Concurrency: One Controller at a Time

Concurrency: One Controller at a Time#

opendesk-js serve enforces single-controller by design — at most one controller machine drives the desktop at a time. Multiple controllers fighting over a single mouse / keyboard / focused window is the failure mode this policy prevents.

  • Different peer trying to connect while one is active → rejected with a BUSY error.

  • Same peer reconnecting (Wi-Fi blip, crash, network roam) → bumps the previous session cleanly.

To free the slot:

opendesk-js sessions           # show who's active
opendesk-js disconnect         # ask the active controller to leave (cooperative)
opendesk-js unpair NAME        # revoke trust entirely (enforced)

disconnect vs unpair#

Both commands talk to the running daemon over a local Unix socket / named pipe (~/.opendesk/admin.sock) — only the user running serve can issue them.

  • opendesk-js disconnect is cooperative. The server sends a session.evicted PUSH frame and closes the connection. A cooperative client (RemoteComputer) sees the frame, suppresses auto-reconnect, and raises SessionEvicted on subsequent calls. Trust is preserved — the same controller can come back later.

  • opendesk-js unpair NAME is enforced. The peer is removed from the trusted-peers store, then disconnected. Their next reconnect attempt fails authentication outright.

In short: disconnect says “please leave, you can come back later”; unpair says “you are not welcome here anymore.”

Next: Programmatic Use → — connect, pair, and serve from Node.js code directly.