Set the time zone in main and run Entry in its own test process (closes #192)

cli.Entry() set time.Local to UTC and ended with memguard.Purge(), and
TestEntryWipesBuffersAndReturnsExitCode ran it in the same process as
the other tests. A timer left by an earlier test could read time.Local
as it changed, which the race detector reported on some runs, and the
purge could destroy a buffer still in use, the likeliest cause of a
crash seen on another run.

main() in cmd/secret now sets time.Local before it calls cli.Entry();
the test that runs the built binary with TZ=America/New_York still
covers it. The Entry test runs cli.Entry() in a copy of the test binary
started with SECRET_TEST_RUN_ENTRY set, which init picks up so that
TestMain does not run there.

Model: opus-5-5

TODO.md

@@ -8,8 +8,7 @@
 
 # Status
 
-pre-1.0. No git tags. Open work is tracked on the issue tracker, which is
+pre-1.0. Open work is tracked on the issue tracker, which is authoritative.
-authoritative.
 
 # Next Step
 
@@ -18,6 +17,183 @@ https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/milestone/12
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-10-15: `make test` no longer fails on some runs in `internal/cli`
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/192). `cli.Entry()` set `time.Local`
+  to UTC and ended by wiping every memguard buffer, and a test ran it in the
+  same process as the other tests. A timer left by an earlier test could read
+  `time.Local` as it changed, which the race detector reported, and the wipe
+  could destroy a buffer still in use, the likeliest cause of a crash of the
+  test process on another run. `main()` in `cmd/secret` now sets `time.Local`
+  before it calls `cli.Entry()`, and that test runs `cli.Entry()` in a process
+  of its own.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret mv` from one vault to another unlocks both vaults before
+  it takes the state directory lock
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/189). It unlocked them while holding
+  the lock, and unlocking can ask for a passphrase, so every other command that
+  changes anything waited at that prompt. `moveSecretCrossVault` now checks the
+  move, refusing an existing destination secret without `--force`, unlocks both
+  vaults, and only then takes the lock. Under the lock, it checks that the
+  destination vault still has the long-term key it unlocked, and
+  `copySecretAndRemoveSource` checks the move again before it copies. A move
+  within a vault takes the lock in `moveSecretWithinVault`, so `MoveSecret`
+  takes none itself. The error for a vault created again with another key, which
+  `secret unlocker add` shares, now ends "nothing was changed".
+- 2026-10-15: `secret init`, `secret vault create`, `secret unlocker add`, and
+  `secret add`, `secret import` and `secret generate secret` with `--force` ask
+  for the mnemonic or passphrase, or unlock the vault, before they take the
+  state directory lock (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/152). They did
+  so while holding the lock, so every other command that changes anything waited
+  at the prompt. Under the lock, `secret unlocker add` fails if the vault was
+  removed, or created again with another key, and refuses a GPG key added
+  meanwhile; a forced add of a secret created meanwhile lets go of the lock,
+  gets the key and takes the lock again. `secret.CreatePGPUnlocker` takes the
+  unlocked vault; `SetMnemonic` and `SetUnlockPassphrase` are gone.
+- 2026-10-15: A `secret mv` to another vault that copies the secret but cannot
+  remove the source fails (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/159). It
+  printed a warning and the usual "Moved" line and exited 0. If the source
+  secret's directory is still in place, the error says the copy holds all
+  versions and the source remains. If the source left its vault and only the
+  temporary directory it was moved into could not be deleted, the error says the
+  secret is moved and names that directory, which the error of `RemoveDirAtomic`
+  now does.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret encrypt` and `secret decrypt` with `--output` hold the
+  result in memory and open the output file only once encryption or decryption
+  has succeeded (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/143). They emptied that
+  file before reading any input, so a failed command left it empty, and
+  encrypting a file onto itself gave the encryption of nothing. A failure to
+  encrypt or decrypt now leaves `--output` untouched, and `--input` can name the
+  same file. A failure while writing `--output`, such as a full disk, can still
+  leave it empty or partly written; an error from closing it is reported.
+  Without `--output` the result still goes to stdout as it is produced.
+- 2026-10-15: A command that uses the current vault fails when `currentvault` is
+  empty or names no vault (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/156).
