Re: [Boost-users] ASIO: custom service which works with spawn/yield

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] ASIO: custom service which works with spawn/yield
From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-07-26 14:32:53

On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 7:23 AM, Bjorn Reese via Boost-users
<boost-users_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> The post operation is handed off to the executor (13.23/6.3) so I would
> assume that the definition of "outstanding work" in 14.2 rather than
> 13.2.7.10 applies.

Right, so we know that `post` will construct executor_work_guard for
the executor associated with a completion handler. And we know that
the asynchronous operation is then responsible for constructing the
executor_work_guard for the executor associated with the I/O object
(in this case it is an object of type io_context::executor_type).

If the completion handler has no associated executor, for example if
it is a lambda or a bind wrapper, then the executor of the I/O context
will be used (assuming the 2-arg version of `post` is called, which is
required for correctness), and everything will seem to work even
without the second work guard.

However, if the completion handler has an associated executor, then
omitting the second work guard results in an io_context with no
outstanding work. Therefore, io_context::run returns immediately, and
the completion handler is not invoked. This is what I see in Visual
Studio. Linux users may see a different result on account of some
implementation differences.

Stackful coroutines launched with `spawn` have an explicit `strand`,
which means the associated executor is NOT the same as the executor
for the I/O context upon which the strand was launched. Therefore,
omitting the executor_work_guard from an asynchronous operation which
only calls `post` will not meet the asynchronous requirements for the
case where the completion handler is a stackful coroutine.

If anything, this just highlights the complexity of [networking.ts].
Users will definitely be making these mistakes repeatedly, especially
the one where the 1-arg version of `post` is called instead of the
2-arg version.

Thanks