than assumed. |
| **I3** ✅ | `proc_reincarnate()` and the ladder, with a `sysrq` key that kills PID 1 on purpose. |
---