eraseToStream and eraseToThrowingStream unable to handle non-sendable Elements

[BrentMifsud]

Description

Something I noticed today when using NotificationCenter.notifications is that I cant actually use eraseToStream to type erase because Notification does not conform to sendable.

Apple recommends using a .map or .compactMap to take out the value that you need to send, however I noticed that even if you have stripped out the non-sendable type via a map or compact map, eraseToStream still produces errors in swift 6 and warnings in swift 5

Here is an example of observing background refresh status changes:

    let notifications = notificationCenter
            .notifications(named: UIApplication.backgroundRefreshStatusDidChangeNotification)
            .compactMap { notification -> UIBackgroundRefreshStatus? in
                guard let application = notification.object as? UIApplication else {
                    return nil
                }

                return await application.backgroundRefreshStatus
            }
            .eraseToStream()

The only workaround I have found is to do something like this (rather than using eraseToStream)

        let (notificationUpdates, continuation) = AsyncStream<UIBackgroundRefreshStatus>.makeStream()

        let task = Task { [notificationCenter, application] in
            let notifications = notificationCenter
                .notifications(named: UIApplication.backgroundRefreshStatusDidChangeNotification)
                .compactMap { notification -> UIBackgroundRefreshStatus? in
                    guard let application = notification.object as? UIApplication else {
                        return nil
                    }

                    return await application.backgroundRefreshStatus
                }

            continuation.yield(application.backgroundRefreshStatus)

            for await backgroundRefreshStatus in notifications {
                continuation.yield(backgroundRefreshStatus)
            }
        }

        // this might not be necessary
        continuation.onTermination = { _ in
            task.cancel()
        }

Checklist

• If possible, I've reproduced the issue using the main branch of this package.
• This issue hasn't been addressed in an existing GitHub issue or discussion.

Expected behavior

Since AsyncStream and AsyncThrowingStream are capable of handling non-sendable elements, I believe eraseToStream and eraseToThrowingStream should mirror this behavior.

Actual behavior

I get a compiler warning (in swift 5) and an error (in swift 6) when using eraseTo(Throwing)Stream on a sequence with non-sendable elements.

Steps to reproduce

You can reproduce it with this code snippet:

    let notifications = notificationCenter
            .notifications(named: UIApplication.backgroundRefreshStatusDidChangeNotification)
            .compactMap { notification -> UIBackgroundRefreshStatus? in
                guard let application = notification.object as? UIApplication else {
                    return nil
                }

                return await application.backgroundRefreshStatus
            }
            .eraseToStream()

swift-concurrency-extras version information

1.2.0

Destination operating system

iOS 18.0

Xcode version information

16.0.0

Swift Compiler version information

swift-driver version: 1.115 Apple Swift version 6.0 (swiftlang-6.0.0.9.10 clang-1600.0.26.2)
Target: arm64-apple-macosx15.0

[stephencelis]

@BrentMifsud The problem is AsyncMapSequence is only sendable when both its Base and Transformed are sendable, and so it cannot cross the boundary into the underlying AsyncStream initializer we call from the standard library, which requires sendable closures:

https://github.com/swiftlang/swift/blob/b5a85ed8dc44f77602e58568504bf0065fd09d5c/stdlib/public/Concurrency/AsyncStream.swift#L336-L337

And so we think that this API we provide should require sendability.

If you are targeting iOS 18+ then the good news is you can erase sequences directly now. You can just use any AsyncSequence<Element, Failure> instead of our AsyncStream helpers.

If you still deploy to older platforms then I think it is up to you to traffic unsafe sendable items through. Now unfortunately nonisolated(unsafe) does not seem to work here:

nonisolated(unsafe) let nonSendableAsyncSequence = …
AsyncStream(nonSendableAsyncSequence)          // 🛑
nonSendableAsyncSequence.eraseToAsyncStream()  // 🛑

...and maybe it's worth filing a bug with Apple.

We should probably conditionally conform UncheckedSendable to work around this, but till we do you can implement it in your own project:

extension UncheckedSendable: @retroactive AsyncSequence
where Value: AsyncSequence {
  public func makeAsyncIterator() -> Value.AsyncIterator {
    value.makeAsyncIterator()
  }
}

Which will allows you to do the following:

AsyncStream(UncheckedSendable(nonSendableAsyncSequence))
UncheckedSendable(nonSendableAsyncSequence).eraseToAsyncStream()

Since this isn't a bug in the library I'm going to convert to a discussion.