api: nvim_get_mode()

Asynchronous API functions are served immediately, which means pending
input could change the state of Nvim shortly after an async API function
result is returned.

nvim_get_mode() is different:
  - If RPCs are known to be blocked, it responds immediately (without
    flushing the input/event queue)
  - else it is handled just-in-time before waiting for input, after
    pending input was processed. This makes the result more reliable
    (but not perfect).

Internally this is handled as a special case, but _semantically_ nothing
has changed: API users never know when input flushes, so this internal
special-case doesn't violate that. As far as API users are concerned,
nvim_get_mode() is just another asynchronous API function.

In all cases nvim_get_mode() never blocks for more than the time it
takes to flush the input/event queue (~µs).

Note: This doesn't address #6166; nvim_get_mode() will provoke #6166 if
e.g. `d` is operator-pending.

Closes #6159

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/nvim/event/loop.c b/src/nvim/event/loop.c
index 6963978581..c709ce9a1c 100644
--- a/src/nvim/event/loop.c
+++ b/src/nvim/event/loop.c
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@ void loop_poll_events(Loop *loop, int ms)
     // we do not block indefinitely for I/O.
     uv_timer_start(&loop->poll_timer, timer_cb, (uint64_t)ms, (uint64_t)ms);
   } else if (ms == 0) {
-    // For ms == 0, we need to do a non-blocking event poll by
-    // setting the run mode to UV_RUN_NOWAIT.
+    // For ms == 0, do a non-blocking event poll.
     mode = UV_RUN_NOWAIT;
   }