I have 2 background services.
Both of them have a call to a method that is NOT async. This method I cannot control - I can wrap it, sure.
I wire the backgroundservice(s) up by adding them to the servicecollection:
services.AddSingleton<IHostedService, BS1>();
services.AddSingleton<IHostedService, BS2>();
The execute async looks like this in each of them.
protected async override Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
log.LogInformation($"Start consuming from topic: {eventStreamConsumer.Topic}");
while (stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested == false)
{
try
{
async...
var consumeResult = eventStreamConsumer.Consume();
The Consume method is blocking the thread here since it's not async.
My approach so far has been to wrap the inner workings of execute async into a Task.Factory.Start, but if the Consume does not return, the thread still hangs.
I would like to truly run this on a separate thread, but bear in mind the execute async has dependencies on other instances in the class - don't know if the will be a problem?
How does this approach look like?
protected override Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
var task = new Task(() =>
{
while (stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested == false)
{
try
{
var consumeResult = eventStreamConsumer.Consume();
....
}
catch (Exception e)
{
//swallow
}
}
}, stoppingToken, TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning);
task.Start();
return Task.FromResult<object>(null);
}
The way async works is exactly that it returns a Task. That's the part you're missing: instead of waiting for the task to finish or reading its Result, return the task itself.
Also, don't use new Task followed by Task.Start. Task.Run is what you actually want pretty much every time (the only exception being if you're creating your own task scheduler).
Related
If I start the following example in .NET Core BackgroundService on debug mode:
protected override Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Task.Run(async () => await Task.Delay(30000, stoppingToken))
.Wait(stoppingToken);
}
}
the Ctrl + C cancellation event does not call the StopAsync() Method which is calling the Cancel() from the CancellationTokenSource.
I think my problem is similar to this post.
How can I catch those cancellations when I'm using blocking methods inside the ExecuteAsync?
p.s.: In the real world my ExecuteAsync is watching the filesystem until a new file is created in my destination. To achieve this behavior I'm using the FileSystemWatcher.WaitForChanged() method.
From the comments, it looks like the problem has little to do with threads. The real problem is how to stop a FileSystemWatcher.
You don't need an extra thread with a FileSystemWatcher, you need to handle its change events as quickly as possible. You can use an asynchronous event handler for this, or even better, quickly post events to a queue or Channel for processing.
To stop the FSW you can use the CancellationToken.Register method to set EnableRaisingEvents to false :
stoppingToken.Register(()=>watcher.EnableRaisingEvents=false);
Event processing
To quickly handle events, one could post the FileSystemEventArgs values directly to a queue or a Channel and process them with another tasks. This has two benefits:
File events are handled as fast as possible, so none is lost
The code can either wait for all events to finish, or cancel them.
var channel=Channel.CreateUnbounded<FileSystemEventArgs>();
stoppingToken.Register(()=>{
watcher.EnableRaisingEvents=false;
channel.Writer.TryComplete();
});
watcher.Changed+=(o,e)=>channel.Writer.WriteAsync(e,stoppingToken);
await foreach(var e in channel.Reader.ReadAllAsync(stoppingToken))
{
//do something
}
A Channel can be treated as a queue with asynchronous read and write operation. The ReadAllAsync method dequeues messages until stopped and returns them as an IAsyncEnumerable which allows the use of await foreach to easily handle items asynchronously.
Pipelines and Channels
The code can be refactored into this:
await watcher.AsChannel(stoppingToken)
.ProcessEvents(stoppingToken);
The consumer
It's easy to extract the subscriber code into a separate method. This could even be an extension method:
public static async Task ProcessEvents(this ChannelReader<FileSystemEventArgs> reader,CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
await foreach(var e in channel.Reader.ReadAllAsync(stoppingToken))
{
//do something
}
}
And call it :
var channel=Channel.CreateUnbounded<FileSystemEventArgs>();
stoppingToken.Register(()=>{
watcher.EnableRaisingEvents=false;
channel.Writer.TryComplete();
});
watcher.Changed+=(o,e)=>channel.Writer.WriteAsync(e,stoppingToken);
await ProcessEvents(channel,stoppingToken);
This works because a Channel has implicit cast operators to ChannelReader and ChannelWriter.
