simplify unviable head pruning (#3528)

Also note bug that exists that potentially prevents states from being
pruned correctly

beacon_chain/consensus_object_pools/block_dag.nim

@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@ export chronicles, forks
 
 type
   BlockRef* = ref object
-    ## Node in object graph guaranteed to lead back to tail block, and to have
-    ## a corresponding entry in database.
+    ## Node in object graph guaranteed to lead back to finalized head, and to
+    ## have a corresponding entry in database.
     ##
     ## All blocks identified by a `BlockRef` are valid per the state transition
     ## rules and that at some point were candidates for head selection. The
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ type
       ## Root that can be used to retrieve block data from database
 
     parent*: BlockRef ##\
-    ## Not nil, except for the tail
+    ## Not nil, except for the finalized head
 
   BlockSlot* = object
     ## Unique identifier for a particular fork and time in the block chain -

beacon_chain/consensus_object_pools/blockchain_dag.nim

@@ -1251,8 +1251,16 @@ proc pruneBlocksDAG(dag: ChainDAGRef) =
       continue
 
     var cur = head.atSlot()
-    while not cur.blck.isAncestorOf(dag.finalizedHead.blck):
+    # The block whose parent is nil is the `BlockRef` that's part of the
+    # canonical chain but has now been finalized - in theory there could be
+    # states at empty slot iff the fork had epoch-long gaps where the epoch
+    # transition was not on the canonical chain - these will not properly get
+    # cleaned up by the current logic - but they should also be rare
+    # TODO clean up the above as well
+    doAssert dag.finalizedHead.blck.parent == nil,
+      "finalizedHead parent should have been pruned from memory already"
 
+    while cur.blck.parent != nil:
       # TODO: should we move that disk I/O to `onSlotEnd`
       dag.delState(cur.toBlockSlotId().expect("not nil"))
 
@@ -1263,8 +1271,6 @@ proc pruneBlocksDAG(dag: ChainDAGRef) =
         dag.forkBlocks.excl(KeyedBlockRef.init(cur.blck))
         dag.db.delBlock(cur.blck.root)
 
-      if cur.blck.parent.isNil:
-        break
       cur = cur.parentOrSlot
 
     dag.heads.del(n)

tests/test_blockchain_dag.nim

@@ -474,6 +474,15 @@ suite "chain DAG finalization tests" & preset():
       dag2.finalizedHead.slot == dag.finalizedHead.slot
       getStateRoot(dag2.headState) == getStateRoot(dag.headState)
 
+    # No canonical block data should be pruned by the removal of the fork
+    for i in Slot(0)..dag2.head.slot:
+      let bids = dag.getBlockIdAtSlot(i).expect("found it")
+      if bids.isProposed:
+        check: dag2.getForkedBlock(bids.bid).isSome
+
+    # The unviable block should have been pruned however
+    check: dag2.getForkedBlock(lateBlock.root).isNone
+
   test "orphaned epoch block" & preset():
     let prestate = (ref ForkedHashedBeaconState)(kind: BeaconStateFork.Phase0)
     for i in 0 ..< SLOTS_PER_EPOCH: