Observable timers disposing - c#

I'm using the Reactive .NET extensions and I wonder about its disposal. I know in some cases it's good to dispose it like that: .TakeUntil(Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(x))). I
First case
In this case, I have a timer that triggers after x seconds and then it completes and should be disposed.
public void ScheduleOrderCancellationIfNotFilled(string pair, long orderId, int waitSecondsBeforeCancel)
{
Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(waitSecondsBeforeCancel))
.Do(e =>
{
var result = _client.Spot.Order.GetOrder(pair, orderId);
if (result.Success)
{
if (result.Data?.Status != OrderStatus.Filled)
{
_client.Spot.Order.CancelOrder(pair, orderId);
}
}
})
.Subscribe();
}
Second case
In this case, the timer runs on the first second and then it repeats itself on each 29 minutes. This should live until its defining class is disposed. I believe this one should be disposed with IDisposable implementation. How?
var keepAliveListenKey = Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), TimeSpan.FromMinutes(29))
.Do(async e =>
{
await KeepAliveListenKeyAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
})
.Subscribe();
Edit
I also want it to be using a Subject<T> which makes it easier to dispose and to reset the subscription.
For ex. Reset and Dispose observable subscriber, Reactive Extensions (#Enigmativity)
public class UploadDicomSet : ImportBaseSet
{
IDisposable subscription;
Subject<IObservable<long>> subject = new Subject<IObservable<long>>();
public UploadDicomSet()
{
subscription = subject.Switch().Subscribe(s => CheckUploadSetList(s));
subject.OnNext(Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2)));
}
void CheckUploadSetList(long interval)
{
subject.OnNext(Observable.Never<long>());
// Do other things
}
public void AddDicomFile(SharedLib.DicomFile dicomFile)
{
subject.OnNext(Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2)));
// Reset the subscription to go off in 2 minutes from now
// Do other things
}
}

In the first case it gonna be disposed automatically. It is, actually, a common way to achieve automatic subscription management and that's definitely nice and elegant way to deal with rx.
In the second case you have over-engineered. Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)) is itself sufficient to generate a sequence of ascending longs over time. Since this stream is endless by its nature, you right - explicit subscription management is required. So it is enough to have:
var sub = Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)).Subscribe()
...and sub.Dispose() it later.
P.S. Note that in your code you .Do async/await. Most probably that is not what you want. You want SelectMany to ensure that async operation is properly awaited and exceptions handled.
Answering your questions in the comments section:
What about disposing using Subject instead?
Well, nothing so special about it. Both IObserver<>, IObservable<> is implemented by this class such that it resembles classical .NET events (list of callbacks to be called upon some event). It does not differ in any sense with respect to your question and use-case.
May you give an example about the .Do with exception handling?
Sure. The idea is that you want translate your async/await encapsulated into some Task<T> to IObservable<T> such that is preserves both cancellation and error signals. For that .SelectMany method must be used (like SelectMany from LINQ, the same idea). So just change your .Do to .SelectMany.
Observable
.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))
.SelectMany(_ => Observable.FromAsync(() => /* that's the point where your Task<> becomes Observable */ myTask))
I'm confused again. Do I need IObservable<IObservable> (Select) or IObservable (SelectMany)
Most probably, you don't need switch. Why? Because it was created mainly to avoid IO race conditions, such that whenever new event is emitted, the current one (which might be in progress due to natural parallelism or asynchronous workflow) is guaranteed to be cancelled (i.e. unsubscribed). Otherwise race conditions can (and will) damage your state.
SelectMany, on the contrary, will make sure all of them are happen sequentially, in some total order they have indeed arrived. Nothing will be cancelled. You will finish (await, if you wish) current callback and then trigger the next one. Of course, such behavior can be altered by means of appropriate IScheduler, but that is another story.