A ChannelReader supports multiple consumers, so one could use multiple tasks to process events, eg :
public static async Task ProcessEvents(this ChannelReader<FileSystemEventArgs> reader,int dop,CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
var tasks=Enumerable.Range(0,dop).Select(()=>{
await foreach(var e in channel.Reader.ReadAllAsync(stoppingToken))
{
//do something
}
});
await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
}
The producer
It's also possible to extract the channel creation and posting into a separate method. After all, we only need the ChannelReader for processing:
public static ChannelReader AsChannel(this FileSystemWatcher watcher, CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
var channel=Channel.CreateUnbounded<FileSystemEventArgs>();
stoppingToken.Register(()=>{
watcher.EnableRaisingEvents=false;
channel.Writer.TryComplete();
});
watcher.Changed+=(o,e)=>channel.Writer.WriteAsync(e,stoppingToken);
return channel;
}
And combine everything in a simple pipeline:
await watcher.AsChannel(stoppingToken)
.ProcessEvents(stoppingToken);
My first workaround at the moment is this:
protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
var blockingTask = Task.Run(async () => await Task.Delay(30000, stoppingToken));
await Task.WhenAny(blockingTask);
}
}
#Panagiotis Kanavos I appreciate your efforts, I'm coming back to your detailed post If I'm trying to change my "blocking" FSW to an event driven FSW.
In productive I'm using something like this:
private void DoServiceWork()
{
// Some Work if new PDF or docx file is available
// ...
}
protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
{
int myTimeout = 1000 * 60 * 60; // 1 hour
while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
pdfWatchingTask = Task.Run(() => MyFSWLibrary.Watch(directory, "*.pdf", myTimeout, stoppingToken));
docWatchingTask = Task.Run(() => MyFSWLibrary.Watch(directory, "*.docx", myTimeout, stoppingToken));
var finishedTask = await Task.WhenAny(new Task<MyFSWResult>[] { waitPdfTask, waitXmpTask });
if(finishedTask.Result.Success) DoServiceWork();
}
}
I am rather new to task based programming and trying to determine how to return a task and verify that it has been started. The code that I got to work was not what I was expecting. The console application is as follows:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var mySimple = new Simple();
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
var task = mySimple.RunSomethingAsync(cts.Token);
while (task.Status != TaskStatus.RanToCompletion)
{
Console.WriteLine("Starting...");
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
Console.WriteLine("It is started");
Console.ReadKey();
cts.Cancel();
}
public class Simple
{
public async void RunSomething(CancellationToken token)
{
var count = 0;
while (true)
{
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
break;
}
Console.WriteLine(count++);
await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1000), token).ContinueWith(task => { });
}
}
public Task RunSomethingAsync(CancellationToken token)
{
return Task.Run(() => this.RunSomething(token));
}
}
The output is:
Starting...
0
It is started
1
2
3
4
Why is the task that is being returned have a status as TaskStatus.RanToCompletion compared to TaskStatus.Running as we see that the while loop is still executing? Am I checking the status of the task of putting the RunSomething task on the threadpool rather than the RunSomething task itself?
RunSomething is an async void method, meaning it exposes no means of the caller ever determining when it finishes, they can only ever start the operation and then have no idea what happens next. You then wrap a call to it inside of Task.Run, this is schedluing a thread pool thread to start RunSomething. It will then complete as soon as it has finished starting that Task.
If RunSomething actually returned a Task, then the caller would be able to determine when it actually finished, and if you waited on it it wouldn't actually indicate that it was done until that asynchronous operation was actually finished (there would be no reason to use Task.Run to start it in another thead, you'd be better off just calling it directly and not wasting the effort of moving that to a thread pool thread).
Never use async void (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj991977.aspx)
instead you should use async Task
If you need to call an async method from a non-async (such as from a static void main) you should do something like this:
mySimple.RunSomethingAsync(cts.Token).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
That will effectively make the method a synchronous call.
You can use async void, but only for events.
I'm still getting up to speed with async & multi threading. I'm trying to monitor when the Task I Start is still running (to show in a UI). However it's indicating that it is RanToCompletion earlier than I want, when it hits an await, even when I consider its Status as still Running.
Here is the sample I'm doing. It all seems to be centred around the await's. When it hits an await, it is then marked as RanToCompletion.
I want to keep track of the main Task which starts it all, in a way which indicates to me that it is still running all the way to the end and only RanToCompletion when it is all done, including the repo call and the WhenAll.
How can I change this to get the feedback I want about the tskProdSeeding task status?
