To restart the NSSthread, I'm using the code below:
- (IBAction)listen:(id)sender {
thread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(listen1) object:nil];
[thread start];
[thread cancel];
[thread start];
}
But when I built and pressed this button, I've received error: "attempt to start the thread again"
Can you help me?
Method -cancel doesn't stop the thread, it just sets cancel flag.
Changes the cancelled state of the receiver to indicate that it should exit.
- (void)cancel
The semantics of this method are the same as those used for the NSOperation object. This method sets state information in the receiver that is then reflected by the isCancelled method. Threads that support cancellation should periodically call the isCancelled method to determine if the thread has in fact been cancelled, and exit if it has been.
You can stop a Thread only from within itself by calling [NSThread exit].
By the way, what are you trying to achieve? Starting separate thread is almost never good idea and starting the same thread twice is twice wrong.
Related
When learning thread and run loop, I notice that some articles say: "Generally, a thread just exits once it has done its work." So there is necessity sometimes to create a so-called "immortal thread"(?? I don't know the exact term in English) using NSRunloop.
The question is HOW can I prove the statement "just exits once it has done its work"? I code like this
- (void)doSomethingOnThread {
// dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
// NSLog(#"I'm on thread %#", [NSThread currentThread]);
// });
NSThread *thread1 = [[NSThread alloc] initWithBlock:^{
NSLog(#"I'm on thread %#", [NSThread currentThread]);
}];
thread1.name = #"thread1";
[thread1 start];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(threadExitHandler:) name:NSThreadWillExitNotification object:nil];
}
- (void)threadExitHandler:(NSNotification *)noti {
NSLog(#"Thread will exit: %#", noti);
}
Well, the notification handler is not called.
So, [1]: How can I prove a thread exiting? [2]: What kinds of threads behave so?(I know the main thread will never exit, what about other thread? GCD threads, for example？)
If you want to visualize it, I might use the debugger. For example, I've set a breakpoint inside a NSThread subclass and I see the thread listed in the left panel in Xcode:
But if I have another breakpoint triggered one second after the main method finishes, I see the relevant “Thread will exit” message and my thread is no longer present :
Or you could add a NSLog statement inside the dealloc method for your NSThread subclass, and that also would demonstrate its deallocation. Or look for the subclass in the debug memory object graph.
Well, the notification handler is not called.
I'd suggest you add your observer for NSThreadWillExitNotification before you start your thread. Right now you have a race condition between the starting and exiting of this thread and the adding of the observer. FWIW, I do see the “Thread will exit” message.
Unrelated, while it’s great to learn about threads and runloops, it has little practical use nowadays. It might be more useful to master GCD which gets us out of the weeds of threads and offers performance optimizations and a richer API for writing robust multi-threaded code.
In regards to whether GCD creates persistent threads or not, the answer is yes, but we're abstracted away from this detail. But one of GCD’s performance optimizations is that it manages a “pool” of threads for us, not constantly spinning up new threads and destroying them constantly for every dispatched block of code.
You might want to watch WWDC 2016’s Concurrent Programming With GCD in Swift 3. It walks through the relationship between queues, threads, and runloops.
I have an app that uses a connection queue that handles the connections on a background thread. Each connection sends a JSON post, then when it receives a success, saves some objects into coredata.
Once all connections are complete, i call a dispatch_async on the main thread to call a finished method.
However, under very specific conditions of data im sending/saving, I've noticed the dispatch_async block to the main thread never gets called, and the app screen freezes, all execution stops, and the app sits idle with a frozen screen. processing power according to xcode is 0%.
Here is method with the block that fails.
- (void)connectionDidComplete
{
_completeConnections++;
_syncProgress = (float)_completeConnections / (float)_totalConnections;
dispatch_async(mainQueue, ^(void) {
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:SyncQueueDidUpdateNotification object:nil];
}); <-- this dispatch works
if (_completeConnections == _totalConnections)
{
// clear unsynced data
NSArray *syncedObjects = [SyncObject completedSyncObjects];
if (syncedObjects.count > 0)
{
for (SyncObject *syncObject in syncedObjects)
{
[syncObject delete];
}
}
//this method saves the current context, then merges this context with the main context right after
[[VS_CoreDataManager sharedManager] saveManagedObjectContextAndWait:managedObjectContext];
// cleanup the thread's context
[[VS_CoreDataManager sharedManager] unRegisterManagedObjectContextForThread:currentThread];
managedObjectContext = nil;
// complete sync
dispatch_async(mainQueue, ^(void) {
[self performSelector:#selector(finishSync) withObject:nil afterDelay:2];
}); <-- this dispatch never gets called
}
}
My suspicion is this problem has something to do with saving the context then merging it. And possibly while that is happening its released in the middle of the merge, causing some weird hang up and the dispatch isn't getting executed. This is just a guess though, and I don't know how to fix it.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
If the block on the main thread is not executed, then it is because of 1 of 2 reasons.
