@torrent-tv/proxy 2.87.10 → 2.87.12

package/services/transport/packet-witness.js

@@ -1,808 +1,808 @@
-/**
- * @file Packet witness for the delivery freeze: a ring that is always running,
- * and a tail that outlasts the sender's own retransmission timeout.
- *
- * Roadmap item 11. Two captures taken by the earlier version of this file, read
- * on 2026-08-26 (`research/delivery-freeze-sender-silent-2026-08-26.md`), place
- * the failure: while a channel held 67 MB, the proxy put NO packet larger than
- * 89 bytes of UDP payload on the wire for 28 s, twice, in two separate
- * episodes. The receiver never had anything to drop, the path carried STUN and
- * the browser's own requests throughout, and `usrsctp_sendv` refused every byte
- * for 54 minutes. What those captures could NOT show is what happened at the
- * ONSET, because they began 30 s after the queue was already declared stuck,
- * and what happens beyond 28 s, because that is where they stopped.
- *
- * So the capture is in two halves now.
- *
- * The RING runs the whole time a data channel is open, size-bounded and
- * wrapping, filtered to the WebRTC UDP port. It costs a rotating file on disk
- * and nothing else, and it means the seconds BEFORE a freeze are already
- * recorded when the freeze is noticed. On a wedge its files are copied aside
- * before the wrap can reach them.
- *
- * The TAIL then records the wedged session's own 5-tuple for
- * {@linkcode WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}, which is three times usrsctp's maximum
- * retransmission timeout. That length is what turns "no zero-window probe in
- * the 28 s we watched" into a statement about the sender: a stalled SCTP sender
- * whose peer advertises a zero window MUST probe once per timeout, and the
- * timeout cannot exceed {@linkcode WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS}. Silence across
- * three of those is not a sampling gap.
- *
- * Bounded so it can never cost more than an episode is worth: the ring is
- * capped in bytes and deleted when the last channel closes, the tail process is
- * killed after its window plus grace, one tail runs at a time with a cooldown,
- * and old captures are pruned at startup like core dumps.
- */
-
-import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
-import { copyFile, readdir, rename, rm, stat } from "node:fs/promises";
-import os from "node:os";
-import path from "node:path";
-
-/** Per-packet capture length. Small: headers are what the signatures need. */
-export const WITNESS_SNAPLEN_BYTES = 128;
-
-/**
- * usrsctp's maximum retransmission timeout, seconds (its `RTO.max` default).
- *
- * Not ours to choose: it is the longest a stalled SCTP sender may wait before
- * it must try again, so it is the shortest window in which silence means
- * anything at all.
- */
-export const WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS = 60;
-
-/**
- * How long the tail capture records the wedged session, seconds.
- *
- * Three retransmission timeouts. One would leave the answer to a single
- * scheduling accident; three is silence that has had three chances to break.
- */
-export const WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS = WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS * 3;
-
-/** Megabytes per ring file before tcpdump rotates to the next. */
-export const WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB = 16;
-
-/** How many ring files wrap around (16 MB × 4 = 64 MB of history). */
-export const WITNESS_RING_FILES = 4;
-
-/** Megabytes per tail file. A wedged session emits a few packets a second. */
-export const WITNESS_TAIL_FILE_MB = 8;
-
-/** How many tail files may be written before tcpdump stops on its own. */
-export const WITNESS_TAIL_FILES = 2;
-
-/** Extra time before the SIGKILL fallback lands on a hanging tcpdump. */
-export const WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS = 5_000;
-
-/** Minimum spacing between tail captures, whatever the reason for them. */
-export const WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS = 10 * 60_000;
-
-/** How many old captures survive at startup, newest first. */
-export const WITNESS_CAPTURES_KEPT = 8;
-
-/** Base name of the rolling ring, before tcpdump appends its file number. */
-export const WITNESS_RING_BASENAME = "packet-witness-ring.pcap";
-
-/**
- * The remote endpoint of a transport snapshot, already structured.
- *
- * @typedef {Object} WitnessRemoteEndpoint
- * @property {string} address - IP literal (may carry a `%zone` suffix).
- * @property {number} port
- */
-
-/**
- * What the watcher hands over when a wedge crosses the capture threshold.
- *
- * @typedef {Object} WitnessTrigger
- * @property {string} sessionId
- * @property {string} tag       - Session id, first 8 characters.
- * @property {string} label     - Data channel label ("proxy", "proxy-control").
- * @property {WitnessRemoteEndpoint | null} remote
- * @property {number} queuedBytes
- * @property {number} stuckForMs
- */
-
-/**
- * Strip a zone suffix and keep only IPv4/IPv6 literals.
- *
- * The address travels into a tcpdump BPF filter argument. The child is spawned
- * as an argv array (no shell), so injection is not reachable, but a garbage or
- * hostname value would produce a capture of nothing — rejected instead, so the
- * log can say why nothing was written.
- *
- * @param {unknown} raw - Address as libdatachannel reports it.
- * @returns {string | null} A clean literal, or null when not usable.
- */
-export function normalizeRemoteAddress(raw) {
-  if (typeof raw !== "string") {
-    return null;
-  }
-  const zoneFree = raw.replace(/%.*$/, "");
-  if (zoneFree.length === 0 || zoneFree.length > 45) {
-    return null;
-  }
-  const ipv4 = /^(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}$/;
-  // Hex groups and at most one "::" compression — enough to keep hostnames,
-  // decimal-octet junk and shell metacharacters out of the filter.
-  const ipv6 = /^(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}:){2,7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}$/;
-  if (ipv4.test(zoneFree) || (zoneFree.includes(":") && ipv6.test(zoneFree))) {
-    return zoneFree;
-  }
-  return null;
-}
-
-/**
- * The tcpdump command line for a size-rotated capture.
- *
- * `-i any` covers hosts where the UDP mux socket is not on a named interface;
- * `-n` keeps DNS out of the hot path; `-S` prints absolute sequence numbers so
- * duplicate SACKs across file rotations compare equal by eye.
- *
- * Rotation is by SIZE, not by time, and that is a correction rather than a
- * preference. `-G <seconds>` with `-W <count>` and a file name carrying no
- * strftime field makes every rotation write the SAME name: the four files the
- * previous version believed it was keeping were one file overwritten four
- * times, which is why both field captures hold 28 s and not the intended 120.
- * `-C <megabytes>` with `-W <count>` appends a number to the name and wraps
- * around, which is the ring this needs — and a byte bound is the right bound
- * anyway, because the rate varies by two orders of magnitude between a wedged
- * session and a healthy burst.
- *
- * @param {Object} parts
- * @param {string} [parts.host]        - Validated IP literal; omitted captures every peer.
- * @param {number} parts.port          - The WebRTC UDP port.
- * @param {string} parts.filePrefix    - Path prefix; tcpdump appends the file number.
- * @param {number} [parts.snaplen]     - Bytes per packet to store.
