fix(IPC-34): forward a WorkerCancel when the caller abandons a command, not only on gateway timeout

IPC-08 closed with WorkerCancel sent from the gateway's own timeout arm only.
Its rationale -- the gateway has stopped waiting but the worker has not stopped
working, so a queued-but-not-started command should be dropped instead of
occupying the single STA behind a caller that is already gone -- applies exactly
as well to caller cancellation, which is the common abandonment path: gRPC
clients routinely set per-call deadlines shorter than the gateway's
CommandTimeout, and a client disconnect cancels the RPC's token. Both landed in
arms that removed the pending entry and returned silently, leaving the
correlation to execute in its turn. Under a retry storm against a slow provider
the STA works through dead commands while live callers queue behind them --
precisely the backlog the cancel exists to shorten.

- TrySendCancelForTimedOutCommand is now TrySendCancelForAbandonedCommand and
  takes the reason string, since it serves both arms.
- Both caller-cancellation arms route through AbandonCommandOnCallerCancellation,
  which sends the cancel under the same `removed` ownership gate as the timeout
  arm (so a reply that won the race is never chased) and skips it once _stopCts
  has fired, where the outbound channel is being completed and every pending
  command is failed anyway.
- New WorkerClientErrorCode.CallerCancelled replaces the GatewayShutdown label
  those arms used, so metrics and logs stop recording a shutdown that did not
  happen. It maps to StatusCode.Cancelled, the same status GatewayShutdown maps
  to, so nothing changes for clients.

Docs: docs/Grpc.md mapping line, gateway.md cancellation rules,
docs/GatewayProcessDesign.md pending-command section.

Tests: InvokeAsync_WhenCallerCancels_SendsWorkerCancelForThatCorrelation (twin
of the timeout test, driven by the caller token; verified failing without the
send) and InvokeAsync_WhenClientStopsUnderInFlightCommand_DoesNotSendWorkerCancel.
This commit is contained in:
Joseph Doherty
2026-08-20 09:31:29 -04:00
parent a71663a2a2
commit b27035b3a6
7 changed files with 202 additions and 32 deletions
+17 -6
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@@ -593,9 +593,19 @@ Pending command handling:
Timeouts should not assume the COM call stopped. A timed-out command may still
finish inside the worker.
On timeout the client also forwards a `WorkerCancel` carrying the abandoned
correlation id, best-effort: the gateway has stopped waiting, but the worker has
not stopped working, and the worker owns a single STA. `WorkerPipeSession` routes
On timeout **and on caller cancellation** the client also forwards a
`WorkerCancel` carrying the abandoned correlation id, best-effort: the gateway
has stopped waiting, but the worker has not stopped working, and the worker owns
a single STA. Caller cancellation — a per-call deadline shorter than the
gateway's command timeout, or a client disconnect cancelling the RPC's token — is
the more common of the two paths, and under a retry storm it is exactly the
backlog the cancel exists to shorten, so both arms send it; the pending command
is failed as `CallerCancelled` rather than `GatewayShutdown` so metrics and logs
name the real cause (both still map to gRPC `Cancelled`). The send is gated on
the same ownership check as the timeout arm — only the arm that removed the
pending entry sends, so a reply that won the race is never chased — and is
skipped when the client's own stop token has fired, since the outbound channel is
being completed and every pending command is failed anyway. `WorkerPipeSession` routes
the cancel to `CancelCommand`, which drops the correlation from the STA queue if
it has not started and replies `Canceled` for it. A cancel that arrives after the
command reached MXAccess is a no-op — there is no way to abort an in-flight COM
@@ -606,9 +616,10 @@ the worker reads the command and then its cancel and drops it before execution.
Cancels ride the same outbound channel as commands, whose capacity is
`MaxPendingCommands + 4`: the reserve above the pending-command limit is what
absorbs them, so a burst of timeouts stays bounded and cannot deadlock the
enqueue path. Failing to send the cancel is logged at debug and never replaces
the `CommandTimeout` the caller is owed.
absorbs them, so a burst of timeouts or cancellations stays bounded and cannot
deadlock the enqueue path. Failing to send the cancel is logged at debug and
never replaces the `CommandTimeout` — or the `OperationCanceledException` — the
caller is owed.
Cancellation outranks the deadline. When a caller's token is canceled around the
same time the timeout fires, the command is reported as canceled
+1 -1
View File
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ StatusCode statusCode = exception.ErrorCode switch
};
```
`WorkerClientException` follows the same pattern: `CommandTimeout` becomes `DeadlineExceeded`, `GatewayShutdown` becomes `Cancelled`, `InvalidState` becomes `FailedPrecondition`, `ProtocolViolation` becomes `Internal`, `CommandTooLarge` becomes `ResourceExhausted`, and unmapped codes fall through to `Unavailable`.
