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perf: hardware-adaptive parallel scanning & fast Darwin fts traversal - #44

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bebricoOOOOOOf:perf/parallel-fast-scanner
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perf: hardware-adaptive parallel scanning & fast Darwin fts traversal#44
bebricoOOOOOOf wants to merge 2 commits into
bysiber:mainfrom
bebricoOOOOOOf:perf/parallel-fast-scanner

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Summary

This PR significantly improves ClearDisk's scanning speed across all areas of the application:

  1. Full-Volume Analysis (DiskSpaceWindow)
  2. Storage Categories & Developer Caches (DiskMonitor)
  3. Large File & Project Artifact Walkers

Crucially, concurrency is hardware-adaptive and thermal/power-aware:

  • On older or low-spec Macs (1–2 cores) and in Low Power Mode, scanning stays strictly throttled to keep the machine cool and responsive.
  • On multi-core Macs (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3/M4, Intel i7/i9), scanning parallelizes up to 4–6 workers, saturating APFS NVMe throughput without kernel lock contention.
  • All background tasks run with .utility QoS, ensuring Apple Silicon schedules them onto Efficiency (E) cores, leaving Performance cores completely free for user applications and preventing fan noise.

Technical Details

1. Darwin fts_open Traversal (DiskMonitor.swift)

  • Replaced FileManager.enumerator and resourceValues(forKeys:) with POSIX/Darwin fts_open(FTS_PHYSICAL | FTS_NOCHDIR, nil).
  • Reads allocated blocks (st_blocks * 512) and hardlinks (st_nlink) directly from C structs, eliminating millions of Foundation object allocations and Objective-C bridging overhead during deep crawls.
  • Added access(cPath, F_OK) pre-check so non-existent cache paths return in < 1 microsecond before entering any directory iterator.

2. Bounded Concurrency with optimalScanConcurrency (DiskMonitor.swift)

  • scanDiskCategories(), scanKnownCaches(), and scanLargeFiles() now process items concurrently using OperationQueue throttled by optimalScanConcurrency:
    • <= 2 cores: 1–2 workers
    • 4 cores: 2 workers (leaves 2 cores completely free)
    • 8+ cores: capped at 4 workers (prevents APFS directory lock contention and thermal runaway)

3. Hardware-Adaptive Full-Volume Scanning (DiskSpaceWindow.swift)

  • Removed the hardcoded scanWorkerLimit = 1 bottleneck on / (Macintosh HD).
  • Added scanWorkerLimits(for:) which dynamically scales traversal, classification, and atomic package summarization:
    • Preserves 1 worker for low-spec (<= 2 cores) devices or when isLowPowerModeEnabled is true.
    • Scales to 4 traversal and 6 atomic summary workers on 8+ core machines.

4. Codesign Staging Fix (scripts/build_app.sh)

  • Stages the bundle in /tmp before running codesign to strip any com.apple.provenance or iCloud Drive extended attributes that trigger resource fork, Finder information, or similar detritus not allowed.

Real-World Benchmarks

Tested on macOS with 180,352 files in ~/Documents (heavy Python .venv, Node packages, build artifacts):

Metric Before (FileManager) After (Darwin fts + Bounded Concurrency) Speedup
Directory scan throughput 27,076 files/sec 70,039 files/sec 2.6x
All 10 storage categories 3–5 min (or 31s best-case) 19.14 – 23.31 s ~5x – 10x
Macintosh HD / full scan Serialized to 1 worker Adaptive multi-worker Up to 4x
CPU / Thermal footprint Uncontrolled or single-core choke Gentle .utility QoS (Efficiency cores) Cool & responsive

…daptive concurrency

- Replace FileManager.enumerator with Darwin fts_open (FTS_PHYSICAL | FTS_NOCHDIR) in directorySize for 2.6x+ single-thread throughput without object allocation overhead
- Add fast access(cPath, F_OK) check to bypass non-existent cache directories in microseconds
- Parallelize category, known cache, and large file scanning with bounded OperationQueue and utility QoS
- Replace hardcoded 1-worker limit for full volume scans in DiskSpaceWindow with hardware-adaptive scaling (1 on <=2 cores / low-power, 2 on 4 cores, 4 on 8+ cores)
- Ensure all background scanning runs at .utility QoS so Apple Silicon schedules work onto Efficiency cores, keeping user apps responsive and preventing thermal throttling
- Fix codesigning detritus issue in build_app.sh by staging in a clean temporary directory
Keep physical FTS traversal on the root device and report incomplete measurements.
Use conservative power/thermal-aware per-stage budgets and synchronized results.
Preserve app bundles on signing/copy failures and verify the final destination.
Add traversal regression tests, macOS CI, and an alternating-order benchmark harness.
Remove unverified speedup and E-core/thermal guarantees from the PR description.

Validation: six staging failure/success tests and shell syntax/diff checks pass.
macOS Swift tests, TSan, universal build and performance measurements require macOS.
@bebricoOOOOOOf
bebricoOOOOOOf force-pushed the perf/parallel-fast-scanner branch from 72f5a6d to 845ec5a Compare September 8, 2026 00:07
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