- * @param {number} [parts.fileMegabytes]
- * @param {number} [parts.files]
- * @returns {string[]}
- */
-export function buildTcpdumpArgs({
-  host = "",
-  port,
-  filePrefix,
-  snaplen = WITNESS_SNAPLEN_BYTES,
-  fileMegabytes = WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB,
-  files = WITNESS_RING_FILES
-}) {
-  const filter = ["udp", "and", "port", String(port)];
-  if (host) {
-    filter.push("and", "host", host);
-  }
-  return [
-    "-n",
-    "-S",
-    "-s",
-    String(snaplen),
-    "-i",
-    "any",
-    "-w",
-    filePrefix,
-    "-C",
-    String(fileMegabytes),
-    "-W",
-    String(files),
-    ...filter
-  ];
-}
-
-/**
- * Whether a new capture may start right now.
- *
- * Pure, so the gating rule is testable without clocks or processes: never two
- * at once, and none within the cooldown of the previous one. `lastStartedAt`
- * of 0 means this process has not captured yet.
- *
- * @param {{ running: boolean, lastStartedAt: number, now?: number, cooldownMs?: number }} state
- * @returns {boolean}
- */
-export function shouldStartCapture({ running, lastStartedAt, now = Date.now(), cooldownMs = WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS }) {
-  if (running) {
-    return false;
-  }
-  return lastStartedAt <= 0 || now - lastStartedAt >= cooldownMs;
-}
-
-/**
- * Whether a file name is a capture this module wrote (including the
- * timestamp-suffixed rotations tcpdump appends under `-G`).
- *
- * @param {string} name
- * @returns {boolean}
- */
-export function isWitnessCapture(name) {
-  return typeof name === "string" && /^packet-witness\.[^/\\]+\.pcap/.test(name);
-}
-
-/**
- * Whether a file name is one of the rolling ring's own files.
- *
- * The ring is scratch, not evidence: it wraps, and it is deleted when the last
- * channel closes. Only the copies taken at a wedge are kept, and those are
- * named so that {@link isWitnessCapture} — and therefore the pruner — sees
- * them and the ring's own files are left alone.
- *
- * @param {string} name
- * @returns {boolean}
- */
-export function isWitnessRingFile(name) {
-  return typeof name === "string" && name.startsWith(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME) && !name.includes("/") && !name.includes("\\");
-}
-
-/**
- * Delete all but the newest few captures in `dir`.
- *
- * Mirrors `pruneCoreDumps`: best-effort, never fatal, one summary line.
- *
- * @param {string} dir
- * @param {(files: Array<{ name: string, writtenAt: number }>, keep: number) => string[]} chooseRemovals -
- *   Which files go, given what is there: the storage component's rule, handed in.
- * @param {number} [keep]
- * @returns {Promise<void>}
- */
-export async function pruneWitnessCaptures(dir, chooseRemovals, keep = WITNESS_CAPTURES_KEPT) {
-  if (typeof dir !== "string" || dir.length === 0 || typeof chooseRemovals !== "function") {
-    return;
-  }
-  /** @type {Array<{ name: string, writtenAt: number, bytes: number }>} */
-  const captures = [];
-  try {
-    for (const name of await readdir(dir)) {
-      if (!isWitnessCapture(name)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      try {
-        const info = await stat(path.join(dir, name));
-        if (info.isFile()) {
-          captures.push({ name, writtenAt: info.mtimeMs, bytes: info.size });
-        }
-      } catch {
-        // silent-ok: vanished between listing and reading.
-      }
-    }
-  } catch {
-    return; // No such directory, or unreadable. Nothing to tidy.
-  }
-  if (captures.length === 0) {
-    return;
-  }
-  const doomed = chooseRemovals(captures, keep);
-  const freed = captures
-    .filter((capture) => doomed.includes(capture.name))
-    .reduce((total, capture) => total + capture.bytes, 0);
-  for (const name of doomed) {
-    try {
-      await rm(path.join(dir, name), { force: true });
-    } catch {
-      // silent-ok: best effort, retried at the next start.
-    }
-  }
-  const keptBytes = captures
-    .filter((capture) => !doomed.includes(capture.name))
-    .reduce((total, capture) => total + capture.bytes, 0);
-  if (freed > 0 || captures.length > keep) {
-    logLine(
-      `packet witness: ${captures.length} capture(s) present, keeping the newest ${Math.min(keep, captures.length)}, ` +
-      `removed ${doomed.length} (${(freed / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB), keeping ${(keptBytes / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB`
-    );
-  }
-}
-
-/**
- * Turn ring files left by a previous process into evidence, at startup.
- *
- * The ring is scratch while a process lives, but a process that was KILLED —
- * which the crash family of roadmap item 1 does regularly, seven times in a
- * fortnight — leaves behind the last seconds it recorded, and those seconds
- * contain the death. Renaming them under a name the pruner recognises keeps
- * them; without this the next viewer's first channel would delete them before
- * anyone had looked.
- *
- * @param {string} dir
- * @returns {Promise<string[]>} Names of the files adopted.
- */
-export async function adoptOrphanRingFiles(dir) {
-  if (typeof dir !== "string" || dir.length === 0) {
-    return [];
-  }
-  /** @type {string[]} */
-  const adopted = [];
-  let names;
-  try {
-    names = (await readdir(dir)).filter((name) => isWitnessRingFile(name)).sort();
-  } catch {
-    return adopted;
-  }
-  if (names.length === 0) {
-    return adopted;
-  }
-  const stampSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
-  for (const name of names) {
-    const suffix = name.slice(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME.length) || "0";
-    const target = `packet-witness.orphan.${stampSeconds}.before${suffix}.pcap`;
-    try {
-      await rename(path.join(dir, name), path.join(dir, target));
-      adopted.push(target);
-    } catch {
-      // silent-ok: unreadable or already gone.
-    }
-  }
-  if (adopted.length > 0) {
-    logLine(
-      `packet witness: ${adopted.length} ring file(s) survived the previous process and were kept ` +
-      `as ${adopted.join(", ")} — whatever ended it is in them`
-    );
-  }
-  return adopted;
-}
-
-/**
- * The logger handed to {@linkcode createPacketWitness}; module-level so the
- * pruner can speak without an options bag threaded everywhere.
- *
- * @type {(message: string) => void}
- */
-let logLine = () => {};
-
-/**
- * Create the witness.
- *
- * @param {Object} options
- * @param {(message: string) => void} options.log - Log sink (the shared logger).
- * @param {string} [options.dir]   - Where captures go; empty means os.tmpdir().
- * @param {number} options.port    - The WebRTC UDP port to filter on.
- * @param {typeof spawn} [options.spawnProcess] - Seam for tests; defaults to node's spawn.
- * @returns {{
- *   dir: string,
- *   maybeCapture: (trigger: WitnessTrigger) => boolean,
- *   holdRing: () => void,
- *   releaseRing: () => void
- * }}
- */
-export function createPacketWitness({ log, dir = "", port, spawnProcess = spawn, mayKeep = null, chooseRemovals = null }) {
-  logLine = typeof log === "function" ? log : logLine;
-  const resolvedDir = typeof dir === "string" && dir.length > 0 ? dir : os.tmpdir();
-
-  /** @type {{ running: boolean, lastStartedAt: number, availability: "unknown" | "yes" | "no" }} */
-  const state = { running: false, lastStartedAt: 0, availability: "unknown" };
-
-  /**
-   * Connections already captured, so one wedge is recorded once.
