Swift Cancel DispatchQueue Process

Question

I have a UDP method that waits for a reply using the DispatchQueue using the following code:

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async {
    let server:UDPServer=UDPServer(address:"0.0.0.0", port:5005)
    let (data,_,_) = server.recv(1024)
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
       ...
    }
}

This works perfectly and sets off a process to wait for my data to come in. What's keeping me up at night is what happens if we never get a reply? server.recv never returns so I cannot see how the process will ever end? Is there a way of giving it a predetermined amount of time to run for?

Answer 1

There is no way to stop or "kill" a DispatchWorkItem or NSOperation from outside. There is a cancel() method, but that merely sets the isCancelled property of the item or operation to true. This does not stop the execution of the item itself. Ans since recv is blocking, there is no way to check the isCancelled flag during execution. This means the answer posted by Vadian unfortunately wouldn't do anything.

According to the Apple docs on NSOperation.cancel:

This method does not force your operation code to stop.

The same goes for NSOperationQueue.cancelAllOperations:

Canceling the operations does not automatically remove them from the queue or stop those that are currently executing.

You might think it is possible to drop down to using a raw NSThread. However, the same principle applies hier. You cannot deterministically kill a thread from the outside.

Possible solution: timeout

The best solution I can think of is to use the timeout feature of the socket. I don't know where UDPServer comes from, but perhaps it has a built in timeout.

Possible solution: Poor man's timeout (send packet to localhost)

Another option you can try is to send some UDP packets to yourself after a certain time has elapsed. This way, recv will receive some data, and execution will continue. This could possibly be used as a "poor man's timeout".