Reactive Observable Subscription Disposal (#Enigmativity)
The disposable returned by the Subscribe extension methods is returned solely to allow you to manually unsubscribe from the observable before the observable naturally ends.
If the observable completes - with either OnCompleted or OnError - then the subscription is already disposed for you.
One important thing to note: the garbage collector never calls .Dispose() on observable subscriptions, so you must dispose of your subscriptions if they have not (or may not have) naturally ended before your subscription goes out of scope.
First case
Looks like I don't need to manually .Dispose() the subscription in the first case scenario because it ends naturally.
Dispose is being triggered at the end.
var xs = Observable.Create<long>(o =>
{
var d = Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5))
.Do(e =>
{
Console.WriteLine("5 seconds elapsed.");
})
.Subscribe(o);
return Disposable.Create(() =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Disposed!");
d.Dispose();
});
});
var subscription = xs.Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine(x));
Second case
but in the second case, where it doesn't end "naturally", I should dispose it.
Dispose is not triggered unless manually disposed.
var xs = Observable.Create<long>(o =>
{
var d = Observable.Timer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))
.Do(e =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Test.");
})
.Subscribe(o);
return Disposable.Create(() =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Disposed!");
d.Dispose();
});
});
var subscription = xs.Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine(x));
Conclusion
He gave such a nice examples, it's worth seeing if you are asking yourself the same question.

Related

How to fix the inconsistency of the Publish().RefCount() behavior?

