partition.zig gains an exFAT VBR recognizer: the "EXFAT " name (where a
FAT BPB keeps its OEM string, so the two never collide) plus the 0x55AA
signature, with VolumeSerialNumber (offset 100) as a new exfat_serial
identity rung. A `recognize` helper tries exFAT, then FAT, then the MBR
disk-signature fallback, and sets each volume's FilesystemKind — so
allVolumes/firstVolume and the GPT path all tag a volume with the engine
its content needs. volume-map renders exfat-<serial> as the id-path, and
filesystems.csv adds the exfat -> /system/services/exfat row: an exFAT
stick now spawns the exFAT service, at its own content id-path.
Host tests: a bare exFAT volume recognized with its serial; a FAT VBR
still recognized as fat (the discrimination); the exfat-<serial> id
render. build + zig build test + bounds green.
The multi-volume enabler. allVolumes(reader, device_blocks, out) appends every
volume on the device to the caller's buffer and returns the count: GPT
enumerates all valid entries (gptFirstVolume becomes gptAllVolumes), the MBR walk
collects all fitting partitions, and a bare FAT is the single whole-device volume
— each with the same per-entry overflow-safe range validation (the confinement
invariant the driver's clamp rests on) and fatIdentity-over-disk-signature
preference. firstVolume is now the one-element case of allVolumes, so the S1
behavior and its ten tests are unchanged. New host test: a two-partition MBR
yields two volumes with distinct identities (index 0 vs 1); it FAILS when
allVolumes is capped to one (the old firstVolume semantics), passes at 11/11.
partition.Volume gains a FilesystemKind signature (today .fat for every probed
volume; S4 adds a real VBR recognizer for exFAT) — the seam filesystems.csv keys
on to choose a service binary. New filesystem-map.zig parses
`/system/configuration/filesystems.csv` (signature, binary) into rules and
match()es a signature to its binary, mirroring the device registry: a signature
no row matches goes unserved, never guessed; slices point into the source
buffer. Three host tests (fat->binary, the binary is data-driven not hardcoded,
malformed rows counted); the test rule buffer is a named fixture size so the
bounds gate stays quiet. The VM's build gains the csv dependency and wires the
filesystem-map test into its package test step. Not yet consumed by the binary —
that lands when the VM loads the tables (step 4).
The S1 adversarial boundary review found the off = (i*entry_size) % 512
arithmetic tested only for 128-byte entries. Add a test with 256-byte entries
and the sole valid entry at index 1 (offset 256), exercising the non-zero-offset
path. No code change — the parser was already correct (off is always a multiple
of entry_size >= 128, so off + 128 <= 512); this closes the coverage gap.
Rung 3, stronger than the MBR disk signature. fatIdentity reads the VBR at the
partition start — 0x55AA plus a 0x28/0x29 extended boot signature; FAT32 iff
fat_size_16 == 0; BS_VolID and BS_VolLab at the FAT12/16 vs FAT32 EBR offsets,
cross-checked against fat/on-disk.zig. firstVolume now prefers it over
mbrIdentity in both the MBR-entry path and the bare-FAT fallback, keeping the
rung-4 id when the VBR is not an extended FAT. The serial becomes the identity
key (the id); the label becomes the display name. Two host tests — a bare FAT32
reports its serial + label; an MBR FAT partition prefers the serial while a
non-FAT partition keeps rung 4 — both FAIL with the preference neutralized (2/9)
and pass with it (9/9). On-image witness: the volume-probe QEMU regex tightens to
the boot image's real serial 0x12345678, which before rung 3 was the ~0x0
pseudo-signature read from VBR offset 440.
