How do I create a NSTimer on a background thread?

Question

I have a task that needs to be performed every 1 second. Currently I have an NSTimer firing repeatedly every 1 sec. How do I have the timer fire in a background thread (non UI-thread)?

I could have the NSTimer fire on the main thread then use NSBlockOperation to dispatch a background thread, but I'm wondering if there is a more efficient way of doing this.

Answer 1

If you need this so timers still run when you scroll your views (or maps), you need to schedule them on different run loop mode. Replace your current timer:

[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.5
                                 target:self
                               selector:@selector(timerFired:)
                               userInfo:nil repeats:YES];

With this one:

NSTimer *timer = [NSTimer timerWithTimeInterval:0.5
                                           target:self
                                         selector:@selector(timerFired:)
                                         userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
[[NSRunLoop mainRunLoop] addTimer:timer forMode:NSRunLoopCommonModes];

For details, check this blog post: Event tracking stops NSTimer

EDIT : second block of code, the NSTimer still runs on the main thread, still on the same run loop as the scrollviews. The difference is the run loop mode. Check the blog post for a clear explanation.

Answer 2

If you want to go pure GCD and use a dispatch source, Apple has some sample code for this in their Concurrency Programming Guide:

dispatch_source_t CreateDispatchTimer(uint64_t interval, uint64_t leeway, dispatch_queue_t queue, dispatch_block_t block)
{
    dispatch_source_t timer = dispatch_source_create(DISPATCH_SOURCE_TYPE_TIMER, 0, 0, queue);
    if (timer)
    {
        dispatch_source_set_timer(timer, dispatch_walltime(NULL, 0), interval, leeway);
        dispatch_source_set_event_handler(timer, block);
        dispatch_resume(timer);
    }
    return timer;
}

Swift 3:

func createDispatchTimer(interval: DispatchTimeInterval,
                         leeway: DispatchTimeInterval,
                         queue: DispatchQueue,
                         block: @escaping ()->()) -> DispatchSourceTimer {
    let timer = DispatchSource.makeTimerSource(flags: DispatchSource.TimerFlags(rawValue: 0),
                                               queue: queue)
    timer.scheduleRepeating(deadline: DispatchTime.now(),
                            interval: interval,
                            leeway: leeway)

    // Use DispatchWorkItem for compatibility with iOS 9. Since iOS 10 you can use DispatchSourceHandler
    let workItem = DispatchWorkItem(block: block)
    timer.setEventHandler(handler: workItem)
    timer.resume()
    return timer
}

You could then set up your one-second timer event using code like the following:

dispatch_source_t newTimer = CreateDispatchTimer(1ull * NSEC_PER_SEC, (1ull * NSEC_PER_SEC) / 10, dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
    // Repeating task
});

making sure to store and release your timer when done, of course. The above gives you a 1/10th second leeway on the firing of these events, which you could tighten up if you desired.

Answer 3

The timer would need to be installed into a run loop operating on an already-running background thread. That thread would have to continue to run the run loop to have the timer actually fire. And for that background thread to continue being able to fire other timer events, it would need to spawn a new thread to actually handle events anyway (assuming, of course, that the processing you're doing takes a significant amount of time).

For whatever it's worth, I think handling timer events by spawning a new thread using Grand Central Dispatch or NSBlockOperation is a perfectly reasonable use of your main thread.