# GPU launcher / probe SIGINT teardown — framing

Revision 3. Status: **awaiting approval. No implementation.**

Revisions 1 and 2 were each rejected on five findings. Every correction
is recorded in place rather than quietly rewritten, because three of
them were claims this document itself had advanced:

- r1 → r2: the ">6 s selector" and the "≥8 s lifetime" arithmetic
  (§5); "two processes with default disposition" (§3); "119 binaries
  green, one red" (§1); an unobtainable A2 (§8); "journey steps
  touched: none" (§9).
- r2 → r3: **"R9 ran the same binaries" — it did not** (§4); "the probe
  never blocks indefinitely" (§3); the launcher call-site count (§5);
  reduction provenance, now in `docs/probe-sigint-evidence.md`; and
  ledger corrections that had not been made portable (§11).

## 1. The problem, stated as what is observed

`ctrl_c_on_launcher_group_does_not_reach_spawned_daemon` fails with

```
child did not exit within 5s   (tests/gpu_invocation_acceptance.rs:180, called from :1115)
```

The test spawns `pmacs --gpu --socket <s>` in its own process group
(`process_group(0)`, `:1107`), waits for the probe to report
`phase=ready`, sends `SIGINT` to the **group** (`:1113`), and requires
the launcher to exit within five seconds.

**It fails in two binaries, not one.** `tests/gpu_initial_target_acceptance.rs`
includes the suite as a module, so a reproducing sweep reds twice.
Reference run `20260816T064549Z-2144707/09-sweep-crdt.log`:

| | line | result |
|---|---|---|
| `gpu_initial_target_acceptance` | 3097 | `FAILED. 14 passed; 1 failed … 5.19s` |
| `gpu_invocation_acceptance` | 3131 | `FAILED. 14 passed; 1 failed … 5.18s` |
| green result summaries | — | **119** |

So the correct statement is **119 green result summaries and two red
binaries**. Revision 1 said "119 binaries green, one red", which was
wrong on both halves.

**This is pre-existing on `main`.** The identical `build-crdt &&
sweep-crdt` pair at `72da24a`, clean worktree, own target directory,
fails the same test.

## 2. Why this blocks more than one lane

`sweep-crdt` is stage 15 of the sixteen-stage `--protocol` gate. While
it reds, **no branch can present a green gate**, `main` included.
`panel-mapping-generation` (§5b) is complete with its own fifteen
stages green and is held behind this lane by explicit instruction.

## 3. Ground truth (cited), and what it does *not* establish

- **Neither binary contains signal-handling code.** `run_gpu`
  (`src/main.rs:324`) blocks in `command.status()` (`:363`) — a plain
  `waitpid` — with no handler installed. Grepping
  `SIGINT|signal_hook|sigaction|ctrlc|set_handler|pthread_sigmask|sigprocmask`
  across `pmacs-gpu/src` returns nothing.
- **The probe's event loop wakes at least every 50 ms.**
  `run_headless_managed_probe` (`pmacs-gpu/src/main.rs:1065`) loops on
  `event_rx.recv_timeout(Duration::from_millis(50))`. **Revision 2 said
  "never blocks indefinitely", which is false**: the probe's stdin
  reader thread blocks in `read_to_end` (`:1109`) with no timeout, and
  once `ready` the loop has **no deadline of its own** — it leaves only
  when stdin closes (`:1212`). So the process is not bounded; only the
  event wakeup is.
- **The daemon *does* handle signals, deliberately.**
  `src/daemon.rs:629-641` registers `SIGTERM`/`SIGINT` via
  `signal_hook::flag`. The daemon is the process the test asserts must
  **survive**, detached from the launcher's group.

