Demonstrates how a Swift value constant can mutate when using Copy-on-Write (CoW) and multi-threading.

LetTheCoWGo.swift

import Foundation

struct NuclearPowerStationOperator {
    
    class Storage {
        var turnOffCores: Bool = false
        func copy() -> Storage {
            let new = Storage()
            new.turnOffCores = turnOffCores
            return new
        }
    }
    
    private var storage: Storage = Storage()
    
    var turnOffCores: Bool {
        get {
            return storage.turnOffCores
        }
        set {
            if isKnownUniquelyReferenced(&storage) {
                Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 1.0) // Sleep to simulate race condition
                storage.turnOffCores = newValue
            } else {
                storage = storage.copy()
                storage.turnOffCores = newValue
            }
        }
    }
    
    var description: String {
        return "\(turnOffCores ? "We are in danger" : "We are safe")"
    }
}

// Create a mutable value
var crazyOperator = NuclearPowerStationOperator()

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
    Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 0.5) // Sleep a little to give main thread time to start setting property
    let saneOperator = crazyOperator // Create a constant copy of the operator from main thread
    print(saneOperator.description) // Print our intial property value
    Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 2.0) // Simulate race by waiting for setter on main thread to finish
    print(saneOperator.description) // Test property (it will be different)
}

// Update the value. Note that the setter simulates a race condition by being very slow
crazyOperator.turnOffCores = true

You have to add crazyOperator to a capture list of the closure to get the behaviour you wanted. Without it, closure will have a reference to your variable, it will not copy it on creation.

Change

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {

into

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { [crazyOperator] in

To see the difference between a closure with and without a capture list, have a look at the following code:

import Foundation

var int: Int? = 100
var array: [Int]? = [200]

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
    let copy_int = int
    let copy_array = array
    print("Without capture list int: \(String(describing: copy_int)), array: \(String(describing: copy_array))")
}

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { [int, array] in
    let copy_int = int
    let copy_array = array
    print("With capture list int: \(String(describing: copy_int)), array: \(String(describing: copy_array))")
}

int = nil
array = nil
Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 1)

You have to add crazyOperator to a capture list of the closure to get the behaviour you wanted. Without it, closure will have a reference to your variable, it will not copy it on creation.

Change

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {

into

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { [crazyOperator] in

To see the difference between a closure with and without a capture list, have a look at the following code:

import Foundation

var int: Int? = 100
var array: [Int]? = [200]

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
    let copy_int = int
    let copy_array = array
    print("Without capture list int: \(String(describing: copy_int)), array: \(String(describing: copy_array))")
}

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async { [int, array] in
    let copy_int = int
    let copy_array = array
    print("With capture list int: \(String(describing: copy_int)), array: \(String(describing: copy_array))")
}

int = nil
array = nil
Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 1)

In this demo, you're not actually modifying the variable in multiple threads, the copy of the variable is on the same thread, which is completely different from the topic under discussion.