-   *
-   * A capture of a connection already captured adds nothing: the wedge does not
-   * un-wedge, and the second recording of it is the same silence as the first.
-   * Field 2026-09-06: thirteen captures of ONE wedge over six hours, 74 MB, all
-   * saying what the first one said.
-   *
-   * @type {Set<string>}
-   */
-  const captured = new Set();
-
-  /**
-   * Ask whether tcpdump exists at all — once per process, whichever way it
-   * answers. A host without it gets exactly one log line, ever.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<boolean>}
-   */
-  const probeAvailability = () =>
-    new Promise((resolve) => {
-      let settled = false;
-      const done = (value) => {
-        if (!settled) {
-          settled = true;
-          resolve(value);
-        }
-      };
-      try {
-        const probe = spawnProcess("tcpdump", ["--version"], { stdio: "ignore" });
-        probe.on("error", () => done(false));
-        probe.on("spawn", () => done(true));
-        probe.on("close", () => done(true));
-      } catch {
-        done(false);
-      }
-    });
-
-  /**
-   * Keep the ring's history: stop it, copy its files, start it again.
-   *
-   * This is the half of the evidence the earlier version never had — the
-   * seconds BEFORE the freeze. Stopping first is not tidiness: tcpdump buffers,
-   * so the newest packets are only on disk once it has been asked to finish,
-   * and the file it is currently writing is the one that holds the onset. The
-   * gap this leaves is a fraction of a second, and the tail capture that
-   * follows covers everything after it.
-   *
-   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
-   * @param {number} stampSeconds - Shared with the tail, so the pair sorts together.
-   * @returns {Promise<string[]>} Names of the copies that landed.
-   */
-  const preserveRing = async (trigger, stampSeconds) => {
-    /** @type {string[]} */
-    const kept = [];
-    ring.preserving = true;
-    try {
-      await stopRingProcess();
-      let names;
-      try {
-        names = (await readdir(resolvedDir)).filter((name) => isWitnessRingFile(name)).sort();
-      } catch {
-        return kept;
-      }
-      for (const name of names) {
-        const suffix = name.slice(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME.length) || "0";
-        const target = `packet-witness.${trigger.tag}.${stampSeconds}.before${suffix}.pcap`;
-        try {
-          await copyFile(path.join(resolvedDir, name), path.join(resolvedDir, target));
-          kept.push(target);
-        } catch {
-          // silent-ok: nothing to copy, or it vanished under us.
-        }
-      }
-      return kept;
-    } finally {
-      ring.preserving = false;
-      // Back to recording, unless everyone has gone in the meantime.
-      if (ring.holders > 0) {
-        await startRingProcess();
-      } else {
-        await clearRingFiles();
-      }
-    }
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Run one bounded capture and report what it wrote.
-   *
-   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
-   * @param {string} address - Validated remote IP literal.
-   * @param {number} stampSeconds
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  const runCapture = async (trigger, address, stampSeconds) => {
-    const prefix = path.join(
-      resolvedDir,
-      `packet-witness.${trigger.tag}.${stampSeconds}.tail.pcap`
-    );
-    const args = buildTcpdumpArgs({
-      host: address,
-      port,
-      filePrefix: prefix,
-      fileMegabytes: WITNESS_TAIL_FILE_MB,
-      files: WITNESS_TAIL_FILES
-    });
-    logLine(
-      `packet witness: capturing ${WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}s of udp port ${port} ↔ ${address} ` +
-      `(session ${trigger.tag}, "${trigger.label}" queue ${trigger.queuedBytes}B wedged ` +
-      `${Math.round(trigger.stuckForMs / 1000)}s; ${WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}s is three times ` +
-      `usrsctp's ${WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS}s retransmission ceiling, so a zero-window ` +
-      `probe cannot hide inside it) → ${prefix}`
-    );
-    await new Promise((resolve) => {
-      /** @type {ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null} */
-      let killer = null;
-      /** @type {NodeJS.Timeout | null} */
-      let hardKill = null;
-      let child;
-      try {
-        child = spawnProcess("tcpdump", args, { stdio: "ignore" });
-      } catch (error) {
-        logLine(`packet witness: could not start tcpdump: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
-        resolve();
-        return;
-      }
-      const finish = () => {
-        if (killer) {
-          clearTimeout(killer);
-          killer = null;
-        }
-        if (hardKill) {
-          clearTimeout(hardKill);
-          hardKill = null;
-        }
-        resolve();
-      };
-      child.on("error", (error) => {
-        state.availability = "no";
-        logLine(`packet witness: tcpdump failed to run: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
-        finish();
-      });
-      child.on("close", (code, signal) => {
-        logLine(
-          `packet witness: capture ended${signal ? ` (${signal})` : ` (exit ${code ?? "?"})`}`
-        );
-        finish();
-      });
-      killer = setTimeout(() => {
-        try { child.kill("SIGTERM"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
-        hardKill = setTimeout(() => {
-          try { child.kill("SIGKILL"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
-        }, WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS);
-      }, WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS * 1000);
-    });
-    // Say what landed on disk, so whoever reads the log later knows whether
-    // the evidence exists without listing the directory themselves.
-    try {
-      const names = (await readdir(resolvedDir)).filter((name) => isWitnessCapture(name));
-      const mine = [];
-      for (const name of names) {
-        if (!name.startsWith(path.basename(prefix))) {
-          continue;
-        }
-        try {
-          const info = await stat(path.join(resolvedDir, name));
-          mine.push(`${name} ${(info.size / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB`);
-        } catch { /* gone between listing and reading */ }
-      }
-      logLine(`packet witness: wrote ${mine.length} file(s): ${mine.join(", ") || "none"}`);
-    } catch {
-      logLine("packet witness: could not list the capture directory");
-    }
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Start a capture for this trigger, if the rules allow one.
-   *
-   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
-   * @returns {boolean} True when a capture actually started.
-   */
-  const maybeCapture = (trigger) => {
-    const address = normalizeRemoteAddress(trigger?.remote?.address);
-    const portNumber = trigger?.remote?.port;
-    if (!address || !Number.isInteger(portNumber) || portNumber < 1 || portNumber > 65535) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (!shouldStartCapture(state)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const connection = `${address}:${portNumber}`;
-    if (captured.has(connection)) {
-      // Not evidence twice.
-      return false;
-    }
-    // The evidence takes room from the product, so it is asked for. Refused, it
-    // is a line rather than a silence — see `storage/Diagnostics.js`.
