Bring TODO.md Status and Next Step to the run in progress (closes #251 )

Status and Next Step described the 24-hour run of 9bd0e91, whose outcome was posted on issue 226 on 3 November. They now describe the run of e58c663 on issue 232: at least 24 hours, then on until the feed stalls or reconnects, up to 72 hours, and what its outcome reports. Two Completed Steps entries of 10 November are rewritten: the ProtonVPN entry ran past 30 words, and the busy-host test entry referred to waits it had not named. The PTR entry defines TTL. An entry for this read is added. Model: fable-5-1
Rewrite the README sentences that fail the prose rules or disagree with the code
2026-11-10 16:32:28 +00:00 · 2026-11-10 16:32:04 +00:00 · 2026-11-10 16:23:20 +01:00
3 changed files with 42 additions and 33 deletions
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
 ARG CACHEBUST

 # Create non-root user
-RUN useradd -r -u 1000 -m routewatch
+RUN useradd -u 1000 -m routewatch

 RUN mkdir -p /var/lib/berlin.sneak.app.routewatch && chown routewatch:routewatch /var/lib/berlin.sneak.app.routewatch

@@ -143,8 +143,9 @@ and origin AS can have two kept routes, one or none.
  AS path, a next hop and a time. The next hop is the router the peer sends the
  prefix's traffic to. RouteWatch records the peer itself as the next hop. The
  page also lists the prefix's origin changes, newest first. An origin change is
-  recorded when an AS gains its first peer for the prefix, or loses its last.
-  The page shows at most the newest 5,000. Each row shows:
+  recorded when the first peer starts to carry the prefix with an origin AS, or
+  when the last peer stops. The page shows at most the newest 5,000. Each row
+  shows:
    - the time
    - announced or withdrawn
    - the origin AS
@@ -196,8 +197,9 @@ also carries an `@meta` object:
 - `api_version`: `1`
 - `execution_time_ms`: the number of milliseconds the request took

-Every value with a unit is a number, and the unit ends the field name. Examples
-are `_ms`, `_seconds`, `_bytes`, `_per_sec` and `_per_min`.
+Every value with a unit is a number. The unit ends the field name, as in `_ms`,
+`_seconds`, `_bytes`, `_per_sec` and `_per_min`. `latitude` and `longitude` are
+in degrees, and their names do not say so.

 The paths:

@@ -521,7 +523,7 @@ An IP lookup finds where each address is, on a best-effort basis. It uses two
 sources:

 - [geojs](https://www.geojs.io/) is asked first. One request carries every
-  address of the lookup that the cache does not hold, and it has 1 second to
+  address of the lookup that the cache does not hold. geojs has 1 second to
  answer.
 - [DB-IP City Lite](https://db-ip.com/db/download/ip-to-city-lite) answers when
  geojs has no answer for the address. It is a database file that RouteWatch
@@ -704,8 +706,10 @@ What happens at each limit:
  allocating more.
 - The SQLite hard heap limit: a database statement fails with an out-of-memory
  error, which the handler logs. The prefix handler writes the routing table's
-  changes again in a later write. Everything else in the failed write is
-  dropped. The process keeps running.
+  changes and its origin changes again in a later write. Everything else in a
+  handler's failed write is dropped. The PTR cache and the geolocation part
+  write their answers to `cache.db` again in a later write. The process keeps
+  running.
 - The handler queues: the handlers are the four parts that take the feed's
  messages (see Design). The prefix handler's queue holds at most 100,000
  messages, about 100 MiB. Each of the other three holds at most 20,000. When a
@@ -1072,8 +1076,8 @@ calls one of them. The scripts:
 - `script/projectname`: print the project name, `routewatch`, which
  `script/docker` uses as the image tag.
 - `script/test`: build the `test` phase of the `Dockerfile` alone. It runs
-  `go test -short -count=1 -timeout 90s -race -cover ./...`, and reruns it with
-  `-v` on failure.
+  `go test -short -count=1 -timeout 90s -race -cover ./...`. On failure it runs
+  the tests again with `-v` and without `-cover`.
 - `script/lint`: build the `lint` phase of the `Dockerfile` alone. It runs
  `golangci-lint` v2.14.0 with `.golangci.yml`.
 - `script/fmt`: format the Go code with `go fmt` and the markdown with
@@ -22,18 +22,17 @@ formatting of the Go code and the markdown. Then it builds the image.
 The image sets memory ceilings for a 5 GiB container (README "Memory"). README
 "Running under upaas" says how to run it.

