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Jeff GardnerandJohnathan Corgan
5e3892edb8
On any Unix host that falls through to the last-resort /tmp/fips-control.sock path, bind chowned the socket's parent unconditionally, and that parent is /tmp itself. A root daemon on such a host changed the group ownership of /tmp to fips at every start. The mode was left alone, so nothing lost access, but the ownership was ours to take and never ours to keep. macOS has no /run, so the resolver's /var/run/fips arm only fired when the directory already existed, and nothing on macOS creates it: /var/run is cleared at boot and the shipped LaunchDaemon has no equivalent of the FreeBSD rc.d fips_precmd. The packaged macOS daemon has therefore been landing on /tmp/fips-control.sock every boot. A privileged macOS process now selects /var/run/fips before its leaf exists, so that bind creates it, and the clients follow once it is there. The two halves are the same change: the bootstrap only works if bind may create and secure that directory, and the /tmp chown had to go before bind could be trusted to. Which parent bind may secure is keyed on the directory's identity rather than on which call created it. is_managed_socket_parent matches only the resolver's own candidates: /run/fips, /var/run/fips where the platform policy consults it, and $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fips. Keying it on creation alone was tried first and regressed Linux, because systemd removes RuntimeDirectory=fips when the unit stops and recreates it as root:root on the next start, while the tmpfiles fragment that sets the fips group runs only at install and boot. The daemon's own chown was what repaired that at every bind, so a fips-group operator lost fipsctl after the first restart following a boot. Matching on identity restores it and still leaves /tmp, and any operator-configured directory, alone. The resolver is split into a pure core taking the policy, the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR value and an is_dir predicate, so the macOS and Linux policies are both exercised deterministically on a Linux runner with no environment mutation. The deb-install suite gains the end-to-end half: after a service restart it asserts /run/fips is 750 root:fips and that a real non-root fips-group user can reach the socket, which is the property an operator actually has. Also corrects a configuration.md paragraph claiming the daemon and the clients use different fallback orders, which stopped being true when the resolver order disagreement was resolved and the prose was never updated.
216 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
216 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Control Socket Protocol
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The FIPS daemon and `fips-gateway` each expose a local control socket
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that accepts line-delimited JSON requests and returns line-delimited
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JSON responses. `fipsctl` and `fipstop` are clients of this protocol;
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operators can also drive it directly with any tool that can speak
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length-bounded JSON over a stream socket.
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## Connection
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### Unix
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A Unix domain socket. The default path is resolved in this order:
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1. `/run/fips/control.sock` (or `/run/fips/gateway.sock` for the
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gateway), if `/run/fips` exists. This is what the `fips.service`
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systemd unit creates.
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2. On macOS and FreeBSD, `/var/run/fips/control.sock` if its private
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directory exists. A privileged macOS daemon selects this path before the
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directory exists and creates it at bind time, so the packaged LaunchDaemon
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recreates its runtime state after every boot. The FreeBSD rc.d service
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creates the directory before starting FIPS.
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3. `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fips/control.sock` otherwise.
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4. `/tmp/fips-control.sock` if none of the above is available.
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The daemon sets the socket to group `fips`, mode `0770`. It sets a private
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parent directory to group `fips`, mode `0750`, both when it creates that
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directory and when a service manager pre-creates a canonical runtime directory
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(`/run/fips`, `/var/run/fips`, or `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fips`). Existing shared or
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custom parents remain unchanged, so fallback locations such as `/tmp` retain
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their system ownership and mode. Members of the `fips` group can connect
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without root.
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The path can be overridden at the daemon side via
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`node.control.socket_path` in the YAML config, and at the client side
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via `fipsctl -s PATH` or `fipstop -s PATH`.
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### Windows
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A TCP listener bound to `127.0.0.1`. The daemon's port is `21210` by
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default; the gateway's is `21211`. Only loopback connections are
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accepted. Override via `node.control.socket_path` (which takes a port
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number string on Windows).
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Windows TCP does not provide filesystem-level ACLs — any local user
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can connect. See the security note in
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[configuration.md](configuration.md#control-socket-nodecontrol).
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## Request Format
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One JSON object per line, terminated by `\n`. Maximum request size is
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4096 bytes; longer requests are dropped with `request too large`.