`WorkerClientException` follows the same pattern: `CommandTimeout` becomes `DeadlineExceeded`, `GatewayShutdown` and `CallerCancelled` both become `Cancelled`, `InvalidState` becomes `FailedPrecondition`, `ProtocolViolation` becomes `Internal`, `CommandTooLarge` becomes `ResourceExhausted`, and unmapped codes fall through to `Unavailable`. `CallerCancelled` is the caller's own token firing — a per-call deadline shorter than the gateway command timeout, or a disconnect — and is separate from `GatewayShutdown` only so metrics and logs stop attributing those calls to a shutdown that did not happen; the status the client observes is the same.
## Event Streaming Model
+10 -1
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@@ -917,10 +917,19 @@ Timeouts:
Cancellation:
- canceling the gRPC call should stop waiting in the gateway,
- canceling the gRPC call stops the gateway waiting **and** forwards a
`WorkerCancel` for the abandoned correlation, the same best-effort frame the
command timeout sends — a client deadline or a disconnect is the common
abandonment path, and leaving the correlation on the worker's single STA queue
makes live callers queue behind work nobody is waiting for,
- the cancel is sent only by the caller that owned the pending-entry removal (so
a reply that won the race is never chased) and is skipped once the client is
stopping, where every pending command fails anyway,
- it cannot safely abort an in-flight COM call on the STA,
- the worker should finish the COM call and discard or log the late reply if
the correlation was canceled,
- caller cancellation is reported as `CallerCancelled` (mapped to gRPC
`Cancelled`), distinct from a gateway shutdown, so metrics name the real cause,
- hard cancellation means killing the worker process.
## Event Delivery And Backpressure
@@ -1051,6 +1051,7 @@ public sealed class MxAccessGatewayService(
{
WorkerClientErrorCode.CommandTimeout => StatusCode.DeadlineExceeded,
WorkerClientErrorCode.GatewayShutdown => StatusCode.Cancelled,
WorkerClientErrorCode.CallerCancelled => StatusCode.Cancelled,
WorkerClientErrorCode.InvalidState => StatusCode.FailedPrecondition,
WorkerClientErrorCode.ProtocolViolation => StatusCode.Internal,
WorkerClientErrorCode.CommandTooLarge => StatusCode.ResourceExhausted,
@@ -291,7 +291,10 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
// throw, so it can never replace the timeout the caller is owed.
if (removed)
{
TrySendCancelForTimedOutCommand(correlationId, method, timeout);
TrySendCancelForAbandonedCommand(
correlationId,
method,
$"gateway command timeout after {timeout}");
}
throw new WorkerClientException(
@@ -300,11 +303,7 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
RemovePendingCommandAsFailed(
correlationId,
pendingCommand,
WorkerClientErrorCode.GatewayShutdown,
"Command wait was canceled.");
AbandonCommandOnCallerCancellation(correlationId, pendingCommand, method);
// WaitAsync surfaces TaskCanceledException; throwing through the token keeps the
// exception the caller observes exactly what the hand-rolled wait produced.
@@ -316,11 +315,7 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
// The deadline and the caller's cancellation raced and WaitAsync picked the timer.
// The old wait classified this as cancellation, so this clause — reached only when
// the filter above saw a canceled token — reproduces that treatment exactly.
RemovePendingCommandAsFailed(
correlationId,
pendingCommand,
WorkerClientErrorCode.GatewayShutdown,
"Command wait was canceled.");
AbandonCommandOnCallerCancellation(correlationId, pendingCommand, method);
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
throw;
}
@@ -822,6 +817,45 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
return true;
}
/// <summary>
/// Fails the pending command for a caller whose own token fired — a client deadline shorter
/// than the gateway's command timeout, or a disconnect that cancelled the RPC's token — and
/// forwards a <c>WorkerCancel</c> for the correlation the caller has abandoned (IPC-34).
/// <para>
/// Caller cancellation is the common abandonment path, not the rare one, and it leaves the
/// worker in exactly the state the timeout arm's cancel exists for: the correlation is still
/// on the worker's single STA queue and would execute in its turn, behind live callers, for
/// a caller that is already gone. Under a burst of deadline-cancelled calls that backlog is
/// precisely what the cancel was added to shorten, so both arms send it.
/// </para>
/// <para>
/// Gated the same way as the timeout arm: only the caller that owned the removal sends, so a
/// reply that won the race is never chased. Additionally skipped once <c>_stopCts</c> has
/// fired — the client is closing, the outbound channel is being completed and every pending
/// command failed anyway, so a cancel would be at best pointless and at worst a write racing
/// teardown.
