c# - Limited concurrency level task scheduler (with task priority) handling wrapped tasks

Question

I'm having a hard time finding a task scheduler on which I can schedule prioritised tasks but can also handle "wrapped" tasks. It is something like what Task.Run tries to solve, but you cannot specify a task scheduler to Task.Run. I have been using a QueuedTaskScheduler from the Parallel Extensions Extras Samples to solve the task priority requirement (also suggested by this post).

Here is my example:

class Program
{
    private static QueuedTaskScheduler queueScheduler = new QueuedTaskScheduler(targetScheduler: TaskScheduler.Default, maxConcurrencyLevel: 1);
    private static TaskScheduler ts_priority1;
    private static TaskScheduler ts_priority2;
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ts_priority1 = queueScheduler.ActivateNewQueue(1);
        ts_priority2 = queueScheduler.ActivateNewQueue(2);

        QueueValue(1, ts_priority2);
        QueueValue(2, ts_priority2);
        QueueValue(3, ts_priority2);
        QueueValue(4, ts_priority1);
        QueueValue(5, ts_priority1);
        QueueValue(6, ts_priority1);

        Console.ReadLine();           
    }

    private static Task QueueTask(Func<Task> f, TaskScheduler ts)
    {
        return Task.Factory.StartNew(f, CancellationToken.None, TaskCreationOptions.HideScheduler | TaskCreationOptions.DenyChildAttach, ts);
    }

    private static Task QueueValue(int i, TaskScheduler ts)
    {
        return QueueTask(async () =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Start {0}", i);
            await Task.Delay(1000);
            Console.WriteLine("End {0}", i);
        }, ts);
    }
}

The typical output of the example above is:

Start 4
Start 5
Start 6
Start 1
Start 2
Start 3
End 4
End 3
End 5
End 2
End 1
End 6

What I want is:

Start 4
End 4
Start 5
End 5
Start 6
End 6
Start 1
End 1
Start 2
End 2
Start 3
End 3

EDIT:

I think I'm looking for a task scheduler, similar to QueuedTaskScheduler, that will solve this problem. But any other suggestions are welcome.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this can't be solved with a TaskScheduler, because they always work at the Task level, and an async method almost always contains multiple Tasks.

You should use a SemaphoreSlim in conjunction with a prioritizing scheduler. Alternatively, you could use AsyncLock (which is also included in my AsyncEx library).

class Program
{
  private static QueuedTaskScheduler queueScheduler = new QueuedTaskScheduler(targetScheduler: TaskScheduler.Default, maxConcurrencyLevel: 1);
  private static TaskScheduler ts_priority1;
  private static TaskScheduler ts_priority2;
  private static SemaphoreSlim semaphore = new SemaphoreSlim(1);
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    ts_priority1 = queueScheduler.ActivateNewQueue(1);
    ts_priority2 = queueScheduler.ActivateNewQueue(2);

    QueueValue(1, ts_priority2);
    QueueValue(2, ts_priority2);
    QueueValue(3, ts_priority2);
    QueueValue(4, ts_priority1);
    QueueValue(5, ts_priority1);
    QueueValue(6, ts_priority1);

    Console.ReadLine();           
  }

  private static Task QueueTask(Func<Task> f, TaskScheduler ts)
  {
    return Task.Factory.StartNew(f, CancellationToken.None, TaskCreationOptions.HideScheduler | TaskCreationOptions.DenyChildAttach, ts).Unwrap();
  }

  private static Task QueueValue(int i, TaskScheduler ts)
  {
    return QueueTask(async () =>
    {
      await semaphore.WaitAsync();
      try
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Start {0}", i);
        await Task.Delay(1000);
        Console.WriteLine("End {0}", i);
      }
      finally
      {
        semaphore.Release();
      }
    }, ts);
  }
}