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```json
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{"command": "<name>", "params": {<object>}}
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```
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| Field | Type | Required | Description |
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| ----- | ---- | -------- | ----------- |
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| `command` | string | yes | Command name. See [Daemon command catalog](#daemon-command-catalog) and [Gateway command catalog](#gateway-command-catalog). |
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| `params` | object | only for commands that take parameters | Parameter object. Unknown fields are ignored; missing required fields produce an error response. |
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Unknown top-level fields in the request are silently ignored.
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## Response Format
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One JSON object per line.
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```json
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{"status": "ok", "data": {<object>}}
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{"status": "error", "message": "<reason>"}
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```
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| Field | Type | When present |
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| ----- | ---- | ------------ |
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| `status` | string | always; one of `"ok"` or `"error"`. |
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| `data` | object | on `ok` responses. |
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| `message` | string | on `error` responses. |
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### I/O timeouts
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The daemon enforces a 5-second timeout for both the request read and
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the response write. If the connection idles longer than that, the
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daemon closes it with no response.
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### Common error messages
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| Message | Cause |
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| ------- | ----- |
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| `empty request` | Connection closed before a newline was received. |
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| `invalid request: <serde error>` | Malformed JSON or missing `command`. |
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| `request too large` | Request exceeded 4096 bytes. |
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| `read timeout` / `read error: ...` | Slow client or transport failure. |
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| `unknown command: <name>` | Command not registered with this daemon. |
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| `missing params for <name>` | Command requires `params` but none were provided. |
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| `missing '<field>' parameter` | Required parameter missing. |
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| `query timeout` | Internal handler did not respond within 5 seconds. |
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| `node shutting down` | Daemon is exiting. |
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| `gateway not yet initialized` | (Gateway socket only) snapshot has not been published yet. |
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## Daemon Command Catalog
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Read-only queries are dispatched in `src/control/queries.rs`;
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mutating commands are dispatched in `src/control/commands.rs`. The
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table below lists every command currently registered.
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### Read-only queries
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| Command | Params | `data` shape (top-level keys) |
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| ------- | ------ | ----------------------------- |
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| `show_status` | — | `version`, `npub`, `node_addr`, `ipv6_addr`, `state`, `is_leaf_only`, `is_root` (bool — this node is the spanning-tree root), `root` (hex node-addr of the current tree root), `persistent` (bool — identity is persisted, i.e. `persistent` set or an `nsec` configured), `peer_count`, `session_count`, `link_count`, `transport_count`, `connection_count`, `transport_peer_counts` (object mapping transport-type name to its connected-peer count; configured transports appear with `0`), `tun_state`, `tun_name`, `effective_ipv6_mtu`, `control_socket`, `pid`, `exe_path`, `uptime_secs`, `estimated_mesh_size`, `forwarding`, `sparklines`. |
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| `show_acl` | — | `allow_file`, `deny_file`, `enforcement_active`, `effective_mode`, `default_decision`, `allow_all`, `deny_all`, `allow_file_entries`, `deny_file_entries`, `allow_entries`, `deny_entries`. |