Rung 1 of the identity ladder. A protective MBR (a type-0xEE entry) routes
probing to the GPT, authoritatively: gptFirstVolume verifies the LBA-1 header's
'EFI PART' signature and a header CRC-32 (inline reflected poly 0xEDB88320,
shared with the fixtures so parser and tests never drift onto a magic constant),
then walks the entry array — bounded by the declared gpt_entry_scan_maximum —
for the first entry with a non-zero type GUID and an overflow-safe in-device
range. That range check is the confinement-safety guard the driver's clamp
rests on, the invariant firstVolume already enforces for MBR, extended to
untrusted GPT metadata. The unique partition GUID becomes the identity key (the
id / mount-path handle); the 36-char partition name becomes the display label.
Three host tests (GUID-as-id; entry-past-device skipped and an all-out-of-range
table is null; a broken header/CRC is not a volume) — all three FAIL with the
GPT branch neutralized (3/7) and pass with it (7/7). Entry-array CRC deferred
(correctness-only; the range check carries the safety property).
The identity ladder's flag-day — no behavior change. partition.firstVolume stops
taking one preloaded block-0 slice and takes a SectorReader (a read-one-sector
fn), so it can reach GPT metadata at LBA 1 and each partition's VBR on demand
(the next commits). The u64 identity becomes Identity{rung,key,label}: key is the
id (the mount path derives from it), label is display metadata (empty at rung 4).
Identity equality is id-only (rung+key) — the label never enters it. Only rung-4
(MBR sig+index / bare-FAT index 0) is produced, byte-identical to before; the
four host tests port to a RAM-disk reader, and fat-mount/volume-probe/
volume-removal stay green.
Five confirmed defects from the boundary review:
1. (security) The VM never checked a partition fit inside the device, so a
crafted MBR could hand the driver a range whose base+lba wraps past a u32
— panicking usb-storage in a loop, and at multi-volume overlapping a
neighbour. This is the exact invariant the clamp's overflow-safety rests
on. partition.firstVolume now skips any entry that runs past the device
(host-tested), establishing the invariant where the untrusted bytes are
first read.
2. (leak) The probe re-acquired a fresh block channel on every 500 ms retry,
leaking a handle each time on a medium-absent device. The channel is now
acquired once and kept.
3. (wedge) A failed spawn or defineRange stranded the volume with no retry;
both now arm a backoff restart.
4. (loop) fat respawn had no exit-reason gate, no backoff, no crash-loop cap
— a faulting filesystem respawned in a zero-delay loop, and a clean exit
was resurrected. Supervision now mirrors the device manager: a clean exit
is not restarted, a fault backs off, three fast deaths give up.
5. (removable) A device that parsed to no volume was terminal; it now keeps
polling so an inserted medium is picked up — the removal-lifecycle trigger.
Known limitation (noted, not fixed here): if the VM itself crashes and init
restarts it, the orphaned fat keeps serving vfs while the new VM spawns a
second fat whose bind is refused — the same "manager restart re-learns the
world" gap the device manager also defers. The old fat keeps storage working.
Neutral: partition unit tests + fat-mount, volume-probe, block-range, logger
all green.
The storage layer gains its policy home (storage-architecture.md): a new
system/services/volume-manager, spawned by init, that acquires the mass-
storage block channel through the device manager (the same lineage a
filesystem uses), reads block 0, and parses the first volume out of it. The
partition-table walk that lived in the FAT engine moves here, above the
driver where it belongs (partition.zig, host-tested: MBR entry, bare-FAT,
no-signature). Identity is the MBR disk signature + partition index — the
weak rung of the ladder; GPT GUID and FAT serial refine identityOf without
changing shape.
This increment is discovery + probe + log only, additive: the FAT service
still acquires its own volume, so nothing changes for it. Confining each
filesystem to its partition and spawning one per volume (the flip) lands
next, keeping fat working throughout.
Grants + wiring: init.csv spawns it after the device manager; protocol.csv
grants bind volume-manager + open device-manager. Verified: volume-probe
asserts the parse (bare-FAT volume at lba 0), neutral 10/10 across storage,
restart, display, logging, confinement — the volume manager now runs in
every boot and disturbs nothing.
Daniel Samson