-    const expectedBytes = (WITNESS_RING_FILES + 1) * WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB * 1024 * 1024;
-    if (typeof mayKeep === "function" && !mayKeep(expectedBytes)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    captured.add(connection);
-    state.running = true;
-    state.lastStartedAt = Date.now();
-    const startedAt = state.lastStartedAt;
-    void (async () => {
-      try {
-        if (state.availability === "unknown") {
-          state.availability = (await probeAvailability()) ? "yes" : "no";
-        }
-        if (state.availability === "no") {
-          logLine(
-            "packet witness: unavailable — no tcpdump on this host; " +
-            "the stuck-queue log lines remain the only evidence here"
-          );
-          return;
-        }
-        const stampSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
-        const before = await preserveRing(trigger, stampSeconds);
-        logLine(
-          before.length > 0
-            ? `packet witness: kept ${before.length} ring file(s) from before the wedge: ${before.join(", ")}`
-            : "packet witness: no ring history to keep — the ring was not running"
-        );
-        await runCapture(trigger, address, stampSeconds);
-        // The disk bound has to hold between restarts too: one episode writes
-        // up to four ring copies and two tail files, and the cooldown allows
-        // six episodes an hour. Pruning only at startup let that accumulate.
-        await pruneWitnessCaptures(resolvedDir, chooseRemovals);
-      } finally {
-        state.running = false;
-        // Keep the requested spacing honest even when the capture ended early.
-        const earliestNext = startedAt + WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS;
-        if (state.lastStartedAt < earliestNext) {
-          state.lastStartedAt = earliestNext;
-        }
-      }
-    })();
-    return true;
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * The rolling ring: one tcpdump, reference-counted by open data channels.
-   *
-   * @type {{
-   *   child: import('node:child_process').ChildProcess | null,
-   *   holders: number,
-   *   starting: boolean,
-   *   preserving: boolean,
-   *   failed: boolean
-   * }}
-   */
-  const ring = { child: null, holders: 0, starting: false, preserving: false, failed: false };
-
-  /**
-   * Delete the ring's own files.
-   *
-   * Refused while a wedge is copying them out: the copies are the only reason
-   * the ring exists, and the viewer closing the tab is exactly when both happen
-   * at once. Deferred until the copy is done instead.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  const clearRingFiles = async () => {
-    if (ring.preserving) {
-      return;
-    }
-    try {
-      for (const name of await readdir(resolvedDir)) {
-        if (isWitnessRingFile(name)) {
-          await rm(path.join(resolvedDir, name), { force: true });
-        }
-      }
-    } catch {
-      // silent-ok: best effort, retried when the ring next stops.
-    }
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Stop the ring's tcpdump and wait for it to flush and exit.
-   *
-   * The wait matters. tcpdump buffers its output, so the newest packets — the
-   * ONSET, which is the whole reason the ring runs — sit in that buffer until
-   * the process is asked to finish. `-U` would flush per packet instead, at one
-   * write syscall per packet, and at the measured 150 Mbps that is twelve
-   * thousand a second on a machine whose spare capacity is already the binding
-   * constraint. Stopping costs nothing while nothing is wrong.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  const stopRingProcess = () => {
-    const child = ring.child;
-    ring.child = null;
-    if (!child) {
-      return Promise.resolve();
-    }
-    return new Promise((resolve) => {
-      let settled = false;
-      const done = () => {
-        if (!settled) {
-          settled = true;
-          clearTimeout(hardKill);
-          resolve();
-        }
-      };
-      const hardKill = setTimeout(() => {
-        try { child.kill("SIGKILL"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
-        done();
-      }, WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS);
-      if (typeof hardKill.unref === "function") {
-        hardKill.unref();
-      }
-      child.on("close", done);
-      child.on("error", done);
-      try {
-        child.kill("SIGTERM");
-      } catch {
-        done();
-      }
-    });
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Start the ring's tcpdump, if it is wanted and not already running.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  const startRingProcess = async () => {
-    if (ring.child !== null || ring.starting || ring.holders === 0) {
-      return;
-    }
-    ring.starting = true;
-    try {
-      if (state.availability === "unknown") {
-        state.availability = (await probeAvailability()) ? "yes" : "no";
-      }
-      // Everything above suspended; the last channel may have closed meanwhile.
-      // Without this second look the ring starts with nobody holding it and
-      // nobody left to stop it.
-      if (state.availability === "no" || ring.holders === 0) {
-        return;
-      }
-      const prefix = path.join(resolvedDir, WITNESS_RING_BASENAME);
-      const args = buildTcpdumpArgs({ port, filePrefix: prefix });
-      let child;
-      try {
-        child = spawnProcess("tcpdump", args, { stdio: "ignore" });
-      } catch (error) {
-        ring.failed = true;
-        logLine(`packet witness: the ring could not start: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
-        return;
-      }
-      ring.child = child;
-      child.on("error", (error) => {
-        ring.failed = true;
-        if (ring.child === child) {
-          ring.child = null;
-        }
-        logLine(`packet witness: the ring stopped: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
-      });
-      child.on("close", (code, signal) => {
-        if (ring.child !== child) {
-          return; // An orderly stop; it has already said what it needed to.
-        }
-        ring.child = null;
-        ring.failed = true;
-        // Ending on its own means it never recorded what it claimed to. A host
-        // with tcpdump installed but without the capability to capture answers
-        // `--version` happily and dies here, which would otherwise leave a
-        // "ring recording" line in the log and no history behind it.
-        logLine(
-          `packet witness: the ring ended on its own${signal ? ` (${signal})` : ` (exit ${code ?? "?"})`}` +
-          `${ring.holders > 0 ? " while a viewer was still being served — no history is being kept" : ""}`
-        );
-      });
-      logLine(
-        `packet witness: ring recording udp port ${port}, ` +
-        `${WITNESS_RING_FILES} × ${WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB} MB wrapping — ` +
-        "the seconds before a freeze, kept in advance"
-      );
-    } finally {
-      ring.starting = false;
-      // Holders may have gone while the probe or the spawn was in flight.
-      if (ring.holders === 0 && ring.child !== null) {
-        await stopRingProcess();
-        await clearRingFiles();
-      }
-    }
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Begin recording, or note one more reason to keep recording.
-   *
-   * Reference-counted by open data channels, so the ring runs exactly while a
-   * viewer is being served and costs nothing on an idle proxy. Starting it is
-   * what makes the ONSET of a freeze readable: by the time a wedge is declared,
-   * the seconds before it are already on disk.
-   *
-   * @returns {void}
-   */
-  const holdRing = () => {
-    ring.holders += 1;
-    if (ring.holders !== 1) {
-      return;
-    }
-    void startRingProcess();
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Release one reason to keep recording; the last one stops the ring.
-   *
-   * @returns {void}
-   */
-  const releaseRing = () => {
-    if (ring.holders > 0) {
-      ring.holders -= 1;
-    }
-    if (ring.holders > 0 || ring.starting) {
-      return;
-    }
-    void (async () => {
-      await stopRingProcess();
-      await clearRingFiles();
-    })();
-  };
-
-  /**
-   * Stop everything this witness owns. For process shutdown.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  const dispose = async () => {
-    ring.holders = 0;
-    await stopRingProcess();
-    await clearRingFiles();
-  };
-
-  return { dir: resolvedDir, maybeCapture, holdRing, releaseRing, dispose, ring };
-
-}
+/**
+ * @file Packet witness for the delivery freeze: a ring that is always running,
+ * and a tail that outlasts the sender's own retransmission timeout.