**Correction to revision 1.** Revision 1 concluded from the first two
bullets that "two processes with default `SIGINT` disposition should
both die at once". **That does not follow, and it contradicted this
document's own leading hypothesis.** Absence of handler *code* says
nothing about runtime *disposition*: `SIG_IGN` is inherited across
`fork` **and** survives `exec`, so either process can hold a
non-default disposition it never installed — from the test harness,
from `cargo`, or from the invoking shell. Inherited ignore is a live
candidate precisely because the source is silent. What the source
establishes is narrower: **neither binary sets a disposition itself**,
so whatever disposition they hold at runtime was inherited, and that is
measurable rather than arguable.

## 4. Reductions attempted

**Full provenance lives in `docs/probe-sigint-evidence.md`**, which is
pushed with this branch: exact command, worktree, HEAD, cleanliness,
the artifact family actually executed, result, and log digest for every
physical run. Log bodies stay machine-local under
`/home/jeans/build/pmacs-gate-targets/probe-sigint-evidence/` — `/tmp`
is a tmpfs and they were nearly lost to a cleanup mid-lane.

Three provenance caveats are recorded there rather than smoothed over:
**R1 and R2 have no preserved log** (revision 2 cited `gpu3.log` for
both R2 and R6; that log is R6's three-suite run alone, and counting
one run as two was wrong); **cleanliness is `UNKNOWN` for every
pre-manifest run**, because it was not recorded at the time and is not
inferrable; and **R1–R10 ran in the `panel-mapping-generation`
worktree**, not at `main`. `D0` re-runs the matrix under a harness that
captures all of it, at `main`, before any row here is relied on.

All rows carry `--features crdt`. Full argv, worktree, HEAD,
cleanliness and artifact family per run: `docs/probe-sigint-evidence.md`.

| # | reduction (after `cargo test`) | runs | result | log |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | `--test gpu_invocation_acceptance ctrl_c_on_launcher_group` | 3 | green, 0.15–0.17 s | **no log preserved** |
| R2 | `--test gpu_invocation_acceptance` (whole suite) | 1 | green, 15 passed | **no log preserved** |
| R3 | `--workspace --no-fail-fast -- --skip basedpyright ctrl_c_on_launcher_group` | 1 | green — every binary runs, only this test executes | `filtered.log` |
| R4 | `--lib --test gpu_invocation_acceptance --no-fail-fast` | 1 | green, 2145 + 15 | `two.log` |
| R5 | `--test gate_script_acceptance --test gpu_invocation_acceptance` | 1 | green | `suspect.log` |
| R6 | `--test gpu_font_acceptance --test gpu_initial_target_acceptance --test gpu_invocation_acceptance` | 1 | green | `gpu3.log` |
| R7 | `--lib --bins` + `--test`×14 (targets 6–19) + the suite | 1 | green | `half1.log` |
| R8 | `--test`×18 (targets 20–37) + the suite | 1 | green | `half2.log` |
| R9 | `--lib --bins` + `--test`×32 (targets 6–37) + the suite | 1 | green (**reduction artifacts**) | `prefix.log` |
| R10 | `--workspace ... --test gpu_initial_target_acceptance --test gpu_invocation_acceptance` | 1 | green (**workspace artifacts**) | `wsonly.log` |
| F1–F5 | full `--workspace --no-fail-fast -- --skip basedpyright` | 5 | **red, 5/5** | `base-sweep.log` (at `72da24a`), `postclean.log`, `sweep-inst.log`, `sweep-diag.log`, gate `…-2144707` |

**Correction to revision 2: R9 did not run the same binaries.** It
executed `gpu_initial_target_acceptance-91f51d0b5303ff9f` and
`gpu_invocation_acceptance-6b4b8223dea45247`; the failing sweeps
executed `-5d9105cb7047aab8` and `-d4dae4f01bcdef62`. Those artifacts
are **byte-different** (sha256/16 `36912fa2…` vs `1b3cc86c…`, and
`858d7148…` vs `ede0c07d…`; see `docs/probe-sigint-evidence.md`).
Cargo's target selection changes the fingerprint, so command shape
changes the executable. R9 therefore establishes **same target names
and order**, not same binaries.

