Root cause (found via ha-convergence-recovery task 8 live 3-node E2E): a
controller with no local config (config_version_tag==0) could become PRIMARY
and push an empty config, breaking replication.
Two upstream election-safety gaps, both outside ha-convergence-recovery:
1. RDHUP re-election bypassed the no-config 'voter only' guard. The startup
path (ha_start_election_async) refuses to start an election when
my_config_tag==0 && n_peers>1, but the RDHUP failover path
(ha_on_primary_ctrl_fd_rdhup) called raft_on_leader_lost unconditionally.
Fix: mirror the guard before elect_ctx alloc / hook / raft_on_leader_lost;
a config-less node stays CTRL_STANDBY (voter only) and grants the
configured peer instead of starting (and winning) its own election.
2. Voter freshness gate compared the candidate only against the voter's LOCAL
config, ignoring the cluster's known committed state. Fix: ha_vote_self_freshness
floors the comparison at max(local, learned-committed config_tag / committed_lsn),
so a voter denies any candidate whose config/cluster state is outdated vs
what the cluster has committed. Strictly additive (never denies the freshest
node — Leader Completeness preserves liveness).
TDD: test_rdhup_noconfig_node_does_not_elect + configured-node contrast;
test_ha_vote_gate learned-floor deny + liveness + backward-compat. Full
controller suite green under ASAN. commit.c and ha-convergence-recovery
files untouched.
Remove hb_vtask_t, hb_timeout_thread, s_hb_vtask from ha.c. Replace with
liveness_poll_ctx_t + delaymgr liveness_poll_fn: checks cancelled flag and
role==CTRL_STANDBY before acting; re-arms at heartbeat_interval_ms/2.
ha_on_primary_ctrl_fd_rdhup calls ha_disarm_heartbeat_timeout_vtask first
to prevent duplicate failover (Req 5.4). ha_on_heartbeat_received writes
last_activity via clock_gettime. Add test_ha_liveness.c with 7 unit tests.