+  `secret list` reported an empty vault with exit status 0, and `secret add`
+  failed on a missing directory. `ResolveVaultSymlink` now refuses an empty or
+  invalid name, or one with no directory under `vaults.d`, with an error that
+  wraps `ErrVaultNotFound`, names the file and says to run
+  `secret vault select <name>`. `secret vault list` and `secret info` still run.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret` prints every time in UTC, whatever the machine's time
+  zone (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/169). `secret list`,
+  `secret version list`, `secret unlocker list` and `secret info` printed times
+  in the local time zone without naming it, so one vault showed different times
+  on two machines. `Entry()` now sets `time.Local` to UTC before anything else,
+  as policy 6 in `AGENTS.md` asks, so every time the program prints or writes is
+  in UTC. `--json` times end in `Z`, and a new version's name takes the UTC
+  date. The README says so.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret vault`, `secret unlocker`, `secret version` and
+  `secret generate` fail when given a subcommand they do not have
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/183). They printed their help and
+  exited 0, so a mistyped command looked like one that worked. Each now exits 1
+  with `unknown command "<name>" for "secret <parent>"`, and with no arguments
+  still prints its help. Cobra checks a command's `Args` only when it has a
+  `RunE`, so each gets `Args: cobra.NoArgs` and a `RunE` that prints its help;
+  their help now shows a `secret <parent> [flags]` usage line.
+  `secret vault help` fails as an unknown subcommand, while `secret help vault`
+  and `secret vault --help` still work.
+- 2026-10-15: With `SB_UNLOCK_PASSPHRASE` set, `secret unlocker add passphrase`
+  asks on the terminal for the new unlocker's passphrase and uses the variable
+  to unlock the vault (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/154). It gave the
+  new unlocker the passphrase in the variable without asking. With no
+  controlling terminal, the new unlocker takes the variable's passphrase and the
+  output says so. `secret.ErrNoTerminal` is exported so that the command can
+  tell a missing terminal from other failures to read, such as nothing typed or
+  a confirmation that does not match, which still fail the command.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret init` and `secret vault create` stop with an error naming
+  the file when a vault's `vault-metadata.json` cannot be read or parsed, and
+  leave the state directory as it was
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/140). `GetNextDerivationIndex` passed
+  over such a vault, so the next vault made from the same mnemonic could get its
+  derivation index and so the same long-term key. A vault directory with no
+  metadata file is still skipped.
+- 2026-10-15: The README says that `secret add` drops one trailing newline from
+  stdin, that `secret import` stores a file's bytes unchanged, and that
+  `secret get` writes the value with no newline added
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/158). It said none of this, so a PEM
+  key piped into `secret add` came back one byte short with no hint why. A new
+  test stores `a\n\n` through `add` and through `import` and checks that `add`
+  kept two bytes and `import` three. No program code changes.
+- 2026-10-15: When gpg fails to decrypt, to encrypt or to look up a key's
+  fingerprint, the error ends with what gpg wrote to stderr, trimmed
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/146). It gave only gpg's exit status,
+  so the user could not tell why. `cmd.Output` keeps gpg's stderr in the
+  `*exec.ExitError` it returns, and the three errors now use it. When gpg wrote
+  nothing to stderr the error is as before, and when gpg wrote several lines the
+  error has them all.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret version list` no longer shows a version without
+  `NOT_AFTER` as expired (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/150). STATUS
+  was `expired` for every version other than the current one, so after a promote
+  the newest version, which has no `NOT_AFTER`, read `expired`. STATUS is now
+  `current` for the current version, `expired` for another version whose
+  `NOT_AFTER` has passed, and `inactive` for any other version. The README
+  describes the three.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret unlocker list --json` for a vault with no unlockers, and
+  `secret vault list --json` when `vaults.d` holds no vaults, print the empty
+  list as `[]` instead of `null` (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/148).
+  Both lists were nil slices, which `encoding/json` writes as `null`; each is
+  now made as an empty slice before it is filled. `vault.ListVaults` therefore
