fix(daemon): losing the runtime-directory creation race is not a failure on Windows
Several processes first-starting together against a runtime directory
that does not exist yet -- test-windows-guards' section_cold_storm, or a
host that launches more than one MCP server on its very first run -- all
observe the final path component absent. One CreateDirectoryW wins; the
others get ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS. win_private_directory_tree_secure()
treated that as a failure and recorded no validation detail, so every
loser exited with a bare
secure CLI coordination could not be created (endpoint)
The function called right after the walk, win_runtime_directory_secure(),
has always tolerated ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS for the same directory, and the
POSIX walk tolerates EEXIST at the same point; only the Windows walk in
front of them did not.
Seen four times on 2026-09-21 on unrelated PRs (#1768 three attempts in
a row, #2140, #1999, #808). The racy lines date from July; the guard
began exercising them on 2026-09-03, when each guard section was given
its own empty CBM_RUNTIME_DIR, so the final component is now absent at
storm time on every run.
The walk now treats ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS from its own CreateDirectoryW as
"the directory I wanted exists". Nothing is trusted because of that: an
ancestor still goes through win_directory_component_secure(), and the
final component through win_runtime_directory_secure(), which refuses a
non-directory or reparse point and enforces owner and DACL.
Every refusal on this path now names its component and its rule. The
walk reports the Windows error when it can neither create nor inspect a
component, and win_runtime_directory_secure() says whether the path
could not be created, cannot be inspected, exists but is not a directory,
or is a reparse point. One helper owns the wide-to-UTF-8 conversion for
these messages and the existing ancestor message now uses it too, so
src/daemon/ipc.c stays at its memory-core baseline.
Deterministic reproduction, no threads and no timing: a test seam fires
in the walk between "component observed absent" and CreateDirectoryW,
and the test plays the process that wins the creation.
daemon_ipc_windows_private_directory_survives_lost_creation_race
daemon_ipc_windows_private_directory_refuses_and_names_a_planted_file
Verification. macOS arm64 (ASan+UBSan): build clean, daemon_ipc 53 passed
(2 Windows-only skips), daemon_bootstrap 28 passed, lint-memory-core
unchanged (ipc.c stays at 146 raw sites). The two new tests are Windows-only
and have NOT been run locally: the Windows VM was down when this was written,
so the RED run on the seam-only tree and the GREEN run with this fix are
delegated to CI's windows-latest legs (test-windows shards, test-windows-guards)
by an explicit maintainer decision. If the guard suite's cold storm still
fails with this in place, the attribution above is wrong and this reverts.
Signed-off-by: Martin Vogel <martin.vogel.tech@gmail.com> M
Martin Vogel committed
a041794f8e51ddf42342899be7b2ac26f951d777
Parent: bf4c476