What the evidence actually supports is an **interaction**, and only
that:

| prior targets execute | workspace artifact family | result |
|---|---|---|
| yes | no | R9 green |
| no | yes | R10 green |
| yes | yes | **F1–F5 red** |

Neither factor alone reproduces it. So `--workspace` artifact
selection is **not sufficient by itself** — and, importantly, **not
ruled out either**, which is how revision 2 phrased it. Later-selected
packages can influence Cargo's build graph and fingerprints *before*
their test executables ever run, so "their targets execute after the
failure at line 3066" does not exonerate them. The same applies to the
claim that other packages "cannot be implicated": withdrawn.

Also refuted, by measurement: machine load (red on a quiet box, load
2.77); tmpfs starving RAM (**tested by experiment** — `/tmp` 21 G →
1.2 G, available 27 G → 45 G, still red); leaked daemons (peak 58, +8
per sweep, green runs already at 46–60); inotify (47 of 1024).

## 5. Two retracted claims, both mine, kept as warnings

**Claim A — "mechanism located".** Reported the launcher blocked in
`do_wait` on a probe child in `futex_do_wait`.

**Claim B — the retraction of A.** Argued A was unsupported because the
failing launcher "must live ≥ 8 s" while the sampler's longest-lived
was 5 s.

**Claim B's arithmetic is false.** Both reproducing binaries finish in
**~5.19 s including the five-second timeout** (`:3097`, `:3131`), so
`phase=ready` is reached in roughly a tenth of a second and the failing
launcher lives about **5.1 s total** — squarely inside what the sampler
observed. A ">6 s" selector would therefore have captured **nothing**,
repeating the very sampling error it was written to correct.

So A is **not** refuted by B. A remains **unproven for a different
reason**: under `--features crdt` the suite spawns root launchers from
**six** call sites — `:509, :534, :544, :574, :725, :1097`, all inside
`#[cfg(feature = "crdt")] mod crdt` (`:88`). Eight `--gpu` arguments
appear in the file, but `:38` and `:65` sit under
`#[cfg(not(feature = "crdt"))]` (`:26`) and are compiled out of the
failing configuration. Revision 2 said "five" while citing eight, which
was wrong twice over. Six is the number; what matters is that it is
more than one, so a launcher captured by command line alone cannot be
attributed to *this* test. The `do_wait` /
`futex_do_wait` pair is consistent with the failing instance and
consistent with a healthy sibling, and nothing recorded distinguishes
them.

The standing lesson is now the opposite of revision 1's: **do not key
on process age at all.** Key on identity.

## 6. Bets

1. **The failure is a real teardown defect** — a user pressing Ctrl-C
   on `pmacs --gpu` sees the same hang. **This is a bet, not a
   finding**, and the current witness does not reach the real GUI
   path: it goes through a wrapper script and `--headless-managed-probe`
   (`:1090-1093`), not a live wgpu frontend. Confirming or dropping this
   bet is D4 below.
2. It is **not** a timing margin. A green run finishes in 0.15 s against
   a 5 s deadline — 33×. Margins that large do not erode.
3. Therefore **raising the deadline is not a fix** and is out of scope.
   If the conclusion turns out to be that the deadline is wrong, that
   needs its own argument and its own approval.

## 7. First step — diagnostics keyed on identity, not age

No fix is proposed; the mechanism is unknown. The first commit is
diagnostic only, and it must **discriminate** the three live candidates:
blocked delivery, inherited ignore, and an escaped or wrong process
group.