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| `show_peers` | — | `peers[]` — per-peer object: `node_addr`, `npub`, `display_name`, `ipv6_addr`, `connectivity`, `link_id`, `direction`, `transport_addr`, `transport_type`, `is_parent`, `is_child`, `tree_depth`, `effective_depth` (`tree_depth + link_cost` — the metric `evaluate_parent` ranks on; `null` when the peer has no coords, or is unmeasured while another peer has an SRTT sample, per the cold-start gate), `stats`, `noise`, `current_k_bit`, `mmp`, plus optional `nostr_traversal`, `rekey_in_progress`, `rekey_draining`. |
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| `show_links` | — | `links[]` — `link_id`, `transport_id`, `remote_addr`, `direction`, `state`, `created_at_ms`, `stats`. |
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| `show_tree` | — | `my_node_addr`, `root`, `root_npub` (bech32 npub of the current tree root), `is_root`, `depth`, `my_coords[]`, `parent`, `parent_display_name`, `declaration_sequence`, `declaration_signed`, `peer_tree_count`, `peers[]`, `stats`. |
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| `show_sessions` | — | `sessions[]` — `remote_addr`, `npub`, `display_name`, `state` (`established`, `initiating`, `awaiting_msg3`, `unknown`), `is_initiator`, `last_activity_ms`, `stats`, optional `mmp`, `current_k_bit`, `is_draining`. |
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| `show_bloom` | — | `own_node_addr`, `is_leaf_only`, `sequence`, `leaf_dependent_count`, `leaf_dependents[]`, `peer_filters[]`, `uptree_fill_ratio` (fill ratio of the last filter actually sent to the tree parent), `uptree_estimated_count` (cardinality estimate of that uptree filter — this node's whole subtree under split-horizon, not the mesh; both are `null` for a root node or before the first announce), `stats`. |
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| `show_mmp` | — | `peers[]` (link-layer per peer), `sessions[]` (session-layer per session). Each entry includes loss/RTT/ETX/goodput, smoothed values, trends. |
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| `show_cache` | — | `count`, `max_entries`, `fill_ratio`, `default_ttl_ms`, `expired`, `avg_age_ms`, `entries[]` — per-destination coords, depth, age, last-used, optional `path_mtu`. |
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| `show_connections` | — | `connections[]` — pending handshakes: `link_id`, `direction`, `handshake_state`, `started_at_ms`, `idle_ms`, `resend_count`, optional `expected_peer`. |
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| `show_transports` | — | `transports[]` — `transport_id`, `type`, `state`, `mtu`, `name`, `local_addr`, optional `tor_mode`, `onion_address`, `tor_monitoring`, `stats`. |
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| `show_routing` | — | `coord_cache_entries`, `identity_cache_entries`, `pending_lookups[]`, `pending_tun_destinations`, `pending_tun_packets`, `recent_requests`, `retries[]`, `forwarding`, `discovery` (request/response sub-counters; includes `req_deduplicated` — requests suppressed as recent duplicates — and `req_dedup_cache_full` — requests admitted because the dedup cache was full), `error_signals`, `congestion`. |
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| `show_identity_cache` | — | `entries[]`, `count`, `max_entries`. Each entry: `node_addr`, `npub`, `display_name`, `ipv6_addr`, `last_seen_ms`, `age_ms`. |
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| `show_listening_sockets` | — | `fips0_addr`, `firewall_active` (bool — `inet fips` table loaded), `sockets[]`. Each entry: `proto` (`tcp` / `udp`), `local_addr` (`::` or the node's fd00::/8 address), `port`, `pid` (nullable), `process` (nullable), `wildcard_bind` (bool — `local_addr == ::`), `filter` (`accept` / `drop` / `unknown` / `no_firewall`). Linux-only; returns an empty `sockets[]` on other platforms. |
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| `show_stats_list` | — | `metrics[]` (each with `name`, `unit`, `scope`), `fast_ring_seconds`, `slow_ring_minutes`, `peer_retention_seconds`. |
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| `show_metrics` | — | Flat snapshot of every counter family in the metrics registry: `forwarding`, `discovery`, `tree`, `bloom`, `congestion`, `errors`. Each value is that family's counter snapshot object. Counter-only — gauges/histograms that need the live node are excluded. Served off the main loop. Silent-rejection sites classify their reason as a typed `RejectReason` and increment the matching per-family counter exposed here — see [Rejection reasons](#rejection-reasons). |
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| `show_stats_history` | `metric` (req), `peer` (req for per-peer metrics), `window` (`<N>s` / `<N>m` / `<N>h`, default `10m`), `granularity` (`1s` / `1m`, default `1s`) | A single `Series`: `metric`, `unit`, `granularity_seconds`, `values[]`. |
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| `show_stats_all_history` | `peer` (optional npub), `window`, `granularity` | `granularity_seconds`, `window_seconds`, `peer`, `series[]` (one per metric). |
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| `show_stats_peers` | — | `peers[]`, `count`. Each entry: `npub`, `node_addr`, `display_name`, `is_active`, `first_seen_secs_ago`, `last_contact_secs_ago`. |
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| `show_stats_history_all_peers` | `metric` (req per-peer name), `window`, `granularity` | `metric`, `unit`, `granularity_seconds`, `window_seconds`, `peers[]` (each with `node_addr`, `display_name`, `is_active`, `values[]`). |
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The schema of each query response is pinned by snapshot tests in
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`src/control/snapshots/`; intentional schema changes regenerate those
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fixtures.
