Avoid signal handling reentrancy issues

If e.g. two SIGUSR1 signals arrive at almost the same time,
it can be that the first one hasn't finished refreshing the UI yet when
the second one needs to be handled, leading to a generator being executed
twice, which python doesn't like.
We try to avoid this by scheduling the actual handling logic as a
coroutine on the currently running event loop.
This has the advantage that the signal handler now has full access
to any async functions or synchronization primitives.

As long as the event loop is single-threaded, the current version should
avoid this particular crash as the refreshing logic is not async and hence
cannot be interrupted at the event loop level.
If this were to change at some point, an asyncio.Semaphore or equivalent
primitive can be easily introduced.

Author: RobinJadoul

alot/ui.py

@@ -95,8 +95,8 @@ def __init__(self, dbman, initialcmdline):
         mainframe = urwid.Frame(urwid.SolidFill())
         self.root_widget = urwid.AttrMap(mainframe, global_att)
 
-        signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, self.handle_signal)
-        signal.signal(signal.SIGUSR1, self.handle_signal)
+        signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, self._handle_signal)
+        signal.signal(signal.SIGUSR1, self._handle_signal)
 
         # load histories
         self._cache = os.path.join(
@@ -728,21 +728,28 @@ async def apply_command(self, cmd):
                     logging.info('calling post-hook')
                     await cmd.posthook(ui=self, dbm=self.dbman, cmd=cmd)
 
-    def handle_signal(self, signum, frame):
+    def _handle_signal(self, signum, _frame):
+        """
+        Handle UNIX signals: add a new task onto the event loop.
+        Doing it this way ensures what our handler has access to whatever
+        synchronization primitives or async calls it may require.
+        """
+        loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+        asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(self.handle_signal(signum), loop)
+
+    async def handle_signal(self, signum):
         """
         handles UNIX signals
 
         This function currently just handles SIGUSR1. It could be extended to
         handle more
 
         :param signum: The signal number (see man 7 signal)
-        :param frame: The execution frame
-            (https://docs.python.org/2/reference/datamodel.html#frame-objects)
         """
         # it is a SIGINT ?
         if signum == signal.SIGINT:
             logging.info('shut down cleanly')
-            asyncio.ensure_future(self.apply_command(globals.ExitCommand()))
+            await self.apply_command(globals.ExitCommand())
         elif signum == signal.SIGUSR1:
             if isinstance(self.current_buffer, SearchBuffer):
                 self.current_buffer.rebuild()