My Console application Main method calls this:
Task tskProdSeeding;
tskProdSeeding = Task.Factory.StartNew(SeedingProd, _cts.Token);
Which the runs this:
private async void SeedingProd(object state)
{
var token = (CancellationToken)state;
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
int totalSeeded = 0;
var codesToSeed = await _myRepository.All().ToListAsync(token);
await Task.WhenAll(Task.Run(async () =>
{
foreach (var code in codesToSeed)
{
if (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
try
{
int seedCountByCode = await _myManager.SeedDataFromLive(code);
totalSeeded += seedCountByCode;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_logger.InfoFormat(ex.ToString());
}
}
}
}, token));
Thread.Sleep(30000);
}
}
If you use async void the outer task can't tell when the task is finished, you need to use async Task instead.
Second, once you do switch to async Task, Task.Factory.StartNew can't handle functions that return a Task, you need to switch to Task.Run(
tskProdSeeding = Task.Run(() => SeedingProd(_cts.Token), _cts.Token);
Once you do both of those changes you will be able to await or do a .Wait() on tskProdSeeding and it will properly wait till all the work is done before continuing.
Please read "Async/Await - Best Practices in Asynchronous Programming" to learn more about not doing async void.
Please read "StartNew is Dangerous" to learn more about why you should not be using StartNew the way you are using it.
P.S. In SeedingProd you should switch it to use await Task.Delay(30000); insetad of Thread.Sleep(30000);, you will then not tie up a thread while it waits. If you do this you likely could drop the
tskProdSeeding = Task.Run(() => SeedingProd(_cts.Token), _cts.Token);
and just make it
tskProdSeeding = SeedingProd(_cts.Token);
because the function no-longer has a blocking call inside of it.
I'm not convinced that you need a second thread (Task.Run or StartNew) at all. It looks like the bulk of the work is I/O-bound and if you're doing it asynchronously and using Task.Delay instead of Thread.Sleep, then there is no thread consumed by those operations and your UI shouldn't freeze. The first thing anyone new to async needs to understand is that it's not the same thing as multithreading. The latter is all about consuming more threads, the former is all about consuming fewer. Focus on eliminating the blocking and you shouldn't need a second thread.
As others have noted, SeedingProd needs to return a Task, not void, so you can observe its completion. I believe your method can be reduced to this:
private async Task SeedingProd(CancellationToken token)
{
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
int totalSeeded = 0;
var codesToSeed = await _myRepository.All().ToListAsync(token);
foreach (var code in codesToSeed)
{
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
return;
try
{
int seedCountByCode = await _myManager.SeedDataFromLive(code);
totalSeeded += seedCountByCode;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_logger.InfoFormat(ex.ToString());
}
}
await Task.Dealy(30000);
}
}
Then simply call the method, without awaiting it, and you'll have your task.
Task mainTask = SeedingProd(token);
When you specify async on a method, it compiles into a state machine with a Task, so SeedingProd does not run synchronously, but acts as a Task even if returns void. So when you call Task.Factory.StartNew(SeedingProd) you start a task that kick off another task - that's why the first one finishes immediately before the second one. All you have to do is add the Task return parameter instead of void:
private async Task SeedingProdAsync(CancellationToken ct)
{
...
}
and call it as simply as this:
Task tskProdSeeding = SeedingProdAsync(_cts.Token);
I need to perform few tasks inside a Windows Service I am writing in parallel. I am using VS2013, .NET 4.5 and this thread Basic design pattern for using TPL inside windows service for C# shows that TPL is the way to go.
Below is my implementation. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if I have done it correctly!
public partial class FtpLink : ServiceBase
{
private readonly CancellationTokenSource _cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
private readonly ManualResetEvent _runCompleteEvent = new ManualResetEvent(false);
public FtpLink()
{
InitializeComponent();
// Load configuration
WebEnvironment.Instance.Initialise();
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
Trace.TraceInformation("DatabaseToFtp is running");
try
{
RunAsync(_cancellationTokenSource.Token).Wait();
}
finally
{
_runCompleteEvent.Set();
}
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
Trace.TraceInformation("DatabaseToFtp is stopping");
_cancellationTokenSource.Cancel();
_runCompleteEvent.WaitOne();
Trace.TraceInformation("DatabaseToFtp has stopped");
}
private async Task RunAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Trace.TraceInformation("Working");
// Do the actual work
var tasks = new List<Task>
{
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => new Processor().ProcessMessageFiles(), cancellationToken),
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => new Processor().ProcessFirmware(), cancellationToken)
};
Task.WaitAll(tasks.ToArray(), cancellationToken);
// Delay the loop for a certain time
await Task.Delay(WebEnvironment.Instance.DatabasePollInterval, cancellationToken);
}
}
}
There are a few things i would do differently:
OnStart should execute in a timely fashion. Common practice is to defer work to a background thread which is in charge of doing the actual work. You're actually doing that but blocking that thread with a call to Task.Wait, which kind of makes the offloading to a background thread useless, because execution becomes synchronous again.
