Crash on iOS 8 when dispatch_group_wait() return because of timeout - ios

Question

I have two operations fetching a value. I only care about the sum both values. And I don't care about the value at all if it takes too long.
So I thought it would be an easy task for GCD using groups. Unfortunately, the below code only works fine on iOS 9. Each time I have no matching calls of dispatch_group_enter()/dispatch_group_leave() I get a crash.
The documentation states clearly that I have to match both call. But when I use a timeout on dispatch_group_wait(), it is impossible to have the same amount of leave calls as enter calls; that is the whole point of specifying a timeout.
So is this a known bug in iOS 8? Am I doing something wrong? Is there another solution to my initial problem that works on iOS 8 as well?
EDIT: Actually we can boil it down to this:
var sync_group: dispatch_group_t = dispatch_group_create();
dispatch_group_enter(sync_group);
let maxWait = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, Int64(60 * NSEC_PER_SEC))
let result = dispatch_group_wait(sync_group, maxWait)
sync_group = dispatch_group_create();
Works as expected on iOS 9 but does crash on iOS 8 on the last line because the old dispatch_group_t instance can not be release. Any easy workarounds?
EDIT 2: Turns out it is broken on iOS 9.0 too. It only works as as it should in iOS 9.1+.
Original Code:
let qualityOfServiceClass = QOS_CLASS_BACKGROUND
let backgroundQueue = dispatch_get_global_queue(qualityOfServiceClass, 0)
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue, {
/* We want this method to block until the network code succeeded. */
let sync_group: dispatch_group_t = dispatch_group_create();
/* Start async operation 1. */
dispatch_group_enter(sync_group);
self.someAsyncOperation1({(value: Int, finalValue: Bool) in
if (finalValue) {
valOp1 = value
dispatch_group_leave(sync_group);
}
})
/* Start async operation 2. */
dispatch_group_enter(sync_group);
self.someAsyncOperation2({(value: Int, finalValue: Bool) in
if (finalValue) {
valOp2 = value
dispatch_group_leave(sync_group)
}
})
/* Block current thread until all leaves were called. If it takes more then 60 sec we don't care and let go. */
let maxWait = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, Int64(60 * NSEC_PER_SEC))
let result = dispatch_group_wait(sync_group, maxWait)
if (result > 0) {
/* This will result in a crash when we leave the scope: SIGTRAP in dispatch_semaphore_dispose */
return
}
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
let newValue = valOp1 + valOp2
self.lastKnownNotificationCombinedCounter = newValue
success(newValue)
})
})
The actual crash loops like that:
Exception Type: SIGTRAP
Exception Codes: #0 at 0x3958a2a4
Thread 2 Crashed:
0 libdispatch.dylib 0x3958a2a4 _dispatch_semaphore_dispose$VARIANT$mp + 48
1 libdispatch.dylib 0x3958b491 _dispatch_dispose$VARIANT$mp + 30
2 libdispatch.dylib 0x3957ea8f -[OS_dispatch_object _xref_dispose] + 44
3 myApp 0x00176a24 block_destroy_helper67 + 354
4 myApp 0x00176ab8 0x2e000 + 1346232
5 myApp 0x00178334 0x2e000 + 1352500
6 libsystem_blocks.dylib 0x395d3adb _Block_release + 216
7 Foundation 0x2c4143b9 -[NSBlockOperation dealloc] + 58
8 libobjc.A.dylib 0x39036d57 objc_object::sidetable_release(bool) + 164
9 libobjc.A.dylib 0x390371a9 (anonymous namespace)::AutoreleasePoolPage::pop(void*) + 402
10 libdispatch.dylib 0x39589423 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 1176
11 libdispatch.dylib 0x3958a1fb _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 104
12 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x396fae25 _pthread_wqthread + 666
13 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x396fab78 start_wqthread + 6

Answer 1

I came up with this workaround:
private let MAX_TRIES = 20;
func dispatch_group_wait_ios8Safe(group: dispatch_group_t, _ timeout: dispatch_time_t) -> Int {
if #available(iOS 9, *) {
/* Just forward the call. */
return dispatch_group_wait(group, timeout)
} else {
/* Forward the call to original function and store result. */
let firstResult = dispatch_group_wait(group, timeout)
var result = firstResult, tries = 0
while(result > 0 && tries < MAX_TRIES) {
dispatch_group_leave(group)
result = dispatch_group_wait(group, DISPATCH_TIME_NOW)
tries += 1
}
/* Return original result. */
return firstResult
}
}
So until someone comes up with a better solution I stick with this.