-Since 2026-10-27, `next` has run on the live feed five times, from three hours
-to five days. The runs found the handlers dropping updates for five causes, and
-the WHOIS fetcher asking a registry that had refused it. Each is fixed on
-`next`, and its Completed Steps entry below names its issue. A 21-hour run of
-`742e759`, which has every fix but one, dropped no update except after the feed
-stalled. That cause, https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/229, is fixed
-on `next`.
+Five runs of `next` on the live feed have ended since 2026-10-27, from three
+hours to five days long. The runs found the handlers dropping updates for five
+causes, and the WHOIS fetcher asking a registry that had refused it. Each is
+fixed on `next`, and its Completed Steps entry below names its issue. A 21-hour
+run of `742e759`, which has every fix but one, dropped no update except after
+the feed stalled. That cause, https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/229,
+is fixed on `next`.

-A 24-hour run of `e58c663` on the live feed began at 09:19 UTC on 2026-11-10
-(https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/232). It reads whether any handler
-drops an update, the size of the `origin_changes` table on disk, and the
-process's peak memory against 5 GiB. The seven IP lookup additions of
+A run of `e58c663` on the live feed began at 09:19 UTC on 2026-11-10
+(https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/232). It is to confirm that fix.
+Next Step lists what its outcome reports. The seven IP lookup additions of
 https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/203 landed after it began, so it
 does not exercise them.

@@ -42,13 +41,15 @@ https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/86.

 # Next Step

-Post the outcome of the 24-hour run of `e58c663` on
-https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/232. The run lasts 24 hours, or
-until the feed has stalled or reconnected once, up to 72 hours. The outcome
-says:
+Post the outcome of the run of `e58c663` on
+https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/232. The run lasts at least 24
+hours. If the feed has not stalled or reconnected by then, the run goes on until
+it does, up to 72 hours in all. The outcome says:

- whether any handler dropped an update, and the prefix queue's high-water mark
- the held-back count
+- whether the feed stalled or reconnected
+- whether any handler dropped an update, and the most messages the prefix
+  handler's queue held at once
+- the most messages the prefix handler held back at once
 - the size of the `origin_changes` table on disk
 - the process's peak memory against 5 GiB

@@ -57,11 +58,14 @@ File an issue for each problem the run finds.
 # Completed Steps

 - 2026-11-10: `README.md` and this file are read whole against the rules of
-  https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/157, and every statement is
-  checked against the code on `next`. Four README sentences, on origin changes,
-  PTR lookups and geolocation, are rewritten. Status and Next Step describe the
-  live-feed run in progress (closes
-  https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/251).
+  https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/157, and every statement except
+  measured figures and what outside services do is checked against the code on
+  `next`. Four README sentences failed the prose rules. Five disagreed with the
+  code. Each is rewritten. Status and Next Step describe the live-feed run in
+  progress (closes https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/251).
+- 2026-11-10: the image creates the `routewatch` user as a regular user with UID
+  1000, so the build no longer warns about the system UID range (closes
+  https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/248).
 - 2026-11-10: each result of the IP lookup has `geo`, where the address is. It
  comes from geojs, with DB-IP's City Lite database as the fallback. The geojs
  answers stay in memory and in `cache.db` for 7 days (closes
@@ -74,7 +78,8 @@ File an issue for each problem the run finds.
  servers, and `protonvpn_entry` holds the servers' IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
  (closes https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/236).
 - 2026-11-10: the IP lookup finds PTR names over DNS-over-HTTPS and caches them
-  for the record's TTL, in memory and in `cache.db` (closes
+  in memory and in `cache.db` for the record's TTL. A TTL is the time for which
+  a DNS record may be kept (closes
  https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/routewatch/issues/238).
 - 2026-11-10: the tests no longer fail when a busy host stalls for several
  seconds. Most waits for something that should happen are now 15 seconds. Tests