+ *
+ * Roadmap item 11. Two captures taken by the earlier version of this file, read
+ * on 2026-08-26 (`research/delivery-freeze-sender-silent-2026-08-26.md`), place
+ * the failure: while a channel held 67 MB, the proxy put NO packet larger than
+ * 89 bytes of UDP payload on the wire for 28 s, twice, in two separate
+ * episodes. The receiver never had anything to drop, the path carried STUN and
+ * the browser's own requests throughout, and `usrsctp_sendv` refused every byte
+ * for 54 minutes. What those captures could NOT show is what happened at the
+ * ONSET, because they began 30 s after the queue was already declared stuck,
+ * and what happens beyond 28 s, because that is where they stopped.
+ *
+ * So the capture is in two halves now.
+ *
+ * The RING runs the whole time a data channel is open, size-bounded and
+ * wrapping, filtered to the WebRTC UDP port. It costs a rotating file on disk
+ * and nothing else, and it means the seconds BEFORE a freeze are already
+ * recorded when the freeze is noticed. On a wedge its files are copied aside
+ * before the wrap can reach them.
+ *
+ * The TAIL then records the wedged session's own 5-tuple for
+ * {@linkcode WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}, which is three times usrsctp's maximum
+ * retransmission timeout. That length is what turns "no zero-window probe in
+ * the 28 s we watched" into a statement about the sender: a stalled SCTP sender
+ * whose peer advertises a zero window MUST probe once per timeout, and the
+ * timeout cannot exceed {@linkcode WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS}. Silence across
+ * three of those is not a sampling gap.
+ *
+ * Bounded so it can never cost more than an episode is worth: the ring is
+ * capped in bytes and deleted when the last channel closes, the tail process is
+ * killed after its window plus grace, one tail runs at a time with a cooldown,
+ * and old captures are pruned at startup like core dumps.
+ */
+
+import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
+import { copyFile, readdir, rename, rm, stat } from "node:fs/promises";
+import os from "node:os";
+import path from "node:path";
+
+/** Per-packet capture length. Small: headers are what the signatures need. */
+export const WITNESS_SNAPLEN_BYTES = 128;
+
+/**
+ * usrsctp's maximum retransmission timeout, seconds (its `RTO.max` default).
+ *
+ * Not ours to choose: it is the longest a stalled SCTP sender may wait before
+ * it must try again, so it is the shortest window in which silence means
+ * anything at all.
+ */
+export const WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS = 60;
+
+/**
+ * How long the tail capture records the wedged session, seconds.
+ *
+ * Three retransmission timeouts. One would leave the answer to a single
+ * scheduling accident; three is silence that has had three chances to break.
+ */
+export const WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS = WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS * 3;
+
+/** Megabytes per ring file before tcpdump rotates to the next. */
+export const WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB = 16;
+
+/** How many ring files wrap around (16 MB × 4 = 64 MB of history). */
+export const WITNESS_RING_FILES = 4;
+
+/** Megabytes per tail file. A wedged session emits a few packets a second. */
+export const WITNESS_TAIL_FILE_MB = 8;
+
+/** How many tail files may be written before tcpdump stops on its own. */
+export const WITNESS_TAIL_FILES = 2;
+
+/** Extra time before the SIGKILL fallback lands on a hanging tcpdump. */
+export const WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS = 5_000;
+
+/** Minimum spacing between tail captures, whatever the reason for them. */
+export const WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS = 10 * 60_000;
+
+/** How many old captures survive at startup, newest first. */
+export const WITNESS_CAPTURES_KEPT = 8;
+
+/** Base name of the rolling ring, before tcpdump appends its file number. */
+export const WITNESS_RING_BASENAME = "packet-witness-ring.pcap";
+
+/**
+ * The remote endpoint of a transport snapshot, already structured.
+ *
+ * @typedef {Object} WitnessRemoteEndpoint
+ * @property {string} address - IP literal (may carry a `%zone` suffix).
+ * @property {number} port
+ */
+
+/**
+ * What the watcher hands over when a wedge crosses the capture threshold.
+ *
+ * @typedef {Object} WitnessTrigger
+ * @property {string} sessionId
+ * @property {string} tag       - Session id, first 8 characters.
+ * @property {string} label     - Data channel label ("proxy", "proxy-control").
+ * @property {WitnessRemoteEndpoint | null} remote
+ * @property {number} queuedBytes
+ * @property {number} stuckForMs
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Strip a zone suffix and keep only IPv4/IPv6 literals.
+ *
+ * The address travels into a tcpdump BPF filter argument. The child is spawned
+ * as an argv array (no shell), so injection is not reachable, but a garbage or
+ * hostname value would produce a capture of nothing — rejected instead, so the
+ * log can say why nothing was written.
+ *
+ * @param {unknown} raw - Address as libdatachannel reports it.
+ * @returns {string | null} A clean literal, or null when not usable.
+ */
+export function normalizeRemoteAddress(raw) {
+  if (typeof raw !== "string") {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const zoneFree = raw.replace(/%.*$/, "");
+  if (zoneFree.length === 0 || zoneFree.length > 45) {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const ipv4 = /^(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}$/;
+  // Hex groups and at most one "::" compression — enough to keep hostnames,
+  // decimal-octet junk and shell metacharacters out of the filter.
+  const ipv6 = /^(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}:){2,7}[0-9A-Fa-f]{0,4}$/;
+  if (ipv4.test(zoneFree) || (zoneFree.includes(":") && ipv6.test(zoneFree))) {
+    return zoneFree;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The tcpdump command line for a size-rotated capture.
+ *
+ * `-i any` covers hosts where the UDP mux socket is not on a named interface;
+ * `-n` keeps DNS out of the hot path; `-S` prints absolute sequence numbers so
+ * duplicate SACKs across file rotations compare equal by eye.
+ *
+ * Rotation is by SIZE, not by time, and that is a correction rather than a
+ * preference. `-G <seconds>` with `-W <count>` and a file name carrying no
+ * strftime field makes every rotation write the SAME name: the four files the
+ * previous version believed it was keeping were one file overwritten four
+ * times, which is why both field captures hold 28 s and not the intended 120.
+ * `-C <megabytes>` with `-W <count>` appends a number to the name and wraps
+ * around, which is the ring this needs — and a byte bound is the right bound
+ * anyway, because the rate varies by two orders of magnitude between a wedged
+ * session and a healthy burst.
+ *
+ * @param {Object} parts
+ * @param {string} [parts.host]        - Validated IP literal; omitted captures every peer.
+ * @param {number} parts.port          - The WebRTC UDP port.
+ * @param {string} parts.filePrefix    - Path prefix; tcpdump appends the file number.
+ * @param {number} [parts.snaplen]     - Bytes per packet to store.
