It is crucial that VersionedCrdsValue::insert_timestamp does not go
backward in time:
https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/blob/ec37a843a/core/src/crds.rs#L67-L79
Otherwise methods such as get_votes and get_epoch_slots_since will
break, which will break their downstream flow, including vote-listener
and optimistic confirmation:
https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/blob/ec37a843a/core/src/cluster_info.rs#L1197-L1215https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/blob/ec37a843a/core/src/cluster_info.rs#L1274-L1298
For that, Crds::new_versioned is intended to be called "atomically" with
Crds::insert_verioned (as the comment already says so):
https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/blob/ec37a843a/core/src/crds.rs#L126-L129
However, currently this is violated in the code. For example,
filter_pull_responses creates VersionedCrdsValues (with the current
timestamp), then acquires an exclusive lock on gossip, then
process_pull_responses writes those values to the crds table:
https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/blob/ec37a843a/core/src/cluster_info.rs#L2375-L2392
Depending on the workload and lock contention, the insert_timestamps may
well be in the past when these values finally are inserted into gossip.
To avoid such scenarios, this commit:
* removes Crds::new_versioned and Crd::insert_versioned.
* makes VersionedCrdsValue constructor private, only invoked in
Crds::insert, so that insert_timestamp is populated right before
insert.
This will improve insert_timestamp monotonicity as long as Crds::insert
is not called with a stalled timestamp. Following commits may further
improve this by calling timestamp() inside Crds::insert, and/or
switching to std::time::Instant which guarantees monotonicity.
1ac2a8cfa5