Re: [PATCH] Bug: fragile org refile cache

[Ihor Radchenko]

Maxim Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> writes:

> Maybe I could avoid org-goto as well. Actual reason to use it was that 
> it does not ask for file name as the first step in the case of 
> (org-refile-use-outline-path 'file). It took enough time to me to 
> realize how to jump/refile to non-leaf heading without such settings.

Note that Org mode has integration with imenu. It is an alternative you
can use to jump around current buffer.

> Just an idea. Is it possible to implement some specific text property 
> for heading lines, namely cleaned out heading text (no cookies, tags, 
> hidden parts of links), that is updated after each editing (likely 
> something like font locks)? It could significantly speed up scanning 
> buffer for goto/refile targets. Unfortunately it would not help for 
> files that have not opened yet.

There is org-outline-path-cache used by org-get-outline-cache. It avoids
computing parent's outline path multiple times, which is already a great
improvement.

For the cleaned heading text, I do not think that re-calculating the
heading text on each change is a good idea. It may degrade typing
latency. Yet, an acceptable approach could be simply invalidating cache
for the changed headings. Then, outline paths can be re-calculated on
changed headings when needed. This should be an improvement compared to
blanket (setq org-outline-path-cache nil) in org-refile-get-targets.

> To be clear, org-refile and org-goto share the same cache and it is the 
> source of the problem.

I would say that the problem is rather org-goto (ab)using org-refile
incorrectly. I have the following piece of elisp using org-refile
mechanism for headline selection:

(let ((org-refile-history (append saved-id parent-project))
          (org-refile-cache nil)
          (org-refile-target-verify-function #'org-att-id-skip-function))
      (let ((prompt-ans (org-refile-get-location "Link to attachment from")))
        (prog1
            (org-id-get (seq-find #'markerp
                                  prompt-ans)
                        'create))))

org-refile-cache can be simply let-bound to nil (in my case) or
alternative cache variable, if the alternative cache should persist.

Best,
Ihor