libp2p / libp2p/go-libp2p-pubsub

PubSub Discovery boostrapping does not return as fast as it could

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Dominant language
Go
Stars
364
Forks
221
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Description

Currently when we Publish to a topic and require boostrapping (e.g. passing in `WithReadiness(MinTopicSize(5))`) we wait until a discovery query completes before checking again to see if we're ready.

https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-pubsub/blob/534fe2f382d8dd75dab89ddb0760542546c9f24e/discovery.go#L268-L274

This is not ideal since it's possible that we could passively discover peers (MDNS, another protocol causing a connection, etc.) during a long discovery process.

Some options:
1. Periodically check the "ready" condition instead
- There's a balance between how quickly we return and performance. The more frequently we poll, the faster we return and the more resources we consume. A backoff layer could help here, but that's just more complexity
2. Use our internal peer discovery events and check every time we get a new peer
- Assumes that the "ready" condition is static (e.g. find 5 peers), if the condition is dynamic then the events won't help us

@vyzo any thoughts here?

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
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Research direction

Start at discovery.go lines 268-274 and trace how Publish readiness with MinTopicSize(5) waits for discovery queries. Compare periodic readiness checks with internal peer-discovery events, then define and test behavior showing that passively discovered peers can satisfy readiness without waiting for the query to complete.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
distributed-systems, networking
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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