DispatchSourceTimer and Swift 3.0

Question

I can't figure out how to make dispatch timer work repeatedly in Swift 3.0. My code:

let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.firm.app.timer",
                          attributes: DispatchQueue.Attributes.concurrent)
let timer = DispatchSource.makeTimerSource(flags: DispatchSource.TimerFlags(rawValue: UInt(0)),
                                           queue: queue)

timer.scheduleRepeating(deadline: DispatchTime.now(),
                        interval: .seconds(5),
                        leeway: .seconds(1)
)

timer.setEventHandler(handler: {
     //a bunch of code here
})

timer.resume()

Timer just fires one time and doesn't repeat itself like it should be. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

Make sure the timer doesn't fall out of scope. Unlike NSTimer, you need to maintain a strong reference to your GCD timers, e.g.:

var timer: DispatchSourceTimer?

private func startTimer() {
    let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.firm.app.timer", attributes: .concurrent)

    timer?.cancel()        // cancel previous timer if any

    timer = DispatchSource.makeTimerSource(queue: queue)

    timer?.schedule(deadline: .now(), repeating: .seconds(5), leeway: .milliseconds(100))

    // or, in Swift 3:
    //
    // timer?.scheduleRepeating(deadline: .now(), interval: .seconds(5), leeway: .seconds(1))

    timer?.setEventHandler { [weak self] in // `[weak self]` only needed if you reference `self` in this closure and you want to prevent strong reference cycle
        print(Date())
    }

    timer?.resume()
}

private func stopTimer() {
    timer?.cancel()
    timer = nil
}