Recently I stumbled upon an interesting statement by Enigmativity about the Publish and RefCount operators:
You're using the dangerous .Publish().RefCount() operator pair which creates a sequence that can't be subscribed to after it completes.
This statement seems to oppose Lee Campbell's assessment about these operators. Quoting from his book Intro to Rx:
The Publish/RefCount pair is extremely useful for taking a cold observable and sharing it as a hot observable sequence for subsequent observers.
Initially I didn't believe that Enigmativity's statement was correct, so I tried to refute it. My experiments revealed that the Publish().RefCount() can be
indeed inconsistent. Subscribing a second time to a published sequence can cause a new subscription to the source sequence, or not, depending on whether the source sequence was completed while connected. If it was completed, then it won't be resubscribed. If it was not completed, then it will be resubscribed. Here is a demonstration of this behavior:
var observable = Observable
.Create<int>(o =>
{
o.OnNext(13);
o.OnCompleted(); // Commenting this line alters the observed behavior
return Disposable.Empty;
})
.Do(x => Console.WriteLine($"Producer generated: {x}"))
.Finally(() => Console.WriteLine($"Producer finished"))
.Publish()
.RefCount()
.Do(x => Console.WriteLine($"Consumer received #{x}"))
.Finally(() => Console.WriteLine($"Consumer finished"));
observable.Subscribe().Dispose();
observable.Subscribe().Dispose();
In this example the observable is composed by three parts. First is the producing part that generates a single value and then completes. Then follows the publishing mechanism (Publish+RefCount). And finally comes the consuming part that observes the values emitted by the producer. The observable is subscribed twice. The expected behavior would be that each subscription will receive one value. But this is not what happens! Here is the output:
Producer generated: 13
Consumer received #13
Producer finished
Consumer finished
Consumer finished
(Try it on fiddle)
And here is the output if we comment the o.OnCompleted(); line. This subtle change results to a behavior that is expected and desirable:
Producer generated: 13
Consumer received #13
Producer finished
Consumer finished
Producer generated: 13
Consumer received #13
Producer finished
Consumer finished
In the first case the cold producer (the part before the Publish().RefCount()) was subscribed only once. The first consumer received the emitted value, but the second consumer received nothing (except from an OnCompleted notification). In the second case the producer was subscribed twice. Each time it generated a value, and each consumer got one value.
My question is: how can we fix this? How can we modify either the Publish operator, or the RefCount, or both, in order to make them behave always consistently and desirably? Below are the specifications of the desirable behavior:
The published sequence should propagate to its subscribers all notifications coming directly from the source sequence, and nothing else.
The published sequence should subscribe to the source sequence when its current number of subscribers increases from zero to one.
The published sequence should stay connected to the source as long as it has at least one subscriber.
The published sequence should unsubscribe from the source when its current number of subscribers becomes zero.
I am asking for either a custom PublishRefCount operator that offers the functionality described above, or for a way to achieve the desirable functionality using the built-in operators.
Btw a similar question exists, that asks why this happens. My question is about how to fix it.
Update: In retrospect, the above specification results to an unstable behavior that makes race-conditions unavoidable. There is no guarantee that two subscriptions to the published sequence will result to a single subscription to the source sequence. The source sequence may complete between the two subscriptions, causing the unsubscription of the first subscriber, causing the unsubscription of the RefCount operator, causing a new subscription to the source for the next subscriber. The behavior of the built-in .Publish().RefCount() prevents this from happening.
The moral lesson is that the .Publish().RefCount() sequence is not broken, but it's not reusable. It cannot be used reliably for multiple connect/disconnect sessions. If you want a second session, you should create a new .Publish().RefCount() sequence.
Lee does a good job explaining IConnectableObservable, but Publish isn't explained that well. It's a pretty simple animal, just hard to explain. I'll assume you understand IConnectableObservable:
If we to re-implement the zero-param Publish function simply and lazily, it would look something like this:
// For illustrative purposes only: don't use this code
public class PublishObservable<T> : IConnectableObservable<T>
{
private readonly IObservable<T> _source;
private readonly Subject<T> _proxy = new Subject<T>();
private IDisposable _connection;
public PublishObservable(IObservable<T> source)
{
_source = source;
}
public IDisposable Connect()
{
if(_connection == null)
_connection = _source.Subscribe(_proxy);
var disposable = Disposable.Create(() =>
{
_connection.Dispose();
_connection = null;
});
return _connection;
}
public IDisposable Subscribe(IObserver<T> observer)
{
var _subscription = _proxy.Subscribe(observer);
return _subscription;
}
}
public static class X
{
public static IConnectableObservable<T> Publish<T>(this IObservable<T> source)
{
return new PublishObservable<T>(source);
}
}
Publish creates a single proxy Subject which subscribes to the source observable. The proxy can subscribe/unsubscribe to source based on the connection: Call Connect, and proxy subscribes to source. Call Dispose on the connection disposable and the proxy unsubscribes from source. The important think to take-away from this is that there is a single Subject that proxies any connection to the source. You're not guaranteed only one subscription to source, but you are guaranteed one proxy and one concurrent connection. You can have multiple subscriptions via connecting/disconnecting.
RefCount handles the calling Connect part of things: Here's a simple re-implementation:
// For illustrative purposes only: don't use this code
public class RefCountObservable<T> : IObservable<T>
{
private readonly IConnectableObservable<T> _source;
private IDisposable _connection;
private int _refCount = 0;
public RefCountObservable(IConnectableObservable<T> source)
{
_source = source;
}
public IDisposable Subscribe(IObserver<T> observer)
{
var subscription = _source.Subscribe(observer);
var disposable = Disposable.Create(() =>
{
subscription.Dispose();
DecrementCount();
});
if(++_refCount == 1)
_connection = _source.Connect();
return disposable;
}
private void DecrementCount()
{
if(--_refCount == 0)
_connection.Dispose();
}
}
public static class X
{
public static IObservable<T> RefCount<T>(this IConnectableObservable<T> source)
{
return new RefCountObservable<T>(source);
}
}
A bit more code, but still pretty simple: Call Connect on the ConnectableObservable if refcount goes up to 1, disconnect if it goes down to 0.
Put the two together, and you get a pair that guarantee that there will only be one concurrent subscription to a source observable, proxied through one persistent Subject. The Subject will only be subscribed to the source while there is >0 downstream subscriptions.
Given that introduction, there's a lot of misconceptions in your question, so I'll go over them one by one:
... Publish().RefCount() can be indeed inconsistent. Subscribing a second
time to a published sequence can cause a new subscription to the
source sequence, or not, depending on whether the source sequence was
completed while connected. If it was completed, then it won't be
resubscribed. If it was not completed, then it will be resubscribed.
.Publish().RefCount() will subscribe anew to source under one condition only: When it goes from zero subscribers to 1. If the count of subscribers goes from 0 to 1 to 0 to 1 for any reason then you will end up re-subscribing. The source observable completing will cause RefCount to issue an OnCompleted, and all of its observers unsubscribe. So subsequent subscriptions to RefCount will trigger an attempt to resubscribe to source. Naturally if source is observing the observable contract properly it will issue an OnCompleted immediately and that will be that.
