fix(abcip): unblock the controller-browse gate, and fix the decoder it exposed (#468)
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The AbCip controller browse could never be verified end to end: libplctag's
ab_server answers CIP service 0x55 (Get Instance Attribute List) on the Symbol
Object class with "unsupported", so the `@tags` walk had no backend. #468's own
definition of done offered a sim that serves `@tags` as an alternative to real
hardware; this is that.

The fixture now applies a vendored patch teaching ab_server to serve the Symbol
Object listing, with partial-transfer paging. Correctness is checked against
libplctag's own `list_tags_logix` rather than against our decoder — our decoder
is the thing under test, so its agreement would prove nothing. The clone is also
pinned to a concrete tag: the Dockerfile called `--branch release` "pinned" while
tracking a branch that moves.

That immediately exposed a real defect. CipSymbolObjectDecoder advanced to an
even byte boundary after each symbol name, but entries are packed with no
padding — libplctag walks them by sizeof(entry) + string_len, and a captured
reply confirms it. Any odd-length name therefore desynchronised every entry
behind it, and odd-length names are ordinary. In the live browse below,
`Motor_Run` is 9 bytes and first on the wire, so the old decoder would have
shown that one tag and silently dropped the other eight.

Every existing multi-entry test passed throughout, because the test builder
padded exactly as the decoder did: the two agreed with each other and neither
agreed with a controller. The builder no longer pads, and the layout is pinned
by a captured reply (CipSymbolObjectWireCaptureTests) instead of by a second
statement of the assumption. Restoring the alignment step reddens exactly the
three new tests and none of the 29 others.

Live gate on docker-dev, all three of #468's criteria:
  - populated tree — all nine seeded tags render as leaves, in wire order
  - refresh re-captures
  - leaf commit — Pump_1_Speed + TestDINT saved with their CIP tag paths

The gate also surfaced two things it was not asked about: browse-commit drops
the discovered data type, so a browsed REAL commits as a DINT and the driver
decodes it as one (filed as #536), and Test Connect fails against this fixture
regardless of the device because it probes `@raw_cpu_type` (documented).

TwinCAT and FOCAS still have no browsable backend; #468's AbCip half is closed,
theirs is not.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015p7wGqy3YpZNCpDzTpGMKo
This commit is contained in:
Joseph Doherty
2026-08-01 12:25:15 -04:00
parent 1a1dbc3f00
commit c2c3c52274
8 changed files with 485 additions and 24 deletions
@@ -15,13 +15,23 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
ca-certificates \
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
# Pinned tag matches the `ab_server` version AbServerFixture + CI treat as
# canonical. Bump deliberately alongside a driver-side change that needs
# something newer.
ARG LIBPLCTAG_TAG=release
# A concrete tag, not a branch. This said "pinned" while cloning `release`,
# which moves — so two builds of the same Dockerfile could produce different
# servers, and the patch below could not be relied on to apply. Bump
# deliberately alongside a driver-side change that needs something newer, and
# re-check the patch against the new tag.
ARG LIBPLCTAG_TAG=v2.7.0
RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch "${LIBPLCTAG_TAG}" https://github.com/libplctag/libplctag.git /src
# Upstream ab_server answers CIP service 0x55 (Get Instance Attribute List) with
# "unsupported", so a controller-tag browse against it returns nothing. The
# patch implements the Symbol Object listing that a real Logix controller
# serves, which is what the AbCip driver's `@tags` walk reads. Verified against
# libplctag's own `list_tags_logix` client — see README.md.
COPY patches/ /patches/
WORKDIR /src
RUN git apply --verbose /patches/*.patch
RUN cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
&& cmake --build build --target ab_server --parallel