Checking Objective-C block type?

问题:

This is primarily a curiosity, I'm not really sure what's the practical use of this but here goes.

Since blocks are also Objective-C objects, is it possible to check their type? That is, does it respond to the isKindOfClass: message and how to use that message with respect to blocks?

My naive thought that it's probably like this:

-(void) aMethod {
    typedef int (^BlockA)(int x, int y);
    id blockVar = ...; // get a block from somewhere
    if([blockVar isKindOfClass:BlockA]) {
        BlockA blockVarA = blockVar;
        int result = blockVarA(1,2);
    }
}

The code above probably won't work. But if it is possible to check a block's type, what is the correct way to do it?

回答1:

Can do, kinda sorta.

But first, let's disambiguate. -[NSObject isKindOfClass:] can tell you it's a block, and that's about it. E.g. I believe this line of code -- ostensibly & unfortunately A BAD IDEA -- will return YES for blocks on present Lion & iOS 5.x:

[myBlock isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"NSBlock")]

That won't help you distinguish the block's function signature.

But it can be done, by snagging the signature from the block's documented internal struct. Code follows for an example OS X command-line app, much of which ripped from Mike Ash's MABlockClosure (great detailed explanation). (UPDATE: Github project CTObjectiveCRuntimeAdditions also apparently provides library code for just this purpose.)

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

struct BlockDescriptor {
    unsigned long reserved;
    unsigned long size;
    void *rest[1];
};

struct Block {
    void *isa;
    int flags;
    int reserved;
    void *invoke;
    struct BlockDescriptor *descriptor;
};

static const char *BlockSig(id blockObj)
{
    struct Block *block = (void *)blockObj;
    struct BlockDescriptor *descriptor = block->descriptor;

    int copyDisposeFlag = 1 << 25;
    int signatureFlag = 1 << 30;

    assert(block->flags & signatureFlag);

    int index = 0;
    if(block->flags & copyDisposeFlag)
        index += 2;

    return descriptor->rest[index];
}

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    @autoreleasepool {

        int (^block)(NSNumber *) = ^(NSNumber *num) { 
            NSLog(@"%@ %@", NSStringFromClass([num class]), num); 
            return [num intValue]; 
        };
        NSLog(@"signature %s", BlockSig(block));
        NSLog(@"retval %d", (int)block([NSNumber numberWithInt:42]));
    }
    return 0;
}

Run this and you should get something like:

[58003:403] signature i16@?0@8
[58003:403] __NSCFNumber 42
[58003:403] retval 42

The numbers in the signature (I'm told they are offsets) can be stripped for simpler i@?@.

The signature is in the @encode format, which isn't perfect (e.g. most objects map to same @), but should afford you some ability to distinguish blocks with different signatures at runtime.

While it's not documented in the Apple link, my testing points to @? being the code for a block type, which makes sense of the signature above. I found a clang-developers discussion on this issue which seems to back this up.

回答2:

The "BlockA" in (^BlockA) is the variable name (in this case a typedef), not its class.
Blocks are objects, but not regular subclasses of NSObject. They only implement a subset of the methods. -isKindOfClass: will probably just crash.
Blocks are of the type NSMallocBlock or NSConcreteGlobalBlock, ... depending on where they were created (heap, stack, ...).

回答3:

It seems that blocks are of classes like __NSGlobalBlock__, __NSStackBlock__, or __NSMallocBlock__, etc., whose inheritance chain eventually goes to NSBlock and then NSObject. So you could test whether something is a block by doing [... isKindOfClass:NSClassFromString(@"NSBlock")]. However, there doesn't seem to be any way to query a block's signature (return type and argument types) at runtime, so you wouldn't be able to distinguish between blocks of different signatures.

回答4:

As well as Apple having nothing I can find to say on the matter, poking at a block with class_copyMethodList and method_getName reveals no obvious exposed methods. So I'm going to say that it isn't possible to check their type.

回答5:

A old question, but anyway:

If you want a simple way of doing this: (Compile it with -fno-objc-arc)

Class __NSGlobalBlock__CLASS () {
    static Class result = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        dispatch_block_t thisIsAGlobalBlock = ^{// a block with no variables will be a __NSGlobalBlock__
        };
        result = [[thisIsAGlobalBlock class] retain];
    });
    return result;
};

Class __NSStackBlock__CLASS () {
    static Class result = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        __block dispatch_block_t thisIsAStackBlock = ^{
            return ;// we really DON'T want infinate recursion
            thisIsAStackBlock();// including a reference to __block var makes this a __NSStackBlock__
        };
        result = [[thisIsAStackBlock class] retain];
    });
    return result;
};

Class __NSMallocBlock__CLASS () {
    static Class result = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        __block dispatch_block_t thisIsAMallocBlock = Block_copy(// << turns the __NSStackBlock__ Block into a __NSMallocBlock__
                                                                 ^{
            return ;// we really DON'T want infinate recursion
            thisIsAMallocBlock();// including a reference to __block var makes this a __NSStackBlock__
        });

        result = [[thisIsAMallocBlock class] retain];
        Block_release(thisIsAMallocBlock);
    });
    return result;
};

Test Code:

@autoreleasepool {

    __block dispatch_block_t iAmAGlobalBlock = ^{


    };


    __block dispatch_block_t iAmAStackBlock = ^{
        return;
        iAmAStackBlock();
    };


    dispatch_block_t iAmHeapBlock = Block_copy(iAmAStackBlock);
    dispatch_block_t iAmNotAHeapBlock = Block_copy(iAmAGlobalBlock);


    if ([iAmAGlobalBlock isKindOfClass:__NSGlobalBlock__CLASS()]) {

        NSLog(@"very great success!");
    }

    if ([iAmAStackBlock isKindOfClass:__NSStackBlock__CLASS()]) {

        NSLog(@"another great success!");
    }


    if ([iAmHeapBlock isKindOfClass:__NSMallocBlock__CLASS()]) {

        NSLog(@"also great success!");
    }


    if ([iAmNotAHeapBlock isKindOfClass:__NSGlobalBlock__CLASS()]) {

        NSLog(@"yet another great success!");
    }




    NSLog (@"Block classes, as reported by NSStringFromClass():\n__NSGlobalBlock__CLASS() = %@\n__NSStackBlock__CLASS()  = %@\n__NSMallocBlock__CLASS() = %@\n[iAmAGlobalBlock class]  = %@\n[iAmAStackBlock class]   = %@\n[iAmHeapBlock class]     = %@\n[iAmNotAHeapBlock class] = %@\n",

           NSStringFromClass(__NSGlobalBlock__CLASS()),
           NSStringFromClass(__NSStackBlock__CLASS()),
           NSStringFromClass(__NSMallocBlock__CLASS()),

           NSStringFromClass([iAmAGlobalBlock class]),
           NSStringFromClass([iAmAStackBlock  class]),
           NSStringFromClass([iAmHeapBlock    class]),
           NSStringFromClass([iAmNotAHeapBlock    class])


           );



    Block_release(iAmHeapBlock);
    Block_release(iAmNotAHeapBlock);// not really needed, but since we did "Block_copy" it...

}