You're using the sync over async anti-pattern, this should be mostly avoided. Let the calling method invoke the work in parallel.
I think you might be using the ManualResetEvent the other way around. You're wrapping your RunAsync method in a try-finally block, but you're only calling WaitOne from OnStop. I'm not really sure you need a lock here at all, it doesn't seem (from your current code) that this code is being invoked in parallel. Instead, you can store the Task returned by RunAsync in a field and wait on it to complete.
You're using the blocking version, WaitAll. Instead, you could use the asynchronous version, Task.WhenAll, which can be asynchronously waited.
I am developing android messanger app based on xamarin and .net 5 async/awaits.
In my app i have producer/consumer pattern for processing messages which is made on infinite loops.
for example ReadTcpClientAsync producer:
async Task ReadTcpClientAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
cde.Signal();
while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
byte[] buffer = await atc.ReadAsync(cancellationToken);
// queue message...
}
}
or SendStatementsAsync consumer which deque messages and awaits WriteAsync
private async Task SendStatementsAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
var nextItem = await _outputStatements.Take();
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
// misc ...
await atc.WriteAsync(call.Serialize());
}
}
and some consumers just await on Take calls
var update = await _inputUpdateStatements.Take();
this construction works pretty well on tests, but there is one method where i think i made a huge mistake.
this method intent to run entire client backend, starting 3 pro/con while (true) loops simultaneously.
here it is:
public async Task RunAsync()
{
_isRunning = true;
_progress.ProgressChanged += progress_ProgressChanged;
await InitMTProto(_scheme).ConfigureAwait(false); // init smth...
// various init stuf...
await atc.ConnectAsync().ConfigureAwait(false); // open connection async
// IS IT WRONG?
try
{
await Task.WhenAny(SendStatementsAsync(_cts.Token),
ReadTcpClientAsync(_cts.Token),
ProcessUpdateAsync(_cts.Token, _progress)).ConfigureAwait(false);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException oce)
{
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
}
Forget about android for now, think any UI (WinForm, WPF, etc) OnCreate method in UI context to call RunAsync
protected async override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{
// start RA
await client.RunAsync()
// never gets here - BAD, but nonblock UI thread - good
Debug.WriteLine("nevar");
}
so, as you can see there is a problem. I can't do anything after RunAsync await call because it will never returns from Task.WhenAny(...). And i need perform status check there, but i need this pro/cons methods started, because my check wait on ManualResetEvent for it:
if (!cde.Wait(15000))
{
throw new TimeoutException("Init too long");
}
Also, my check is async too, and it works like a charm :)
public async Task<TLCombinatorInstance> PerformRpcCall(string combinatorName, params object[] pars)
{
// wait for init on cde ...
// prepare call ...
// Produce
ProduceOutput(call);
// wait for answer
return await _inputRpcAnswersStatements.Take();
}
I think i should use another approach for starting this infinite loops, but i already have async Task methods all the way - so i really have no idea what to do.
Any help please?
Ok, after a lot of reading (nothing found) and #svick's advice i decided to call this methods without "await" as separate Task.Run's.
Aso i decided to run it in ThreadPool.
My final code is:
try
{
/*await Task.WhenAny(SendStatementsAsync(_cts.Token),
ReadTcpClientAsync(_cts.Token),
ProcessUpdateAsync(_cts.Token, _progress)).ConfigureAwait(false);*/
Task.Run(() => SendStatementsAsync(_cts.Token)).ConfigureAwait(false);
Task.Run(() => ReadTcpClientAsync(_cts.Token)).ConfigureAwait(false);
Task.Run(() => ProcessUpdateAsync(_cts.Token, _progress)).ConfigureAwait(false);
Trace.WriteLineIf(clientSwitch.TraceInfo, "Worker threads started", "[Client.RunAsync]");
}
Everything works fine as expected..
i'm not sure what problems it will cause in exception handling, as i know they will be lost
Of course such calls produce warning
Because this call is not awaited, execution of the current method
continues before the call is completed. Consider applying the 'await'
operator to the result of the call.
which can be easily suppressed this way
// just save task into variable
var send = Task.Run(() => SendStatementsAsync(_cts.Token)).ConfigureAwait(false);
Also, if anyone know better solution i will be grateful to hear it.