Re: [PATCH] Bug: fragile org refile cache

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@gmail.com> writes:

> Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> would it be more useful if it automaticaly generated the cache instead
>> of telling you to runt he command to do so?
>
> I think so. To be frank, I do not understand the reason why it is not
> done by default.
>
>> if a solid, perhaps unified, cache existed, would org-id use it too?
>
> Sure. Why not? I imagine such cache can store the following info:
>
> org files in system -> per-file cache -> per-heading cache -> ...
>

I suspect the reason it is not done automatically is that getting that
right for all use cases is very hard to do without adding adverse impact
to performance. A cache which is marked as 'dirty' too often results in
too frequent cache refresh operations, but at the same time, determining
what changes in an org file actually invalidate the cache can be a
process intensive operation. Allowing the user to force cache refresh
when needed is likely a reasonable compromise. 

I recall having a lot of trouble getting org-refile to work well for me.
I use it a lot, but it was so long ago, I don't recall how I got to my
final configuration (I think I may have modified my workflow to work
better with what I was able to get working reasonably reliably and
efficiently). I now tend to refile to a fairly static set of paths, so
all works OK.

Sorry I cannot provide anything more substantial. I do understand your
frustration, but not sure what the right fix is. I can see having a
cache which is automatically refreshed when necessary will be
problematic to get working for all use cases. Having the ability to turn
automatic refresh on/off and having the ability to manually force a
refresh will likely always be required.



-- 
Tim Cross