[see sample observable with OnCompleted...] The observable is subscribed twice. The
expected behavior would be that each subscription will receive one
value.
No. The expected behavior is that the proxy Subject after issuing an OnCompleted will re-emit an OnCompleted to any subsequent subscription attempt. Since your source observable completes synchronously at the end of your first subscription, the second subscription will be attempting to subscribe to a Subject that has already issued an OnCompleted. This should result in an OnCompleted, otherwise the Observable contract would be broken.
[see sample observable without OnCompleted as second case...] In the
first case the cold producer (the part before the
Publish().RefCount()) was subscribed only once. The first consumer
received the emitted value, but the second consumer received nothing
(except from an OnCompleted notification). In the second case the
producer was subscribed twice. Each time it generated a value, and
each consumer got one value.
This is correct. Since the proxy Subject never completed, subsequent re-subscriptions to source will result in the cold observable re-running.
My question is: how can we fix this? [..]
The published sequence should propagate to its subscribers all notifications coming directly from the source sequence, and nothing
else.
The published sequence should subscribe to the source sequence when its current number of subscribers increases from zero to one.
The published sequence should stay connected to the source as long as it has at least one subscriber.
The published sequence should unsubscribe from the source when its current number of subscribers become zero.
All of the above currently happens with .Publish and .RefCount currently as long as you don't complete/error. I don't suggest implementing an operator that changes that, breaking the Observable contract.
EDIT:
I would argue the #1 source of confusion with Rx is Hot/Cold observables. Since Publish can 'warm-up' cold observables, it's no surprise that it should lead to confusing edge cases.
First, a word on the observable contract. The Observable contract stated more succinctly is that an OnNext can never follow an OnCompleted/OnError, and there should be only one OnCompleted or OnError notification. This does leave the edge case of attempts to subscribe to terminated observables:
Attempts to subscribe to terminated observables result in receiving the termination message immediately. Does this break the contract? Perhaps, but it's the only contract cheat, to my knowledge, in the library. The alternative is a subscription to dead air. That doesn't help anybody.
How does this tie into hot/cold observables? Unfortunately, confusingly. A subscription to an ice-cold observable triggers a re-construction of the entire observable pipeline. This means that subscribe-to-already-terminated rule only applies to hot observables. Cold observables always start anew.
Consider this code, where o is a cold observable.:
var o = Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(100))
.Take(5);
var s1 = o.Subscribe(i => Console.WriteLine(i.ToString()));
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(600));
var s2 = o.Subscribe(i => Console.WriteLine(i.ToString()));
For the purposes of the contract, the observable behind s1 and observable behind s2 are entirely different. So even though there's a delay between them, and you'll end up seeing OnNext after OnCompleted, that's not a problem, because they are entirely different observables.
Where it get's sticky is with a warmed-up Publish version. If you were to add .Publish().RefCount() to the end of o in the code above...
Without changing anything else, s2 would terminate immediately printing nothing.
Change the delay to 400 or so, and s2 would print the last two numbers.
Change s1 to only .Take(2), and s2 would start over again printing 0 through 4.
Making this nastiness worse, is the Shroedinger's cat effect: If you set up an observer on o to watch what would happen the whole time, that changes the ref-count, affecting the functionality! Watching it, changes the behavior. Debugging nightmare.
This is the hazard of attempting to 'warm-up' cold observables. It just doesn't work well, especially with Publish/RefCount.
My advice would be:
Don't try to warm up cold observables.
If you need to share a subscription, with either cold or hot observables, stick with #Enigmativity's general rule of strictly using the selector Publish version
If you must, have a dummy subscription on a Publish/RefCount observable. This at least provides a consistent Refcount >= 1, reducing the quantum activity effect.
As Shlomo pointed out, this problem is associated with the Publish operator. The RefCount works fine. So it's the Publish that needs fixing. The Publish is nothing more than calling the Multicast operator with a standard Subject<T> as argument. Here is its source code:
public IConnectableObservable<TSource> Publish<TSource>(IObservable<TSource> source)
{
return source.Multicast(new Subject<TSource>());
}
So the Publish operator inherits the behavior of the Subject class. This class, for very good reasons, maintains the state of its completion. So if you signal its completion by calling subject.OnCompleted(), any future subscribers of the subject will instantly receive an OnCompleted notification. This feature serves well a standalone subject and its subscribers, but becomes a problematic artifact when a Subject is used as an intermediate propagator between a source sequence and the subscribers of that sequence. That's because the source sequence already maintains its own state, and duplicating this state inside the subject introduces the risk of the two states becoming out of sync. Which is exactly what happens when the Publish is combined with the RefCount operator. The subject remembers that the source has completed, while the source, being a cold sequence, has lost its memory about its previous life and is willing to start a new life afresh.
So the solution is to feed the Multicast operator with a stateless subject. Unfortunately I can't find a way to compose it based on the built-in Subject<T> (inheritance is not an option because the class is sealed). Fortunately implementing it from scratch is not very difficult. The implementation below uses an ImmutableArray as storage for the subject's observers, and uses interlocked operations to ensure its thread-safety (much like the built-in Subject<T> implementation).
public class StatelessSubject<T> : ISubject<T>
{
private IImmutableList<IObserver<T>> _observers
= ImmutableArray<IObserver<T>>.Empty;
public void OnNext(T value)
{
foreach (var observer in Volatile.Read(ref _observers))
observer.OnNext(value);
}
public void OnError(Exception error)
{
foreach (var observer in Volatile.Read(ref _observers))
observer.OnError(error);
}
public void OnCompleted()
{
foreach (var observer in Volatile.Read(ref _observers))
observer.OnCompleted();
}
public IDisposable Subscribe(IObserver<T> observer)
{
ImmutableInterlocked.Update(ref _observers, x => x.Add(observer));
return Disposable.Create(() =>
{
ImmutableInterlocked.Update(ref _observers, x => x.Remove(observer));
});
}
}
Now the Publish().RefCount() can be fixed by replacing it with this:
.Multicast(new StatelessSubject<SomeType>()).RefCount()
This change results to the desirable behavior. The published sequence is initially cold, becomes hot when it is subscribed for the first time, and becomes cold again when its last subscriber unsubscribes. And the circle continues with no memories of the past events.
Regarding the other normal case that the source sequence completes, the completion is propagated to all subscribers, causing all of them to unsubscribe automatically, causing the published sequence to become cold. The end result is that both sequences, the source and the published, are always in sync. They are either both hot, or both cold.
Here is a StatelessPublish operator, to make the consumption of the class a little easier.
/// <summary>
/// Returns a connectable observable sequence that shares a single subscription to
/// the underlying sequence, without maintaining its state.
/// </summary>
public static IConnectableObservable<TSource> StatelessPublish<TSource>(
this IObservable<TSource> source)
{
return source.Multicast(new StatelessSubject<TSource>());
}
Usage example:
.StatelessPublish().RefCount()

