Fix delay with flicking through files or commits when git diff is very slow (#4803)

One reason why git diff can be very slow is when "diff.algorithm =
histogram" is being used. In this case, showing a very long single-file
diff can take seconds to load, and you'll see the "loading..." message
in the main view until we got the first lines of the diff to show.
There's nothing really we can do about this delay; however, when
switching to another, shorter file (or commit) while the "loading..."
message is still showing, this switch should be instantaneous. And it
was before 0.54.0, but we broke this in 0.54.0 with 8d7740a
(#4782); now users have to wait for the slow git diff command to output
more text before the switch occurs. To fix this, don't block waiting for
the process to terminate if we just stopped it.

In addition, improve CPU usage by terminating git processes gracefully
(by sending them a TERM signal); this helps keep CPU usage low when
flicking through several of these huge diffs with "diff.algorithm =
histogram", because it avoids having several git processes running in
the background, calculating expensive diffs that we are never going to
show. Unfortunately this is only possible on Linux and Mac, so Windows
users will have to live with the higher CPU usage. The recommended
workaround is to not use "diff.algorithm = histogram".

Fixes #4798.

Author: stefanhaller

pkg/commands/oscommands/os.go

@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package oscommands
 
 import (
-	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
@@ -329,15 +328,3 @@ func GetLazygitPath() string {
 	}
 	return `"` + filepath.ToSlash(ex) + `"`
 }
-
-func (c *OSCommand) UpdateWindowTitle() error {
-	if c.Platform.OS != "windows" {
-		return nil
-	}
-	path, getWdErr := os.Getwd()
-	if getWdErr != nil {
-		return getWdErr
-	}
-	argString := fmt.Sprint("title ", filepath.Base(path), " - Lazygit")
-	return c.Cmd.NewShell(argString, c.UserConfig().OS.ShellFunctionsFile).Run()
-}

pkg/commands/oscommands/os_default_platform.go

@@ -5,8 +5,10 @@ package oscommands
 
 import (
 	"os"
+	"os/exec"
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
+	"syscall"
 )
 
 func GetPlatform() *Platform {
@@ -34,3 +36,15 @@ func getUserShell() string {
 
 	return "bash"
 }
+
+func (c *OSCommand) UpdateWindowTitle() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func TerminateProcessGracefully(cmd *exec.Cmd) error {
+	if cmd.Process == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	return cmd.Process.Signal(syscall.SIGTERM)
+}

pkg/commands/oscommands/os_windows.go

@@ -1,9 +1,30 @@
 package oscommands
 
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"os/exec"
+	"path/filepath"
+)
+
 func GetPlatform() *Platform {
 	return &Platform{
 		OS:       "windows",
 		Shell:    "cmd",
 		ShellArg: "/c",
 	}
 }
+
+func (c *OSCommand) UpdateWindowTitle() error {
+	path, getWdErr := os.Getwd()
+	if getWdErr != nil {
+		return getWdErr
+	}
+	argString := fmt.Sprint("title ", filepath.Base(path), " - Lazygit")
+	return c.Cmd.NewShell(argString, c.UserConfig().OS.ShellFunctionsFile).Run()
+}
+
+func TerminateProcessGracefully(cmd *exec.Cmd) error {
+	// Signals other than SIGKILL are not supported on Windows
+	return nil
+}

pkg/tasks/tasks.go

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/jesseduffield/gocui"
+	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands/oscommands"
 	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils"
 	"github.com/sasha-s/go-deadlock"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
@@ -165,6 +166,17 @@ func (self *ViewBufferManager) NewCmdTask(start func() (*exec.Cmd, io.Reader), p
 				// and the user is flicking through a bunch of items.
 				self.throttle = time.Since(startTime) < THROTTLE_TIME && timeToStart > COMMAND_START_THRESHOLD
 
+				// Kill the still-running command. The only reason to do this is to save CPU usage
+				// when flicking through several very long diffs when diff.algorithm = histogram is
+				// being used, in which case multiple git processes continue to calculate expensive
+				// diffs in the background even though they have been stopped already.
+				//
+				// Unfortunately this will do nothing on Windows, so Windows users will have to live
+				// with the higher CPU usage.
+				if err := oscommands.TerminateProcessGracefully(cmd); err != nil {
+					self.Log.Errorf("error when trying to terminate cmd task: %v; Command: %v %v", err, cmd.Path, cmd.Args)
+				}
+
 				// close the task's stdout pipe (or the pty if we're using one) to make the command terminate
 				onDone()
 			}
@@ -291,11 +303,15 @@ func (self *ViewBufferManager) NewCmdTask(start func() (*exec.Cmd, io.Reader), p
 
 			refreshViewIfStale()
 
-			if err := cmd.Wait(); err != nil {
-				select {
-				case <-opts.Stop:
-					// it's fine if we've killed this program ourselves
-				default:
+			select {
+			case <-opts.Stop:
+				// If we stopped the task, don't block waiting for it; this could cause a delay if
+				// the process takes a while until it actually terminates. We still want to call
+				// Wait to reclaim any resources, but do it on a background goroutine, and ignore
+				// any errors.
+				go func() { _ = cmd.Wait() }()
+			default:
+				if err := cmd.Wait(); err != nil {
 					self.Log.Errorf("Unexpected error when running cmd task: %v; Failed command: %v %v", err, cmd.Path, cmd.Args)
 				}
 			}