How to cancel NSBlockOperation

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Doh. Dear future googlers: of course operation is nil when copied by the block, but it doesn’t have to be copied. It can be qualified with __block like so: 

//THIS MIGHT LEAK! See the update below.
__block NSBlockOperation *operation = [NSBlockOperation blockOperationWithBlock:^{
   while( ! [operation isCancelled]){
      //do something...
   }
}];

UPDATE:

Upon further meditation, it occurs to me that this will create a retain cycle under ARC. In ARC, I believe __block storage is retained. If so, we’re in trouble, because NSBlockOperation also keeps a strong references to the passed in block, which now has a strong reference to the operation, which has a strong reference to the passed in block, which…

It’s a little less elegant, but using an explicit weak reference should break the cycle:

NSBlockOperation *operation = [[NSBlockOperation alloc] init];
__weak NSBlockOperation *weakOperation = operation;
[operation addExecutionBlock:^{
   while( ! [weakOperation isCancelled]){
      //do something...
   }
}];

Anyone that has ideas for a more elegant solution, please comment!

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