/// </para>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="correlationId">Correlation id of the abandoned command.</param>
/// <param name="pendingCommand">The pending command entry to fail.</param>
/// <param name="method">Command method name, for the cancel reason and diagnostics.</param>
private void AbandonCommandOnCallerCancellation(
string correlationId,
PendingCommand pendingCommand,
string method)
{
bool removed = RemovePendingCommandAsFailed(
correlationId,
pendingCommand,
WorkerClientErrorCode.CallerCancelled,
"Command wait was canceled.");
if (removed && !_stopCts.IsCancellationRequested)
{
TrySendCancelForAbandonedCommand(correlationId, method, "caller cancelled the command");
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Forwards a <c>WorkerCancel</c> for a correlation the gateway has given up waiting for, so the
/// worker can drop it from its STA queue (<c>WorkerPipeSession</c> routes the envelope to
@@ -838,9 +872,10 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
/// <remarks>
/// The whole body sits under one catch-all that debug-logs, because the guarantee this method
/// owes its caller is structural, not incidental: the caller is on the throw path for the
/// timeout, so anything escaping here — an envelope that failed to build, a <c>TryWrite</c>
/// against a disposed channel, a scheduler refusing the detached task — would replace the
/// <see cref="WorkerClientErrorCode.CommandTimeout"/> the caller is owed with an unrelated
/// timeout or the cancellation, so anything escaping here — an envelope that failed to build,
/// a <c>TryWrite</c> against a disposed channel, a scheduler refusing the detached task —
/// would replace the <see cref="WorkerClientErrorCode.CommandTimeout"/> (or the
/// <see cref="OperationCanceledException"/>) the caller is owed with an unrelated
/// exception. Losing the cancel costs the worker one wasted command; losing the timeout
/// misreports why the call failed. The detached task carries its own handler for the same
/// reason: its failures (including the <see cref="ObjectDisposedException"/> from
@@ -848,13 +883,13 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
/// and would otherwise be unobserved. It is deliberately not tracked or awaited — it holds no
/// resource the shutdown path needs back, and the outbound channel is completed on close.
/// </remarks>
/// <param name="correlationId">Correlation id of the command that timed out.</param>
/// <param name="method">Command method name, for the cancel reason and diagnostics.</param>
/// <param name="timeout">The elapsed command timeout, for the cancel reason.</param>
private void TrySendCancelForTimedOutCommand(
/// <param name="correlationId">Correlation id of the abandoned command.</param>
/// <param name="method">Command method name, for diagnostics.</param>
/// <param name="reason">Why the gateway abandoned the command, carried on the <c>WorkerCancel</c>.</param>
private void TrySendCancelForAbandonedCommand(
string correlationId,
string method,
TimeSpan timeout)
string reason)
{
try
{
@@ -862,7 +897,7 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
correlationId,
envelope => envelope.WorkerCancel = new WorkerCancel
{
Reason = $"gateway command timeout after {timeout}",
Reason = reason,
});
if (_outboundEnvelopes.Writer.TryWrite(cancelEnvelope))
@@ -888,10 +923,10 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
}
}
/// <summary>Records a cancel that could not be forwarded for a timed-out command.</summary>
/// <summary>Records a cancel that could not be forwarded for an abandoned command.</summary>
/// <param name="exception">The failure that stopped the cancel from being sent.</param>
/// <param name="method">Command method name of the timed-out command.</param>
/// <param name="correlationId">Correlation id of the timed-out command.</param>
/// <param name="method">Command method name of the abandoned command.</param>
/// <param name="correlationId">Correlation id of the abandoned command.</param>
private void LogCancelNotForwarded(
Exception exception,
string method,
@@ -899,7 +934,7 @@ public sealed class WorkerClient : IWorkerClient
{
_logger.LogDebug(
exception,
"Could not forward a cancel for timed-out worker command {Method} on session {SessionId} "
"Could not forward a cancel for abandoned worker command {Method} on session {SessionId} "
+ "and correlation {CorrelationId}.",
method,
SessionId,
@@ -10,6 +10,14 @@ public enum WorkerClientErrorCode
HeartbeatExpired,
ShutdownTimeout,
GatewayShutdown,
// The caller's own cancellation token fired while it waited for the reply — a client deadline
// shorter than the gateway's command timeout, or a disconnect that cancelled the RPC's token.
// Distinct from GatewayShutdown (which these arms used to report) so metrics and logs stop
// recording a shutdown that did not happen; both map to Cancelled at the gRPC boundary, so the
// status the client observes is unchanged.