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### Rejection reasons
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Silent-rejection paths across the node classify why a message was
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dropped via a typed `RejectReason` rather than only logging it, so the
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*what* of a rejection is visible in the counter snapshots above. The
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top-level reason set has eight families, mirroring the protocol-layer /
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subsystem split of the metrics:
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- **Tree** — spanning-tree `TreeAnnounce` processing rejections.
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- **Bloom** — bloom-filter `FilterAnnounce` processing rejections.
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- **Discovery** — discovery request / response processing rejections.
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- **Handshake** — Noise handshake state-machine rejections.
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- **Session** — FSP session state-machine rejections.
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- **Mmp** — MMP link-layer rejections.
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- **Forwarding** — forwarding-path rejections (no-route, TTL, MTU).
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- **Transport** — transport-layer rejections (admission caps, framing).
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Each rejection increments the corresponding counter in its family's
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stats, surfaced through `show_metrics` (the `tree`, `bloom`,
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`discovery`, and `forwarding` families carry their own counters; the
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`errors` family and the remaining subsystem counters carry the rest).
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The full per-family variant list lives in `src/node/reject.rs`; it is
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not reproduced here to avoid duplicating the source.
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### Mutating commands
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| Command | Required params | Behaviour |
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| ------- | --------------- | --------- |
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| `connect` | `npub` (bech32), `address` (transport endpoint), `transport` (`udp`, `tcp`, `tor`, `nym`, `ethernet`) | Asks the node to dial the peer over the named transport. The named transport must be configured and running. Returns the API result on success or an error string on failure. |
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| `disconnect` | `npub` (bech32) | Asks the node to drop the link to the named peer. |
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Both commands run on the daemon's main task and may block briefly
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while the node mutates its state.
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#### Profiler toggle (`--features profiling` builds only)
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| Command | Params | Behaviour |
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| ------- | ------ | --------- |
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| `profile_tick_on` | `dir` (optional directory path; default `/var/log/fips`) | Creates the capture file, publishes its path, and starts the writer thread. `data`: `state`, `path`, `interval_secs`, `byte_cap`. Errors if a capture is already running (naming the active file) or the directory is unwritable. |
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| `profile_tick_off` | — | Stops the capture, drains once more, joins the writer. `data`: `state`, `stopped`, `stopped_by_cap`, `stopped_by_error`, `path`, `bytes`. |
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| `profile_tick_status` | — | `data`: `state` (`idle` / `running` / `stopped_by_cap` / `stopped_by_error`), `path`, `bytes`, `byte_cap`, `interval_secs`. |
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Unlike `connect` and `disconnect`, these three are served in the
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control accept task rather than on the daemon's main task. All of their
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state is process statics and none of them needs `&mut Node`, so
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routing them through the main loop would only make the toggle queue
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behind the tick body it exists to measure. They are absent from a
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default build, where the daemon answers them as unknown commands.
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## Gateway Command Catalog
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`fips-gateway` exposes a separate control socket with its own command
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set. Dispatch lives in `src/gateway/control.rs`.
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| Command | Params | `data` shape |
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| ------- | ------ | ------------ |
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| `show_gateway` | — | `pool_total`, `pool_allocated`, `pool_active`, `pool_draining`, `pool_free`, `nat_mappings`, `dns_listen`, `uptime_secs`, `pool_cidr`, `lan_interface`, `dns_upstream`, `dns_ttl`, `pool_grace_period`. |
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| `show_mappings` | — | `mappings[]` — `virtual_ip`, `mesh_addr`, `node_addr`, `dns_name`, `state` (`Allocated`, `Active`, `Draining`), `sessions`, `age_secs`, `last_ref_secs`. |
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Until the first snapshot has been published (very early in startup),
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both commands return `gateway not yet initialized`.
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## Driving the Socket Directly
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```sh
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# Linux / macOS
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echo '{"command":"show_status"}' | sudo nc -U /run/fips/control.sock
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# Windows (PowerShell with a TCP-capable tool of your choice)
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```
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The newline at the end of the request is required: the daemon reads
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one line per connection. The connection is closed after the single
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response is written.
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## See also
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- [`fipsctl`](cli-fipsctl.md) — full-featured client.
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- [`fipstop`](cli-fipstop.md) — read-only TUI.
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- [configuration.md](configuration.md) — `node.control.*` keys.
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