fix: node outputs block instead of dropping on a full channel
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Every node output used the throwing push(), so a consumer falling behind cost
values rather than time. push_blocking() already existed on Channel and
OutputPort — "wait for the consumer to drain instead of dropping; the producer
just runs slower" — but nothing called it.

A dropped frame does not degrade a downstream result, it silently changes one,
and the consumer has no way to tell it happened. For any pipeline whose output
is a claim about its input, that is corruption rather than degradation.

Safe because sentinels are already handled out-of-band, above this path: only
data blocks, so the EOF token that unwinds the network can always overtake a
stalled data path. That is exactly the hold-and-wait deadlock the push_sentinel
comment warns about, and the reason it is not reachable here.

Measured on a downstream consumer (face pipeline, 77s clip at 5 fps, expected
385 sampled frames):

  before  65 frames written, 320 dropped at one node, 29s
  after   385 frames written, 0 dropped, 17s

Faster, not slower — a dropped frame has already cost its decode, and the
overflow exception cost more. Two consecutive runs now produce byte-identical
output, which they did not before: what got dropped depended on timing, so the
same command could yield different results.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-07-31 11:31:53 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 75b34f31bb
commit 6595e6e925
+11 -12
View File
@@ -400,12 +400,15 @@ private:
ch->push_sentinel(std::move(val)); ch->push_sentinel(std::move(val));
return; return;
} }
try { // Backpressure, not loss. A full downstream channel means the consumer
ch->push(std::move(val)); // is behind, and the correct response is for this producer to run
} catch (const ChannelOverflowError&) { // slower — not to discard a value. A dropped frame does not degrade a
throw ChannelOverflowError(ch->capacity(), // result, it silently changes one, and the caller has no way to tell.
"pool node '" + name_ + "' " + output_port_label<I>()); //
} // Safe here because sentinels are handled above, out-of-band: this
// blocks only on data, so the EOF token that unwinds the network can
// always overtake a stalled data path.
ch->push_blocking(std::move(val));
} }
template<std::size_t I> template<std::size_t I>
@@ -706,12 +709,8 @@ private:
ch->push_sentinel(std::move(val)); ch->push_sentinel(std::move(val));
return; return;
} }
try { // See the note on the typed overload above: block rather than drop.
ch->push(std::move(val)); ch->push_blocking(std::move(val));
} catch (const ChannelOverflowError&) {
throw ChannelOverflowError(ch->capacity(),
"pool node '" + name_ + "'");
}
} }
Obj& obj_; Obj& obj_;