[docs] Improve commenting in coins.cpp|h

Remove references to 'pruned' coins, which don't exist since the move
to per-txout coins db.

1 files changed, 35 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/src/coins.h b/src/coins.h
index e71c8a47bc..d5484bcf65 100644
--- a/src/coins.h
+++ b/src/coins.h
@@ -109,19 +109,45 @@ public:
     }
 };
 
+/**
+ * A Coin in one level of the coins database caching hierarchy.
+ *
+ * A coin can either be:
+ * - unspent or spent (in which case the Coin object will be nulled out - see Coin.Clear())
+ * - DIRTY or not DIRTY
+ * - FRESH or not FRESH
+ *
+ * Out of these 2^3 = 8 states, only some combinations are valid:
+ * - unspent, FRESH, DIRTY (e.g. a new coin created in the cache)
+ * - unspent, not FRESH, DIRTY (e.g. a coin changed in the cache during a reorg)
+ * - unspent, not FRESH, not DIRTY (e.g. an unspent coin fetched from the parent cache)
+ * - spent, FRESH, not DIRTY (e.g. a spent coin fetched from the parent cache)
+ * - spent, not FRESH, DIRTY (e.g. a coin is spent and spentness needs to be flushed to the parent)
+ */
 struct CCoinsCacheEntry
 {
     Coin coin; // The actual cached data.
     unsigned char flags;
 
     enum Flags {
-        DIRTY = (1 << 0), // This cache entry is potentially different from the version in the parent view.
-        FRESH = (1 << 1), // The parent view does not have this entry (or it is pruned).
-        /* Note that FRESH is a performance optimization with which we can
-         * erase coins that are fully spent if we know we do not need to
-         * flush the changes to the parent cache.  It is always safe to
-         * not mark FRESH if that condition is not guaranteed.
+        /**
+         * DIRTY means the CCoinsCacheEntry is potentially different from the
+         * version in the parent cache. Failure to mark a coin as DIRTY when
+         * it is potentially different from the parent cache will cause a
+         * consensus failure, since the coin's state won't get written to the
+         * parent when the cache is flushed.
+         */
+        DIRTY = (1 << 0),
+        /**
+         * FRESH means the parent cache does not have this coin or that it is a
+         * spent coin in the parent cache. If a FRESH coin in the cache is
+         * later spent, it can be deleted entirely and doesn't ever need to be
+         * flushed to the parent. This is a performance optimization. Marking a
+         * coin as FRESH when it exists unspent in the parent cache will cause a
+         * consensus failure, since it might not be deleted from the parent
+         * when this cache is flushed.
          */
+        FRESH = (1 << 1),
     };
 
     CCoinsCacheEntry() : flags(0) {}
@@ -246,7 +272,7 @@ public:
     bool HaveCoinInCache(const COutPoint &outpoint) const;
 
     /**
-     * Return a reference to Coin in the cache, or a pruned one if not found. This is
+     * Return a reference to Coin in the cache, or coinEmpty if not found. This is
      * more efficient than GetCoin.
      *
      * Generally, do not hold the reference returned for more than a short scope.
@@ -258,8 +284,8 @@ public:
     const Coin& AccessCoin(const COutPoint &output) const;
 
     /**
-     * Add a coin. Set potential_overwrite to true if a non-pruned version may
-     * already exist.
+     * Add a coin. Set potential_overwrite to true if an unspent version may
+     * already exist in the cache.
      */
     void AddCoin(const COutPoint& outpoint, Coin&& coin, bool potential_overwrite);