From 991f35e193da0ccda9b8a1cc40ccdfdcaa77db0f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "google-labs-jules[bot]"
 <161369871+google-labs-jules[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2026 18:41:06 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] perf: Use stack allocation in drawstatusbar

Reduces memory allocation overhead in the frequent status bar update path by using a stack buffer for strings up to 1024 bytes. Fallbacks to malloc for larger strings.

Co-authored-by: paperbenni <15818888+paperbenni@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 .jules/bolt.md |  3 +++
 bar.c          | 16 +++++++++++-----
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .jules/bolt.md

diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ce312a03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## 2026-02-01 - Stack Allocation for Status Bar
+**Learning:** `drawstatusbar` in `bar.c` is a hot path called frequently. It was using `malloc` for a string buffer (`stext`) that is globally bounded to 1024 bytes.
+**Action:** Use stack allocation (`char buf[1024]`) for strings <= 1024 bytes to avoid malloc overhead and fragmentation. Add a fallback to `malloc` for safety.
diff --git a/bar.c b/bar.c
index 8476144a..aae67621 100644
--- a/bar.c
+++ b/bar.c
@@ -54,13 +54,18 @@ int drawstatusbar(Monitor *m, int bh, char *stext) {
     int cmdcounter;
     short isCode = 0;
     char *text;
-    char *p;
+    char *p = NULL;
+    char buf[1024];
 
     len = strlen(stext) + 1;
-    if (!(text = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * len))) {
-        die("malloc");
+    if (len > sizeof(buf)) {
+        if (!(text = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * len))) {
+            die("malloc");
+        }
+        p = text;
+    } else {
+        text = buf;
     }
-    p = text;
     memcpy(text, stext, len);
 
     /* compute width of the status text */
@@ -194,7 +199,8 @@ int drawstatusbar(Monitor *m, int bh, char *stext) {
     }
 
     drw_setscheme(drw, statusscheme);
-    free(p);
+    if (p)
+        free(p);
 
     return ret;
 }