CallerCancelled,
WriteFailed,
PendingCommandLimitExceeded,
@@ -216,6 +216,112 @@ public sealed class WorkerClientTests
Assert.Equal(WorkerClientState.Ready, client.State);
}
/// <summary>
/// Caller cancellation abandons the correlation exactly as a gateway timeout does — a client
/// deadline shorter than the gateway's command timeout, or a disconnect, is the common
/// abandonment path — so it forwards the same <c>WorkerCancel</c> (IPC-34). Without it a
/// retry storm of deadline-cancelled calls leaves the worker's single STA working through
/// commands nobody is waiting for while live callers queue behind them. Twin of
/// <see cref="InvokeAsync_WhenCommandTimesOut_SendsWorkerCancelForThatCorrelation"/>, driven
/// by the caller's token instead of the timer.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>A task that represents the asynchronous operation.</returns>
[Fact]
public async Task InvokeAsync_WhenCallerCancels_SendsWorkerCancelForThatCorrelation()
{
await using PipePair pipePair = await PipePair.CreateAsync();
await using WorkerClient client = CreateClient(pipePair);
await CompleteHandshakeAsync(client, pipePair);
using CancellationTokenSource callerCts = new();
// Advise rather than a control command: control commands bypass the worker's STA queue, so a
// data command is the case the cancel actually exists for. The timeout is the full test
// timeout so the cancellation, not the timer, is unambiguously what abandons the command.
Task<WorkerCommandReply> invokeTask = client.InvokeAsync(
CreateCommand(MxCommandKind.Advise),
TestTimeout,
callerCts.Token);
WorkerEnvelope commandEnvelope = await pipePair.WorkerReader.ReadAsync().AsTask().WaitAsync(TestTimeout);
Assert.Equal(WorkerEnvelope.BodyOneofCase.WorkerCommand, commandEnvelope.BodyCase);
await callerCts.CancelAsync();
await Assert.ThrowsAnyAsync<OperationCanceledException>(
async () => await invokeTask.WaitAsync(TestTimeout));
WorkerEnvelope cancelEnvelope = await pipePair.WorkerReader.ReadAsync().AsTask().WaitAsync(TestTimeout);
Assert.Equal(WorkerEnvelope.BodyOneofCase.WorkerCancel, cancelEnvelope.BodyCase);
Assert.Equal(commandEnvelope.CorrelationId, cancelEnvelope.CorrelationId);
Assert.False(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(cancelEnvelope.WorkerCancel.Reason));
Assert.True(
cancelEnvelope.Sequence > commandEnvelope.Sequence,
$"The cancel arrived with sequence {cancelEnvelope.Sequence} after {commandEnvelope.Sequence}; "
+ "envelope sequences must be strictly increasing in wire order.");
// One caller gave up; the session did not fault.
Assert.Equal(WorkerClientState.Ready, client.State);
}
/// <summary>
/// The cancel is forwarded for a caller that abandoned its command, never for the client's own
/// teardown (IPC-34): once the stop token has fired the outbound channel is being completed and
/// every pending command is failed anyway, so a cancel would at best be pointless and at worst
/// a write racing teardown. Asserted on the wire — the guard in the cancellation arm is the
/// code-level expression of it, and the completed outbound channel is the second line of
/// defense, so this pins the observable contract rather than either mechanism.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>A task that represents the asynchronous operation.</returns>
[Fact]
public async Task InvokeAsync_WhenClientStopsUnderInFlightCommand_DoesNotSendWorkerCancel()
{
await using PipePair pipePair = await PipePair.CreateAsync();
await using WorkerClient client = CreateClient(pipePair);
await CompleteHandshakeAsync(client, pipePair);
using CancellationTokenSource callerCts = new();
Task<WorkerCommandReply> invokeTask = client.InvokeAsync(
CreateCommand(MxCommandKind.Advise),
TestTimeout,
callerCts.Token);
WorkerEnvelope commandEnvelope = await pipePair.WorkerReader.ReadAsync().AsTask().WaitAsync(TestTimeout);
Assert.Equal(WorkerEnvelope.BodyOneofCase.WorkerCommand, commandEnvelope.BodyCase);
// Read ahead before tearing down so anything the teardown path puts on the wire is caught.
// Exceptions are swallowed: the read is expected to be still pending at the assertion, and
// the stream is disposed underneath it when the test ends.
Task<WorkerEnvelope?> pendingRead = Task.Run(async () =>
{
try
{
return await pipePair.WorkerReader.ReadAsync();
}
catch (Exception)
{
return null;
}
});
// Kill fires the client's stop token and then fails the pending command; a caller token that
// is wired to gateway shutdown (as the session's is) cancels in the same window.
client.Kill("test teardown");
await callerCts.CancelAsync();
await Assert.ThrowsAnyAsync<Exception>(async () => await invokeTask.WaitAsync(TestTimeout));
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(250));
if (pendingRead.IsCompleted)
{
WorkerEnvelope? unexpected = await pendingRead;
Assert.True(
unexpected is null || unexpected.BodyCase != WorkerEnvelope.BodyOneofCase.WorkerCancel,
"A stopping worker client must not put a WorkerCancel on the wire.");
}
}
/// <summary>
/// The envelope <c>sequence</c> is a monotonic per-sender counter (gateway.md), so the values
/// observed on the pipe must be strictly increasing in wire order. Stamping the sequence when