From fc9f83966cd050c9de92356df6a6508c37ecfab9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 03:23:54 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] HighlighterEngine: remove background warm-up thread

The worker read the Buffer (PieceTable pieces and add buffer) while the
main thread edited it with no shared lock, and kept a raw Buffer* that
dangled once the buffer vector reallocated or shifted. PrefetchViewport
now only highlights the visible rows synchronously.

Audit finding M2.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015rcVQiiWyTzoNrsvLSaAfB
---
 syntax/HighlighterEngine.cc | 78 +------------------------------------
 syntax/HighlighterEngine.h  | 35 +++--------------
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 105 deletions(-)

diff --git a/syntax/HighlighterEngine.cc b/syntax/HighlighterEngine.cc
index b890b79..6cfab06 100644
--- a/syntax/HighlighterEngine.cc
+++ b/syntax/HighlighterEngine.cc
@@ -1,26 +1,12 @@
 #include "HighlighterEngine.h"
 #include "../Buffer.h"
 #include "LanguageHighlighter.h"
-#include <thread>
 
 namespace kte {
 HighlighterEngine::HighlighterEngine() = default;
 
 
-HighlighterEngine::~HighlighterEngine()
-{
-	// stop background worker
-	if (worker_running_.load()) {
-		{
-			std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(mtx_);
-			worker_running_.store(false);
-			has_request_ = true; // wake it up to exit
-		}
-		cv_.notify_one();
-		if (worker_.joinable())
-			worker_.join();
-	}
-}
+HighlighterEngine::~HighlighterEngine() = default;
 
 
 void
@@ -168,53 +154,9 @@ HighlighterEngine::InvalidateFrom(int row)
 }
 
 
-void
-HighlighterEngine::ensure_worker_started() const
-{
-	if (worker_running_.load())
-		return;
-	worker_running_.store(true);
-	worker_ = std::thread([this]() {
-		this->worker_loop();
-	});
-}
-
-
-void
-HighlighterEngine::worker_loop() const
-{
-	std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(mtx_);
-	while (worker_running_.load()) {
-		cv_.wait(lock, [this]() {
-			return has_request_ || !worker_running_.load();
-		});
-		if (!worker_running_.load())
-			break;
-		WarmRequest req = pending_;
-		has_request_    = false;
-		// Copy locals then release lock while computing
-		lock.unlock();
-		if (req.buf) {
-			int start  = std::max(0, req.start_row);
-			int end    = std::max(start, req.end_row);
-			int skip_f = std::min(req.skip_first, req.skip_last);
-			int skip_l = std::max(req.skip_first, req.skip_last);
-			for (int r = start; r <= end; ++r) {
-				// Avoid touching rows that the foreground just computed/drew.
-				if (r >= skip_f && r <= skip_l)
-					continue;
-				// Compute line; GetLine is thread-safe and will refresh caches.
-				(void) this->GetLine(*req.buf, r, req.version);
-			}
-		}
-		lock.lock();
-	}
-}
-
-
 void
 HighlighterEngine::PrefetchViewport(const Buffer &buf, int first_row, int row_count, std::uint64_t buf_version,
-                                    int warm_margin) const
+                                    int /*warm_margin*/) const
 {
 	if (row_count <= 0)
 		return;
@@ -230,21 +172,5 @@ HighlighterEngine::PrefetchViewport(const Buffer &buf, int first_row, int row_co
 	for (int r = start; r <= end; ++r) {
 		(void) GetLine(buf, r, buf_version);
 	}
-
-	// Enqueue background warm-around
-	int warm_start = std::max(0, start - warm_margin);
-	int warm_end   = std::min(max_rows - 1, end + warm_margin);
-	{
-		std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(mtx_);
-		pending_.buf        = &buf;
-		pending_.version    = buf_version;
-		pending_.start_row  = warm_start;
-		pending_.end_row    = warm_end;
-		pending_.skip_first = start;
-		pending_.skip_last  = end;
-		has_request_        = true;
-	}
-	ensure_worker_started();
-	cv_.notify_one();
 }
 } // namespace kte
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/syntax/HighlighterEngine.h b/syntax/HighlighterEngine.h
index 70cb276..8e581a9 100644
--- a/syntax/HighlighterEngine.h
+++ b/syntax/HighlighterEngine.h
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
 #include <unordered_map>
 #include <vector>
 #include <mutex>
-#include <condition_variable>
-#include <atomic>
-#include <thread>
 
 #include "../Highlight.h"
 #include "LanguageHighlighter.h"
@@ -39,9 +36,11 @@ public:
 	}
 
 
-	// Phase 3: viewport-first prefetch and background warming
-	// Compute only the visible range now, and enqueue a background warm-around task.
-	// warm_margin: how many extra lines above/below to warm in the background.
+	// Compute highlights for the visible range so drawing hits the cache.
+	// There is deliberately no background warming: a worker thread would read
+	// the Buffer while the main thread edits it (and could outlive a moved
+	// Buffer), and the PieceTable is not safe for concurrent read and write.
+	// warm_margin is accepted for source compatibility and ignored.
 	void PrefetchViewport(const Buffer &buf, int first_row, int row_count, std::uint64_t buf_version,
 	                      int warm_margin = 200) const;
 
@@ -62,29 +61,7 @@ private:
 	// Track best known contiguous state row for a given version to avoid O(n) scans
 	mutable std::unordered_map<std::uint64_t, int> state_last_contig_;
 
-	// Thread-safety for caches and background worker state
+	// Guards the caches above.
 	mutable std::mutex mtx_;
-
-	// Background warmer
-	struct WarmRequest {
-		const Buffer *buf{nullptr};
-		std::uint64_t version{0};
-		int start_row{0};
-		int end_row{0}; // inclusive
-		// Visible rows to skip touching in the background (inclusive range).
-		// These are computed synchronously by PrefetchViewport.
-		int skip_first{0};
-		int skip_last{-1};
-	};
-
-	mutable std::condition_variable cv_;
-	mutable std::thread worker_;
-	mutable std::atomic<bool> worker_running_{false};
-	mutable bool has_request_{false};
-	mutable WarmRequest pending_{};
-
-	void ensure_worker_started() const;
-
-	void worker_loop() const;
 };
 } // namespace kte