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werkator/docs/plan/17-bwrap-build-runtime.md
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mhoennigandClaude 3f93882dda Record the passing bwrap precondition check on a Managed Webspace
Plan step 17 hinges on unprivileged user namespaces being usable on a
Hostsharing Managed Webspace. The check ran on h68 and passed with all three
expected signals, so the step is viable there and the sandbox design stands.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-11 10:19:21 +02:00

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# Step 17: Running GitTally on a Managed Webspace (bubblewrap builds + web access)
Prerequisites: steps 11, 15, 16.
Read `README.md` first.
Motivated by running GitTally on Hostsharing **Managed Webspaces**: no root, no Docker daemon, but `bwrap` (bubblewrap) is available and unprivileged user namespaces are allowed.
Target use case: GitTally builds GitTally itself on a Managed Webspace; builds needing special dependencies get them from a prepared root filesystem instead of the host.
Projects that need Docker for their own tests (hs.hsadmin.ng with Testcontainers) stay on a container host like vm4006 — the webspace is for Docker-free builds only.
The step covers two halves of the same deployment and is deliberately not split:
the build sandbox (most of this document) and the web access under a domain (last section).
Without the second half the first one only proves that sandboxed builds work somewhere; without the first one GitTally on a webspace would run builds unsandboxed on the host.
## Precondition Check (run on the target webspace first)
The whole step hinges on one hard precondition: unprivileged user namespaces with uid-0 mapping and read-only root binds must work.
Verify it with a single command line on the target webspace **before** starting implementation:
```bash
bwrap --unshare-user --unshare-pid --die-with-parent --uid 0 --gid 0 \
--ro-bind / / --dev /dev --proc /proc --tmpfs /tmp \
sh -c 'id -u && cat /proc/self/uid_map && (touch /usr/ro-test 2>&1 || true)'
```
Expected output:
- `0` — the build runs as root inside the namespace.
- a uid_map like `0 <webspace-uid> 1` — root maps back to the unprivileged webspace user.
- `touch: cannot touch '/usr/ro-test': Read-only file system` — the read-only root bind is enforced.
If this fails (`bwrap` missing, "setting up uid map: Permission denied", or no user namespace support), the approach is dead on that host — record the result in this file either way.
**Result: passed** on 2026-08-11, Hostsharing Managed Webspace `h68`, user `mih00`:
```
0
0 102147 1
touch: cannot touch '/usr/ro-test': Read-only file system
```
All three signals as expected — root inside the namespace, mapped back to the unprivileged webspace uid, and the read-only root bind enforced.
So unprivileged user namespaces are available on Hostsharing Managed Webspaces and the step can proceed.
Not captured with it: the `bwrap` and kernel versions of that host — take them along when the implementation starts, in case a mount option turns out to need a minimum version.
## Goal
A third build runtime behind the `BuildRunner` interface: `BwrapBuildRunner`, selected per branch via config, sandboxing the build in an unprivileged user namespace with a prepared Debian root filesystem.
No root on the host, no Docker daemon, no changes to the native and Docker runtimes.
## Design
### Prepared root filesystem
`debootstrap`/`mmdebstrap` are not available on the webspace, so the rootfs is **not created on the target system**.
It is built once elsewhere (any machine with Docker or root, e.g. a container VM) and distributed as an archive, e.g. `gittally-buildenv-trixie-java21.tar.zst`, containing Debian plus all build dependencies (JDK 21, git, locales, project-specific tools).
GitTally unpacks it on demand (`tar --no-same-owner`) into `.git/gittally/buildenv/<envKey>/rootfs`**not** into the working tree.
Like the Docker image and the Gradle cache volume, the environment is shared across all branch worktrees and survives worktree pruning; `<envKey>` derives from a hash of the configured archive source, so an environment-version change unpacks a fresh rootfs and stale ones can be pruned.
### Configuration
New `branches.<name>.bwrap` section: `enabled`, `rootfs` (path or URL of the archive), `env` (like `docker.env`).
`bwrap.enabled` and `bwrap.rootfs` join the **pinned sandbox-policy set** (like `docker.enabled`/`docker.network`): a branch must not be able to switch off its sandbox or substitute a foreign rootfs via its committed config.
`docker.enabled` and `bwrap.enabled` are mutually exclusive per branch — reject the config, do not pick silently.
