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werkator/docs/prs/2026-07-08-PR#000-age-based-artifact-retention.md
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Michael HönnigandClaude Opus 5 d0169e57bc Renaming gitTally to Werkator because there is another git-related tool named gittally (#1) 
* renaming from gitTally to Werkator

* Rename GitTally to Werkator

`gitTally` is the name of another product in the git space, so the
rename is a precaution; nothing about what the build system does changes.

The name follows one rule: `Werkator` where it is prose, capitalized
where it is a Kotlin type and its file, lowercase everywhere a machine
reads it — the command, packages, paths, configuration keys and values,
the Gitea check context. Environment variables keep their convention and
are uppercase throughout.

Every configuration file is still found under its pre-rename name
(`ConfigFiles`): `.gittally.yml` at the repository root, in a build
worktree and as committed on a branch, `.git/gittally/.gittally.yml` for
the machine layer. The current name wins where both exist, and the old
file is then ignored rather than merged — two files side by side are a
half-done rename, not a layering. Without the fallback an installation
that updated without renaming would not fail: a configuration that is
not found leaves every setting at its default, so it would come up
looking healthy while having forgotten its credentials and its builds.

`docs/werkator-migrationsplan.md` lists what the fallback does not
cover and has to be moved by hand — above all the state directory
`.git/werkator/`, which holds the build history, the control token and
the worktrees, and has no fallback of its own.

`docs/migration-from-legacy.md` is deleted with this: it mapped the
legacy script's environment variables, and every host it addressed has
long since moved to the YAML configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Move the pre-rename state directory at the first start

The configuration is found under either name, the state is not: build
history, control token, auto-build slots and worktrees live at one fixed
path. An installation that updates without moving `.git/gittally` would
not fail — it would come up with an empty history and a fresh control
token, quietly. So the first start moves it instead of the release notes
asking for it.

Only when the old directory exists and the new one does not. Where both
exist nothing is touched and a warning names the leftover: which of the
two is the live state is not something to guess. A failed move is an
error in the log, never an abort — a CI must not hang on it.

The worktrees are dropped rather than moved, since they point at their
old path in both directions; `GitWorktreeWorkspaces` prunes the stale
admin entry and recreates each on its branch's next build. A generated
systemd unit moves with the directory and leaves its symlink dangling,
which is warned about — the running service is unaffected, the next
start is not.

Runs from `CliRunner`, before any command resolves a path under the
directory, and so before the second context of `server` exists.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Document PR#1: the rename to Werkator

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the legacy env-to-YAML conversion from the setup tool

The old bash script configured itself through `GITTALLY_*` environment
variables. The blanket rename rewrote those literals, so the converter
was looking for `WERKATOR_*` — a spelling no host has ever written. Fed
a real legacy file it would have found nothing and written an almost
empty configuration, without an error, which is the same silent failure
this rename is otherwise careful to avoid.

The conversion has served its purpose with the vm2176 to vm4006
migration, so it goes instead of being repaired. What remains is the
setup of a new instance: the preconditions, the credential prompt, and
the machine configuration written mode 600 — now carrying the host's
public URL as well, since that is host-specific too. Everything the
repository builds comes from `init` and its templates.

It also stops emitting a legacy `branches:` section, which step 18 is
about to reject outright.

`docs/plan/00-legacy-analysis.md` and `13-nginx-tls.md` get the real
`GITTALLY_*` spelling back: they record what the old script read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Describe this repository's build with a build definition

Its own `.werkator.yml` still used the deprecated `branches` section
with an `autoBuild` schedule that was switched off. That section is read
only while nothing defines a build at all, and step 18 rejects it by
name — so this repository would have blocked the precondition of that
step, which asks that no configuration still in play carries it.

Nothing about the build changes: `builds.default` with `trigger.onPush`
is a build of every new commit on every branch, which is what the branch
section said. `config:print --full` resolves the definition completely
and logs no deprecation warning any more.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Stop documenting the pre-rename fallback for users

Exactly one repository is configured with the old names, and it is
migrated by hand in the same move as this release. The fallback is
therefore a transition of days, not a feature anyone reading the release
notes or the configuration reference has to plan around.

