---
id: "bug-1908"
status: "investigating"
status_updated: "2026-10-02"
status_note: "worker drops a kill that arrives before the job is in its worker list; controller-side handling of the worker's error (retry or not) not yet traced"
component: "worker"
severity: "wrong-result"
timestamp: "2026-10-02T02:27:01Z"
last_seen: "2026-10-02T02:27:01Z"
occurrences: 1
files: ["src/worker/src/controller_connector.c"]
tags: ["job-control", "kill", "race", "dispatch"]
related: ["bug-1905"]
---

# bug-1908: a kill sent right after dispatch is lost: the worker drops it before registering the job

## Description
**Observed:**
```
05,850 controller_connector.c:563  Job ID: 1-0-1790907905-32768[2], Command: sleep 600 ...   (dispatch received)
07,318 controller_connector.c:1546 Received job control request to send SIGINFO for job ID: 1-0-1790907905-32768[2]
07,318 controller_connector.c:1586 Failed to find worker for job ID: 1-0-1790907905-32768[2]
09,690 xcecd_worker_utils.c:352    Job ID 1-0-1790907905-32768[2] running - sending status to controller
```
`xcecli jobs list` already showed the job RUN, `xcecli jobs kill` answered `job <...> is being <kill>` (apiserver `overallStatus accepted`), but the worker had not yet added the job to its worker list, dropped the request, and the job then ran to completion. Same for a plain job (1-0-1790907905-0: dispatch 06,876, kill 07,313 dropped, running 09,724).

**Expected:** a kill accepted for a job the controller shows as RUN takes effect: the worker applies it once the job is registered (or the controller retries / reports the kill as not delivered).
**Impact:** wrong result: a kill issued in the first seconds after dispatch is reported as accepted but silently lost; the job keeps running. The lookup branch is shared by the real worker (`xcecd`), not only `xcecd_virtual` (real worker not tested).
**Found by:** test (live verification of bug-1905, 2026-10-01)

## Environment
- OS: no /etc/os-release; Docker container; NixOS kernel; kernel Linux 6.18.33 x86_64
- libc: glibc 2.42-47 (interpreter /nix/store/wb6rhpznjfczwlwx23zmdrrw74bayxw4-glibc-2.42-47/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2)
- Toolchain: gcc (GCC) 15.2.0, meson 1.9.1
- Build: asan (src/build.jai)
- Code: scheduler-framework @ 8ac637ad-dirty
- Deployment: 3-node HA (xce-deploy-ha) + scheduler + apiserver + one xcecd_virtual worker, single host

## Reproduction
1. Deploy with xce-deploy-ha + `start-all.sh`; `xcecli login -u admin -p admin --url http://localhost:8080`.
2. `xcecli jobs submit -J plain sleep 600 </dev/null`; as soon as `xcecli jobs list` shows RUN (about 1 s), `xcecli jobs kill <id> </dev/null`.
3. The worker log shows `Failed to find worker for job ID`, and the job stays RUN.
- Frequency: 2/2 kills sent within ~1.5 s of dispatch, 2026-10-01
- Evidence: /home/claude/tmp/kill-race/worker.log

## Root cause
TODO: required for fixed/partial

## Fix
TODO: required for fixed/partial

## Verification
- Test: TODO: name + file; RED before the fix, GREEN after
- Suites: TODO: suite results and build profile
- Live: TODO: soak/deploy run, or n/a and why

## References
- Related: none