Make scanning non-blocking (ie. async)

[idr4n]

Make scanning non-blocking (ie. async)

[idr4n]

Hi Greg,
Thanks for suggesting that! Actually the max_files option does work for me and solve the primary issue of by mistake scanning very large directories and having the UI blocked. I added the suggested 100,000, and it takes maybe only two to three seconds for opening for me which is good in this case.

Since your suggestion solves the issue for me, feel free to close this or keep it open while considering to add the async if there are no downsides to it, as you wish.

[wincent]

So, for now, the best way to mitigate this kind of thing is to set max_files as described in the docs. (This is assuming you're using the Lua implementation.)

I agree that it would be nice to be fully async, so I'm going to retitle this and think about it. The main problem with going async is that it may add overhead, so that is why I haven't done it in all these years, instead preferring to make the scanning as fast as possible to try and mitigate the downsides of doing the scanning in single-threaded mode. Note also that some of the alternative scanners might be faster than the default one, like the Ripgrep scanner, or the Git-based scanner, or the Watchman-based scanner etc. Those are mentioned in the docs too.