Robert Allan JamesandClaude Sonnet 5
cd2fda4351
Traced what a "Block NNNN" collision actually means before designing a fix for it: capsule_loader.c's block-write path routes through the generic block-subsystem API, which kernel_main.c registers as two devices in a fixed order -- the volatile ramdrive first (LBN 2048-3071), then Artemis's real virtio-blk device immediately after (LBN 3072+, backed by disk/artemis.img). Every capsule this project has lands in Artemis's persistent range, not the ramdrive, and blk_update()'s dirty-marking + repl.c's idle-loop flush write that content through to the real disk file on every boot. A block-number collision is therefore a silent, persistent overwrite of real disk content surviving reboots, not a transient RAM mixup. The existing collision gate (check_block_conflicts(), already a hard non-interactive build failure) already catches capsule-vs-capsule collisions across the whole flat range. The real gap: zero visibility into blocks something other than a capsule owns (Artemis's own non-capsule persistent data), and no device-boundary/capacity awareness at all. Added, scoped step by step before writing any code: - tools/capsule-claims.txt -- derived, auto-created/regenerated, git-ignored. Lets --resolve tell "this capsule's own content changed" apart from "genuinely new collision with something else." - tools/capsule-reserved.txt -- human-authored, git-tracked, seeded with nothing yet rather than guessed at. Checked by both the plain build gate (new check_reserved_conflicts()) and --resolve. - tools/patches/ -- git-tracked, one file per accepted interactive renumber; a structured old->new block list, not a generic diff, since that's the only thing a renumber ever changes. - mkcapsule --resolve <dir> -- the only interactive mkcapsule mode, a deliberate separate invocation from the plain build path (which stays non-interactive so CI never blocks on a prompt). Suggests a renumbering that preserves a capsule's own existing block spacing, prompts y/N, rewrites the .4th source in place on acceptance. Found and fixed a real bug during verification: the registry's empty-block-list case (workload-5.4th, zero Block headers) serialized with a stray trailing space that the reader parsed back as a phantom block 0, causing spurious re-registration every run -- caught by testing idempotency directly, not assuming a clean first run meant it worked. Verified: isolated collision tests confirm both accept and reject paths, confirm a resolved collision doesn't re-prompt the other side, confirm reserved-range collisions are caught by both --resolve and the plain build gate. Full 3-architecture rebuild via the real Makefile.starkernel succeeded clean; amd64 boots with an unchanged dict_hash/capsule_hash from every prior boot this session. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EXieurDfDSsDFdnSyusuWo
capsules/
FORTH personality files loaded by the VM at boot. A capsule is an immutable, content-addressed payload; its XXHash64 hash is its identity. Any mutation changes the hash and the birth protocol rejects the image.
Key files
| File | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
init.4th |
(m) MAMA_INIT |
Default Mama VM personality — loaded at LBN 2048 |
ACL.4th |
user | Word-level ACL system; self-activating at boot |
zuse.4th |
user | Bootstrap superuser; loaded by ACL.4th |
doe.4th |
user | DoE workload words (EXEC-DOE) — opt-in |
workload-0.4th … workload-9.4th |
(p) |
Numbered personality variants |
init-l8-*.4th |
(p) |
L8 Jacquard mode variants (stable/volatile/diverse/temporal/transition/omni) |
hermes/init.4th |
(p) |
Hermes baby VM personality |
artemis/init.4th |
(p) |
Artemis baby VM personality |
Block namespace
Block ranges are shared across all loaded capsules — collisions cause silent word-definition overwrites.
| Range | Owner |
|---|---|
| 2048–2099 | init.4th |
| 2100–2199 | doe.4th |
| 3000–3999 | workload capsules |
| 4000+ | user-defined (ACL.4th, zuse.4th, …) |
Each block is limited to 1024 bytes. Verify with wc -c before committing.
See also
experiments/bare_metal/README.md— DoE protocols and block namespace rulesdocs/03-architecture/word-acl/DESIGN.md— ACL system designtools/mkcapsule.c— assembles capsules intocapsule_generated.c- Project root