Root cause behind the "pin the endpoint" gotcha and the trapping-wrapper
pattern: a gen_server had two lifetime authorities — its refs (last one
dropped → inbox closes → exit) and, when supervised, its supervisor. OTP has
one: a process lives until it stops, is shut down, or is killed; a pid is an
address. Root exit now shutting down every forest root removes the reason the
ref-governed idiom existed (a forgotten server no longer hangs the run), so
adopt the one rule:
- The server/machine loop holds one inbox sender for its life; the inbox
never closes. GenServerRef / GenStatemRef are addresses. Explicit close is
`shutdown()`; a forgotten one is swept at root exit.
- `NamedGenServerBuilder::run()` / `gen_statem::run_named(name, m)` run the
loop inline as the current actor: a server is a direct ChildSpec child,
gets the supervisor's shutdown as handle_shutdown / a shutdown row, re-binds
its name on restart, and is addressed by name. The wrapper in
examples/graceful_shutdown.rs is gone.
- gen_statem gains GenStatemName + whereis_machine/send/call/shutdown by name
(parity with gen_server); the macro gets `Sm::new`.
- Root-exit sweep records `Event::RootSweep { target, trapping }` under
smarm-trace ("root_sweep shutdown|stopped"): unsupervised leftovers are
visible rather than silently owned-by-refs.
- Named start() name-clash path stops the spawned actor instead of relying
on ref drop.
Tests: tests/gen_server_lifetime.rs, tests/gen_statem_lifetime.rs,
tests/root_sweep_trace.rs (feature-gated); three existing tests that used
drop-closes-inbox now use shutdown(). Docs/README/ROADMAP/Deep Dive updated.
Monitors are created at runtime (you watch a worker you just spawned in a
handler), so down arms can't ride the static info list. init grows a
&ServerCtx parameter (breaking; no-op default) whose clonable Watcher hands
Monitors to the loop over a control arm; the loop selects the live down
arms ahead of everything else. Arm priority: downs → control → infos →
inbox. A delivered Down retires its arm (monitors are one-shot); a state
that never clones the Watcher closes the control arm after init and the
loop falls back to the plain-inbox park.
type Info + handle_info (no-op default) on GenServer; ServerBuilder
(with_info/under/start) so start variants don't multiply — start/start_under
stay as wrappers. The loop selects [infos.., inbox] in priority order when
info arms exist, and keeps the plain recv() park when none do. Closed info
arms are silently removed (closed-arm-is-ready-forever); a closed inbox
still means graceful shutdown.
Deviates deliberately from the roadmap's monitor-based sketch
(monitor + wait reply-or-Down-or-deadline + demonitor): server death is
already observable on the reply channel itself - the reply sender drops
as the server unwinds, closing the channel and waking the parked caller.
So a bounded call is exactly recv_timeout on the reply channel, mapping
Disconnected -> ServerDown and Timeout -> Timeout. No registration
exists, so a timed-out call leaks nothing by construction - the
guarantee the monitor design had to engineer.
Semantics on timeout match Erlang: the request stays in the inbox and
is still handled; the late reply's send fails harmlessly against the
dropped reply receiver. CallTimeoutError keeps ServerDown and Timeout
distinguishable; the infallible call() is unchanged.
Tests: reply within deadline, timeout against a slow (parking) handler
with elapsed bounds, server survival across an abandoned call (late
reply discarded, bounded and unbounded calls keep working), and
ServerDown-not-Timeout for both death paths (mid-call panic and
already-gone inbox).
Thin request-reply layer on channels, no runtime change. A server is an
actor owning a GenServer state; clients hold a clonable ServerRef and issue
call (sync, parks for the reply) or cast (fire-and-forget).
- Single inbox carrying an internal Envelope { Call(req, reply_tx) | Cast },
forced by the no-select / no-unified-mailbox invariant; call makes a
one-shot reply channel and parks on it.
- Server-down detection is pure channel closure (no monitor): send fails if
the inbox is gone; the reply sender drops on the server's unwind so a
parked caller wakes to Err. Both collapse to CallError/CastError::ServerDown.
- init/terminate are optional trait hooks; terminate runs via a drop guard so
it fires on every exit path (clean close, panic, request_stop). Must stay
non-blocking — may run mid-unwind.
- ServerRef carries pid() for monitor/request_stop/link; start + start_under.
Tests: cast-then-call roundtrip, init/terminate ordering, both server-down
paths (reply-channel close on handler panic; inbox-send failure when gone).
Claude (sandbox)