Maelstrom is a tool that implements the above algorithm for dispatching debugging scripts. The input to Maelstrom is a configuration file that describes the probable precedences between a collection of debugging scripts. These need not be the actual precedences between scripts; they represent just a suggestion of the best order in which to execute the scripts. Maelstrom begins by ordering these scripts into a total order consistent with the partial order declared in the file, in the manner of make[23].
The scripts that Maelstrom controls are expected to know whether they succeed or fail. A script tells Maelstrom that it succeeded in its task by returning an exit code of 0. Maelstrom interprets such a response as an indication that the script either found the network in compliance with the script's requirements or made the network comply by making changes. Maelstrom makes no distinction between these cases. If a script returns a nonzero exit code, Maelstrom interprets this as an indication that the script could not succeed for some external reason. Such scripts are tried again at a later time to determine if other scripts make it possible for them to succeed.
Maelstrom attempts to make all the scripts succeed - indicated by an exit code of 0 - by trying a sufficient number of permutations of the scripts. Given n scripts, each script is tried at most ntimes. When a script succeeds, it is not tried again. If precedences are correct, each script is executed exactly once and succeeds immediately, while if precedences are completely backward, each script is executed n times with n-1 failures preceding one success. At the end of trying all possible permutations of the scripts, Maelstrom gives up and reports the scripts that failed consistently. If this happens, then the scripts have failed to repair the network and some other script (or human intervention) is required in order to repair the problem.