+ * @param {number} [parts.fileMegabytes]
+ * @param {number} [parts.files]
+ * @returns {string[]}
+ */
+export function buildTcpdumpArgs({
+  host = "",
+  port,
+  filePrefix,
+  snaplen = WITNESS_SNAPLEN_BYTES,
+  fileMegabytes = WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB,
+  files = WITNESS_RING_FILES
+}) {
+  const filter = ["udp", "and", "port", String(port)];
+  if (host) {
+    filter.push("and", "host", host);
+  }
+  return [
+    "-n",
+    "-S",
+    "-s",
+    String(snaplen),
+    "-i",
+    "any",
+    "-w",
+    filePrefix,
+    "-C",
+    String(fileMegabytes),
+    "-W",
+    String(files),
+    ...filter
+  ];
+}
+
+/**
+ * Whether a new capture may start right now.
+ *
+ * Pure, so the gating rule is testable without clocks or processes: never two
+ * at once, and none within the cooldown of the previous one. `lastStartedAt`
+ * of 0 means this process has not captured yet.
+ *
+ * @param {{ running: boolean, lastStartedAt: number, now?: number, cooldownMs?: number }} state
+ * @returns {boolean}
+ */
+export function shouldStartCapture({ running, lastStartedAt, now = Date.now(), cooldownMs = WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS }) {
+  if (running) {
+    return false;
+  }
+  return lastStartedAt <= 0 || now - lastStartedAt >= cooldownMs;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Whether a file name is a capture this module wrote (including the
+ * timestamp-suffixed rotations tcpdump appends under `-G`).
+ *
+ * @param {string} name
+ * @returns {boolean}
+ */
+export function isWitnessCapture(name) {
+  return typeof name === "string" && /^packet-witness\.[^/\\]+\.pcap/.test(name);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Whether a file name is one of the rolling ring's own files.
+ *
+ * The ring is scratch, not evidence: it wraps, and it is deleted when the last
+ * channel closes. Only the copies taken at a wedge are kept, and those are
+ * named so that {@link isWitnessCapture} — and therefore the pruner — sees
+ * them and the ring's own files are left alone.
+ *
+ * @param {string} name
+ * @returns {boolean}
+ */
+export function isWitnessRingFile(name) {
+  return typeof name === "string" && name.startsWith(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME) && !name.includes("/") && !name.includes("\\");
+}
+
+/**
+ * Delete all but the newest few captures in `dir`.
+ *
+ * Mirrors `pruneCoreDumps`: best-effort, never fatal, one summary line.
+ *
+ * @param {string} dir
+ * @param {(files: Array<{ name: string, writtenAt: number }>, keep: number) => string[]} chooseRemovals -
+ *   Which files go, given what is there: the storage component's rule, handed in.
+ * @param {number} [keep]
+ * @returns {Promise<void>}
+ */
+export async function pruneWitnessCaptures(dir, chooseRemovals, keep = WITNESS_CAPTURES_KEPT) {
+  if (typeof dir !== "string" || dir.length === 0 || typeof chooseRemovals !== "function") {
+    return;
+  }
+  /** @type {Array<{ name: string, writtenAt: number, bytes: number }>} */
+  const captures = [];
+  try {
+    for (const name of await readdir(dir)) {
+      if (!isWitnessCapture(name)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      try {
+        const info = await stat(path.join(dir, name));
+        if (info.isFile()) {
+          captures.push({ name, writtenAt: info.mtimeMs, bytes: info.size });
+        }
+      } catch {
+        // silent-ok: vanished between listing and reading.
+      }
+    }
+  } catch {
+    return; // No such directory, or unreadable. Nothing to tidy.
+  }
+  if (captures.length === 0) {
+    return;
+  }
+  const doomed = chooseRemovals(captures, keep);
+  const freed = captures
+    .filter((capture) => doomed.includes(capture.name))
+    .reduce((total, capture) => total + capture.bytes, 0);
+  for (const name of doomed) {
+    try {
+      await rm(path.join(dir, name), { force: true });
+    } catch {
+      // silent-ok: best effort, retried at the next start.
+    }
+  }
+  const keptBytes = captures
+    .filter((capture) => !doomed.includes(capture.name))
+    .reduce((total, capture) => total + capture.bytes, 0);
+  if (freed > 0 || captures.length > keep) {
+    logLine(
+      `packet witness: ${captures.length} capture(s) present, keeping the newest ${Math.min(keep, captures.length)}, ` +
+      `removed ${doomed.length} (${(freed / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB), keeping ${(keptBytes / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB`
+    );
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Turn ring files left by a previous process into evidence, at startup.
+ *
+ * The ring is scratch while a process lives, but a process that was KILLED —
+ * which the crash family of roadmap item 1 does regularly, seven times in a
+ * fortnight — leaves behind the last seconds it recorded, and those seconds
+ * contain the death. Renaming them under a name the pruner recognises keeps
+ * them; without this the next viewer's first channel would delete them before
+ * anyone had looked.
+ *
+ * @param {string} dir
+ * @returns {Promise<string[]>} Names of the files adopted.
+ */
+export async function adoptOrphanRingFiles(dir) {
+  if (typeof dir !== "string" || dir.length === 0) {
+    return [];
+  }
+  /** @type {string[]} */
+  const adopted = [];
+  let names;
+  try {
+    names = (await readdir(dir)).filter((name) => isWitnessRingFile(name)).sort();
+  } catch {
+    return adopted;
+  }
+  if (names.length === 0) {
+    return adopted;
+  }
+  const stampSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
+  for (const name of names) {
+    const suffix = name.slice(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME.length) || "0";
+    const target = `packet-witness.orphan.${stampSeconds}.before${suffix}.pcap`;
+    try {
+      await rename(path.join(dir, name), path.join(dir, target));
+      adopted.push(target);
+    } catch {
+      // silent-ok: unreadable or already gone.
+    }
+  }
+  if (adopted.length > 0) {
+    logLine(
+      `packet witness: ${adopted.length} ring file(s) survived the previous process and were kept ` +
+      `as ${adopted.join(", ")} — whatever ended it is in them`
+    );
+  }
+  return adopted;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The logger handed to {@linkcode createPacketWitness}; module-level so the
+ * pruner can speak without an options bag threaded everywhere.
+ *
+ * @type {(message: string) => void}
+ */
+let logLine = () => {};
+
+/**
+ * Create the witness.
+ *
+ * @param {Object} options
+ * @param {(message: string) => void} options.log - Log sink (the shared logger).
+ * @param {string} [options.dir]   - Where captures go; empty means os.tmpdir().
+ * @param {number} options.port    - The WebRTC UDP port to filter on.
+ * @param {typeof spawn} [options.spawnProcess] - Seam for tests; defaults to node's spawn.
+ * @returns {{
+ *   dir: string,
+ *   maybeCapture: (trigger: WitnessTrigger) => boolean,
+ *   holdRing: () => void,
+ *   releaseRing: () => void
+ * }}
+ */
+export function createPacketWitness({ log, dir = "", port, spawnProcess = spawn, mayKeep = null, chooseRemovals = null }) {
+  logLine = typeof log === "function" ? log : logLine;
+  const resolvedDir = typeof dir === "string" && dir.length > 0 ? dir : os.tmpdir();
+
+  /** @type {{ running: boolean, lastStartedAt: number, availability: "unknown" | "yes" | "no" }} */
+  const state = { running: false, lastStartedAt: 0, availability: "unknown" };
+
+  /**
+   * Connections already captured, so one wedge is recorded once.
