macOS: High CPU Usage (looping `update_file_if_needed`)

[JordanYates]

Bug type: Language Service

Describe the bug

• OS and Version:
  
• VS Code Version:
  
• C/C++ Extension Version:
  v1.6.0

Sometime after starting vscode, the cpptools process will jump to 100% CPU usage and stay there until the windows is reloaded.
The project is for embedded devices, and is therefore using a cross-compiler (arm-none-eabi-gcc). Intellisense configuration is through an autogenerated compile_commands.json. The project is based on Zephyr RTOS (https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr). The root folder (ignoring compiler headers) is approximately 40k files.

Code sample and logs

• Configurations in c_cpp_properties.json

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Zephyr",
            "cStandard": "c99",
            "compilerPath": "/Users/<user>/code/gcc-arm-none-eabi/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-x64",
            "compileCommands": "${workspaceFolder}/build/compile_commands.json",
            "includePath": [
                "zephyr/include",
                "${workspaceFolder}/build/zephyr/include/generated"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

• Logs from running C/C++: Log Diagnostics from the VS Code command palette

    "C_Cpp.loggingLevel": "7",

update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/x86/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/arm64/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/arm/aarch32/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/arc/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/nios2/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/riscv/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/xtensa/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/posix/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297
update_file_if_needed: /Users/<user>/zephyr/zephyr/include/arch/sparc/arch.h
  Same time stamp: 1630475297

Over a minute or so of just watching the logs, there were approximately 400 thousand lines like the above.
Not all files were being checked. Files that were checked were checked about 80 times each.

Additional context

Call stack of cpptools process.

[sean-mcmanus]

Can you add the zephyr path to the C_Cpp.files.exclude setting as a workaround?

It sounds like something is causing a near infinite loop or repeated processing. Are you able to tell what the root source of the loop is, such as some sort of symlinked path maybe?

I'll see if our team can repro this.

[JordanYates]

It sounds like something is causing a near infinite loop or repeated processing. Are you able to tell what the root source of the loop is, such as some sort of symlinked path maybe?

I realised that it only occurs after building an application, and sure enough there is a whole folder of generated symlinks in the build folders. Adding this to settings.json appears to be enough to fix the issue:

    "C_Cpp.files.exclude": {
        "**/generated/syscall_links/**": true
    }

[sean-mcmanus]

Our directory iteration code is supposed to avoid processing the same folders when navigating through symlinks, but it sounds like there could be a bug with that.