Process previously failed backfill events in the background (#15585)

Process previously failed backfill events in the background because they are bound to fail again and we don't need to waste time holding up the request for something that is bound to fail again.

Fix https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/13623

Follow-up to https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/13621 and https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/13622

Part of making `/messages` faster: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/13356

1 files changed, 95 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/tests/handlers/test_federation_event.py b/tests/handlers/test_federation_event.py
index c067e5bfe3..23f1b33b2f 100644
--- a/tests/handlers/test_federation_event.py
+++ b/tests/handlers/test_federation_event.py
@@ -664,6 +664,101 @@ class FederationEventHandlerTests(unittest.FederatingHomeserverTestCase):
             StoreError,
         )
 
+    def test_backfill_process_previously_failed_pull_attempt_event_in_the_background(
+        self,
+    ) -> None:
+        """
+        Sanity check that events are still processed even if it is in the background
+        for events that already have failed pull attempts.
+        """
+        OTHER_USER = f"@user:{self.OTHER_SERVER_NAME}"
+        main_store = self.hs.get_datastores().main
+
+        # Create the room
+        user_id = self.register_user("kermit", "test")
+        tok = self.login("kermit", "test")
+        room_id = self.helper.create_room_as(room_creator=user_id, tok=tok)
+        room_version = self.get_success(main_store.get_room_version(room_id))
+
+        # Allow the remote user to send state events
+        self.helper.send_state(
+            room_id,
+            "m.room.power_levels",
+            {"events_default": 0, "state_default": 0},
+            tok=tok,
+        )
+
+        # Add the remote user to the room
+        member_event = self.get_success(
+            event_injection.inject_member_event(self.hs, room_id, OTHER_USER, "join")
+        )
+
+        initial_state_map = self.get_success(
+            main_store.get_partial_current_state_ids(room_id)
+        )
+
+        auth_event_ids = [
+            initial_state_map[("m.room.create", "")],
+            initial_state_map[("m.room.power_levels", "")],
+            member_event.event_id,
+        ]
+
+        # Create a regular event that should process
+        pulled_event = make_event_from_dict(
+            self.add_hashes_and_signatures_from_other_server(
+                {
+                    "type": "test_regular_type",
+                    "room_id": room_id,
+                    "sender": OTHER_USER,
+                    "prev_events": [
+                        member_event.event_id,
+                    ],
+                    "auth_events": auth_event_ids,
+                    "origin_server_ts": 1,
+                    "depth": 12,
+                    "content": {"body": "pulled_event"},
+                }
+            ),
+            room_version,
+        )
+
+        # Record a failed pull attempt for this event which will cause us to backfill it
+        # in the background from here on out.
+        self.get_success(
+            main_store.record_event_failed_pull_attempt(
+                room_id, pulled_event.event_id, "fake cause"
+            )
+        )
+
+        # We expect an outbound request to /backfill, so stub that out
+        self.mock_federation_transport_client.backfill.return_value = make_awaitable(
+            {
+                "origin": self.OTHER_SERVER_NAME,
+                "origin_server_ts": 123,
+                "pdus": [
+                    pulled_event.get_pdu_json(),
+                ],
+            }
+        )
+
+        # The function under test: try to backfill and process the pulled event
+        with LoggingContext("test"):
+            self.get_success(
+                self.hs.get_federation_event_handler().backfill(
+                    self.OTHER_SERVER_NAME,
+                    room_id,
+                    limit=1,
+                    extremities=["$some_extremity"],
+                )
+            )
+
+        # Ensure `run_as_background_process(...)` has a chance to run (essentially
+        # `wait_for_background_processes()`)
+        self.reactor.pump((0.1,))
+
+        # Make sure we processed and persisted the pulled event
+        self.get_success(main_store.get_event(pulled_event.event_id, allow_none=False))
+
     def test_process_pulled_event_with_rejected_missing_state(self) -> None:
         """Ensure that we correctly handle pulled events with missing state containing a
         rejected state event