[libdispatch-dev] dispatch_suspend() does not affect child queues

Daniel A. Steffen dsteffen at apple.com
Sun Aug 5 13:14:29 PDT 2012


Michael,

On Aug 5, 2012, at 10:06, Michael Roitzsch <mroi at os.inf.tu-dresden.de> wrote:

> Hi libdispatch team,
> 
> I have a question regarding the indented behavior and use of dispatch multiple queues: If a queue A has its target set to queue B and queue B is suspended with dispatch_suspend(B), why are blocks from queue A still executed?

they are not, but unless dispatch_suspend(B) is executed from B itself, suspension is asynchronous and non-preemptive, i.e. suspension only takes effect when queue state is checked before the next item on B is executed (but does not affect the current item on B).

Importantly, because of the way target queues work, this means that many items on queue A can execute after the call to dispatch_suspend(B) before B actually becomes suspended (queue A as a whole is a single workitem on queue B so queue A may stay the "current item" on queue B for many items on A).

If you need to know exactly when queue suspension takes effect you need to execute dispatch_suspend on the queue itself.

HTH

Daniel

> 
> I was expecting dispatch_suspend(X) to silence the entire subsystem of queues directly or indirectly targeting queue X, but it does not. Instead, only the queue X I pass in is suspended, all other queues seem unaffected.
> 
> I attached an Xcode project (tested on OS X 10.8.0) to demonstrate the issue. I am using two serial queues "low" and "high" to implement the front enqueue pattern to execute emergency work: The "low" queue targets the "high" queue. Blocks are usually enqueued on "low", emergency work is enqueued on "high" so it can bypass all the work queued in "low".
> 
> This works fine when line 27 is commented out. However, as soon as I give a different subsystem of my code (imagine this being a third party library) access to the "low" queue, this subsystem can create a hidden private queue that feeds into "low". The emergency block will now experience undue delay, because suspending the "low" queue does not suspend the private queue.
> 
> I would like to understand the rationale for this behavior of libdispatch.
> 
> Michael
> 
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