stop the driver hanging on a terminal and on a launcher

ai-sandbox-autophase could sit forever, printing nothing, in two places
that are both before the first unit -- which is why both looked like a
script that "does nothing".

The rc probe ran `timeout 15 bash -ic` in front of the user's terminal.
An interactive bash calls tcsetpgrp() to take that terminal, is in its
background, and is stopped for trying; a stopped process does not take
SIGTERM, so the timeout waited in front of it and the driver waited on
the command substitution behind it. It now runs in its own session
(setsid), with stdin closed, under `timeout -k`, and reads the
definition from a temp file rather than a pipe, because a grandchild an
rc file leaves behind holds a pipe's EOF open long after the shell it
came from has been reaped.

A launcher is called *with* the run, and a function ending at
`--env NAME` -- the shape everyone writes for typing by hand, including
every example this repo printed -- discards the flags and the
in-container command. The container then starts the image's default
harness with no prompt and, with --no-interactive gone, the terminal
attached: an agent waiting for keystrokes behind a pipe nobody reads.
`ap_forwards_args` checks the captured definition, --status and the
preflight name it with the one-line fix, and every child now starts with
stdin on /dev/null so a launcher cannot put the sandbox back on the
keyboard. Aliases and whole command lines need no forwarding: the shell
appends the words to those.

Tests: a launcher fixture that drops its arguments, one that leaves a
process behind, and shape assertions on ap_probe_rc.

LLM-Generated: true
This commit is contained in:
2026-10-29 21:07:39 -04:00
parent 209f167e43
commit a91744f390
8 changed files with 273 additions and 22 deletions
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ not** — grep for these in the installed script (`readlink -f "$(command -v ai-
| question | read |
|---|---|
| where does my launcher come from | `ap_resolve_launcher()`, `ap_probe_rc()` (sources an rc file in a throwaway `bash -ic` and returns the *definition*; it never calls it), `ap_rc_list()`, `AISB_AP_RC_FILES` |
| a launcher that ignores what it was asked to run | `ap_forwards_args()` / `ap_warn_forwarding()`: a **function** must end in `"$@"`, because every child is `NAME --no-tty --no-interactive -- <command>`. Aliases and whole command lines need nothing (`ap_build_run()`). Named in `--status`, refused by `ap_preflight()` |
| "it just sits there and does nothing" | two causes, both at the very start of a run: the launcher dropped the command so the container is running an interactive harness with no prompt (`ap_forwards_args()`), or the rc probe is waiting on the terminal (`ap_probe_rc()`: `setsid`, `</dev/null`, `timeout -k 5 15`, transcript into a file, because an interactive bash takes the terminal, gets stopped, and a stopped process ignores SIGTERM). Every child starts with stdin on `/dev/null` |
| how the child command is built | `ap_build_runner()` / `ap_build_run()` — `printf %q` per argument; `--sandbox-args` defaults `--no-tty --no-interactive`; the prompt is one argument that may contain quotes, newlines and `$` |
| what it shadows from the phase library | `ap_install_overrides()`: it first requires the library to provide `find_root next_unit phase_entries phase_next_unit unit_phase is_phase_end count_units sweep_finished_phases execute_unit unit_report notify_task commit_phase push_phase` (plus `first_prompt`/`fix_prompt`, kept as `ap_lib_*`), then shadows `pi`, `first_prompt`, `fix_prompt`, `run_validation`, `push_phase` — and nothing else. Order matters: the launcher resolves *before* `pi()` exists, or a launcher named `pi` would resolve to the shim |
| why a push was refused | `ap_git_fingerprint()`, `ap_git_guard()`, `ap_git_env()`, `ap_push_pending()`; `--trust-git-changes` is the (loud) override |