# The control plane as a systemd unit. One VM, systemd, binaries from CI — not Kubernetes: a tmctl # child runs for HOURS and holds an exclusive lock on the book's files on the local disk, so any # orchestrator that can move a pod mid-run is hostile to this workload (PLATFORM_DIRECTION §3). # # ⚠ A RUN IS NOT A CHILD OF THIS UNIT (D39.106, ratified). Each one is a transient unit in this # user's OWN systemd manager, in tm-runs.slice, because a translation has to outlive a deploy or a # crash of the control plane and a child cannot. What follows from that, and is easy to get wrong: # # * `loginctl enable-linger tmplatform` is REQUIRED, once, at install: without it the user manager # does not exist outside a login session and no run can be created at all; # * this unit has to reach its own user bus, which is why ProtectHome= is `tmpfs` with a bind # rather than `yes` (measured: ProtectHome=yes makes /run/user/ inaccessible and the bus # unreachable). DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS alone is enough — XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not needed; # * the limits at the bottom of this file bound THE CONTROL PLANE ONLY. A run is bounded by its # own cgroup in tm-runs.slice (TM_PLATFORM_RUN_MEMORY_MAX / _TASKS_MAX) — that is the answer to # PD-13, and it is measured rather than declared (STACK_DECISIONS §16). [Unit] Description=TextMachine control plane After=network-online.target postgresql.service Wants=network-online.target # ⚠ ADD, at install, an ordering on this service user's own systemd manager: # After=user@.service # BindPaths=/run/user/%U below needs that directory to exist at start, and it is logind that creates # it. Without the line the first boot is a race; Restart=on-failure heals it after RestartSec, so the # symptom is a service that comes up on its second try rather than one that stays down. The UID is # site-specific, which is why it is not written here. [Service] # Type=exec, not notify: the binary does not speak sd_notify, and claiming it does would make # systemd wait for a readiness signal that never comes. Type=exec ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/tmplatformd User=tmplatform Group=tmplatform # KillMode=mixed: SIGTERM to the main process only, so the platform runs its own drain and stops # its children the way the engine expects; SIGKILL to everything left when the timeout runs out. KillMode=mixed KillSignal=SIGTERM # Longer than the platform's own drain (15s) plus the engine's stop grace (30s), or systemd would # SIGKILL a tmctl mid-shutdown and leave its project lock behind. TimeoutStopSec=90 Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5s # Secrets as credentials, not as environment: an environment variable is visible in # /proc//environ and is inherited by every tmctl child. The config reads *_FILE first. LoadCredential=dsn:/etc/tmplatform/dsn LoadCredential=oidc_client_secret:/etc/tmplatform/oidc_client_secret Environment=TM_PLATFORM_DSN_FILE=%d/dsn Environment=TM_PLATFORM_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_FILE=%d/oidc_client_secret # The service's own user manager, which is where run units are created. %U is this unit's UID. Environment=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/%U/bus EnvironmentFile=/etc/tmplatform/env # Books live outside the repository and outside /var/lib; the unit gets the one directory it may # write and nothing else. /srv/textmachine is the SERVER's books root — "~/books" is the owner's # decision for a development machine, and under this unit a home directory is not reachable at all # (see ProtectHome below). # # The directory must EXIST before the first start: with ProtectSystem=strict a ReadWritePaths= that # names a missing path fails the mount-namespace setup and the unit does not come up. The deploy # notes create it, and the "-" prefix that would make the line optional is deliberately not used — # a service with no writable directory should fail at start, not at the first write hours in. ReadWritePaths=/srv/textmachine StateDirectory=tmplatform # Sandboxing. Free, and it bounds what a compromised process reaches. ProtectSystem=strict # /home and /root stay invisible — the platform has no business in anyone's home, which is also why # the books root is under /srv. An operator who must keep a library under a home directory adds it to # BindPaths= below alongside the runtime directory. # # tmpfs plus a bind of the user runtime directory, NOT `yes`: /home and /root stay invisible, and # the one thing that has to remain reachable — this user's systemd bus, through which every run is # created — does. Measured, both ways: with ProtectHome=yes the directory is Permission denied and # the bus is gone; with these two lines the socket is there. # ⚠ The path must exist when this unit starts, which is what `enable-linger` guarantees. ProtectHome=tmpfs BindPaths=/run/user/%U PrivateTmp=yes PrivateDevices=yes NoNewPrivileges=yes ProtectKernelTunables=yes ProtectKernelModules=yes ProtectControlGroups=yes RestrictSUIDSGID=yes RestrictRealtime=yes LockPersonality=yes RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_INET AF_INET6 AF_UNIX # These bound the unit's CGROUP, and by the argument at the top of this file every tmctl the # platform spawns lives in it. So they do not bound "the control plane" — they bound the control # plane plus every run in flight, together (PD-55). Two consequences follow, and both are decided # here rather than discovered in production: # # 1. The ceiling is a machine backstop, not a service sizing. systemd.resource-control(5) calls # MemoryMax= "the last line of defense"; as a percentage it needs no knowledge of the box. # 2. OOMPolicy is set explicitly. The system default is `stop`, which would take the control plane # down over one OOM inside it and land the unit in oom-kill failed state for Restart= to pick up. # `continue` logs the kill and keeps the service running. # # ⚠ These numbers bound the CONTROL PLANE and nothing else. Runs are not in this cgroup at all — each # is a transient unit in tm-runs.slice with its own MemoryMax/MemorySwapMax/TasksMax # (TM_PLATFORM_RUN_*). That is the answer to PD-13, and it is measured (STACK_DECISIONS §16). MemoryMax=80% OOMPolicy=continue # Platform plus concurrent runs, each a Go process with a few dozen threads: room for roughly a # dozen runs on one VM, which is more than a single box will carry. TasksMax=512 LimitNOFILE=8192 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target