[Tech Debt]: tps file-size parser silently falls back to 10M default on parse failure

[mrhillsman]

Category

Error handling gaps

Description

internal/workloads/tps.go parses the file-size parameter via two helpers — fileSizeBytes() and fileSizeMBCount() — that accept only the form <int><K|M|G>. A value like 1.5G, 2GB, 10MiB, or garbage:

• Returns the fallback 10485760 bytes / "10" MB silently, with no log message or audit event
• The user gets a 10MB test file regardless of what they specified

The parser also reads only the final character as the unit suffix, so anything beyond a single suffix character is interpreted incorrectly.

Severity

Low — cosmetic or minor inconvenience

Affected Files

• internal/workloads/tps.go — fileSize(), fileSizeBytes(), fileSizeMBCount()
• internal/workloads/tps_test.go — coverage for malformed input
• docs/configuration.md — note the supported format explicitly

Proposed Fix

Two-part:

1. Document the supported format in docs/configuration.md and docs/chaos-workloads.md: ^[0-9]+[KMG]$ (integer followed by a single unit suffix).
2. Surface parse errors rather than silently substituting. Either:
   • Bubble the error up through CloudInitUserdata() so the orchestrator fails fast at workload-build time (preferred), or
   • Emit a warning via internal/logging and proceed with the default.

Add tests for both well-formed and malformed inputs.

Area

Workloads

Architecture Layer

Layer 3 - Workload Definitions (workloads, registry)