Rx.Net: observe asynchronous events indifinitely

I have a helper class that saves text messages to the local file system. This method returns a Task object, and is asynchronous by definition.
I want to be able to observe when this method gets called, so I can continuously monitor the size and length of the buffer and make a decision based on that.
I am trying to implement this using the Reactive Extension for .NET. However, I can't come up with a design that allows me to continuously listen to messages being added to the buffer. Below is my current implementation:
public IObservable<Unit> Receive(InternalMessage message)
{
var observable = FileBuffer.BufferMessage(message.MessageId.ToString(), message, DateTime.UtcNow).ToObservable(); //This returns a Task, which I convert into an Observable
return observable;
}
Here is how I subscribe to the observable:
IObservable<Unit> receiverObservable = batchHandler.Receive(message);
receiverObservable.Subscribe(
x => Console.WriteLine("On next"),
ex => //TODO,
() => // Completed);
I want the subscriber to be called every time the method Receive is called. However, AFAIK, once this method is called, the observable completes and the sequence is terminated, so future calls to Receive won't be listened to.
Can someone recommend a way to use the Rx.Net libraries to implement this observable pattern that I am looking for, that is, how to keep the sequence open and feed it with results for async methods?
Receive as you've coded it, returns IObservable<Unit>, representing the completion of a single task. You want to subscribe to something that returns IObservable<IObservable<Unit>> representing a stream of task-completions.
There are a number of ways to do this, the best of which probably depends on how your class is set up and how you're calling it.
Here's the laziest one:
You declare a class-level variable subject that represents a stream of your calls:
Subject<IObservable<Unit>> subject = new Subject<IObservable<Unit>>();
subject.Merge().Subscribe(
x => Console.WriteLine("On next"),
ex => { }, //TODO
() => { } // Completed
);
Then when you have a new call, you just add it to the subject.
IObservable<Unit> receiverObservable = batchHandler.Receive(message);
subject.OnNext(receiverObservable);
The reason this is really lazy is that Rx is functional at its core, which tends to look down on mutable-state variables. Subjects are basically mutable state.
The better way to do it is to figure out when/why you're calling Receive, and structure that as an observable. Once that's done, you can work off of that:
IObservable<Unit> sourceReasonsToCallReceive; // Most likely sourced from event
sourceReasonsToCallReceive.SelectMany(_ => batchHandler.Receive(message))
.SubScribe(
x => Console.WriteLine("On next"),
ex => { }, //TODO
() => { } // Completed
);
Hope that helps.

