What is the purpose of the promptedNetwork logic?

[jacobheun]

I was working on an example project and noticed some extra network calls when cat'ing content, which led me to the code:

js-ipfs-bitswap/src/index.js

Lines 263 to 270 in 871d0d2

	if (!promptedNetwork) {
	promptedNetwork = true
	this.network.findAndConnect(cids[0], (err) => {
	if (err) {
	this._log.error(err)
	}
	})
	}

During getMany if the content doesn't exist locally, this block is triggered along with an external search for the content. The find and connect only applies to the first cid in the getMany request and only if it doesn't exist locally.

Since there are no comments around the code I'm not clear what the goal of this is. I presume this is to be proactive about connecting to peers that have content you're looking for, is that correct? What's the reason behind only using the first cid? Is it assumed that the other cids will exist on the found providers as well?

[daviddias]

findAndConnect need to be implemented once Peer Routing exists (find the peer and connect to it).

The find and connect only applies to the first cid in the getMany request and only if it doesn't exist locally.

We do a DHT Query just on the root node as we try to be optimistic and avoid smashing the DHT. Who has the root node potentially has the rest of the file too.