DOCFIX-194: the OpenTofu gate was GREEN over two BROKEN modules
...
scripts/opentofu-validate.sh printed PASS on 2026-07-13 while node-vm and netem-link were flatly
broken -- neither could have applied, and one could not even init. Both are modules Stage 3 and
Stage 4 are built on.
ROOT CAUSE OF THE MISS: root-only validation. `tofu validate` against the ROOT module only parses
modules the root actually INSTANTIATES. A module that is not called -- or is called only from a
commented-out block -- is NEVER PARSED. Root calls dc-planes, dc-storage-pool, mesh-link,
office1-network, opnsense-edge. It does NOT call base-image, cloudinit-vm, maas-vm-host,
netem-link, node-vm -- exactly the set Stage 2 (cloudinit-vm, base-image) and Stage 3 (node-vm,
maas-vm-host, netem-link) depend on. They had never been parsed by any tool.
Only findable because a tofu binary now exists on the jumphost (OpenTofu v1.12.3). The tree was
authored in sessions with no binary to self-check -- exactly the risk opentofu/README.md flagged.
DEFECT 1 -- node-vm: libvirt_volume had a top-level `format = {...}`, which is not a real
attribute ("An argument named format is not expected here"). Schema-verified via
`tofu providers schema -json` (dmacvicar/libvirt v0.9.8): libvirt_volume has NO top-level
`format` -- it nests under `target`. modules/base-image had the correct nesting all along, which
is why it passed and node-vm did not. node-vm builds EVERY DC node (PXE-boot blanks); Stage 3/4
would have failed on first use. The module's own header said "VERIFY with tofu providers schema
-json before the first real apply" -- nobody could, until now.
DEFECT 2 -- netem-link: a destroy-time provisioner referenced var.*, which OpenTofu rejects AT
INIT ("Destroy-time provisioners ... may only reference attributes of the related resource, via
'self', 'count.index', or 'each.key'"). The module could not even initialize. It is the
DR/latency mechanism for Stage 3 and the Stage 6 failover drill. Fixed with the canonical
pattern: stash values in `input`, read back as self.input.*.
THE DURABLE FIX -- S3: the gate now validates EVERY module STANDALONE, in a temp copy (so it
never writes .terraform/ or a module-level lock file into the repo; only the ROOT lock file is
tracked, deliberately). The two bugs are one-line fixes; the real defect was the gate. A gate
that reports green over unparsed code is worse than no gate -- it manufactures confidence.
VERIFICATION: tests/opentofu-validate 9 PASS (T2 skipped -- cannot exercise the missing-binary
guard on a box that has the binary). T8 is the load-bearing case: a fixture whose ROOT IS VALID
and does NOT call a BROKEN module -- root-only validation reports PASS on it, so S3 must FAIL.
If T8 ever goes green, the blind spot is back. T9 proves T8 fails on the defect, not the fixture
shape. T10 covers all 10 real modules. Fixtures use terraform_data (a builtin), so no provider
download is needed.
Gate against the real tree: S1 PASS, S2 PASS, fmt clean, root validate clean, 10/10 modules PASS
standalone. Gauntlet ALL GREEN (53 harnesses); repo-lint 0 fail.
Nothing was instantiated; no live system is affected by either the bug or the fix.
Revert: git revert this commit (restores the two broken modules and the root-only gate).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01B6Fzre1CxCY8tzwFCudu57