The main thread is blocked; is not processing any events at all. Got a while() loop on the main thread? That'd do it. A lock? There you go.
The main thread is running a modal run loop inside the outer run loop. Asynchronous dispatches to the main event loop -- main thread -- won't be processed in this case.
Set a breakpoint on that dispatch_async() and see what the main thread is doing (at the point of dispatch the main thread is most likely already in the bad state).
DarkDust's suggestion of using dispatch_after() is a good one, but is unlikely to work in that it is almost assuredly the case that your main thread is not processing events when the problem occurs. I.e. fix the problem, then move to dispatch_after() as DarkDust suggests.
If your main thread is busy with modal runloop, then you could try
CFRunLoopPerformBlock(CFRunLoopGetMain(), kCFRunLoopCommonModes, block
});
I believe this is a great discussion. I came across this when I had the following code:
dispatch_synch(dispatch_get_main_queue()){
print("I am here")
}
the print code did not execute as I was dispatching a 'synch' block on the serial main thread which caused a dead lock. print was waiting for the dispatch to finish and dispatch was waiting for print to finish. When you dispatch in the main serial queue then you should use dispatch_async. and i guess if you use a concurrent queue then dispatch synch suits better
I created an NSOperation subclass to handle some zip archive operations. No matter what, if I override -start or -main this block of code always happens:
if ([NSThread isMainThread]) {
NSLog(#"I am in the main thread");
return;
}
Any idea what's going on?
I've tried adding this block:
- (void) start { //also tried overriding main
if ([NSThread isMainThread]) {
NSLog(#"In main thread, trying again");
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
[self start];
});
return;
//hard working code etc...
//cpu intensive zip operations...
}
But this causes a crash, an EXC_BAD_ACCESS violation pointing at the dispatch_async line.
No matter what, if I override -start or -main this block of code always happens:
The main operation queue runs on the main thread. From the docs for +[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]:
The returned queue executes operations on the main thread. The main
thread’s run loop controls the execution times of these operations.
So, running in another thread is a matter of what queue you add the operation to, not how you write the operation's code. If you want your operation to run on a different operation queue, you'll need to create a queue of your own using
NSOperationQueue* aQueue = [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init];
You can find an example in Adding Operations to an Operation Queue in the Concurrency Programming Guide.
But this causes a crash, an EXC_BAD_ACCESS violation pointing at the dispatch_async line.
It sounds like -[NSOperation start] probably isn't re-entrant. Your code effectively executes the same method on two different threads. In fact, look at the docs for -start, it's obvious that your code won't work:
You can call this method explicitly if you want to execute your
operations manually. However, it is a programmer error to call this
method on an operation object that is already in an operation queue
or to queue the operation after calling this method. Once you add an
operation object to a queue, the queue assumes all responsibility for
it. [Emphasis added. -Caleb]
In other words, don't do that.
I am developing application in which my thread is starting when connectionDidFinishLoading.
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
[downloadingthread cancel];
downloadingthread = [[NSThread alloc]initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(startusingthread) object:nil];
[downloadingthread start];
}
connectionDidFinishLoading is called multiple times, so I want to stop download thread and then start agin it again. I am trying to execute last thread only. Please help me to stop my thread in between.
Never stop a thread by force.
You stop the request using -[NSURLConnection cancel].
Your thread should be on a run loop, so you would cancel the run loop for that thread if you are aborting the request but... it's very expensive to create threads all over the place, and there is often a better alternative to this problem.
I am creating a new Thread which runs one of my method after every certain period of time.
Now what i am doing is as follows:
NSThread *thread = [[NSThread alloc] initWithTarget:self selector:#selector(setUpTimerThread) object:nil];
[thread start];
the above method calls my setUpTimerThraed method, and this method makes an NSTimer and calls a specific method i.e syncData after every 1 minute. Now what i want is my sync Data method is sending some files to the FTP folder. and when ever it send one file to the FTP I want it my "thread" to be sleep for a while.
i have used
[NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:3.0];
But this code blocks my application main thread. Is there any way i can only sleep my "thread" thread for a while so that it wont stop my application responding for 3 seconds and does not sleep my main thread.
Hope u get what i am asking guys. PLease help?
sleepForTimeInterval: sleeps the thread that it is called on. Try calling a sleep on the thread you want to sleep rather than the main thread.
replace your current sleep call with
[self performSelector:#selector(sleepThread) onThread:thread withObject:nil waitUntilDone:YES];
then implement this method
-(void)sleepThread {
[NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:3.0];
}
The solution of ColdLogic is right, but it's neccesary put the flag waitUntilDone to YES, otherwise the method is never called.