Removed from `releases.html` and `docs/configuration.md`. The mechanism
itself is unchanged and stays described where it is worked on: in
`ConfigFiles`, in `StateDirMigration`, and in the migration plan.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Bring the PR-doc to its final state

The `statusContext` question is answered and marked as decided rather
than left standing: it is the one value a human reads as a label, and it
stays lowercase because Gitea matches it and the client reads it back,
which makes it a value.

Also records that the pre-rename fallback is deliberately absent from
the release notes and the configuration reference.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Release v1.0.0: Werkator

The release after 0.9.21 is 1.0.0, because a product that changes its
name is better off counting from one under it. The release note says as
much, so the jump is not read as a claim about maturity — plan steps 14,
17 and 18 are still open.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Correct the PR-doc about the version

It claimed the PR carries no version bump, which the release commit made
untrue, and records why the number is 1.0.0 instead of 0.9.22.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Point the legacy references at the history

`legacy/gitTally` was removed from the tree with the rename, but the
README still described it as a reference kept in the repository, and the
plan told an executing session to read parts of it — including step 14,
which is open.

The README section is gone; `docs/plan/README.md`, step 14 and the
legacy analysis now say where the script actually is
(`git show 7f55068^:legacy/gitTally`). Executed steps and ADR 0004 keep
their wording: they record what was true when they ran.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Retarget the links in the historic PR-docs

The package rename moved every file the older PR-docs link to, leaving
60 dead links. Only the link targets are rewritten, never the visible
text and never a statement: those documents record what was true when
they were written, GitTally in the prose included. A snapshot may be
outdated; it should still be navigable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Add the v1.0.0 deployment procedure for vm4006

Measured, not estimated: the state directory is 878 MB, of which 878 MB
are the nine build worktrees. What cannot be recreated is 84 KB, so the
snapshot before an in-place switch is instant and the rollback is one
sequence of moves.

Records the three expected non-failures — a cold Gradle volume, one
image rebuild, containers left under the old label — and that
`gitea.statusContext` needs no attention because it comes from the
watched repository's committed configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Rename the machine configuration along with its directory

Found by the deployment to vm4006: the move renames the directory and
leaves the file inside it alone, so the machine configuration ended up at
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` — a pair of names the lookup did not
expect, because it pairs directory and file name. The instance resolved
empty credentials, no public URL and none of the host's build
definitions, and said nothing about it. That is the exact failure this
change exists to prevent, produced by the change itself.

`StateDirMigration` now renames the configuration with the directory,
unless one under the current name is already there. `ConfigFiles` carries
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` as a third candidate as well, for a
directory somebody moved by hand, where the migration never runs and so
can rename nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Let init see a configuration under its previous name

`init --systemd` runs `init`, and its "already exists" check knew only
the current name. On the one repository still carrying `.gittally.yml`
it therefore wrote a fresh template `.werkator.yml` beside it — and
since the current name wins, that repository would have built the
template's `./gradlew test` instead of what its own configuration says.
Found on vm4006, where the file was created in the watched working tree
and removed again by hand.

Both checks now ask `ConfigFiles`, so init decides existence by the same
rule the loader uses to read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Record the v1.0.0 deployment to vm4006

Deployed from the branch as the final test of PR#1, and it did what a
final test is for: it found two silent-failure defects before the
service was started, both fixed and redeployed in the same window.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the control token left under the old localStorage key

The key is named after the product, so the rename left every browser
with a token under `gittally.controlToken`, which nothing reads any more
and which "forget token" can no longer reach. It is a write-scope token
in a browser store, not a password, but a secret nobody owns is worth
one line to remove.

Removed on load. The token on the server is unchanged, so re-entering it
once per browser is all the rename costs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-31 13:32:54 +02:00

5.3 KiB
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WARNING: This document describes only the change applied in this PR. It may already be outdated once the next PR is merged. Historic PR-documentation is not maintained along with new PRs — treat it as a snapshot, not as current documentation.