+   *
+   * A capture of a connection already captured adds nothing: the wedge does not
+   * un-wedge, and the second recording of it is the same silence as the first.
+   * Field 2026-09-06: thirteen captures of ONE wedge over six hours, 74 MB, all
+   * saying what the first one said.
+   *
+   * @type {Set<string>}
+   */
+  const captured = new Set();
+
+  /**
+   * Ask whether tcpdump exists at all — once per process, whichever way it
+   * answers. A host without it gets exactly one log line, ever.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<boolean>}
+   */
+  const probeAvailability = () =>
+    new Promise((resolve) => {
+      let settled = false;
+      const done = (value) => {
+        if (!settled) {
+          settled = true;
+          resolve(value);
+        }
+      };
+      try {
+        const probe = spawnProcess("tcpdump", ["--version"], { stdio: "ignore" });
+        probe.on("error", () => done(false));
+        probe.on("spawn", () => done(true));
+        probe.on("close", () => done(true));
+      } catch {
+        done(false);
+      }
+    });
+
+  /**
+   * Keep the ring's history: stop it, copy its files, start it again.
+   *
+   * This is the half of the evidence the earlier version never had — the
+   * seconds BEFORE the freeze. Stopping first is not tidiness: tcpdump buffers,
+   * so the newest packets are only on disk once it has been asked to finish,
+   * and the file it is currently writing is the one that holds the onset. The
+   * gap this leaves is a fraction of a second, and the tail capture that
+   * follows covers everything after it.
+   *
+   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
+   * @param {number} stampSeconds - Shared with the tail, so the pair sorts together.
+   * @returns {Promise<string[]>} Names of the copies that landed.
+   */
+  const preserveRing = async (trigger, stampSeconds) => {
+    /** @type {string[]} */
+    const kept = [];
+    ring.preserving = true;
+    try {
+      await stopRingProcess();
+      let names;
+      try {
+        names = (await readdir(resolvedDir)).filter((name) => isWitnessRingFile(name)).sort();
+      } catch {
+        return kept;
+      }
+      for (const name of names) {
+        const suffix = name.slice(WITNESS_RING_BASENAME.length) || "0";
+        const target = `packet-witness.${trigger.tag}.${stampSeconds}.before${suffix}.pcap`;
+        try {
+          await copyFile(path.join(resolvedDir, name), path.join(resolvedDir, target));
+          kept.push(target);
+        } catch {
+          // silent-ok: nothing to copy, or it vanished under us.
+        }
+      }
+      return kept;
+    } finally {
+      ring.preserving = false;
+      // Back to recording, unless everyone has gone in the meantime.
+      if (ring.holders > 0) {
+        await startRingProcess();
+      } else {
+        await clearRingFiles();
+      }
+    }
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Run one bounded capture and report what it wrote.
+   *
+   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
+   * @param {string} address - Validated remote IP literal.
+   * @param {number} stampSeconds
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  const runCapture = async (trigger, address, stampSeconds) => {
+    const prefix = path.join(
+      resolvedDir,
+      `packet-witness.${trigger.tag}.${stampSeconds}.tail.pcap`
+    );
+    const args = buildTcpdumpArgs({
+      host: address,
+      port,
+      filePrefix: prefix,
+      fileMegabytes: WITNESS_TAIL_FILE_MB,
+      files: WITNESS_TAIL_FILES
+    });
+    logLine(
+      `packet witness: capturing ${WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}s of udp port ${port} ↔ ${address} ` +
+      `(session ${trigger.tag}, "${trigger.label}" queue ${trigger.queuedBytes}B wedged ` +
+      `${Math.round(trigger.stuckForMs / 1000)}s; ${WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS}s is three times ` +
+      `usrsctp's ${WITNESS_RTO_CEILING_SECONDS}s retransmission ceiling, so a zero-window ` +
+      `probe cannot hide inside it) → ${prefix}`
+    );
+    await new Promise((resolve) => {
+      /** @type {ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null} */
+      let killer = null;
+      /** @type {NodeJS.Timeout | null} */
+      let hardKill = null;
+      let child;
+      try {
+        child = spawnProcess("tcpdump", args, { stdio: "ignore" });
+      } catch (error) {
+        logLine(`packet witness: could not start tcpdump: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
+        resolve();
+        return;
+      }
+      const finish = () => {
+        if (killer) {
+          clearTimeout(killer);
+          killer = null;
+        }
+        if (hardKill) {
+          clearTimeout(hardKill);
+          hardKill = null;
+        }
+        resolve();
+      };
+      child.on("error", (error) => {
+        state.availability = "no";
+        logLine(`packet witness: tcpdump failed to run: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
+        finish();
+      });
+      child.on("close", (code, signal) => {
+        logLine(
+          `packet witness: capture ended${signal ? ` (${signal})` : ` (exit ${code ?? "?"})`}`
+        );
+        finish();
+      });
+      killer = setTimeout(() => {
+        try { child.kill("SIGTERM"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
+        hardKill = setTimeout(() => {
+          try { child.kill("SIGKILL"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
+        }, WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS);
+      }, WITNESS_TAIL_SECONDS * 1000);
+    });
+    // Say what landed on disk, so whoever reads the log later knows whether
+    // the evidence exists without listing the directory themselves.
+    try {
+      const names = (await readdir(resolvedDir)).filter((name) => isWitnessCapture(name));
+      const mine = [];
+      for (const name of names) {
+        if (!name.startsWith(path.basename(prefix))) {
+          continue;
+        }
+        try {
+          const info = await stat(path.join(resolvedDir, name));
+          mine.push(`${name} ${(info.size / 1024).toFixed(1)} KB`);
+        } catch { /* gone between listing and reading */ }
+      }
+      logLine(`packet witness: wrote ${mine.length} file(s): ${mine.join(", ") || "none"}`);
+    } catch {
+      logLine("packet witness: could not list the capture directory");
+    }
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Start a capture for this trigger, if the rules allow one.
+   *
+   * @param {WitnessTrigger} trigger
+   * @returns {boolean} True when a capture actually started.
+   */
+  const maybeCapture = (trigger) => {
+    const address = normalizeRemoteAddress(trigger?.remote?.address);
+    const portNumber = trigger?.remote?.port;
+    if (!address || !Number.isInteger(portNumber) || portNumber < 1 || portNumber > 65535) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (!shouldStartCapture(state)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const connection = `${address}:${portNumber}`;
+    if (captured.has(connection)) {
+      // Not evidence twice.
+      return false;
+    }
+    // The evidence takes room from the product, so it is asked for. Refused, it
+    // is a line rather than a silence — see `storage/Diagnostics.js`.
