bug#63982: Shepherd can crash when a user service fails to start

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi!

I've noticed that while all my user services (managed via GNU Stow --
not via Guix Home) were working, 'herd status' would report that
/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket was missing and bail out.

Starting from a nonexistent /run/user/1000/shepherd/socket, using old
Shepherd 0.9.1:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ /gnu/store/dblbnj1yra4yrrfjbnzsa0ldcl3170ap-shepherd-0.9.1/bin/shepherd
Service root has been started.
WARNING: Use of `load' in declarative module (#{ g115}#).  Add #:declarative? 
#f to your define-module invocation.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.
$
Warning: due to a long standing Gtk+ bug
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/issues/221
Emacs might crash when run in daemon mode and the X11 connection is 
unexpectedly lost.
Using an Emacs configured with --with-x-toolkit=lucid does not have this 
problem.
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...done
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...done
Cleaning up the recentf list...
Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
../../.emacs: Warning: Use keywords rather than deprecated positional arguments 
to `define-minor-mode'
Preparing diary...
No diary entries for Friday, June 9, 2023
Preparing diary...done
Appointment reminders enabled
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...done
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary... \
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary...done
Starting Emacs daemon.
Unable to start the daemon.
Another instance of Emacs is running the server, either as daemon or 
interactively.
You can use emacsclient to connect to that Emacs process.
Saving file /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history...
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf
Error: server did not start correctly
Service emacs could not be started.
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one
Service gpg-agent could not be started.
Service ibus-daemon has been started.

$ herd status
Started:
 + ibus-daemon
 + root
Stopped:
 - emacs
 - gpg-agent
 - jackd
 - workrave
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

If I then run it anew, it fails with "shepherd: while opening socket
'/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket': bind: Address already in use", because
apparently 'herd stop root' didn't remove it.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ herd stop root
Exiting.
[...]

$ /gnu/store/dblbnj1yra4yrrfjbnzsa0ldcl3170ap-shepherd-0.9.1/bin/shepherd
Service root has been started.
WARNING: Use of `load' in declarative module (#{ g115}#).  Add #:declarative? 
#f to your define-module invocation.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.
maxim@hurd ~/src/guix [env]$
Warning: due to a long standing Gtk+ bug
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/issues/221
Emacs might crash when run in daemon mode and the X11 connection is 
unexpectedly lost.
Using an Emacs configured with --with-x-toolkit=lucid does not have this 
problem.
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...done
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...done
Cleaning up the recentf list...
Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
../../.emacs: Warning: Use keywords rather than deprecated positional arguments 
to `define-minor-mode'
Preparing diary...
No diary entries for Friday, June 9, 2023
Preparing diary...done
Appointment reminders enabled
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...done
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary... \
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary...done
Starting Emacs daemon.
Unable to start the daemon.
Another instance of Emacs is running the server, either as daemon or 
interactively.
You can use emacsclient to connect to that Emacs process.
Saving file /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history...
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf
Error: server did not start correctly
Service emacs could not be started.
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one
Service gpg-agent could not be started.
Service ibus-daemon has been started.
shepherd: while opening socket '/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket': bind: Address 
already in use

Exiting shepherd...
Service ibus-daemon has been stopped.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.

$
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Even after removing it manually with 'rm
/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket', it still fails:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ /gnu/store/dblbnj1yra4yrrfjbnzsa0ldcl3170ap-shepherd-0.9.1/bin/shepherd
Service root has been started.
WARNING: Use of `load' in declarative module (#{ g115}#).  Add #:declarative? 
#f to your define-module invocation.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.
maxim@hurd ~/src/guix [env]$
Warning: due to a long standing Gtk+ bug
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/issues/221
Emacs might crash when run in daemon mode and the X11 connection is 
unexpectedly lost.
Using an Emacs configured with --with-x-toolkit=lucid does not have this 
problem.
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...
Loading time (native compiled elisp)...done
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf...done
Cleaning up the recentf list...
Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
../../.emacs: Warning: Use keywords rather than deprecated positional arguments 
to `define-minor-mode'
Preparing diary...
No diary entries for Friday, June 9, 2023
Preparing diary...done
Appointment reminders enabled
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...
Loading /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/cache...done
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary... \
Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary...done
Starting Emacs daemon.
Unable to start the daemon.
Another instance of Emacs is running the server, either as daemon or 
interactively.
You can use emacsclient to connect to that Emacs process.
Saving file /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history...
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/emms/history
Wrote /home/maxim/.emacs.d/recentf
Error: server did not start correctly
Service emacs could not be started.
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one
Service gpg-agent could not be started.
Service ibus-daemon has been started.
shepherd: while opening socket '/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket': bind: Address 
already in use

Exiting shepherd...
Service ibus-daemon has been stopped.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

It apparently is caused by Emacs failing to start, because if I comment
it out from the init.scm file, then the same Shepherd invocation is
happy:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
;; Services to start when shepherd starts:
(for-each start '(;emacs
                  gpg-agent
                  ibus-daemon))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ herd status
Started:
 + ibus-daemon
 + root
Stopped:
 - emacs
 - gpg-agent
 - jackd
 - workrave
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

But that's with Shepherd 0.9.1.  If I run the exact same config that now
works, I see:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
rm /run/user/1000/shepherd/socket

$ /gnu/store/y826g8wrpzskcs82ffxppj7mmz257ksi-shepherd-0.10.1/bin/shepherd
Starting service root...
Service root started.
Service root running with value #t.
Service root has been started.
WARNING: Use of `load' in declarative module (#{ g119}#).  Add #:declarative? 
#f to your define-module invocation.

Some deprecated features have been used.  Set the environment
variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED to "detailed" and rerun the
program to get more information.  Set it to "no" to suppress
this message.
Starting service gpg-agent...

$ herd status
herd: error: /run/user/1000/shepherd/socket: No such file or directory

$ file /run/user/1000/shepherd/socket
/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket: cannot open `/run/user/1000/shepherd/socket' 
(No such file or directory)

$ pgrep -a shepherd
1 /gnu/store/4gvgcfdiz67wv04ihqfa8pqwzsb0qpv5-guile-3.0.9/bin/guile 
--no-auto-compile 
/gnu/store/nl0948z46yndpx3kihhi540l5c422wv4-shepherd-0.10.0/bin/shepherd 
--config /gnu/store/7dxbjccbqamk4wa0nyf7zsc4ywimb1fh-shepherd.conf
24700 /gnu/store/4gvgcfdiz67wv04ihqfa8pqwzsb0qpv5-guile-3.0.9/bin/guile 
--no-auto-compile 
/gnu/store/y826g8wrpzskcs82ffxppj7mmz257ksi-shepherd-0.10.1/bin/shepherd
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

It seems a bug exists in both 0.9.1 and 0.10.1, but that something also
regressed going from 0.9.1 to 0.10.1.

Attached are the two relevant
Shepherd config files to test:

init.scm
Description: Binary data

services.scm
Description: Binary data

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim