fix(sensor-proxy): critical Phase 2 locking and validation fixes

Fixes critical issues found by Codex code review:

**1. Fixed file locking race condition (CRITICAL)**
- Lock file was being replaced by atomic rename, invalidating the lock
- New approach: lock a separate `.lock` file that persists across renames
- Ensures concurrent writers (installer + self-heal timer) are properly serialized
- Without this fix, corruption was still possible despite Phase 2

**2. Fixed validation to honor configured allowed_nodes_file path**
- validate command now uses loadConfig() to read actual config
- Respects allowed_nodes_file setting instead of assuming default path
- Prevents false positives/negatives when path is customized

**3. Allow empty allowed_nodes lists**
- Empty lists are valid (admin may clear for security, or rely on IPC validation)
- validate no longer fails on empty lists
- set-allowed-nodes --replace with zero nodes now supported
- Critical for operational flexibility

**4. Installer error propagation**
- update_allowed_nodes failures now exit installer with error
- Prevents silent failures that leave stale allowlists
- Self-heal will abort instead of masking CLI errors

**Technical Details:**
- withLockedFile() now locks `<path>.lock` instead of target file
- Lock held for entire duration of read-modify-write-rename
- atomicWriteFile() completes while lock is still held
- Empty lists represented as `allowed_nodes: []` in YAML

**Testing:**
✅ Lock file created and persists across operations
✅ Empty list can be written with --replace
✅ Validation passes with empty lists
✅ Config path from allowed_nodes_file honored
✅ Concurrent operations properly serialized

These fixes ensure Phase 2 actually eliminates corruption by design.

Identified by Codex code review
Related to Phase 2 commit 3dc073a28

cmd/pulse-sensor-proxy/config_cmd.go

@@ -34,17 +34,26 @@ var validateCmd = &cobra.Command{
 			cfgPath = defaultConfigPath
 		}
 
-		allowedNodesPath := allowedNodesPathFlag
+		// Use loadConfig to parse config properly and get the actual allowed_nodes_file path
-		if allowedNodesPath == "" {
+		cfg, err := loadConfig(cfgPath)
-			allowedNodesPath = filepath.Join(filepath.Dir(cfgPath), "allowed_nodes.yaml")
+		if err != nil {
-		}
-
-		if err := validateConfigFile(cfgPath); err != nil {
 			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Config validation failed: %v\n", err)
 			return err
 		}
 
+		// Determine allowed_nodes path from config (honors allowed_nodes_file setting)
+		allowedNodesPath := allowedNodesPathFlag
+		if allowedNodesPath == "" {
+			if cfg.AllowedNodesFile != "" {
+				allowedNodesPath = cfg.AllowedNodesFile
+			} else {
+				// Default fallback
+				allowedNodesPath = filepath.Join(filepath.Dir(cfgPath), "allowed_nodes.yaml")
+			}
+		}
+
 		// Check if allowed_nodes.yaml exists and validate it
+		// Empty lists are allowed (admin may clear for security or cluster relies on IPC validation)
 		if _, err := os.Stat(allowedNodesPath); err == nil {
 			if err := validateAllowedNodesFile(allowedNodesPath); err != nil {
 				fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Allowed nodes validation failed: %v\n", err)
@@ -76,8 +85,9 @@ Examples:
 			allowedNodesPath = "/etc/pulse-sensor-proxy/allowed_nodes.yaml"
 		}
 
-		if len(mergeNodesFlag) == 0 {
+		// Allow zero nodes when using --replace (admin may want to clear the list)
-			return fmt.Errorf("no nodes specified (use --merge flag)")
+		if len(mergeNodesFlag) == 0 && !replaceMode {
+			return fmt.Errorf("no nodes specified (use --merge flag, or --replace to clear)")
 		}
 
 		if err := setAllowedNodes(allowedNodesPath, mergeNodesFlag, replaceMode); err != nil {
@@ -155,7 +165,8 @@ func validateAllowedNodesFile(path string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse allowed_nodes YAML: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	// Extract nodes
+	// Extract nodes (empty list is valid - admin may clear for security)
+	// Clusters can also rely on IPC-based validation instead of static allowlists
 	var nodes []string
 	switch v := result.(type) {
 	case map[string]interface{}:
@@ -174,12 +185,12 @@ func validateAllowedNodesFile(path string) error {
 				nodes = append(nodes, s)
 			}
 		}
+	case nil:
+		// Empty file is valid
+		return nil
 	}
 