+  returns an empty slice instead of nil for an empty `vaults.d`.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret add`, `secret import` and `secret generate secret` fail
+  with an error, not memguard's panic, when a secret is too large for the
+  locked-memory limit (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/145). The value
+  was held twice, so half the usual 8 MiB limit was enough to crash them.
+  `secret` now raises the limit to the hard limit at startup, and each of the
+  three commands refuses, before its first locked allocation, a limit that
+  leaves fewer than 8 pages for its keys and buffers. The value is read a page
+  at a time into a `memguard.Stream`, which keeps it encrypted, and copied once
+  into locked memory after its size is checked against 100 MiB and the limit. It
+  leaves the stream through `Next`, not `Read`, because `Read` re-encrypts a
+  leftover piece and memguard hangs if that runs out of locked memory.
+- 2026-10-15: Total Size in `secret info` counts every file of each version: the
+  value, the metadata and the version's two keys
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/147). It added up each version's
+  `data.age` and `metadata.age`, but a version keeps its value in `value.age`,
+  so no secret's value was counted. A version directory that cannot be read adds
+  nothing and gets a warning naming it.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret vault import` is gone, with its tests and its README entry
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/139). It took only a vault without a
+  long-term key, and `secret init` and `secret vault create` give every vault
+  one, so it always failed; a mnemonic enters through those two commands. The
+  help and the note of `secret generate mnemonic` named `secret import`, which
+  imports a file as a secret, and now name `secret init` and
+  `secret vault create`.
+- 2026-10-15: `secret version promote --help` says promote rewrites the
+  `current` file, not a "current symlink"
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/153). `current` is a plain file
+  holding the version name, as the README already said, and the comment in
+  `PromoteVersion` now says so too.
+- 2026-10-14: `secret init` and `secret vault create` refuse a vault that
+  already exists before they ask for the mnemonic or the unlocker passphrase
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/151). They asked first, and
+  `secret init` printed "Initialized secrets manager at" before refusing. The
+  check `vault.CreateVault` made before writing is now
+  `vault.CheckNewVaultName`, which both commands call before the first prompt
+  and `CreateVault` still calls. It validates the name too, so
+  `secret vault create` with an invalid name also fails before the prompts.
+  `secret init` prints the "Initialized" line only once the vault is created.
+- 2026-10-14: `secret get` fails when it cannot write the value
+  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/155). `GetSecret` and
+  `GetSecretWithVersion` discarded the result of writing it to stdout, so a full
+  disk or a failing stdout left an empty or cut-short file and exit status 0.
+  The write error is now returned, so the command prints it and exits 1. A
+  stdout the shell closed before `secret` started still exits 0, because the Go
+  runtime opens `/dev/null` in its place and the write there succeeds.
+- 2026-10-14: `secret list` and `secret list --json` give each secret's own
+  creation and last-update times (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/142).
+  They gave the time of the listing for every secret, because
+  `Secret.LoadMetadata` set both to the current time. It now reads file
+  modification times, so listing still needs no passphrase. The last update is
+  when the secret's `current` file was written. The creation is when its oldest
+  version's `value.age` was written, not that version's directory, whose time
+  changes when the next add rewrites its `metadata.age`. A move to another vault
+  gives the copied files the times of the originals. `GetSecretObject` no longer
+  loads the times, so `secret get` keeps its error for a missing `current` file.
+- 2026-10-14: `secret unlocker add pgp` without `--keyid` uses the `default-key`
+  in `gpg.conf` (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/141).
+  `getDefaultGPGKey` took that value from `gpgconf --list-options gpg` as
+  printed, with a leading `"` and percent-escaped, so gpg rejected the key ID.
+  The new `parseDefaultGPGKey` drops the `"` and percent-decodes the rest with
+  `url.PathUnescape`, which leaves `+` alone. A value that does not decode is an
+  error, not a fallback to the first secret key.
 - 2026-10-14: A wrong passphrase, from `SB_UNLOCK_PASSPHRASE` or typed at the
   prompt, gives the error `wrong passphrase for unlocker <id>`
   (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/157). It used to be age's "no

