---
id: "bug-1457"
status: "fixed"
status_updated: "2026-09-24"
status_note: ""
component: "controller"
severity: "unknown"
timestamp: "2026-07-20T22:56:00Z"
last_seen: "2026-09-19T09:00:00Z"
occurrences: 1
files: ["src/controller/myapp.c"]
tags: ["controller", "startup", "single-node", "pre-existing", "myapp_run", "cluster_open_listener", "discovered-during-review", "incidentally-fixed"]
related: []
legacy: true
gitea_issue: 27
gitea_synced_status: "fixed"
---

# bug-1457: xce_controller with no --peers flag exits with -EINVAL from cluster_open_listener instead of…

## Description
xce_controller with no --peers flag exits with -EINVAL from cluster_open_listener instead of starting as single-node primary

## Environment
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Reproduction
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Root cause
Discovered while independently reviewing clusterconfig-schema-split task 5.3 by building and running the actual pre-spec baseline (commit 94f50ce) for comparison. Single-node startup (no --peers) was ALREADY broken before this spec began: myapp_run() calls cluster_open_listener() before the primary config (cluster_config) is loaded from disk, so the pre-spec fallback branch (cluster_config->port, only reachable when cluster_config != NULL) always hit its else branch and returned -EINVAL, unconditionally, for every zero-flag single-node start. This invalidates part of clusterconfig-schema-split's premise (requirements.md's Introduction claimed cluster_config->port was 'the sole live port-sourcing mechanism for single-node deployments' and 'single-node controller startup SHALL continue to work exactly as it does today' — in reality it did not work today). Not caused by, or a regression from, clusterconfig-schema-split's changes — task 2.1's port-resolution rewrite (commit 1229f9a) incidentally fixed this as a side effect, since its hardcoded-default fallback no longer depends on cluster_config being loaded.

## Fix
RESOLVED -- incidentally repaired by clusterconfig-schema-split task 2.1 (cluster_open_listener now falls back to a hardcoded XCE_CONTROLLER_DEFAULT_PORT constant instead of an unloaded cluster_config->port), not as a dedicated fix for this entry. Live-verified post-fix: single-node startup with no --peers now correctly binds port 9990 and reaches CTRL_PRIMARY. No further action needed unless a future audit wants to correct the historical claim in clusterconfig-schema-split's requirements.md/design.md that pre-spec single-node startup was previously working — it was not, for an unrelated reason (myapp_run's listener-open/config-load ordering).

## Verification
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## References
- Gitea: #27