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Informational 21 Bitcoin

Speed up `remove_stale_channels_and_tracking` nontrivially

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Matt Corallo

73/100 · Adequate
Speed up `remove_stale_channels_and_tracking` nontrivially

During startup, the lightning protocol forces us to fetch a ton of
gossip for channels where there is a `channel_update` in only one
direction. We then have to wait around a while until we can prune
the crap cause we don't know when the gossip sync has completed.

Sadly, doing a large prune via `remove_stale_channels_and_tracking`
is somewhat slow. Removing a large portion of our graph currently
takes a bit more than 7.5 seconds on an i9-14900K, which can
ultimately ~hang a node with a few less GHz ~forever.

The bulk of this time is in our `IndexedMap` removals, where we
walk the entire `keys` `Vec` to remove the entry, then shift it
down after removing.

In the previous commit we shifted to a bulk removal model for
channels, here we do the same for nodes. This reduces the same test
to around 340 milliseconds on the same hardware.
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Provides detailed explanatory context✓ Mentions testing or verification
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit is a performance optimization, not a security fix. It speeds up a cleanup routine in the Lightning network graph code that removes old, stale channels and nodes during startup. The change switches from removing nodes one-by-one to removing them in bulk, cutting the time from over 7.5 seconds to about 340 milliseconds on a fast desktop. There is no indication this fixes a vulnerability or changes security behavior.

Recommended action

No security action required. Treat as a normal performance improvement. If reviewing for release notes, note it as a startup-time optimization for nodes with large gossip graphs.

Security signals we found

01

No security-relevant signals present in commit message or diff

02

Performance optimization only: O(n^2) individual removals replaced with bulk removal

03

No new input validation, authorization, or cryptographic logic introduced

04

No memory safety changes; Rust ownership patterns unchanged

05

No changes to network message handling or peer trust assumptions

Risk score

Why this scored 21/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 2/30
Exploitability 0/25
Stealth signal 1/15
Affected reach 5/15
Confidence 9/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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