-	if len(nodes) == 0 {
+	// Empty list is allowed - don't enforce minimum
-		return fmt.Errorf("allowed_nodes file is empty or invalid")
-	}
-
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -191,8 +202,9 @@ func setAllowedNodes(path string, newNodes []string, replace bool) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create config directory: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	// Use file locking to prevent concurrent writes
+	// Use a separate lock file that persists across renames
-	return withLockedFile(path, func(f *os.File) error {
+	lockPath := path + ".lock"
+	return withLockedFile(lockPath, func(f *os.File) error {
 		var existing []string
 
 		// Read existing nodes if not in replace mode
@@ -205,6 +217,7 @@ func setAllowedNodes(path string, newNodes []string, replace bool) error {
 		// Merge and deduplicate
 		merged := normalizeNodes(append(existing, newNodes...))
 
+		// Allow empty lists (admin may want to clear the file)
 		// Serialize to YAML
 		output := map[string]interface{}{
 			"allowed_nodes": merged,
@@ -218,17 +231,17 @@ func setAllowedNodes(path string, newNodes []string, replace bool) error {
 		header := "# Managed by pulse-sensor-proxy config CLI\n# Do not edit manually while service is running\n"
 		finalData := []byte(header + string(data))
 
-		// Write atomically
+		// Write atomically while holding lock
 		return atomicWriteFile(path, finalData, 0644)
 	})
 }
 
-// withLockedFile opens a file with exclusive locking and runs a callback
+// withLockedFile opens a lock file with exclusive locking and runs a callback
-func withLockedFile(path string, fn func(f *os.File) error) error {
+func withLockedFile(lockPath string, fn func(f *os.File) error) error {
-	// Open or create the file
+	// Open or create the lock file (never deleted, persists across renames)
-	f, err := os.OpenFile(path, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREATE, 0644)
+	f, err := os.OpenFile(lockPath, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREATE, 0644)
 	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to open file: %w", err)
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to open lock file: %w", err)
 	}
 	defer f.Close()
 
@@ -238,7 +251,7 @@ func withLockedFile(path string, fn func(f *os.File) error) error {
 	}
 	defer unix.Flock(int(f.Fd()), unix.LOCK_UN) //nolint:errcheck
 
-	// Run callback
+	// Run callback while holding lock
 	return fn(f)
 }
 

scripts/install-sensor-proxy.sh

@@ -2830,7 +2830,10 @@ if command -v pvecm >/dev/null 2>&1; then
             all_nodes+=("${CONTROL_PLANE_ALLOWED_NODE_LIST[@]}")
         fi
         # Use helper function to safely update allowed_nodes (prevents duplicates on re-run)
-        update_allowed_nodes "Cluster nodes (auto-discovered during installation)" "${all_nodes[@]}"
+        if ! update_allowed_nodes "Cluster nodes (auto-discovered during installation)" "${all_nodes[@]}"; then
+            print_error "Failed to update allowed_nodes list"
+            exit 1
+        fi
     else
         # No cluster found - configure standalone node
         print_info "No cluster detected, configuring standalone node..."
@@ -2858,7 +2861,10 @@ if command -v pvecm >/dev/null 2>&1; then
             all_nodes+=("${CONTROL_PLANE_ALLOWED_NODE_LIST[@]}")
         fi
         # Use helper function to safely update allowed_nodes (prevents duplicates on re-run)
-        update_allowed_nodes "Standalone node configuration (auto-configured during installation)" "${all_nodes[@]}"
+        if ! update_allowed_nodes "Standalone node configuration (auto-configured during installation)" "${all_nodes[@]}"; then
+            print_error "Failed to update allowed_nodes list"
+            exit 1
+        fi
     fi
 else
     # Proxmox host but pvecm not available (shouldn't happen, but handle it)
@@ -2885,7 +2891,10 @@ else
         all_nodes+=("${CONTROL_PLANE_ALLOWED_NODE_LIST[@]}")
     fi
     # Use helper function to safely update allowed_nodes (prevents duplicates on re-run)
-    update_allowed_nodes "Localhost fallback configuration (pvecm unavailable)" "${all_nodes[@]}"
+    if ! update_allowed_nodes "Localhost fallback configuration (pvecm unavailable)" "${all_nodes[@]}"; then
+        print_error "Failed to update allowed_nodes list"
+        exit 1
+    fi
 fi
 
 cleanup_inline_allowed_nodes