Reduce TODO.md to outstanding work
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The status-code ownership notes described work that has landed. That record
belongs in the commit that made the change and in the comments around the code
it constrains, not in a file whose purpose is naming what is left.

Keeps the six open items and the two unrelated pre-existing issues, and
promotes the missing sanitizer run to the top: mutation testing found an
out-of-bounds probe whose failure mode was a silent BSS write, which no
assertion-based test was positioned to catch.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-30 18:19:53 -04:00
parent f1283e21a3
commit ba2430bfa1

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TODO.md
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# TODO
The status-code ownership work has been consumed. The implementation now:
Working notes for `libakerror`. Outstanding items only.
- stores status names in a private, open-addressed sparse registry, removing the
consumer-visible array ABI and `AKERR_MAX_ERR_VALUE`;
- accepts names for arbitrary `int` status values and always terminates
truncated names;
- reserves status values 0 through 255 for libakerror, and fails the build
(`akerr_assert_codes_within_reserved_band`) if a host errno space ever pushes
an `AKERR_*` code out of that band;
- provides `akerr_reserve_status_range()` so independently developed libraries
can declare ranges and detect overlaps at initialization;
- **enforces** those reservations: `akerr_register_status_name()` refuses to
name a status outside a range the caller owns, and the legacy two-argument
`akerr_name_for_status()` set path refuses a status nobody reserved. Every
refusal, and both capacity limits, are reported through `akerr_log_method`;
- self-initializes from every registry entry point, so a reservation made before
the first `PREPARE_ERROR` is no longer wiped by `akerr_init()`;
- names every `AKERR_*` code (`AKERR_EOF`, `AKERR_ITERATOR_BREAK` and
`AKERR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED` previously had none and rendered as "Unknown Error");
- carries a version and soname (1.0.0 / `libakerror.so.1`) so a stale installed
library cannot be silently paired with newer headers; and
- sizes the name registry at 4096 slots (3072 usable, ~2900 free to consumers
after errno registration), tunable at build time via
`AKERR_STATUS_NAME_SLOTS` and `AKERR_MAX_RESERVED_STATUS_RANGES`. Both are
private to `src/error.c`, so raising them cannot desynchronize a library from
its consumers the way `AKERR_MAX_ERR_VALUE` could.
## 1. The test suite has no sanitizer run
None of this introduces dynamic allocation: both tables are file-scope arrays in
BSS, and the library's undefined-symbol set remains `exit`, `memset`, `snprintf`,
`vfprintf`, `strncpy`, `strcmp`, `strlen` and `stderr` — no allocator. The name
table grew from ~34 KB to 288 KB, against the ~4.55 MB `AKERR_ARRAY_ERROR`
already occupies, so total BSS moved ~4.6 MB → ~4.9 MB. Raising
`AKERR_STATUS_NAME_SLOTS` costs 72 bytes per slot, statically. (`strcmp` and
`strlen` are new external dependencies; the README's no-stdlib list records
them.)
Mutation testing caught an out-of-bounds probe in the status-name hash table
that the suite could not: the failure mode was a write into adjacent BSS, which
does not crash, so every test still passed. Sharpening one test closed that
instance, but ASan would have caught the whole class directly and independently
of how sharp the assertions are.
Consumers with existing custom codes below 256 must migrate them to a declared
range starting at 256 or higher; `libakgl`'s codes at `AKERR_LAST_ERRNO_VALUE +
18..22` land inside the reserved band and will fail to reserve.
Add a `-fsanitize=address,undefined` build to `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml`, or a
CMake option alongside `AKERR_COVERAGE`. This is the highest-value item here: it
covers the whole library, not just the registry, and the library's fixed pools
and manual buffer arithmetic are exactly what it is good at.
## Mutation testing surfaced a latent out-of-bounds write in the new registry
## 2. `HANDLE`-level status aliasing is still undetectable
Worth recording because the failure mode is silent and the class will recur if
the registry is touched again.
Two components can compile the same integer into a `case` label without ever
reserving a range or registering a name, and nothing sees it. Ownership
enforcement covers *naming*, which is the part the library mediates; the `case`
label never reaches it.
`akerr_status_slot()` advances its probe with
`slot = (slot + 1u) & (AKERR_STATUS_NAME_SLOTS - 1)`. Mutating that mask to
`- 0` or `+ 1` makes it index *past* the end of `akerr_status_names` — a write
into adjacent BSS. Both mutants **survived the test suite**: `err_maxval.c` only
asserted that *some* names registered before the table reported full, and a
probe sequence that collapses to two slots still satisfies that. The test now
requires a substantial entry count and reads every entry back by its own
distinct name, so a probe that revisits slots fails on both counts. Both mutants
are killed (`src/error.c` score 74% → 77.3%).
