Closure use of non-escaping parameter may allow it to escape

Question

I have a protocol:

enum DataFetchResult {
    case success(data: Data)
    case failure
}

protocol DataServiceType {
    func fetchData(location: String, completion: (DataFetchResult) -> (Void))
    func cachedData(location: String) -> Data?
}

With an example implementation:

    /// An implementation of DataServiceType protocol returning predefined results using arbitrary queue for asynchronyous mechanisms.
    /// Dedicated to be used in various tests (Unit Tests).
    class DataMockService: DataServiceType {

        var result      : DataFetchResult
        var async       : Bool = true
        var queue       : DispatchQueue = DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background)
        var cachedData  : Data? = nil

        init(result : DataFetchResult) {
            self.result = result
        }

        func cachedData(location: String) -> Data? {
            switch self.result {
            case .success(let data):
                return data
            default:
                return nil
            }
        }

        func fetchData(location: String, completion: (DataFetchResult) -> (Void)) {

            // Returning result on arbitrary queue should be tested,
            // so we can check if client can work with any (even worse) implementation:

            if async == true {
                queue.async { [weak self ] in
                    guard let weakSelf = self else { return }

                    // This line produces compiler error: 
                    // "Closure use of non-escaping parameter 'completion' may allow it to escape"
                    completion(weakSelf.result)
                }
            } else {
               completion(self.result)
            }
        }
    }

The code above compiled and worked in Swift3 (Xcode8-beta5) but does not work with beta 6 anymore. Can you point me to the underlying cause?

Answer 1

This is due to a change in the default behaviour for parameters of function type. Prior to Swift 3 (specifically the build that ships with Xcode 8 beta 6), they would default to being escaping – you would have to mark them @noescape in order to prevent them from being stored or captured, which guarantees they won't outlive the duration of the function call.

However, now @noescape is the default for function-typed parameters. If you want to store or capture such functions, you now need to mark them @escaping:

protocol DataServiceType {
  func fetchData(location: String, completion: @escaping (DataFetchResult) -> Void)
  func cachedData(location: String) -> Data?
}

func fetchData(location: String, completion: @escaping (DataFetchResult) -> Void) {
  // ...
}

See the Swift Evolution proposal for more info about this change.