FAILURE MAP
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FA-6786 / HTTP caching / Open access

Heuristic freshness never exceeds configured cap · case 01

Heuristic freshness never exceeds configured cap.

Verified by executionVariant 1 · 4 checks per implementationDownload source bundle ↓JSON ↗

ROOT CAUSE

The faulty implementation uses `(date-modified)*0.1` for the heuristic-freshness-never-exceeds-configured-cap decision.

VERIFIED REPAIR

Apply the explicit heuristic-freshness-never-exceeds-configured-cap contract, including the tested boundary and negative cases.

Unsuccessful approach: The attempted repair uses `max(cap,max(0,date-modified)*0.1)` and still violates a separate fixture.

Case contract

Bounded offline decision model: heuristic freshness never exceeds configured cap. Inputs are already validated protocol fields; the explicit fixtures define the supported policy, not a complete protocol implementation.

Why this case matters

This deterministic http caching model isolates the heuristic-freshness-never-exceeds-configured-cap policy at a network component boundary.

1 / The failure

Exit 1
"""Failure Map reference implementation. Python standard library only."""
import json
import ipaddress
import re
from urllib.parse import urlsplit, urljoin
N = 1
observations = []
def solve(date, modified, cap):
    return (date-modified)*0.1
def check(label, actual, expected):
    observations.append({"check": label, "actual": actual, "expected": expected, "passed": actual == expected})
_fixtures = ["check('fixture 1', solve(100, 0, 5), 5)", "check('fixture 2', solve(10, 20, 5), 0)", "check('fixture 3', solve(10, 0, 5), 1)", "check('fixture 4', solve(0, 0, 5), 0)"]
for _line in _fixtures[N % len(_fixtures):] + _fixtures[:N % len(_fixtures)]:
    exec(_line)
print(json.dumps({"observations": observations, "passed": all(x["passed"] for x in observations)}, ensure_ascii=False))
raise SystemExit(0 if all(x["passed"] for x in observations) else 1)
Boundary fixtureActualExpectedOutcome
fixture 2-1.00Failed
fixture 31.01Passed
fixture 40.00Passed
fixture 110.05Failed

SHA-256 / 4536ae41cc3b247c2fc529d594e8c6cc56d5f977e7e553d43d0320570a52dcb6

2 / The unsuccessful fix

Exit 1
"""Failure Map reference implementation. Python standard library only."""
import json
import ipaddress
import re
from urllib.parse import urlsplit, urljoin
N = 1
observations = []
def solve(date, modified, cap):
    return max(cap,max(0,date-modified)*0.1)
def check(label, actual, expected):
    observations.append({"check": label, "actual": actual, "expected": expected, "passed": actual == expected})
_fixtures = ["check('fixture 1', solve(100, 0, 5), 5)", "check('fixture 2', solve(10, 20, 5), 0)", "check('fixture 3', solve(10, 0, 5), 1)", "check('fixture 4', solve(0, 0, 5), 0)"]
for _line in _fixtures[N % len(_fixtures):] + _fixtures[:N % len(_fixtures)]:
    exec(_line)
print(json.dumps({"observations": observations, "passed": all(x["passed"] for x in observations)}, ensure_ascii=False))
raise SystemExit(0 if all(x["passed"] for x in observations) else 1)
Boundary fixtureActualExpectedOutcome
fixture 250Failed
fixture 351Failed
fixture 450Failed
fixture 110.05Failed

SHA-256 / aab31ca73d7e17cb049649b1f80bf1e102b4d8c1df3e610c0129e849b5841255

3 / The verified repair

Exit 0
"""Failure Map reference implementation. Python standard library only."""
import json
import ipaddress
import re
from urllib.parse import urlsplit, urljoin
N = 1
observations = []
def solve(date, modified, cap):
    return min(cap,max(0,date-modified)*0.1)
def check(label, actual, expected):
    observations.append({"check": label, "actual": actual, "expected": expected, "passed": actual == expected})
_fixtures = ["check('fixture 1', solve(100, 0, 5), 5)", "check('fixture 2', solve(10, 20, 5), 0)", "check('fixture 3', solve(10, 0, 5), 1)", "check('fixture 4', solve(0, 0, 5), 0)"]
for _line in _fixtures[N % len(_fixtures):] + _fixtures[:N % len(_fixtures)]:
    exec(_line)
print(json.dumps({"observations": observations, "passed": all(x["passed"] for x in observations)}, ensure_ascii=False))
raise SystemExit(0 if all(x["passed"] for x in observations) else 1)
Boundary fixtureActualExpectedOutcome
fixture 20.00Passed
fixture 31.01Passed
fixture 40.00Passed
fixture 155Passed

SHA-256 / 7b1547a3c4528184c075c8f245009f8abdd031e35e39a41933e681d085412161

Verification & scope

Bounded deterministic policy model over validated inputs; not a complete protocol stack or an interoperability claim. The five variants rotate the same explicit fixture set. This reproducer isolates one failure mechanism. Results cover the supplied fixtures. Variants within a family share a test contract and should remain grouped when constructing evaluation splits. Related mechanisms with a shared evaluation_group must also remain together; these controlled models are not independent production incidents.

Observations recorded using Python 3.12.14 at 2026-09-29T14:38:05.123736+00:00.

Case digest / 861f60f6e143200171785b390ec2409c45f71c44382fb173a15aed99a5e840ca