invalidatable: always mark ui as dirty OnInvalidate

The Invalidatable struct is designed so that a widget can have a
callback function ran when it is Invalidated. This is used to cascade up
the widget tree, marking things as Invalid along the way so that only
Invalid widgets are drawn. However, this is only implemented at the grid
cell level for checks if the cell is invalidated -- and the grid cells
are never set back to a "valid" state. The effect of this is that no
matter what is invalidated, the entire UI gets drawn again.

The calling through the Invalidate callbacks creates *several* race
conditions, as Invalidate is called from several different goroutines,
and many widgets call invalidate on their parent or children.

Tcell has optimizations to only rerender screen cells that have changed
their rune and style. The only performance penalty by redrawing the
entire screen for aerc is the operations *within the aerc draw methods*.
Most of these are not expensive and have relatively no impact on
performance.

Skip all of the OnInvalidates, and directly invalidate the UI when
DoInvalidate is called by a widget. This reduces data races, and
simplifies the widget redraw logic signficantly.

Signed-off-by: Tim Culverhouse <tim@timculverhouse.com>
Acked-by: Robin Jarry <robin@jarry.cc>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
   `accounts.conf`.
 - Mouse support for embedded editors when `mouse-enabled=true`.
 - Numerous race conditions related to event handling order
+- Numerous race conditions related to OnInvalidate calls
 
 ## [0.12.0](https://git.sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/refs/0.12.0) - 2022-09-01
 

lib/ui/invalidatable.go

@@ -13,12 +13,5 @@ func (i *Invalidatable) OnInvalidate(f func(d Drawable)) {
 }
 
 func (i *Invalidatable) DoInvalidate(d Drawable) {
-	v := i.onInvalidate.Load()
-	if v == nil {
-		return
-	}
-	f := v.(func(d Drawable))
-	if f != nil {
-		f(d)
-	}
+	atomic.StoreInt32(&dirty, DIRTY)
 }

lib/ui/ui.go

@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ import (
 	"github.com/gdamore/tcell/v2"
 )
 
+const (
+	DIRTY int32 = iota
+	NOT_DIRTY
+)
+
 var MsgChannel = make(chan AercMsg, 50)
 
 // QueueRedraw sends a nil message into the MsgChannel. Nothing will handle this
@@ -14,13 +19,23 @@ func QueueRedraw() {
 	MsgChannel <- nil
 }
 
+// dirty is the dirty state of the UI. Any value other than 0 means the UI is in
+// a dirty state. Dirty should only be accessed via atomic operations to
+// maintain thread safety
+var dirty int32
+
+// Invalidate marks the entire UI as invalid. Invalidate can be called from any
+// goroutine
+func Invalidate() {
+	atomic.StoreInt32(&dirty, DIRTY)
+}
+
 type UI struct {
 	Content DrawableInteractive
 	exit    atomic.Value // bool
 	ctx     *Context
 	screen  tcell.Screen
 	popover *Popover
-	invalid int32 // access via atomic
 }
 
 func Initialize(content DrawableInteractive) (*UI, error) {
@@ -47,10 +62,7 @@ func Initialize(content DrawableInteractive) (*UI, error) {
 
 	state.exit.Store(false)
 
-	state.invalid = 1
-	content.OnInvalidate(func(_ Drawable) {
-		atomic.StoreInt32(&state.invalid, 1)
-	})
+	Invalidate()
 	if beeper, ok := content.(DrawableInteractiveBeeper); ok {
 		beeper.OnBeep(screen.Beep)
 	}
@@ -80,8 +92,8 @@ func (state *UI) Close() {
 }
 
 func (state *UI) Render() {
-	wasInvalid := atomic.SwapInt32(&state.invalid, 0)
-	if wasInvalid != 0 {
+	dirtyState := atomic.SwapInt32(&dirty, NOT_DIRTY)
+	if dirtyState == DIRTY {
 		// reset popover for the next Draw
 		state.popover = nil
 		state.Content.Draw(state.ctx)