---
id: "bug-1557"
status: "fixed"
status_updated: "2026-09-24"
status_note: ""
component: "controller"
severity: "unknown"
timestamp: "2026-08-13T12:00:00Z"
last_seen: "2026-09-19T09:00:00Z"
occurrences: 1
files: ["src/controller/testsuite/test.c (cmd_join_worker", "hostattrs_t attrs initializer)"]
tags: ["test-tool", "xce_test", "stale-default", "units", "low-priority"]
related: []
legacy: true
---

# bug-1557: xce_test's `worker` -> `join` command defaults to maxmem=64 -- discovered while writing/verifying…

## Description
xce_test's `worker` -> `join` command defaults to maxmem=64 -- discovered while writing/verifying detailed `help join` text

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

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

## Root cause
attrs.maxmem = 64 was a reasonable default back when maxmem was MB-scale (64 MB); this session's earlier fix converted maxmem's canonical unit to bytes (node_information.c/xcecd.c/resources.yaml) but never touched this test-tool default, which is now a nonsensical 64 BYTES of RAM. Purely a manual-test-tool default (join is used to simulate a worker joining without a real xcecd), not a production code path -- callers who don't pass -m get an obviously-wrong but harmless value.

## Fix
FIXED (2026-09-09, xce-test-cli-ux task 2.6). cmd_join_worker default changed to 64 * 1024 * 1024 (64MB in bytes). Extracted into join_worker_parse_attrs() (join_worker_args.c) with a permanent regression test asserting the corrected default. Verified live: workerlist reports MaxMem: 64.00 MB after a no-'-m' join (was would-be 64.00 B). USAGE_JOIN_WORKER doc update tracked separately under xce-test-cli-ux Requirement 12.2 (task 3.5).

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

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