Review found AlarmDispatcher.SnapshotActiveAlarms reading the snapshot and the
truncation verdict through two independent lock acquisitions, defended by a
comment claiming read-order made a race "widen only, never narrow". That claim
was false: a not-truncated -> truncated poll landing between the two reads pairs
a stale false with a capped snapshot, which is exactly the false all-clear the
feature exists to prevent. It was safe only because AlarmCommandHandler
STA-serializes consumer calls — an accident of the call graph, not an invariant.
Made the invariant structural instead of documented. IMxAccessAlarmConsumer now
exposes ONE accessor, `IReadOnlyList<MxAlarmSnapshotRecord> SnapshotActiveAlarms(
out bool truncated)`, which implementations must satisfy from a single
acquisition of the lock guarding the retained snapshot — mirroring the write
side, where FoldFetch already updates snapshot and verdict together. The
separate LastSnapshotTruncated property is gone from every layer, so there is no
second read left to pair badly. `out` over a result struct follows the file's
established idiom (FoldFetch, ParseSnapshotXml).
The same threading applies one level up: IAlarmCommandHandler.QueryActive now
carries `out bool snapshotTruncated`, so MxAccessCommandExecutor stamps the reply
payload from the value the records were stamped with rather than reading the
state a second time.
Direct tests for the three hops that were only covered end-to-end:
- AlarmDispatcherTests: truncated consumer snapshot stamps FromTruncatedSnapshot
on every mapped record, with a complete-snapshot control, plus an assertion
that the independent per-record Degraded flag is not dragged along.
- AlarmCommandHandlerTests: the verdict delegates through the dispatcher
(Theory over both values), and survives a prefix filter that removes every
record — the case the per-record flag cannot cover.
- AlarmCommandExecutorTests: the reply payload's SnapshotTruncated comes from the
handler (Theory over both values), including the zero-record case.
The WnWrapAlarmConsumer truncation tests now assert through
SnapshotActiveAlarms(out ...) rather than an internal field, because the pairing
is the contract.
Also: GatewayAlarmMonitor's _snapshotTruncated comment now says "as of the last
full reconcile" rather than implying it tracks the current _alarms contents,
which live transitions keep moving via ApplyTransition between passes.
Detection heuristic still untouched (fetchedRecordCount >= maxAlarmsPerFetch);
no @COUNT parsing, per docs/AlarmProbeFindings.md. Still additive gateway
metadata about our fetch mechanics, not MXAccess behavior — not a parity
deviation, and no event is synthesized.
Gateway: NonWindows.slnx builds clean (0 warnings); ~Alarm filter 107/107 pass.
Worker + Worker.Tests are windev-gated; the signature change was reviewed by
inspection across all 7 IMxAccessAlarmConsumer implementers, all 3
IAlarmCommandHandler implementers, and every call site.
The truncation-cliff fix made alarm transitions truncation-safe but silent:
when GetXmlCurrentAlarms2 returns exactly maxAlmCnt records the worker
suppresses absence-implies-Clear inference and says so only in a rate-limited
stderr warning. No client and no operator could tell a complete active set
from a capped one.
Two additive proto3 booleans carry the verdict out:
- QueryActiveAlarmsReplyPayload.snapshot_truncated = 2 (worker IPC reply)
- ActiveAlarmSnapshot.from_truncated_snapshot = 16 (per record)
The per-record field is not an aesthetic choice. QueryActiveAlarms returns a
bare `stream ActiveAlarmSnapshot` with no envelope, header, or trailer, so a
per-record boolean is the only carrier that stays wire-compatible; an envelope
message would change every existing client's stream element type. The reply
payload states it too because a prefix filter can leave zero records and a
truncated fetch with nothing to report still has to say so. The flag means
"this set may be incomplete", never "this record is unreliable" — it is
independent of the subtag-fallback `degraded` field.
Detection is deliberately UNCHANGED: IsTruncatedFetch remains
`fetchedRecordCount >= maxAlarmsPerFetch`. The live probe (docs/AlarmProbeFindings.md,
ce5d8ae) could not verify whether ALARM_RECORDS/@COUNT reports the total active
count or only the records in the reply, so @COUNT is not parsed for detection;
switching to it stays blocked on probe evidence. The probe's comment
annotations in WnWrapAlarmConsumer.cs are preserved.
Reset semantics: not latched. WnWrapAlarmConsumer.FoldFetch replaces the
verdict on every poll under the same lock as the snapshot merge, so the first
sub-cap fetch clears it; GatewayAlarmMonitor.ClearCache drops it with the cache
generation it describes. A caveat that never turns off is one operators learn
to ignore.
Flow: WnWrapAlarmConsumer.LastSnapshotTruncated -> AlarmDispatcher (stamps every
record) / IAlarmCommandHandler (payload) -> MxAccessCommandExecutor reply ->
GatewayAlarmMonitor._snapshotTruncated -> IGatewayAlarmService.SnapshotTruncated
-> DashboardAlarmQueryResult -> AlarmsPage warning banner (render-side only; the
poll loop and DisposeAsync drain are untouched). The public QueryActiveAlarms
RPC forwards worker snapshots unmodified, so the per-record flag needed no
mapper change — a test pins that.
Parity: this describes OUR fetch mechanics — additive gateway metadata — not
MXAccess provider behavior. No event is synthesized and no MXAccess-observable
semantics change, so it is not a parity deviation.
Tests: worker LastSnapshotTruncated set/reset/consecutive-burst (windev-run);
gateway end-to-end truncated reply -> monitor -> public stream, with the
complete-reply control as the load-bearing assertion; AlarmsPage banner
present/absent. Docs: gateway.md alarm surface, docs/DesignDecisions.md entry.
Joseph Doherty