Erratum — draft-fossil-submanifests-00 §8.1

Document	draft-fossil-submanifests-00
Section	8.1 — Emission Gate (a local request to enable while an out-of-range k is stored)
Type	Technical (the draft treats an invalid stored pin as absent; the implementation refuses to enable over it)
Status	Applied in draft-fossil-submanifests-00 (2026-10-19)
Reported	2026-10-18
Submitter	Dan Mestas
Found via	Testing go-libfossil's writer, written from the draft, against zit's enable path

1. Summary

§8.1 says "an existing pinned k from 1 to 12 inclusive takes precedence" and "if no valid pin exists ... if no explicit value is supplied, the writer performs the automatic selection". A stored submanifest-k outside 1 to 12 is therefore no valid pin, and enabling proceeds as if the repository were unpinned. zit instead refuses the request and names the stored value. A value outside the range can only be the result of a hand edit or a defective writer; selecting a new value over it silently discards evidence of that, and the operator should see it. The draft should say what zit does.

2. The text in error

§8.1, second paragraph: "For a local request, an existing pinned k from 1 to 12 inclusive takes precedence. ... If no valid pin exists, an operator MAY supply an explicit k from 1 to 12 inclusive; if no explicit value is supplied, the writer performs the automatic selection of Section 6.3."

3. What the implementations do

zit (submanifestEnable in src/cmd/checkout.zig): a stored non-zero k counts as pinned; the request without an explicit k takes the stored value, finds it outside 1 to 12 and refuses with k must be 1..12 (got N). A request with an explicit k from 1 to 12 replaces the stored value. go-libfossil followed the draft and treated the invalid value as absent; it will follow the corrected text.

4. Corrected text

Add to §8.1, after "For a local request, an existing pinned k from 1 to 12 inclusive takes precedence.":

A stored submanifest-k outside that range is not a valid pin and is not treated as absent either: a request that supplies no explicit k MUST be refused with the stored value named, and automatic selection MUST NOT run over it. A request that supplies an explicit k from 1 to 12 inclusive replaces the stored value.

5. Observable consequence of the uncorrected text

A repository whose stored k was damaged enables under a freshly selected value with no indication that anything was wrong, in one implementation, and is refused in the other.

6. Implementations

zit already does this; no change. go-libfossil will follow the corrected text.