fix(generations): a sealed segment may only declare the generations it holds

Diagnosis of the "packed history is damaged" narration that fires on every
run of the affected stores. It is a WRITER defect, and the reader's refusal
was the symptom rather than the cause.

A sealed segment declares one contiguous range [firstGeneration,
lastGeneration], and every reader treats that range as containment:
coveringSegment is an interval test, hasGeneration returns true for anything
inside it, and open() seeds committedRanges from it.

repackHistory handed fold() a SPARSE batch. Three filters punch holes in its
candidate list mid-run — a generation absent from committedRanges never
appears, one still in the pending buffer is skipped, one whose tx.json will
not read is skipped — and fold() then computed the range from the first and
last survivor, claiming every generation in between. The next open merged
that mis-declared range back into committedRanges, re-admitting the hole as
committed history, so the following auto-compaction pass asked the packed
tier for a frame that was never written and failed. Re-merged at every open,
which is why it repeated on every run.

Confirmed against a forensic fixture: generation directories 1..2503 present
except exactly one, 1416; and its fact-log segment already showed the tell —
seg-...1410.bfl declaring 1410..1940 (531 generations) while recording 530
facts.

Three changes:

  - repackHistory folds each contiguous RUN as its own segment
    (`contiguousRuns`), so ranges describe exactly what the segments contain.
  - fold() REFUSES a non-contiguous batch, naming the gap and its width. The
    density law is now mechanical, so no future caller can reintroduce it. A
    refusal loses nothing: the generations stay live and readable.
  - Stores already carrying the damage heal instead of wedging. A segment
    whose declared span exceeds its frame count is SPARSE; `actualRanges()`
    reads the real generation list from its sidecar so open() never re-admits
    the holes, and readFrame reports such a hole as unpacked with a narration
    naming the segment, rather than throwing. A DENSE segment missing a frame
    is still loud damage — that one means the manifest and sidecar disagree.

Pins: nine unit cases (refusal and its message, honest ranges for separately
folded runs, a reconstructed pre-fix sparse segment serving its real frames
while reporting holes as unpacked, holes excluded from actualRanges, and the
dense-segment damage path still throwing) plus an end-to-end case that
deletes a generation directory and drives the real sequence — ordinary
close()-time repacking folds over the hole, then reopen and compact must both
complete. Verified red without the fix: the segment declared an
11-generation span while holding 10 frames.

(cherry picked from commit 9a888c37e9)
This commit is contained in:
David Snelling 2026-08-31 09:13:42 -07:00
parent c99308710a
commit a963a744cc
4 changed files with 389 additions and 13 deletions

View file

@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { describe, it, expect, afterEach } from 'vitest'
import * as fs from 'node:fs'
import * as path from 'node:path'
import * as os from 'node:os'
import * as zlib from 'node:zlib'
import { Brainy } from '../../src/brainy.js'
import { NounType } from '../../src/types/graphTypes.js'
import { GenerationStore } from '../../src/db/generationStore.js'
@ -57,6 +58,107 @@ describe('history repacking — the two-tier lifecycle', () => {
}
})
/**
* THE HOLE, END TO END the shape a real store carries.
*
* A forensic fixture was measured with generation directories 1..2503
* present except for exactly one: 1416. Its fact-log segment already showed
* the tell `seg-...1410.bfl` declaring firstGeneration 1410, lastGeneration
* 1940 (531 generations) while recording only 530 facts.
*
* Before the fix, repacking such a store folded ACROSS that hole: the batch
* skipped 1416 (no readable delta) and the sealed segment declared a range
* spanning it anyway. The next open merged that declared range back into
* committedRanges, re-admitting 1416 as committed history, and every
* subsequent auto-compaction pass then asked the packed tier for a frame
* that was never written producing, on EVERY run, the non-fatal narration
*
* Auto-compaction of generational history failed (non-fatal): generation
* N is inside sealed segment seg-....bgs's declared range but has no frame
* packed history is damaged
*
* This pin removes a generation directory to make the same hole, then
* requires repack + reopen + compaction to complete cleanly.
*/
it('a missing generation directory does not poison the packed tier', async () => {
const dir = tempDir()
// `retention: 'all'` throughout: close() otherwise auto-compacts the
// history away, and this pin needs the cold generations still on disk so
// there is something to punch a hole in. The live window stays at its
// production default for the build phase, so nothing folds yet.
const archival = async (): Promise<Brainy> => {
const b = new Brainy({
requireSubtype: false,
storage: { type: 'filesystem', path: dir },
embeddingFunction: stub,
retention: 'all'
})
await b.init()
return b
}
const brain = await archival()
const id = await brain.add({
data: 'holed-entity',
type: NounType.Document,
metadata: { v: 0 }
})
// One flush per update: single-op writes coalesce inside a flush window,
// so a history deep enough to have a middle needs the windows separated.
for (let v = 1; v <= 12; v++) {
await brain.update({ id, metadata: { v } })
await brain.flush()
}
await brain.close()
// Punch the hole: delete ONE generation directory in the middle of the
// cold range, exactly as the real store presents it.
const genRoot = path.join(dir, '_generations')
const numeric = fs
.readdirSync(genRoot, { withFileTypes: true })
.filter((e) => e.isDirectory() && /^\d+$/.test(e.name))
.map((e) => Number(e.name))
.sort((a, b) => a - b)
expect(numeric.length).toBeGreaterThan(6)
const victim = numeric[Math.floor(numeric.length / 2)]
fs.rmSync(path.join(genRoot, String(victim)), { recursive: true, force: true })
// Now shrink the live window and reopen. close() repacks automatically
// (brainy.ts phase 0b), so this is the production sequence exactly: a
// store with a hole in its history gets folded by ordinary housekeeping,
// with nobody asking for it.
;(GenerationStore as any).REPACK_LIVE_WINDOW = 3
const reopened = await archival()
const result = await reopened.repackHistory()
expect(result.foldedGenerations).toBeGreaterThan(0)
const segDir = path.join(dir, SEGMENTS_PREFIX)
const manifestPath = ['manifest.json', 'manifest.json.gz']
.map((f) => path.join(segDir, f))
.find((p) => fs.existsSync(p))!
const raw = manifestPath.endsWith('.gz')
? zlib.gunzipSync(fs.readFileSync(manifestPath)).toString('utf8')
: fs.readFileSync(manifestPath, 'utf8')
const manifest = JSON.parse(raw) as {
segments: Array<{ firstGeneration: number; lastGeneration: number; frames: number }>
}
// THE LAW: every sealed segment declares exactly as many generations as it
// holds frames, and none of them spans the victim.
for (const s of manifest.segments) {
expect(s.lastGeneration - s.firstGeneration + 1).toBe(s.frames)
expect(victim >= s.firstGeneration && victim <= s.lastGeneration).toBe(false)
}
await reopened.close()
// And the pass that used to fail on every run now completes: reopen (which
// re-seeds committedRanges from the packed tier) then compact history.
const third = await openBrain(dir)
await expect(third.compactHistory({ maxGenerations: 2 })).resolves.toBeDefined()
await third.close()
})
it('repack preserves every historical read across cold reopen; folded dirs are gone', async () => {
;(GenerationStore as any).REPACK_LIVE_WINDOW = 3
const dir = tempDir()