# Compatibility harness (M5)

`verify_run_abi.sh` validates the required files and semantic fields for a
successful normal run. It is intentionally independent of absolute paths and
wall-clock timestamps, so it can be used for native and Docker run directories:

```bash
tests/compat/verify_run_abi.sh /path/to/runs/run_0001
```

`compare_runs.py` compares an original-runtime run with a component run. It
checks the normal-run status/count contract, report and validation contract,
and canonical CIR/CCR/VRP/VAP payloads. It normalises only the exceptions in
`baseline-manifest.toml` (including runtime telemetry that is measured
separately). Validation time is treated as a fixed input, while only lifecycle
timestamps and CCR `producedAt` are normalised; all other semantic payload
differences are failures:

```bash
tests/compat/compare_runs.py \
  /path/to/original/runs/run_0001 \
  /path/to/panda/runs/run_0001
```

The M5 harness will run the same frozen input against the original `rpki`
runtime, native `panda-rpki-validator`, and the Docker runtime. It will compare
the normal-run output ABI in `docs/output-abi.md`, then record stage timing,
CPU, RSS, state size and artifact size for five serial repetitions per profile.

M4 provides the ABI verifier and a real snapshot/warm-delta staging run. The
canonical comparator is now available for M5; five-run performance comparison
and the complete profile matrix remain M5 deliverables.
`verification-only` is excluded.

For live-RIR evidence, run both images with the same `RIRS` and fixed
`--validation-time`, then compare `input.cir` and the decoded `result.ccr` in
separate steps. `compare_runs.py` deliberately remains strict about report,
validation-event and CSV order, so a live RRDP/rsync source race can produce a
file-level mismatch even when the CCR state digest matches. Use
`ccr_state_compare` plus `triage_ccr_cir_pair` to distinguish source/input
drift from validator behavior; the 2026-09-01 APNIC/all5 evidence is recorded in
`specs/develop/20260901/m5_live_rir_image_artifact_comparison_milestone_report.md`.
The follow-up remote-231 serial all5 run (old image first, then new image;
one snapshot plus three deltas per side with cache/prefetch/parallel flags) is
recorded in
`specs/develop/20260901_2/m5_live_all5_cache_prefetch_serial_4run_milestone_report.md`.
Its strict file mismatches remain failures until the same frozen input is
replayed on both sides; live CCR/CIR differences must first be triaged with
the state comparator rather than treated as code parity.