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+# contributing to zathura as a novice
+
+2023-10-24
+
+Earlier this year I made a [patch](https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura/-/merge_requests/80)
+for Zathura, the open-source PDF reader.
+In this post, I'll document the journey of how I diagnosed the root cause of a bug in Zathura,
+then wrote a bugfix for it.
+As this is my first "real" patch that got accepted, the
+most important take-away for me is that it's actually not that hard to contribute to open-source.
+
+# the bug
+
+First of all, as seen in [my last blog post](../typst-notes/), I make use of Zathura extensively in my note-taking setup.
+On one half of my window, I write markup in Neovim, and in the other half Zathura displays the rendered result.
+Every time I save the markup, it is automatically re-compiled, then Zathura reloads the document.
+Normally, this works really well, but if you're reloading documents often, you'll notice that there's flicker every time:
+
+[ ![](/public/img/zathura/flicker-thumb.gif) ](/public/img/zathura/flicker.mp4)
+
+Of course, this is not a deal-breaking issue.
+However, it is definitely annoying if you save often, and even more so if your editor automatically saves on change.
+
+Upon finding this bug, I did what any normal person does and searched online to see if there was any fixes for it.
+I stumbled upon this GitLab issue: [_Prevent flickering when reloading document_](https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura/-/issues/268).
+Unfortunately for me, the thread was nearly empty, and the last comment was from another user seeking a solution.
+
+[Another thread](https://superuser.com/questions/1459927/zathura-flicker-when-updating-pdf)
+on Stack Exchange was also a dead end, with no real answer to the problem.
+
+At this point, there was clearly no easy solution to remove flicker from Zathura.
+Since this software is open source, I decided to take a look at the source code in an attempt to diagnose the issue.
+
+# investigating source code
+
+Zathura's source code is available at their git repository.
+I cloned it to my projects folder:
+
+```
+git clone https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura
+```
+
+At the time, the latest commit was `c7baa2f6` ("Make icon visible on dark backgrounds").
+If you want to follow along with the exact same code as I saw, run this command:
+
+```
+git checkout c7baa2f6
+```
+
+At first glance, it definitely can seem daunting to navigate an unfamiliar codebase.
+However, these days, we have language servers, which makes it much faster.
+Essentially, language servers are plugins for text editors that give language "intelligence".
+With them, you can, for example, jump to the definition of a variable, or get completions when writing code.
+I find that language servers are useful especially in situations like these, where you might have no idea where a symbol comes from.
+For C, which Zathura is written in, I use [clangd](https://github.com/clangd/clangd), which integrates easily with Neovim.
+
+A necessary step to use clangd is to have a `compile_commands.json` file.
+Thankfully, with Zathura's build system, Meson, this is automatically generated during the build.
+I followed the build instructions at the bottom of the README:
+
+```
+meson build
+cd build
+ninja
+```
+
+Then, I copied the resulting file back into the root directory.
+
+```
+cp compile_commands.json ../
+```
+
+Now, Neovim will automatically have language intelligence.
+
+Still, we have no idea where the code responsible for the bug lies.
+Considering the bug happens upon reload, it would make sense to search for code related to reloading documents.
+To do this, I searched for the term "reload" using ripgrep (you could use `git grep` too):
+
+```
+rg "reload"
+```
+
+From here, I saw an interesting function signature in `zathura/shortcuts.c`:
+
+```
+sc_reload(girara_session_t* session, girara_argument_t* UNUSED(argument)
+```
+
+This looks like it could be the code responsible for reloading.
+Looking at it, this is the function body (heavily abridged):
+
+```
+bool
+sc_reload()
+{
+  /* close current document */
+  document_close(zathura, true);
+
+  /* reopen document */
+  document_open();
+}
+```
+
+Surprisingly, reloading a document is implemented by closing and reopening the document,
+rather than a separate in-place refresh feature.
+This would explain why the screen flickers during reloads:
+the document disappears entirely before the new one is loaded in its place.
+It seems like there might be a moment between closing and reopening where there is nothing on screen,
+which is what causes jarring flicker.
+
+# fixing the bug
+
+So now, we've successfully diagnosed the root cause of the flickering.
+However, this provides no clear path towards solving it.
+
+At this point, I decided to check out the `document_close` and `document_open` functions mentioned above.
+After studying these two functions, something caught my eye:
+during opening, we create `zathura->pages`, and during closing, we free it.
+Looking at the definition, `zathura->pages` is an array of pointers to GtkWidgets.
+
+As an experiment, I commented out a bunch of code from `document_close` to see what happens if the pages are not freed.
+In my head, I thought it might leave the old pages on screen and let the new ones replace it.
+Obviously, that didn't happen, and I got multiple segmentation faults, crashes and memory leaks (womp womp).
+
+Now, I was practically at a dead end again.
+However, I remembered something the author of the Stack Exchange thread tried regarding this issue:
+they attempted to set `render-loading` to false to fix the flicker.
+On default settings, when the document is reloaded, a "Loading..." prompt flickers on screen:
+
+![Zathura loading prompt](/public/img/zathura/loading.jpg)
+
+Turning it off just makes the flickering a blank screen.
+I decided to look for code related to this prompt with `rg "loading"`.
+Doing that, I found an interesting function in `zathura/page-widget.c` called `zathura_page_widget_draw`.
+Skimming the code, it looks like it handles drawing pages to screen.
+This was a promising new direction to look into.
+
+Near the end, there is a section that takes care of drawing the loading screen.
+Reading above, we see that the loading screen only renders if the page has no Cairo surface.
+Essentially, if the page hasn't fully loaded, put up a loading screen.
+
+Here, I had an idea: what if we replace the loading screen with the original page from before the reload?
+That way, it would be a seamless transition from the original document to the new document.
+
+To implement this, I added two extra pointers to the `zathura` struct:
+the `predecessor_document`, and the `predecessor_pages`.
+When Zathura closes the document for a reload, it preserves the current document and pages as "predecessors".
+Zathura will not free the predecessor document and pages immediately.
+Then, in `zathura_page_widget_draw`, instead of drawing a loading screen, it will draw the predecessor pages.
+Since having an extra buffer also uses more memory, I added a toggle option `smooth-reload` that switches this feature on and off.
+
+Of course, I'm skimming over many specific details here.
+To see the exact code of my patch, you can look at the [commit](https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura/-/commit/257a2c968bcf67cf814aeab325800d4889d8df21) on Zathura's git repository.
+
+Anyways, here is the end result of the bug-fix, where the bottom window is patched and the top one isn't:
+
+[ ![Before and after the bugfix](/public/img/zathura/before-after-thumb.gif) ](/public/img/zathura/before-after.mp4)
+
+I was really ecstatic when Zathura first smoothly reloaded a document.
+It finally worked!
+After this initial success, I collected all these changes into a [merge request](https://git.pwmt.org/pwmt/zathura/-/merge_requests/80) on GitLab.
+Finally, after a month of waiting, I got the maintainer to merge my patch.
+All in all, it took a weekend in total to get familiar with the codebase and create this patch.
+
+# conclusion
+
+At the time of writing, this patch is still only available in the bleeding-edge/git build of Zathura.
+To check that my code has made it into your version of Zathura, you can check in the man page `zathurarc(5)` for the option `smooth-reload`.
+
+Hopefully, this small contribution will improve the experience of future users of Zathura.
+Again, what I want to show in this blog post is that contributing to open-source is actually not _that_ daunting.
+When you encounter odd behaviour in your favourite software, or you want improve a feature, do not be afraid to just open it up and start tinkering.
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