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

@ -42,12 +42,33 @@
// supervisor -> PID 1
#define SCHINIT_HELLO 1 // struct schinit_hello
#define SCHINIT_SPAWN 2 // struct schinit_spawn
#define SCHINIT_SIGNAL 3 // struct schinit_signal
#define SCHINIT_PONG 3 // struct schinit_hello -- answer to a PING
// PID 1 -> supervisor
#define SCHINIT_WELCOME 128 // struct schinit_hello, echoed with PID 1's version
#define SCHINIT_SPAWNED 129 // struct schinit_reply -- pid, or negative on failure
#define SCHINIT_EXITED 130 // struct schinit_reply -- a child has been reaped
#define SCHINIT_PING 131 // struct schinit_hello -- answer within the deadline
// The heartbeat.
//
// docs/plan/init.md part 3, and the failure the two-init scheme could not see:
// **the common way an init breaks is not dying, it is hanging.** wait() never
// returns for a process that is merely stuck, so a supervisor watching a
// wedged PID 1 -- or PID 1 watching a wedged supervisor -- reports everything
// normal forever.
//
// So each must be heard from. PID 1 sends a PING every interval and expects a
// PONG; silence past the deadline means the other end is stuck rather than
// busy, and stuck is the case worth acting on.
//
// Measured in seconds of uptime(), which counts ticks. Ticks can be *lost*
// when interrupts are off too long -- see kernel/core/time.c -- which makes a
// tick-measured deadline longer in real time than it looks, never shorter.
// That is the safe direction: a machine under load waits longer before
// declaring a hang, rather than declaring one that has not happened.
#define SCHINIT_PING_SECS 2
#define SCHINIT_DEADLINE_SECS 10
struct schinit_hello {
unsigned int op;