From 34dff79a918d49e69d340961890d8488665d5b57 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Leonardo Forchini <leonardo.forchini@nutanix.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:11:23 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Refactor config loading mechanism

Fixed a bug where the `util::Path` prefix was appended twice in some
cases, and also consolidated config loading into a single function.
It attempts to read the config file and falls back the a default
implementation if not found.

Signed-off-by: Leonardo Forchini <leonardo.forchini@nutanix.com>
---
 src/backends/qemu/mod.rs | 10 +++-------
 src/config.rs            | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
 src/engines/threshold.rs | 11 +++--------
 src/main.rs              | 18 +++---------------
 4 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backends/qemu/mod.rs b/src/backends/qemu/mod.rs
index c6892c2..6d9f73e 100644
--- a/src/backends/qemu/mod.rs
+++ b/src/backends/qemu/mod.rs
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 
 use crate::{
     backends::{Backend, BackendClientError, BackendRegistration},
-    config::{ConfigError, load_config},
+    config::{self, ConfigError},
     instance::{Instance, InstanceClient},
     util::Path,
 };
@@ -82,12 +82,8 @@ impl QemuConfig {
     /// Read `<dir>/qemu.json` if present, otherwise return the
     /// built-in defaults.
     pub fn from_dir(dir: &Path) -> Result<Self, ConfigError> {
-        let path = Path::new(&dir.join("qemu.json"));
-        if path.exists() {
-            load_config(path)
-        } else {
-            Ok(Self::default())
-        }
+        let path = dir.join("qemu.json");
+        config::load_config_or_default(&path)
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index 7d9a558..38f9da5 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -136,8 +136,24 @@ impl Default for Config {
     }
 }
 
+/// Attempt to load a JSON config file. If not found, fall back on the
+/// Default implementation.
+pub fn load_config_or_default<T: for<'de> Deserialize<'de> + Default>(
+    path: impl AsRef<std::path::Path>,
+) -> Result<T, ConfigError> {
+    match load_config(path) {
+        r @ Ok(_) => r,
+        Err(ConfigError::Io(e)) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => {
+            Ok(Default::default())
+        }
+        e @ Err(_) => e,
+    }
+}
+
 /// Load a JSON config file.
-pub fn load_config<T: for<'de> Deserialize<'de>>(path: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<T, ConfigError> {
+pub fn load_config<T: for<'de> Deserialize<'de>>(
+    path: impl AsRef<std::path::Path>,
+) -> Result<T, ConfigError> {
     let path = path.as_ref();
     let data = std::fs::read_to_string(path)?;
     let val: T = serde_json::from_str(&data)?;
diff --git a/src/engines/threshold.rs b/src/engines/threshold.rs
index d7afe06..ff3cadb 100644
--- a/src/engines/threshold.rs
+++ b/src/engines/threshold.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use tokio::sync::Mutex;
 
 use crate::{
-    config::{ConfigError, deserialize_percent, serialize_percent},
+    config::{self, ConfigError, deserialize_percent, serialize_percent},
     engines::{
         AppliedOutcome, EngineError, EngineRegistration, EngineTickContext, ScaleAction,
         ScalingEngine,
@@ -211,13 +211,8 @@ impl ThresholdEngine {
 
     /// Load `threshold.json`, falling back to built-in defaults when absent.
     pub fn from_config_dir(dir: &Path) -> Result<Self, EngineError> {
-        let path = Path::new(&dir.join(format!("{ENGINE_NAME}.json")));
-        // TODO TOCTOU, blindly load and return default if ENOENT
-        let cfg: ThresholdConfig = if path.exists() {
-            crate::config::load_config(path)?
-        } else {
-            ThresholdConfig::default()
-        };
+        let path = dir.join(format!("{ENGINE_NAME}.json"));
+        let cfg: ThresholdConfig = config::load_config_or_default(&path)?;
         cfg.validate()?;
         Ok(Self::new(cfg))
     }
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 4d6f959..1865ecb 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -5,13 +5,10 @@
 
 //! `io-thread-controller` daemon entry point.
 
-use std::io::ErrorKind;
-
 use clap::{self, CommandFactory, FromArgMatches, Parser};
 use io_thread_controller::{
-    backends::BackendClientError,
-    backends::registered_backends,
-    config::{Config, ConfigError, dump_default_config, load_config, validate_config},
+    backends::{BackendClientError, registered_backends},
+    config::{Config, ConfigError, dump_default_config, load_config_or_default, validate_config},
     daemon::{DaemonError, VERSION, run},
     util::Path,
 };
@@ -122,7 +119,7 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), IoThreadControllerError> {
         return Err(IoThreadControllerError::NoSuchBackend(name.to_string()));
     }
 
-    let mut cfg = load_daemon_config(&cli.config)?;
+    let mut cfg: Config = load_config_or_default(&cli.config)?;
     if cli.print_status_header {
         cfg.print_status_header = true;
     }
@@ -135,15 +132,6 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), IoThreadControllerError> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
-/// Load defaults only for an absent file; propagate every other open failure.
-fn load_daemon_config(path: &Path) -> Result<Config, ConfigError> {
-    match std::fs::File::open(path) {
-        Ok(_) => load_config(path),
-        Err(error) if error.kind() == ErrorKind::NotFound => Ok(Config::default()),
-        Err(error) => Err(error)?,
-    }
-}
-
 /// Install the process-wide tracing subscriber.
 fn init_logging(filter: &str, style: LogStyle) {
     // Auto-detection: systemd sets `JOURNAL_STREAM=<dev>:<ino>`