Observable.Range being repeated?

New to Rx -- I have a sequence that appears to be functioning correctly except for the fact that it appears to repeat.
I think I'm missing something around calls to Select() or SelectMany() that triggers the range to re-evaluate.
Explanation of Code & What I'm trying to Do
For all numbers, loop through a method that retrieves data (paged from a database).
Eventually, this data will be empty (I only want to keep processing while it retrieves data
For each of those records retrieved, I only want to process ones that should be processed
Of those that should be processed, I'd like to process up to x of them in parallel (according to a setting).
I want to wait until the entire sequence is completed to exit the method (hence the wait call at the end).
Problem With the Code Below
I run the code through with a data set that I know only has 1 item.
So, page 0 returns 1 item, and page 1 return 0 items.
My expectation is that the process runs once for the one item.
However, I see that both page 0 and 1 are called twice and the process thus runs twice.
I think this has something to do with a call that is causing the range to re-evaluate beginning from 0, but I can't figure out what that it is.
The Code
var query = Observable.Range(0, int.MaxValue)
.Select(pageNum =>
{
_etlLogger.Info("Calling GetResProfIDsToProcess with pageNum of {0}", pageNum);
return _recordsToProcessRetriever.GetResProfIDsToProcess(pageNum, _processorSettings.BatchSize);
})
.TakeWhile(resProfList => resProfList.Any())
.SelectMany(records => records.Where(x=> _determiner.ShouldProcess(x)))
.Select(resProf => Observable.Start(async () => await _schoolDataProcessor.ProcessSchoolsAsync(resProf)))
.Merge(maxConcurrent: _processorSettings.ParallelProperties)
.Do(async trackingRequests =>
{
await CreateRequests(trackingRequests.Result, createTrackingPayload);
var numberOfAttachments = SumOfRequestType(trackingRequests.Result, TrackingRecordRequestType.AttachSchool);
var numberOfDetachments = SumOfRequestType(trackingRequests.Result, TrackingRecordRequestType.DetachSchool);
var numberOfAssignmentTypeUpdates = SumOfRequestType(trackingRequests.Result,
TrackingRecordRequestType.UpdateAssignmentType);
_etlLogger.Info("Extractor generated {0} attachments, {1} detachments, and {2} assignment type changes.",
numberOfAttachments, numberOfDetachments, numberOfAssignmentTypeUpdates);
});
var subscription = query.Subscribe(
trackingRequests =>
{
//Nothing really needs to happen here. Technically we're just doing something when it's done.
},
() =>
{
_etlLogger.Info("Finished! Woohoo!");
});
await query.Wait();
This is because you subscribe to the sequence twice. Once at query.Subscribe(...) and again at query.Wait().
Observable.Range(0, int.MaxValue) is a cold observable. Every time you subscribe to it, it will be evaluated again. You could make the observable hot by publishing it with Publish(), then subscribe to it, and then Connect() and then Wait(). This does add a risk to get a InvalidOperationException if you call Wait() after the last element is already yielded. A better alternative is LastOrDefaultAsync().
That would get you something like this:
var connectable = query.Publish();
var subscription = connectable.Subscribe(...);
subscription = new CompositeDisposable(connectable.Connect(), subscription);
await connectable.LastOrDefaultAsync();
Or you can avoid await and return a task directly with ToTask() (do remove async from your method signature).
return connectable.LastOrDefaultAsync().ToTask();
Once converted to a task, you can synchronously wait for it with Wait() (do not confuse Task.Wait() with Observable.Wait()).
connectable.LastOrDefaultAsync().ToTask().Wait();
However, most likely you do not want to wait at all! Waiting in a async context makes little sense. What you should do it put the remaining of the code that needs to run after the sequence completes in the OnComplete() part of the subscription. If you have (clean-up) code that needs to run even when you unsubscribe (Dispose), consider Observable.Using or the Finally(...) method to ensure this code is ran.
As already mentioned the cause of the Observable.Range being repeated is the fact that you're subscribing twice - once with .Subscribe(...) and once with .Wait().
In this kind of circumstance I would go with a very simple blocking call to get the values. Just do this:
var results = query.ToArray().Wait();
The .ToArray() turns a multi-valued IObservable<T> into a single values IObservable<T[]>. The .Wait() turns this into T[]. It's the easy way to ensure only one subscription, blocking, and getting all of the values out.
In your case you may not need all values, but I think this is a good habit to get into.