The Problem

Retention is count-based only: artifacts.retentionPerBranch keeps the newest N builds per branch, no matter how old they are. The legacy script also supported an age limit (GITTALLY_ARTIFACT_BUILD_RETENTION_PER_BRANCH=3d), which the rewrite dropped — the migration doc declared the age suffix unsupported. Without an age limit there is no way to bound how long stale build logs and reports stay on disk, e.g. on branches that build rarely.

Non-Goals

  • No either/or single config value like legacy (3 or 3d); count and age are separate keys that can be combined.
  • No age pruning of a branch's newest build — a dormant branch keeps its last status and artifacts.
  • No change to the existing pruning of branches deleted from origin.
  • No size-based (bytes) retention.

The Scenarios

Feature: age-based build retention combinable with count-based retention

Background

  • artifacts.retentionMaxAge takes the shared duration format (s/m/h/d suffix, like watcher.newBranchMaxAge); empty (the default) means no age limit.
  • Pruning runs in the watcher poll cycle; artifact directories follow the surviving build results.

Scenario#000.01: Builds older than retentionMaxAge are pruned

So that stale logs and reports do not stay on disk indefinitely.

  • Given artifacts.retentionMaxAge: 30d
    • and a branch with builds within the retention count, some older than 30 days
  • When the watcher prunes results and artifacts
  • Then the builds older than 30 days are dropped together with their artifacts
    • and the younger builds are kept.
Verified by

Scenario#000.02: Count and age combine as independent caps

So that one config can bound disk usage by count and staleness by age at the same time — which legacy could not.

  • Given artifacts.retentionPerBranch: 2 and artifacts.retentionMaxAge: 30d
  • When the watcher prunes
  • Then a build is kept only while it is among the branch's newest 2 builds and younger than 30 days
    • and a build violating either limit is dropped.
Verified by

Scenario#000.03: A branch's newest build is never age-pruned

So that a dormant branch keeps its last build status visible, matching the legacy age-retention behavior.

  • Given a branch whose newest build is older than retentionMaxAge
  • When the watcher prunes
  • Then that newest build is kept regardless of its age.
Verified by

Scenario#000.04: keepLatestGreen shields the latest green build from the age limit

So that the permanent /branches/<branch-key>/… artifact links stay valid while newer builds fail, even under an age limit.

  • Given artifacts.keepLatestGreen: true (the default)
    • and a branch whose latest green build is older than retentionMaxAge, followed by newer failed builds
  • When the watcher prunes
  • Then the latest green build and its artifacts are kept.
Verified by

Scenario#000.05: The default keeps existing behavior unchanged

So that existing installations are unaffected by the new key.

  • Given artifacts.retentionMaxAge is unset or empty
  • When the watcher prunes
  • Then only the count-based retention applies, exactly as before this PR.
Verified by

The Solution

  • New config key artifacts.retentionMaxAge, parsed with the existing DurationParser; all three config sync points are updated (GitTallyConfig, the init templates, docs/configuration.md).
  • BuildResultRepository.prune takes an optional retentionCutoff: Instant?; entries started before the cutoff are dropped, except each branch's newest entry and — with keepLatestGreen — the newest green entry.
  • The Watcher computes the cutoff from its injected Clock on every poll cycle, so the repository stays clock-free and deterministic in tests, and config changes apply without restart like the other retention keys.
  • Artifact directories need no separate handling: the artifact store already prunes by the surviving build results.

Open Questions

  • An invalid retentionMaxAge value (e.g. 30x) surfaces as a poll-cycle error in the log and the watcher state, not as a startup failure — consistent with how watcher.newBranchMaxAge is handled.

Additional Changes

  • docs/migration-from-legacy.md now maps a legacy age value of GITTALLY_ARTIFACT_BUILD_RETENTION_PER_BRANCH to artifacts.retentionMaxAge instead of declaring the age suffix unsupported.
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