The merged door was /mnt/media, which read like a third volume and split the host
state across two trees. It is now /var/lib/media-meta/view, so the array layer,
the SSD upper layer, the kernel workdir, the reap trash and the merged tree are
one directory — and the mount table gains no new /mnt entry beside the array.
systemd names a mount unit after its ESCAPED path, so the repo copy keeps the
readable name media-meta-view.mount while `install` writes the host file as
var-lib-media\x2dmeta-view.mount; `plan` prints both and the page records them, so
nobody hunts for a unit that "does not exist". install also creates the mount
point itself, because systemd will not.
The seam now additionally pins that the unit's Where= is exactly the path both
containers bind — guard and bind cannot drift apart. The Quadlet Lifecycle
phantom-path example is corrected too: it named an invented /mnt/media/*, while
the real phantom is the legacy /opt/jellyfin/* that dankserver/compose.yaml still
carries for a service whose roots moved to /home/dank/Containers/jellyfin.
Both media servers read a Kodi-format sidecar (movie.nfo / tvshow.nfo /
episode.nfo) only when it sits next to the media file, and the library lives on
the RAID6 array, deliberately mounted read-only for every container and slow to
seek for a thousand tiny XML reads. So neither server binds the array any more:
both bind /mnt/media, an OverlayFS merge of the array (lowerdir, never written)
with /var/lib/media-meta on the NVMe (upperdir, where every write lands).
Jellyfin binds the view rw at /data and is the fleet's only metadata writer;
Plex binds it ro at /mnt/entropy, the container path its own database already
recorded, so only the host side of that bind moved and its library paths keep
resolving.
scripts/media-view.sh plans, installs, verifies, reports and reaps the view. It
refuses to mount over an unmounted array, refuses an upper layer on rotational
storage, and refuses a non-root install. deploy-remote.sh raises the view before
it restarts either media server, both units carry
ConditionPathIsMountPoint=/mnt/media so a missing view skips the start instead of
letting a scan clear the library database, and the planner routes the installer
and dankserver/host/** to the jellyfin+plex pair.
tests/media_overlay.bats (11 seams) pins the resolved shape, both refusals, the
two binds and their guard, the deployer's ordering, the planner mapping, and the
reap behaviour against a fixture (ghosts listed, then moved to the SSD trash --
files that exist only above are sidecars, not ghosts, so only directories are
candidates).
Container images re-resolved against their registries today; each pin is the
manifest-list digest the tag answers now, so no container is served from a
build that upstream has already replaced.
Version-tag moves: authentik 2026.8.3 -> 2026.8.5 (server/worker/outpost and
the ldap image, which now carries the tag instead of a bare digest so the pair
can never drift apart), seerr v3.4.1 -> v3.5.1, calibre 9.15.0 -> 9.17.0,
calibre-web 0.6.27-ls402 -> ls407, plex ls329 -> ls330, tautulli
v2.18.1-ls245 -> v2.18.2-ls250.
Digest-only moves inside the same stream: postgres 16-alpine, mariadb 11,
redis 7-alpine, valkey 9-alpine, grafana, alertmanager, gluetun, searxng,
open-webui, jellyfin, romm, chromedp/headless-shell, lightpanda/browser.
Rollback is the previous digest on the same Image= line.
Closing the command-center security queue #70/#71/#72/#73/#74: rolling tags
let a rebuild move under a running service with nobody approving it, and
make a CVE audit ungradeable. 36 quadlet units across dankclaw, dankserver
and frankbook-pro now carry tag@sha256; localhost/* builds stay exempt
(their build is the pin). The pihole and copyparty pins pull the fixed
builds; valkey 9.1.2 (already running) and redis 7.4.11 are pinned in
place, vendor fixes TBD.
New gate tests/quadlet_image_pins.bats: no unpinned registry image, no
generator-rejected key anywhere. Three seams that pinned the old exact-tag
law (frankbook readarr, open_webui, seerr) now require tag AND digest -
strictly stronger. Quadlet Lifecycle docs: batch-abort law, entrypoint
flags-only law, pin law.
The podman 5.x v1 quadlet generator rejected the whole jellyfin unit on
the unsupported Device= key (generator log: unsupported key 'Device' in
group 'Container'), so no jellyfin.service was generated and the cutover
restart failed with 'Unit not found' after the data root had already
migrated cleanly. gluetun proves AddDevice= is the house key. New seam
test denies Device= across all six dankserver units and pins the
AddDevice=/dev/dri replacement.
Cutover of the six surviving dankserver services from compose-era bare
containers to boot-persistent Quadlet units (WantedBy=default.target; podman
5.x v1 generator honors it at user-manager start).
Units are faithful to live inspect ground truth (image pins = running tags,
not compose inventory):
- romm trio shares one data root: /home/dank/Containers/romm mounted whole at
/romm; mariadb datadir and redis data dir live inside it. Aliases mariadb/
redis preserved on dankserver_appnet via Network=...:alias=. Secrets stay in
the host-local env file (EnvironmentFile + ${VAR} expansion in the generated
ExecStart, gitea precedent). copyparty passes its admin account via
Exec=-a ${COPAY_ACCOUNT}:${COPAY_PASSWORD} (Exec= not Command=: the v1
generator hard-fails on Command=); entropy stays rw only there.
- jellyfin keeps every creation-time env as Environment= lines (zero drift);
Device=/dev/dri + GroupAdd=keep-groups preserve hardware transcoding.
- calibre-web pins the exact running image tag (id 986277563e76 =
0.6.27-ls397), pasta network preserved.
Deployer: first-cutover handlers retire the old container, rescue unshadowed
anonymous-volume content (podman volume export + tar --skip-old-files), mv
data roots on the same fs, then start units in dependency order with health
gates. Re-deploys restart only the selected unit. deploy-plan.py maps compose
keys mariadb/redis to the new unit names; allowlists updated. New seam test
tests/dankserver_quadlet.bats pins boot-persistence + v1-generator contract;
test-changed.sh maps the new dirs to it. Full suite green (209 tests).
Frank