When to call Dispose for an observable

I have a lot of code in my project like Hit and mute by using Reactive extension like this way:
IDisposable dsp = null;
dsp = TargetObservable.Subscribe((incomingContent) =>
{
if (incomingContent == "something")
{
myList.Add(incomingContent);
dsp.Dispose();
}
});
First of all, I concerns about the thread safety since my Observable is quite busy and have bunch of content pushing all the way, but later, I was told I should combine with the ObserveOn(thread) to guarantee thread safe, I totally agree, so let's forget the thread safe thing.
Here I want to know:
How or when I should call the Dispose for an observable.
What's the correct way to satisfy Hit and mute, combine with some complete-able extension method like Take(count), 'TakeWhile(predict)'?
If OnComplete() called, the Dispose() will be called internally, correct? Then the reference relationship between the Observer and Observable will break(because my observable is a long life static instance, the reference would cause memory leak).
I would avoid following the pattern you have here. It makes it difficult to understand the problem space if other devs have to mix global state with the inner function for the subscribe/OnNext handler.
You are much better off creating the TakeWhile/TakeUntilIncluding extension method which encapsulates the sequence termination. Then you can separate your 'adding to the list' concern.
An alternatitve thing to do is the super-simple:
var subscription = source.Where(x => x=="something")
.Take(1)
.Subscribe(incomingContent=>myList.Add(incomingContent));

How to limit buffering when concurrently processing streams with Reactive Extensions

I have an interleaved stream which I split into separate sequential streams.
Producer
int streamCount = 3;
new MyIEnumerable<ElementType>()
.ToObservable(Scheduler.ThreadPool)
.Select((x,i) => new { Key = (i % streamCount), Value = x })
.Subscribe(x => outputs[x.Key].OnNext(x.Value));
Where outputs[] are Subjects which process the streams are defined below. The .ObserveOn() is used to process the streams concurrently (multi-threaded).
Consumers
var outputs = Enumerable.Repeat(0, streamCount).Select(_ => new Subject<char>()).ToArray();
outputs[0].ObserveOn(Scheduler.ThreadPool).Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine("stream 0: {0}", x));
outputs[1].ObserveOn(Scheduler.ThreadPool).Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine("stream 1: {0}", x));
outputs[2].ObserveOn(Scheduler.ThreadPool).Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine("stream 2: {0}", x));
The problem with this code is that it will read the entire enumerable as fast as possible, even if the output streams cannot catch up. In my case the enumerable is a file stream so this might cause using a lot of memory. Therefore, I would like the reading to block if the buffer(s) reach some threshold.
I have solved this by using a semaphore on the producer and consumers like shown below. However, I am not sure that this is considered a good solution (in terms of Rx contracts, programming style, etc).
var semaphore = new SemaphoreSlim(MAX_BUFFERED_ELEMENTS);
// add to producer (before subscribe)
.Do(_ => semaphore.Wait());
// add to consumer (before subscribe)
.Do(_ => semaphore.Release()))
It might be a good idea to pass a CancelationToken to the call to Wait() and make sure it is cancelled when the stream stops abnormally?
I think your solution is very reasonable. The biggest problem (having some background to the previous question) is that the 'insides' of your solution are currently exposed everywhere. Just make sure that when you code this properly you clean up the following:
Wrap everything into a class that exposes a single method: IDisposable Subscribe(<index>, Action) or alternatively IObservable<element> ToObservable(<index>)). Either the returned subscription or the returned observable will have all the 'work' already done to them, namely the added Do actions and so forth. The fact that there's a dictionary or list under it all should be completely irrelevant to the user, otherwise any change to your code here will require changes all over the place.
A CancelationToken is a great idea, make sure to cancel it on either OnCompleted or OnError, which you can do using overloads to Do.

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