spacedriveapp/spacedrive · error

Worker channel closed trying to force task abortion

Error message

Worker channel closed trying to force task abortion

What it means

Worker::force_task_abortion sends a ForceAbortion message over the worker's command channel and panics with .expect() when the channel is closed, i.e. the worker's message-processing task has exited and dropped its receiver. It means a force-abort was directed at a worker that has already shut down, so the request can never be acknowledged.

Source

Thrown at crates/task-system/src/worker/mod.rs:178

		&self,
		task_id: TaskId,
		ack: oneshot::Sender<Result<(), SystemError>>,
	) {
		self.msgs_tx
			.send(WorkerMessage::CancelNotRunningTask { task_id, ack })
			.await
			.expect("Worker channel closed trying to cancel a not running task");
	}

	pub async fn force_task_abortion(
		&self,
		task_id: TaskId,
		ack: oneshot::Sender<Result<(), SystemError>>,
	) {
		self.msgs_tx
			.send(WorkerMessage::ForceAbortion { task_id, ack })
			.await
			.expect("Worker channel closed trying to force task abortion");
	}

	#[instrument(skip(self), fields(worker_id = self.id))]
	pub async fn shutdown(&self) {
		if let Some(handle) = self
			.handle
			.try_borrow_mut()
			.ok()
			.and_then(|mut maybe_handle| maybe_handle.take())
		{
			let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel();

			self.msgs_tx
				.send(WorkerMessage::ShutdownRequest(tx))
				.await
				.expect("Worker channel closed trying to shutdown");

			rx.await.expect("Worker channel closed trying to shutdown");

View on GitHub (pinned to 6dfeccf211)

Solutions

1. Sequence force-aborts before shutdown begins, and await them (the ack oneshot) before calling system.shutdown()
2. Library-level fix: map SendError to a SystemError (e.g. worker-unavailable) or warn-and-return instead of .expect, since shutdown already force-finalizes all tasks the worker owned
3. Ensure your tasks honor interrupt signals (Interrupter/worktable) so force-abort acks return quickly and don't overlap the shutdown window
4. As a last-resort containment, call force-abort through AssertUnwindSafe(..).catch_unwind() and interpret a panic as 'worker gone, nothing to abort'

Example fix

// before (worker/mod.rs:175-178)
self.msgs_tx
    .send(WorkerMessage::ForceAbortion { task_id, ack })
    .await
    .expect("Worker channel closed trying to force task abortion");

// after
if self
    .msgs_tx
    .send(WorkerMessage::ForceAbortion { task_id, ack })
    .await
    .is_err()
{
    warn!(%task_id, worker_id = self.id, "Worker channel closed; force abortion request dropped (worker already shutdown)");
}

use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering};

static SHUTTING_DOWN: AtomicBool = AtomicBool::new(false);

fn can_force_abort() -> bool { !SHUTTING_DOWN.load(Ordering::Acquire) }

// Force-abort is await-heavy on the worker side (run.rs:79-88); complete it
// BEFORE shutdown begins, otherwise skip it and let shutdown finalize the task.

use futures::FutureExt;
use std::panic::AssertUnwindSafe;

if AssertUnwindSafe(remote.force_abort()).catch_unwind().await.is_err() {
    // Worker already down; its shutdown path force-finalizes every task it owned
    // (send_forced_abortion_task_response, runner.rs:1385-1400).
}

When it happens

Trigger: The dispatch chain system.rs:396/408 -> Worker::force_task_abortion (worker/mod.rs:170) firing after the target worker's run loop returned from ShutdownRequest handling (run.rs:90-92), or while the runtime is being torn down and the worker task is dropped. Note force_task_abortion is await-heavy on the worker side (run.rs:79-88 awaits runner.force_task_abortion), so a worker blocked there while the system shuts down increases the race window.

Common situations: Force-aborting stuck tasks exactly during shutdown (the most common time to force-abort); watchdog code that aborts tasks on a timer firing concurrently with teardown; tests that force-abort then immediately shutdown the system without awaiting in between.

Related errors

• Worker channel closed trying to pause a not running task
• Worker channel closed trying to cancel a not running task
• Worker channel closed trying to steal task
• Worker channel closed trying to shutdown
• System channel closed trying to report working

AI-assisted analysis of spacedriveapp/spacedrive@6dfeccf211 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4570441bf62c70fa. Report an issue: GitHub.