+    const expectedBytes = (WITNESS_RING_FILES + 1) * WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB * 1024 * 1024;
+    if (typeof mayKeep === "function" && !mayKeep(expectedBytes)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    captured.add(connection);
+    state.running = true;
+    state.lastStartedAt = Date.now();
+    const startedAt = state.lastStartedAt;
+    void (async () => {
+      try {
+        if (state.availability === "unknown") {
+          state.availability = (await probeAvailability()) ? "yes" : "no";
+        }
+        if (state.availability === "no") {
+          logLine(
+            "packet witness: unavailable — no tcpdump on this host; " +
+            "the stuck-queue log lines remain the only evidence here"
+          );
+          return;
+        }
+        const stampSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
+        const before = await preserveRing(trigger, stampSeconds);
+        logLine(
+          before.length > 0
+            ? `packet witness: kept ${before.length} ring file(s) from before the wedge: ${before.join(", ")}`
+            : "packet witness: no ring history to keep — the ring was not running"
+        );
+        await runCapture(trigger, address, stampSeconds);
+        // The disk bound has to hold between restarts too: one episode writes
+        // up to four ring copies and two tail files, and the cooldown allows
+        // six episodes an hour. Pruning only at startup let that accumulate.
+        await pruneWitnessCaptures(resolvedDir, chooseRemovals);
+      } finally {
+        state.running = false;
+        // Keep the requested spacing honest even when the capture ended early.
+        const earliestNext = startedAt + WITNESS_COOLDOWN_MS;
+        if (state.lastStartedAt < earliestNext) {
+          state.lastStartedAt = earliestNext;
+        }
+      }
+    })();
+    return true;
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * The rolling ring: one tcpdump, reference-counted by open data channels.
+   *
+   * @type {{
+   *   child: import('node:child_process').ChildProcess | null,
+   *   holders: number,
+   *   starting: boolean,
+   *   preserving: boolean,
+   *   failed: boolean
+   * }}
+   */
+  const ring = { child: null, holders: 0, starting: false, preserving: false, failed: false };
+
+  /**
+   * Delete the ring's own files.
+   *
+   * Refused while a wedge is copying them out: the copies are the only reason
+   * the ring exists, and the viewer closing the tab is exactly when both happen
+   * at once. Deferred until the copy is done instead.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  const clearRingFiles = async () => {
+    if (ring.preserving) {
+      return;
+    }
+    try {
+      for (const name of await readdir(resolvedDir)) {
+        if (isWitnessRingFile(name)) {
+          await rm(path.join(resolvedDir, name), { force: true });
+        }
+      }
+    } catch {
+      // silent-ok: best effort, retried when the ring next stops.
+    }
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Stop the ring's tcpdump and wait for it to flush and exit.
+   *
+   * The wait matters. tcpdump buffers its output, so the newest packets — the
+   * ONSET, which is the whole reason the ring runs — sit in that buffer until
+   * the process is asked to finish. `-U` would flush per packet instead, at one
+   * write syscall per packet, and at the measured 150 Mbps that is twelve
+   * thousand a second on a machine whose spare capacity is already the binding
+   * constraint. Stopping costs nothing while nothing is wrong.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  const stopRingProcess = () => {
+    const child = ring.child;
+    ring.child = null;
+    if (!child) {
+      return Promise.resolve();
+    }
+    return new Promise((resolve) => {
+      let settled = false;
+      const done = () => {
+        if (!settled) {
+          settled = true;
+          clearTimeout(hardKill);
+          resolve();
+        }
+      };
+      const hardKill = setTimeout(() => {
+        try { child.kill("SIGKILL"); } catch { /* already gone */ }
+        done();
+      }, WITNESS_KILL_GRACE_MS);
+      if (typeof hardKill.unref === "function") {
+        hardKill.unref();
+      }
+      child.on("close", done);
+      child.on("error", done);
+      try {
+        child.kill("SIGTERM");
+      } catch {
+        done();
+      }
+    });
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Start the ring's tcpdump, if it is wanted and not already running.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  const startRingProcess = async () => {
+    if (ring.child !== null || ring.starting || ring.holders === 0) {
+      return;
+    }
+    ring.starting = true;
+    try {
+      if (state.availability === "unknown") {
+        state.availability = (await probeAvailability()) ? "yes" : "no";
+      }
+      // Everything above suspended; the last channel may have closed meanwhile.
+      // Without this second look the ring starts with nobody holding it and
+      // nobody left to stop it.
+      if (state.availability === "no" || ring.holders === 0) {
+        return;
+      }
+      const prefix = path.join(resolvedDir, WITNESS_RING_BASENAME);
+      const args = buildTcpdumpArgs({ port, filePrefix: prefix });
+      let child;
+      try {
+        child = spawnProcess("tcpdump", args, { stdio: "ignore" });
+      } catch (error) {
+        ring.failed = true;
+        logLine(`packet witness: the ring could not start: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
+        return;
+      }
+      ring.child = child;
+      child.on("error", (error) => {
+        ring.failed = true;
+        if (ring.child === child) {
+          ring.child = null;
+        }
+        logLine(`packet witness: the ring stopped: ${error?.message ?? error}`);
+      });
+      child.on("close", (code, signal) => {
+        if (ring.child !== child) {
+          return; // An orderly stop; it has already said what it needed to.
+        }
+        ring.child = null;
+        ring.failed = true;
+        // Ending on its own means it never recorded what it claimed to. A host
+        // with tcpdump installed but without the capability to capture answers
+        // `--version` happily and dies here, which would otherwise leave a
+        // "ring recording" line in the log and no history behind it.
+        logLine(
+          `packet witness: the ring ended on its own${signal ? ` (${signal})` : ` (exit ${code ?? "?"})`}` +
+          `${ring.holders > 0 ? " while a viewer was still being served — no history is being kept" : ""}`
+        );
+      });
+      logLine(
+        `packet witness: ring recording udp port ${port}, ` +
+        `${WITNESS_RING_FILES} × ${WITNESS_RING_FILE_MB} MB wrapping — ` +
+        "the seconds before a freeze, kept in advance"
+      );
+    } finally {
+      ring.starting = false;
+      // Holders may have gone while the probe or the spawn was in flight.
+      if (ring.holders === 0 && ring.child !== null) {
+        await stopRingProcess();
+        await clearRingFiles();
+      }
+    }
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Begin recording, or note one more reason to keep recording.
+   *
+   * Reference-counted by open data channels, so the ring runs exactly while a
+   * viewer is being served and costs nothing on an idle proxy. Starting it is
+   * what makes the ONSET of a freeze readable: by the time a wedge is declared,
+   * the seconds before it are already on disk.
+   *
+   * @returns {void}
+   */
+  const holdRing = () => {
+    ring.holders += 1;
+    if (ring.holders !== 1) {
+      return;
+    }
+    void startRingProcess();
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Release one reason to keep recording; the last one stops the ring.
+   *
+   * @returns {void}
+   */
+  const releaseRing = () => {
+    if (ring.holders > 0) {
+      ring.holders -= 1;
+    }
+    if (ring.holders > 0 || ring.starting) {
+      return;
+    }
+    void (async () => {
+      await stopRingProcess();
+      await clearRingFiles();
+    })();
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * Stop everything this witness owns. For process shutdown.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  const dispose = async () => {
+    ring.holders = 0;
+    await stopRingProcess();
+    await clearRingFiles();
+  };
+
+  return { dir: resolvedDir, maybeCapture, holdRing, releaseRing, dispose, ring };
+
+}