Fix concurrency-related bugs in ActivateBestChain

skeees · furszy · commit a51a75529ad2 · 2021-04-03T10:01:37.000-03:00
If multiple threads are invoking ActivateBestChain, it was possible to have
them working towards different tips, and we could arrive at a less work tip
than we should.  Fix this by introducing a ChainState lock which must
be held for the entire duration of ActivateBestChain to enforce
exclusion in ABC.
diff --git a/src/validation.cpp b/src/validation.cpp
@@ -147,11 +147,17 @@ struct CBlockIndexWorkComparator {
 CBlockIndex* pindexBestInvalid;
 
 /**
-     * The set of all CBlockIndex entries with BLOCK_VALID_TRANSACTIONS (for itself and all ancestors) and
-     * as good as our current tip or better. Entries may be failed, though.
-     */
+ * The set of all CBlockIndex entries with BLOCK_VALID_TRANSACTIONS (for itself and all ancestors) and
+ * as good as our current tip or better. Entries may be failed, though.
+ */
 std::set<CBlockIndex*, CBlockIndexWorkComparator> setBlockIndexCandidates;
 
+/**
+ * the ChainState Mutex
+ * A lock that must be held when modifying this ChainState - held in ActivateBestChain()
+ */
+Mutex m_cs_chainstate;
+
 /** All pairs A->B, where A (or one if its ancestors) misses transactions, but B has transactions. */
 std::multimap<CBlockIndex*, CBlockIndex*> mapBlocksUnlinked;
 
@@ -2226,6 +2232,12 @@ bool ActivateBestChain(CValidationState& state, std::shared_ptr<const CBlock> pb
     // sanely for performance or correctness!
     AssertLockNotHeld(cs_main);
 
+    // ABC maintains a fair degree of expensive-to-calculate internal state
+    // because this function periodically releases cs_main so that it does not lock up other threads for too long
+    // during large connects - and to allow for e.g. the callback queue to drain
+    // we use m_cs_chainstate to enforce mutual exclusion so that only one caller may execute this function at a time
+    LOCK(m_cs_chainstate);
+
     CBlockIndex* pindexNewTip = nullptr;
     CBlockIndex* pindexMostWork = nullptr;
     do {