cmd/secret/main.go

@@ -3,10 +3,16 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"os"
+	"time"
 
 	"sneak.berlin/go/secret/internal/cli"
 )
 
 func main() {
+	// Every time secret prints or writes is in UTC, whatever TZ or the
+	// system's time zone is set to. It is set here, before cli.Entry starts
+	// any goroutine that could read time.Local while it changes.
+	time.Local = time.UTC //nolint:gosmopolitan // this makes local time UTC
+
 	os.Exit(cli.Entry())
 }

internal/cli/entry_test.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package cli_test
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -16,29 +17,67 @@ import (
 	"sneak.berlin/go/secret/internal/secret"
 )
 
-// Entry must return its exit code rather than exit, so that its deferred
+const (
-// memguard purge runs on the success and the error path alike.
+	// envRunEntry, when set, makes this test binary run cli.Entry with its
-//
+	// own arguments and exit, instead of running the tests.
-//nolint:paralleltest // sets os.Args, and Entry wipes every buffer in the process
+	envRunEntry = "SECRET_TEST_RUN_ENTRY"
-func TestEntryWipesBuffersAndReturnsExitCode(t *testing.T) {
-	savedArgs := os.Args
 
-	t.Cleanup(func() { os.Args = savedArgs })
+	// bufferWiped is what the test binary prints, run with envRunEntry set,
+	// when cli.Entry wiped the buffer made before it ran.
+	bufferWiped = "Entry wiped the buffer made before it ran"
+)
+
+// With envRunEntry set, the test binary makes a buffer, runs cli.Entry,
+// says whether the buffer is wiped, and exits with Entry's exit code. This
+// is done in init, not in a test, so that TestMain does not run in that
+// process: it would build the secret binary again, and remove it at the end,
+// while the other tests run it.
+//
+//nolint:gochecknoinits // must run before TestMain, as above
+func init() {
+	if os.Getenv(envRunEntry) == "" {
+		return
+	}
+
+	buf := memguard.NewBufferFromBytes([]byte("key material"))
+	code := cli.Entry()
+
+	if !buf.IsAlive() {
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, bufferWiped)
+	}
+
+	os.Exit(code)
+}
+
+// Entry must return its exit code rather than exit, so that its deferred
+// memguard purge runs on the success and the error path alike. Entry wipes
+// every memguard buffer in the process, including those other tests are
+// using, so it runs in a process of its own: this test binary, run again
+// with envRunEntry set.
+func TestEntryWipesBuffersAndReturnsExitCode(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
 
 	tests := []struct {
 		args     []string
 		exitCode int
 	}{
-		{args: []string{"secret", "--help"}, exitCode: 0},
+		{args: []string{"--help"}, exitCode: 0},
-		{args: []string{"secret", "no-such-command"}, exitCode: 1},
+		{args: []string{"no-such-command"}, exitCode: 1},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {
-		buf := memguard.NewBufferFromBytes([]byte("key material"))
+		//nolint:gosec // G204: test runs its own test binary
-		os.Args = tt.args
+		cmd := exec.CommandContext(t.Context(), os.Args[0], tt.args...)
 
-		assert.Equal(t, tt.exitCode, cli.Entry(), "exit code for %v", tt.args)
+		cmd.Env = append(os.Environ(), envRunEntry+"=1")
-		assert.False(t, buf.IsAlive(), "Entry left a buffer unwiped for %v", tt.args)
+
+		output, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()
+		require.NotNil(t, cmd.ProcessState, "%v did not run: %v", tt.args, err)
+
+		assert.Equal(t, tt.exitCode, cmd.ProcessState.ExitCode(),
+			"exit code for %v: %s", tt.args, output)
+		assert.Contains(t, string(output), bufferWiped,
+			"Entry left a buffer unwiped for %v", tt.args)
 	}
 }
 

internal/cli/root.go

@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package cli
 
 import (
 	"os"
-	"time"
 
 	"github.com/awnumar/memguard"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -15,10 +14,6 @@ import (
 // every memguard buffer before it returns, so the caller must do nothing
 // but exit with the code.
 func Entry() int {
-	// Every time secret prints or writes is in UTC, whatever TZ or the
-	// system's time zone is set to.
-	time.Local = time.UTC //nolint:gosmopolitan // this makes local time UTC
-
 	raiseLockedMemoryLimit()
 
 	// On SIGINT or SIGTERM memguard runs this function, wipes every buffer