- **D0 — re-run the §4 matrix with captured provenance**, at `main`,
  recording the artifact hashes actually executed. Revision 2's
  strongest claim collapsed because command shape silently changed the
  binary; no further reduction should be trusted until each row names
  the executable it ran.
- **D1 — key on the PID this test records.** The test already owns
  `launcher.id()`. Capture around its own `kill`, not by scanning for
  age or command line.
- **D2 — snapshot before *and* after the signal**, for the test parent,
  the launcher, and the probe:
  - `SigIgn`, `SigCgt`, `SigBlk` — **per thread**, from
    `/proc/<pid>/task/*/status`, since `SigBlk` is thread-specific and
    a process-wide reading would hide a blocked delivery on the one
    thread that matters;
  - `SigPnd` and `ShdPnd` — a pending-but-undelivered `SIGINT` is
    exactly what distinguishes blocked delivery from ignore;
  - `PID`, `PPID`, `PGID`, `SID` for each — which settles whether the
    signal was even addressed to the right group, and whether anything
    escaped it.
  A post-failure snapshot alone cannot prove inheritance; the
  before/after pair is what makes the claim provable.
- **D3 — run the full sweep under D1/D2 until the failure is captured
  *with* its diagnostics.** Only then propose a fix.
- **D4 — settle bet 1 separately.** Establish whether a real
  `pmacs --gpu` session, not the wrapper/headless probe, reproduces the
  hang. The answer decides whether A5 is an obligation or is dropped.

## 8. Acceptance criteria for the eventual fix

Written now so the fix cannot quietly become "make the test pass".

- **A1.** The mechanism is stated and demonstrated, not inferred: a
  witness failing before the change and passing after, plus a mutation
  showing the witness bites its own clause.
- **A2.** `sweep-crdt` green for **three consecutive full runs on the
  reviewed fixed head of this branch**. Not "on main" — that is
  unobtainable before this lane is approved, gated and merged, and
  revision 1 stated an impossible precondition. Post-merge
  confirmation on `main` is a follow-up, not a gate on the fix.
- **A3.** The R9 paradox is explained, or explicitly recorded as
  unexplained. A fix that greens the sweep without accounting for why
  every subset passed leaves a gap, and the gap is stated rather than
  left for the next reader.
- **A4.** No deadline raised, no test skipped, retried, or serialised
  to obtain green.
- **A5.** **Conditional on D4.** If bet 1 holds, this is unconditional:
  Ctrl-C on a real `pmacs --gpu` session tears down the frontend and
  leaves the daemon running. If D4 shows the hang is reachable only
  through the wrapper/headless path, bet 1 is dropped, A5 is struck,
  and the lane is recorded as gate-correctness only.

## 9. Coherence impact (`COHERENCE.md` §20)

- **Journey step touched: 12(a), "closing is clean."** Ctrl-C teardown
  of a GPU session is exactly that step, whether or not its grade
  moves. **Revision 1 said "journey steps touched: none", which was
  false** — it reasoned from grade movement, which §20 explicitly warns
  against.
- **Grade movement: none expected.** This restores a property that is
  supposed to hold, rather than opening a new one.
- **Interaction islands: none added.**
- **Config registry: not touched. Background-work attribution: not
  touched.**
- Beyond step 12(a), what this lane restores is every *other* lane's
  ability to prove itself, since no branch can show a green gate while
  stage 15 reds.

## 10. Out of scope

- Raising or removing the 5 s deadline (bet 3).
- The ~10 daemons each sweep leaks — real, separately recorded, and not
  implicated: green runs already ran at 46–60 leaked daemons.
- `gpu_initial_target_acceptance` including the suite as a module. It
  is why the failure reds twice, and it is a tidiness question, not a
  correctness one.

## 11. Record corrections owed to other ledgers

A correction is not made until it is portable. Two were outstanding
when revision 2 was reviewed, and both are closed by this revision:

- **This branch's ledger** asserted that two default-disposition
  processes "should both die at once" and then withdrew that same claim
  further down. The assertion is removed; only the withdrawal and its
  reasoning remain.
- **`panel-mapping-generation` @ `16cf3a2`** still carried "119
  binaries green, one red", the ≥8 s arithmetic, the "default action"
  claim and the ">6 s selector". Pushing `16cf3a2` made the *retraction*
  portable but not the *correction*. That ledger is corrected on its own
  branch and pushed, so the held lane no longer transports falsified
  claims.