Optimise _get_state_after_missing_prev_event: use /state

changelog.d/12040.feature

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Optimise fetching large quantities of missing room state over federation.

synapse/handlers/federation_event.py

@@ -883,10 +883,24 @@ async def _get_state_after_missing_prev_event(
         logger.debug("We are also missing %i auth events", len(missing_auth_events))
 
         missing_events = missing_desired_events | missing_auth_events
-        logger.debug("Fetching %i events from remote", len(missing_events))
-        await self._get_events_and_persist(
-            destination=destination, room_id=room_id, event_ids=missing_events
-        )
+
+        # Making an individual request for each of 1000s of events has a lot of
+        # overhead. On the other hand, we don't really want to fetch all of the events
+        # if we already have most of them.
+        #
+        # As an arbitrary heuristic, if we are missing more than 10% of the events, then
+        # we fetch the whole state.
+        #
+        # TODO: might it be better to have an API which lets us do an aggregate event
+        #   request
+        if (len(missing_events) * 10) >= len(auth_event_ids) + len(state_event_ids):
+            logger.debug("Requesting complete state from remote")
+            await self._get_state_and_persist(destination, room_id, event_id)
+        else:
+            logger.debug("Fetching %i events from remote", len(missing_events))
+            await self._get_events_and_persist(
+                destination=destination, room_id=room_id, event_ids=missing_events
+            )
 
         # we need to make sure we re-load from the database to get the rejected
         # state correct.
@@ -945,6 +959,27 @@ async def _get_state_after_missing_prev_event(
 
         return remote_state
 
+    async def _get_state_and_persist(
+        self, destination: str, room_id: str, event_id: str
+    ) -> None:
+        """Get the complete room state at a given event, and persist any new events
+        as outliers"""
+        room_version = await self._store.get_room_version(room_id)
+        auth_events, state_events = await self._federation_client.get_room_state(
+            destination, room_id, event_id=event_id, room_version=room_version
+        )
+        logger.info("/state returned %i events", len(auth_events) + len(state_events))
+
+        await self._auth_and_persist_outliers(
+            room_id, itertools.chain(auth_events, state_events)
+        )
+
+        # we also need the event itself.
+        if not await self._store.have_seen_events(room_id, event_id):
+            await self._get_events_and_persist(
+                destination=destination, room_id=room_id, event_ids=(event_id,)
+            )
+
     async def _process_received_pdu(
         self,
         origin: str,