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Funder-side channel stuck in CHANNELD_AWAITING_LOCKIN if funding never confirms #9112

@ksedgwic

Description

@ksedgwic

When a node is the funder of a channel whose funding tx never
confirms — broadcast rejected at ATMP, evicted from mempool, or
simply never broadcast — the channel record stays in
CHANNELD_AWAITING_LOCKIN indefinitely. CLN already implements the
BOLT 2 fundee-side forget rule (PR #1468,
--max-funding-unconfirmed-blocks, default 2016) but has no
equivalent on the funder side. Once the would-be funding inputs are
spent in other transactions the funding tx is permanently
unconfirmable, yet the channel record remains.

Similar to #9102

Concrete instance

More details about the following channel can be found in clboss
issue #312
.
@ksedgwic operates the funder.

Channel

  • channel_id: 0b12c289525bf5593e932eca14277dbcb0921f125731b586d3a75d2f4b328dde
  • funding_txid: de8d324b2f5da7d386b53157121f92b0bc7d2714ca2e933e59f55b5289c2120b — never confirmed on chain
  • opener: us; closer: us
  • created 2025-10-14; broadcast rejected by bitcoind at 22:46:28 UTC
    with min relay fee not met, 507 < 511; spenderp ran cleanup
    (unreserveinputs) but the channel record on lightningd's side
    persisted
  • still in AWAITING_UNILATERAL (a later close attempt also could not
    broadcast — its commitment input is the never-existing funding
    output) on our node as of 2026-05-04, ~6.5 months later
  • All 7 of the funding tx's input UTXOs are now spent in other
    transactions, so the funding tx can never confirm

Reproducer

Reproduced by #9113

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