Keep the three config places in sync: `GitTallyConfig`, the `InitCommand` templates, `docs/configuration.md`.
### Invocation
`BwrapBuildRunner` shells out to the `bwrap` CLI (no library, like git and docker):
```
bwrap --unshare-user --unshare-pid --die-with-parent --uid 0 --gid 0 \
--ro-bind <buildenv>/rootfs / \
--bind <workspace> <workspace> \
--bind <buildenv>/home /root \
--ro-bind /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf \
--proc /proc --dev /dev --tmpfs /tmp \
--chdir <workspace> \
/bin/sh -c '<buildCommand>'
```
- The workspace is bound at its **host path**, not at `/workspace`: the worktree's `.git` pointer file contains absolute host paths, and the step-16 git metadata mounts (`--ro-bind` of the primary `.git`, `--tmpfs` over `.git/gittally`, `--bind` of `.git/worktrees/<key>`) port 1:1 — reuse that logic, do not duplicate it.
- `<buildenv>/home` bound as `/root` gives Gradle a persistent `$HOME` (wrapper dists, `.gradle` caches) — the bwrap sibling of the Docker runner's Gradle cache volume.
- `--die-with-parent` plus `--unshare-pid`: cancellation kills the returned `bwrap` process tree and nothing survives — same semantics as the other runtimes.
- No ownership repair is needed: files created as uid 0 inside the namespace are owned by the webspace user on the host.
### Known limitations (document, do not solve here)
- Network stays shared with the host (Gradle needs it); isolation is weaker than Docker's per-container network.
- No Docker inside the sandbox, so no Testcontainers-based tests; build commands must select a Docker-free test subset.
For GitTally's own build this means `TestcontainersSmokeTest` must become conditional (`enabledIf` docker present) — that change is part of this step.
## Web Access under a Domain (no Docker, no managed nginx)
The managed nginx/TLS container from ADR 0005 is for container hosts without a reverse proxy.
A Managed Webspace does not need it: the platform provides Apache plus Let's Encrypt, and documents the reverse proxy to a self-hosted service.
Three platform-side prerequisites, none of them code:
1. **Book the "eigener Serverdienst" option** — a service user plus one reserved localhost port, requested from `service@hostsharing.net` stating the service user and the number of ports.
Surcharged on Managed Webspaces (RAM contingent in 128 MB steps), included on Managed Servers.
The port number is **assigned by Hostsharing** (wiki examples use 34567, 38005/38006), so it goes into `server.port` — GitTally's 18080 is not available by choice.
Sources: [Individuelle Serverdienste](https://www.hostsharing.net/features/individuelle-serverdienste/), [Apache](https://www.hostsharing.net/features/apache/).
2. **Run the service as a systemd user unit** — mandatory on Managed Webspaces (no `nohup`, no supervisord); lingering needs a valid login shell configured in HSAdmin, and the account's RAM is capped by a slice (`systemctl status pacs-<account>.slice`).
`gittally init --systemd` already generates the unit and the `gittally.env`, whose `JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx…` is what keeps the JVM inside the slice.
Source: [Prozessmanagement mit systemd im Userspace](https://wiki.hostsharing.net/index.php/Prozessmanagement_mit_systemd_im_Userspace).
3. **Let's Encrypt** is a domain option ticked in HSAdmin (free, automatic, includes the wildcard subdomain; requires the domain's nameservers to be delegated to Hostsharing), so TLS terminates in the managed Apache.
Source: [TLS](https://www.hostsharing.net/doc/managed-operations-platform/tls/).
### User model: a dedicated unix user, not the package admin
GitTally runs as its own unix user, e.g. `xyz00-gittally`, with the domain assigned to that same user (`domain.add({set:{name:'…',user:'xyz00-gittally'}})`), so the service, its repository checkout and `~/doms/<domain>/htdocs-ssl/` share one home directory.
That is what every Hostsharing service guide does (`xyz00-chat` for Mattermost, `xyz00-tomcat`, `xyz00-cloud` for Nextcloud) and what their user documentation recommends: a domain *can* run under the package admin, but "aus Sicherheitsgründen empfiehlt es sich aber Domains auf separate Domain-Admins aufzuschalten", so a compromise stays inside one home instead of reaching the whole package.
