resolve_node_bin() could not parse a range, so it fell back to "pin by the
first number in the string" and took the newest installed version of that
major. For openclaw's engines pin `>=22.19.0 <23 || >=23.11.0` that picked
v22.17.0 — below the range's own floor — and baked it into the service's
unit PATH. The daemon refused to start on it and crash-looped 260k+ times
(~7.4s CPU per attempt, every ~5.5s, since before the journal's retention
window). StartLimitBurst never tripped because five attempts span ~27s,
outside the 10s StartLimitIntervalUSec.
Parse the pin properly: split on `||`, expand each comparator (>=, >, <=,
<, =, ^, ~, hyphen ranges, x/* wildcards, partial versions) into bounds
with node-semver's partial semantics, and pick the newest installed version
satisfying any alternative. openclaw now resolves to v24.18.0 via its
second alternative. A pin this parser cannot read at all still falls back
to newest-installed rather than guessing a version.
When nothing satisfies the pin it now fails with the installed versions
listed, so the next occurrence is diagnosable at apply time rather than
six days later in a restart loop.
Paul Payne
6cf25ad2c7