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| author | user <user@clank> | 2026-08-07 15:14:30 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | user <user@clank> | 2026-08-07 15:14:30 +0200 |
| commit | 72fce7da1a1fd6527e389ffeb0f951157523589a (patch) | |
| tree | 3f08a83f0d99f3d3fc7069b7be00d235bab82817 /docs/PROJECTS.md | |
| parent | Stop tracking 157MB of core dumps, and ignore them (diff) | |
| parent | docs: upstream findings for the ida-codemode maintainers (diff) | |
| download | ida-tui-72fce7da1a1fd6527e389ffeb0f951157523589a.tar.gz ida-tui-72fce7da1a1fd6527e389ffeb0f951157523589a.tar.xz ida-tui-72fce7da1a1fd6527e389ffeb0f951157523589a.zip | |
Merge the IDA Code Mode port
Replaces the private idalib worker (idatui/worker.py + worker_client.py, with
server/patch_server.py injecting tools into ida-pro-mcp) with an ordinary
client of ida_codemode.client.DatabaseHandle. A database open by an IDA GUI is
reused; otherwise Code Mode starts or shares a managed idalib worker. The TUI
no longer owns an IDA process, and closing it releases only its lease.
Based on Duncan Ogilvie's port, rebased onto ~150 commits of local work it
predated. The rebase itself was mechanical; landing it was not. Nine defects
had to be fixed before the feature set was whole again, none of which the
patch's own tests could catch:
- DatabaseHandle.open() takes image_base, not loading_address: every
connect() would have raised TypeError on the first call
- five operations our tree had grown were simply missing (flowchart, so the
graph view was dead; op_format/pc_nums/pc_num_format, so 'o'/'O' were;
survey_binary)
- set_comments wrote only the disassembly comment, so comments never
appeared in pseudocode
- xref_query returned rows in raw IDA order, and 'follow the call' silently
followed the fall-through instead
- rename accepted one edit per category, so bulk symbol import was dead
- decompile ran decomp_map's full per-column ctree sweep to fill in a
per-line address anchor
- heads shipped without operand extents or the digest protocol
- the package became unimportable without ida_codemode installed, which
killed the offline test suites
Verified against the pre-codemode tag rather than against assumptions: the
full suite is 788 passed / 0 failed, and the pilot's 301 checks match the old
backend exactly. Performance is within 2x on the listing hot path and faster
on decompile, disasm and connect, after fixing two runtime costs that are
documented for upstream in docs/CODEMODE_UPSTREAM.md.
Test runtime came down from ~9m20s to 115s along the way -- not by removing
checks, but by removing four kinds of waiting-on-a-guess that were also
hiding real failures.
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/PROJECTS.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/PROJECTS.md | 41 |
1 files changed, 21 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/docs/PROJECTS.md b/docs/PROJECTS.md index fe6c2a8..0efee31 100644 --- a/docs/PROJECTS.md +++ b/docs/PROJECTS.md @@ -7,9 +7,11 @@ search across all of them, and (later) follow calls from one into another. ## The constraint that shapes everything -`idatui/worker.py` is `serve(sock, binpath)` — **one worker process holds exactly -one database** (idalib is main-thread-only and single-DB). So N binaries = N -worker processes, each with the analyzed DB resident. +IDA still exposes one active database per GUI/idalib process. Code Mode makes +those instances discoverable and shareable: each project entry retains one +`DatabaseHandle` lease, which may target a registered GUI or a managed idalib +worker. N resident project databases can therefore mean up to N processes, but +ida-tui no longer owns or terminates them. Measured cost (this box, `targets/`): @@ -30,13 +32,13 @@ crypto library. Two capabilities that feel like one, but aren't: -1. **Switching** to a binary needs a *live worker*. +1. **Switching** to a binary needs a *live Code Mode lease*. 2. **Searching across** binaries does *not* — if a per-binary index (functions, strings, imports/exports) is cached on disk. That split is the unlock: project-wide search stays instant across every binary, including ones never opened this session, and only *jumping* to a hit costs a -worker spawn. +Code Mode attach/open. ## Layout @@ -83,17 +85,16 @@ basename and must be unique (it names the staged file). ## Runtime -- **`WorkerPool`** — one `WorkerClient` per binary, spawned lazily on first - switch, kept resident until the memory budget is exceeded, then LRU-evicted. - Eviction **saves the DB first**, so returning to a binary is a DB load, not a - re-analysis. Binaries can be pinned to stay resident. +- **`DatabasePool`** — one `CodeModeClient` lease per resident binary, attached + lazily on first switch and LRU-released when the advisory memory budget is + exceeded. Eviction explicitly saves managed IDBs but never implicitly saves a + GUI. Closing a lease never kills a GUI or another client's managed worker; + Code Mode owns final worker shutdown. - **`BinaryState`** — per binary: `client, program, nav, cur, func_index, pref/active/split, filter`. Switching snapshots the current state and restores - the target's. `_after_reconnect` already does exactly this swap (client + - program, reload the index, re-open the entry) — switching reuses that seam. -- **Clean shutdown** — the worker currently does `close_database(save=False)` and - is hard-killed on exit, which is why wedge files accumulate. Projects need - save-on-evict and an orderly close anyway, so that gets fixed here. + the target's. `_after_reconnect` provides the client/program swap seam. +- **Clean shutdown** — release all leases. Managed idalib workers save/close on + their own main thread after the final lease; GUI sessions remain open. ## UI @@ -109,8 +110,8 @@ basename and must be unique (it names the staged file). ## Phases **Phase 1 — project model + switching. DONE.** Project file + staging -(`idatui/project.py`), `WorkerPool` with budget eviction / save-on-evict / -clean shutdown (`idatui/pool.py`), `BinaryState` snapshot+restore and the switch +(`idatui/project.py`), `DatabasePool` with budgeted lease release and +save-on-evict (`idatui/pool.py`), `BinaryState` snapshot+restore and the switch itself, the `Ctrl+O` switcher palette, the active binary in the status line, and `--project` (which creates the project when given binaries). One active binary; no cross-binary search yet. @@ -118,9 +119,9 @@ no cross-binary search yet. Project mode is **additive**: with no `--project` the app is byte-for-byte the single-binary tool it was, which is what keeps the 167-check pilot honest. Switching reuses the `_after_reconnect` shape — swap client+program, rebuild the -index, reopen the entry. A binary whose worker is still resident restores -instantly (its `Program` and index are still in memory); an evicted one comes -back with a fresh worker but keeps its nav history, since that is just addresses. +index, reopen the entry. A binary whose lease is still resident restores +instantly (its `Program` and index are still in memory); an evicted one attaches +again but keeps its nav history, since that is just addresses. **Phase 2 — index cache + project-wide search. (symbols done)** `idatui/index.py` keeps one **SQLite FTS5 trigram** index at @@ -222,7 +223,7 @@ records nothing — that's not navigation. *Pre-warm follows the linkage graph, not list order.* When a binary finishes indexing, `_prewarm_provider` warms the binary that provides the most of its imports — where a follow is most likely to take you, so its startup is paid -before you ask. `WorkerPool.prewarm()` refuses rather than evicting: spending a +before you ask. `DatabasePool.prewarm()` refuses rather than evicting: spending a binary you visited on one you haven't is a straight downgrade, and it would throw away that binary's caches too. At a tight budget pre-warm simply does nothing. It estimates the cost of a not-yet-spawned worker from the largest resident one, |