Here the argument is stronger than usual, because GitTally checks out foreign commits and executes their build scripts — running that as the package admin would undo the sandbox rationale of this very step.
The service user is named when ordering the daemon port anyway.
Sources: [Benutzer](https://www.hostsharing.net/doc/managed-operations-platform/benutzer/), [HSAdmin domain](https://www.hostsharing.net/doc/managed-operations-platform/hsadmin/domain/).
Consequences:
- The package admin is needed **once**: create the user, set its login shell to `/bin/bash` (this is what enables systemd lingering — `loginctl enable-linger` is not called by hand), assign the domain, order port and RAM. Day-to-day operation needs no admin rights.
- The RAM contingent is a **package** slice (`pacs-<account>.slice`), not a per-user quota, so a dedicated user gets no extra memory: a runaway Gradle build can starve everything else in the webspace.
The unit generated by `init --systemd` therefore needs `MemoryMax` and `TasksMax` on this platform — `SystemdServiceFiles.unitFileContent` currently sets neither, so add them (configurable, empty = unset) as part of this step.
- Unverified, check on the target system: whether the port reservation is technically bound to that uid or merely organisational, and whether a non-admin user may read `systemctl status pacs-<account>.slice`.
The proxy itself is one `.htaccess` in `~/doms/<domain>/htdocs-ssl/`, following Hostsharing's own Mattermost and Tomcat guides:
```apache
DirectoryIndex disabled
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule .* http://127.0.0.1:<assigned-port>%{REQUEST_URI} [proxy]
```
Sources: [Mattermost Installieren](https://wiki.hostsharing.net/index.php/Mattermost_Installieren), [Tomcat Installieren](https://wiki.hostsharing.net/index.php?title=Tomcat_Installieren).
The matching GitTally configuration:
```yaml
server:
port: <assigned-port>
bindAddress: 127.0.0.1 # the default since v0.9.9 — exactly right here
publicBaseUrl: "https://ci.example.de/" # used for every link posted to Gitea
nginx:
enabled: false # the managed nginx container is not used on a webspace
```
**This half needs no code change.** GitTally never reconstructs absolute URLs from the request — everything external comes from `server.publicBaseUrl` and the UI links relatively — so the usual reverse-proxy fix `server.forward-headers-strategy` is not needed.
Two claims could **not** be verified from a Hostsharing primary source; check them on the target webspace rather than relying on them:
- the effective `AllowOverride` value — that `RewriteRule [P]`, `DirectoryIndex` and `RequestHeader` work in user `.htaccess` is evidenced by the wiki guides, but the literal token is undocumented;
- whether an unassigned high port would bind at all — the documented contract is to use the assigned ones.
## ADR
Write ADR 0007: bubblewrap user-namespace sandbox as the third build runtime (options considered: bwrap (chosen), proot/fakechroot (slow, fragile), plain native with hand-installed toolchains (no isolation, host pollution)).
## Tests
- `BwrapBuildRunnerTest`: exact argv assertions (mount set, uid mapping, chdir, env), rootfs unpack-on-demand and env-key change, mocked process runner — mirror `DockerBuildRunnerTest`.
- `DispatchingBuildRunnerTest`: routing for `bwrap.enabled`, config rejection when both runtimes are enabled.
- `ConfigLoader` tests: the pinned set strips `bwrap.enabled`/`bwrap.rootfs` from the worktree layer.
## Acceptance Criteria
- The precondition command line above passes on the target webspace; its output is recorded in this file.
- `./gradlew ktlintFormat` then `./gradlew build` is green — also on a machine without Docker (Testcontainers smoke test skipped, not failed).
- On a Managed Webspace: GitTally (from the runtime bundle) builds a real branch of a repo inside the bwrap sandbox; git commands work in the worktree; `.git/gittally/` is not readable from the build; a write to `/usr` fails.
- On the same webspace: the UI answers over HTTPS under the domain through the Apache `.htaccess` proxy, the service survives a logout and a reboot (systemd lingering), and Gitea statuses carry `publicBaseUrl` links that resolve.
- Docs updated: `docs/configuration.md` (bwrap section), architecture skill (third runtime), ADR 0007, and `docs/deployment.md` gains "Hostsharing Managed Webspace" as a third deployment variant — written only once the setup above is verified on a real webspace, not from this plan.