Closing this needs the `if`/`else if` handler ladder — rewriting
`PROCESS`/`HANDLE`/`HANDLE_GROUP`/`HANDLE_DEFAULT`/`FINISH` so status matching
is not restricted to integer constant expressions. That would also allow
matching on ranges or predicates, and would let a handler resolve a code through
its owner. It touches the most load-bearing code in the library and every
consumer's error handling at once, so it wants its own change.
Two things to keep in mind:
Note it would *not* by itself fix the "don't use `CATCH` or `FAIL_*_BREAK`
inside a loop" hazard: that comes from exiting via `break`, not from `switch`.
- **That mask is load-bearing and fails silently.** It corrupts neighbouring
statics rather than crashing, which is exactly why a passing test suite proved
nothing. Any future change to the probe sequence, the occupancy cap, or the
power-of-two assumption needs a test that reads back *every* entry, not a
count.
- **The suite has no sanitizer run.** ASan would have caught this class directly
and independently of how sharp the assertions are, which is the more general
defense. Adding a `-fsanitize=address,undefined` build to `.gitea/workflows/
ci.yaml` (or a CMake option alongside `AKERR_COVERAGE`) is cheap and would
cover the whole library, not just the registry. This is the highest-value
follow-up in this file.
## 3. No registry introspection
## Known gaps
There is no way to ask who owns a status, or to enumerate reservations. The
"coordinate ranges at the dependency-stack level" advice in README.md therefore
has no tooling behind it.
Ordered by how likely they are to matter as more components adopt the library.
A read-only accessor plus a dump through `akerr_log_method` would let a startup
self-check or a CI job print the whole map for a linked stack. Cheap, additive,
and the natural next step for multi-component adoption.
1. **`HANDLE`-level aliasing is still undetectable.** Two components can compile
the same integer into a `case` label without ever reserving a range or
registering a name, and nothing sees it. Enforcement covers *naming*, which
is the part the library mediates; the `case` label never reaches it. Closing
this needs the `if`/`else if` handler ladder described in option (c) of the
original notes, which is a much larger change to the macro layer.
## 4. No way to release a reservation
2. **No registry introspection.** There is no way to ask who owns a status or to
enumerate reservations, so the "coordinate ranges at the dependency-stack
level" advice has no tooling behind it. A read-only accessor plus a dump
through `akerr_log_method` would let a startup self-check or a CI job print
the whole map for a linked stack. Cheap and additive.
A plugin host that `dlopen`s many distinct plugins over a process lifetime
accumulates ranges until the table fills. Reloading the *same* plugin is fine —
an identical repeat by the same owner is idempotent.
3. **No way to release a reservation.** A plugin host that `dlopen`s many
distinct plugins over a process lifetime accumulates ranges until the table
fills. Reloading the *same* plugin is fine (an identical repeat is
idempotent).
## 5. The registry is not thread safe
4. **The registry is not thread safe.** Global mutable state, no locking, and
`akerr_status_name_count++` is not atomic. Documented as an
initialization-time-only API; not enforced.
Global mutable state, no locking, and `akerr_status_name_count++` is not atomic.
Currently documented as an initialization-time-only API rather than enforced. If
components start initializing on separate threads this needs either a lock or a
documented once-per-process init barrier.
5. **The legacy `akerr_name_for_status(status, name)` set path cannot identify
its caller,** so it only checks that *some* reservation covers the status.
It is kept for migration. Consider deprecating it once consumers have moved
to `akerr_register_status_name()`.
## 6. Deprecate the two-argument name-registration path
`akerr_name_for_status(status, name)` cannot identify its caller, so it can only
check that *some* reservation covers the status, not that the caller owns it. It
exists for migration. Once consumers have moved to
`akerr_register_status_name()`, make the set path a no-op or remove it and leave
`akerr_name_for_status()` as pure lookup.
## Unrelated pre-existing issues
- The `AKERR_USE_STDLIB=OFF` build does not compile at all: `bool`, `PATH_MAX`
and `NULL` are used unconditionally but only included under the stdlib branch.
The README's dependency list is now accurate about what a replacement must
provide, but the header still needs the includes untangled for that
configuration to work.
- `CMakeLists.txt` still sets `main_lib_dest` from `MY_LIBRARY_VERSION`, which is
never defined and never read. Dead line.
The README's dependency list states what a replacement must provide, but the
header still needs its includes untangled for that configuration to work.
- `CMakeLists.txt` sets `main_lib_dest` from `MY_LIBRARY_VERSION`, which is never
defined and never read. Dead line.