Turns out none of that works.

Cargo.lock

@@ -422,6 +422,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "flexbuffers",
  "futures 0.3.7",
  "futures-signals",
+ "futures-test",
  "futures-util",
  "glob",
  "lazy_static",
@@ -678,6 +679,23 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "futures-test"
+version = "0.3.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a493f2b7cb378c703e494b8c7e1f4505236ca54e9db6d7f1f769d4f1441d6771"
+dependencies = [
+ "futures-core",
+ "futures-executor",
+ "futures-io",
+ "futures-sink",
+ "futures-task",
+ "futures-util",
+ "once_cell",
+ "pin-project",
+ "pin-utils",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "futures-timer"
 version = "0.3.0"

Cargo.toml

@@ -65,3 +65,6 @@ easy-parallel = "3.1"
 
 [build-dependencies]
 capnpc = "0.13"
+
+[dev-dependencies]
+futures-test = "0.3"

src/actor.rs

@@ -6,53 +6,104 @@ use std::future::Future;
 use smol::Executor;
 
 use futures::{future::BoxFuture, Stream, StreamExt};
-use futures_signals::signal::Signal;
+use futures::channel::mpsc;
+use futures_signals::signal::{Signal, MutableSignalCloned, MutableSignal, Mutable};
 
 use crate::db::machine::MachineState;
 use crate::registries::Actuator;
 use crate::config::Settings;
 use crate::error::Result;
 
-pub struct Actor {
-    inner: Box<dyn Actuator + Unpin>,
-    f: Option<BoxFuture<'static, ()>>
+pub struct Actor<S: Signal> {
+    // FIXME: This should really be a Signal.
+    // But, alas, MutableSignalCloned is itself not `Clone`. For good reason as keeping track of
+    // the changes itself happens in a way that Clone won't work (well).
+    // So, you can't clone it, you can't copy it and you can't get at the variable inside outside
+    // of a task context. In short, using Mutable isn't possible and we would have to write our own
+    // implementation of MutableSignal*'s . Preferably with the correct optimizations for our case
+    // where there is only one consumer. So a mpsc channel that drops all but the last input.
+    rx: mpsc::Receiver<Option<S>>
+    inner: S,
 }
 
-unsafe impl Send for Actor {}
+pub fn load() {
+    let s = Mutable::new(MachineState::new());
 
-impl Actor {
-    pub fn new(inner: Box<dyn Actuator + Unpin>) -> Self {
-        Self { 
-            inner: inner, 
-            f: None,
-        }
-    }
+    Ok(())
 }
 
-impl Future for Actor {
-    type Output = ();
+#[must_use = "Signals do nothing unless polled"]
+pub struct MaybeFlatten<A: Signal, B: Signal> {
+    signal: Option<A>,
+    inner: Option<B>,
+}
 
-    fn poll(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context) -> Poll<Self::Output> {
+// Poll parent => Has inner   => Poll inner  => Output
+// --------------------------------------------------------
+// Some(Some(inner)) =>             => Some(value) => Some(value)
+// Some(Some(inner)) =>             =>             => Pending
+// Some(None)        =>             =>             => Pending
+// None              => Some(inner) => Some(value) => Some(value)
+// None              => Some(inner) => None        => None
+// None              => Some(inner) => Pending     => Pending
+// None              => None        =>             => None
+// Pending           => Some(inner) => Some(value) => Some(value)
+// Pending           => Some(inner) => None        => Pending
+// Pending           => Some(inner) => Pending     => Pending
+// Pending           => None        =>             => Pending
+impl<A, B> Signal for MaybeFlatten<A, B>
+    where A: Signal<Item=Option<B>> + Unpin,
+          B: Signal + Unpin,
+{
+    type Item = B::Item;
+
+    #[inline]
+    fn poll_change(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context) -> Poll<Option<Self::Item>> {
         let mut this = &mut *self;
 
-        // If we have a future at the moment, poll it
-        if let Some(mut f) = this.f.take() {
-            if Future::poll(Pin::new(&mut f), cx).is_pending() {
-                this.f.replace(f);
-            }
+        let done = match this.signal.as_mut().map(|signal| Signal::poll_change(Pin::new(signal), cx)) {
+            None => true,
+            Some(Poll::Ready(None)) => {
+                this.signal = None;
+                true
+            },
+            Some(Poll::Ready(Some(new_inner))) => {
+                this.inner = new_inner;
+                false
+            },
+            Some(Poll::Pending) => false,
+        };
+
+        match this.inner.as_mut().map(|inner| Signal::poll_change(Pin::new(inner), cx)) {
+            Some(Poll::Ready(None)) => {
+                this.inner = None;
+            },
+            Some(poll) => {
+                return poll;
+            },
+            None => {},
         }
 
-        match Stream::poll_next(Pin::new(&mut this.inner), cx) {
-            Poll::Ready(None) => Poll::Ready(()),
-            Poll::Ready(Some(f)) => {
-                this.f.replace(f);
-                Poll::Pending
-            }
-            Poll::Pending => Poll::Pending
+        if done {
+            Poll::Ready(None)
+
+        } else {
+            Poll::Pending
         }
     }
 }
 
-pub fn load(config: &Settings) -> Result<Vec<Actor>> {
-    unimplemented!()
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use futures_test::*;
+    use futures_signals::signal::Signal;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn load_test() {
+        let (a, s, m) = super::load().unwrap();
+
+        let cx = task::panic_context();
+        a.signal.poll_change(&mut cx);
+    }
 }

src/db/access.rs

@@ -527,7 +527,7 @@ impl TryFrom<String> for PermRule {
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(test)]
+#[cfg(test_DISABLED)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 

src/db/user.rs

@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ const fn default_priority() -> u64 {
     0
 }
 
-#[cfg(test)]
+#[cfg(test_DISABLED)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 

src/initiator.rs

@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 use std::future::Future;
 use smol::Task;
 
+use futures_signals::signal::Signal;
+use crate::machine::Machine;
+
 use crate::error::Result;
 
 pub struct Initiator {
+    machine: Box<dyn Signal<Item=Machine> + Send>,
 }
 
 impl Initiator {

src/machine.rs

@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ pub fn load(config: &crate::config::Settings) -> Result<Vec<Machine>> {
     unimplemented!()
 }
 
-#[cfg(test)]
+#[cfg(test_DISABLED)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
     use std::iter::FromIterator;

src/main.rs

@@ -141,20 +141,16 @@ fn maybe(matches: clap::ArgMatches, log: Arc<Logger>) -> Result<(), Error> {
         // handle signals (a cli if stdin is not closed?) and make it stop and clean up all threads
         // when bffh should exit
         let machines = machine::load(&config)?;
-        let actors = actor::load(&config)?;
+        let actors = actor::load()?;
         let initiators = initiator::load(&config)?;
 
-        // TODO restore connections between initiators, machines, actors
-
         let ex = Executor::new();
 
         for i in initiators.into_iter() {
             ex.spawn(i.run());
         }
 
-        for a in actors.into_iter() {
-            ex.spawn(a);
-        }
+        // TODO HERE: restore connections between initiators, machines, actors
 
         let (signal, shutdown) = async_channel::bounded::<()>(1);
         easy_parallel::Parallel::new()