Using dispatch_once in method swizzling

Question

In NSHipter's article on method swizzling, it says "Swizzling should always be done in a dispatch_once." Why is this necessary since +load happens only once per class?

Answer 1

It's not required. +load is guaranteed to be thread-safe and reentrant. See load_images in objc-runtime-new.mm:

/***********************************************************************
* load_images
* Process +load in the given images which are being mapped in by dyld.
* Calls ABI-agnostic code after taking ABI-specific locks.
*
* Locking: write-locks runtimeLock and loadMethodLock
**********************************************************************/
const char *
load_images(enum dyld_image_states state, uint32_t infoCount,
            const struct dyld_image_info infoList[])
{
    BOOL found;

    recursive_mutex_lock(&loadMethodLock);

    // Discover load methods
    rwlock_write(&runtimeLock);
    found = load_images_nolock(state, infoCount, infoList);
    rwlock_unlock_write(&runtimeLock);

    // Call +load methods (without runtimeLock - re-entrant)
    if (found) {
        call_load_methods();
    }

    recursive_mutex_unlock(&loadMethodLock);

    return nil;
}

Notice the recursive mutex, that guarantees that all loads are done while blocking, and call_load_methods() will ensure that +load only gets invoked once per implementation of +load.

Note that +load is special in that there can be multiple implementations of it on a per-class basis, which is one of the reasons why it's preferred for swizzling - your +load, as well as the original +load is guaranteed to be called.

Bonus: Here's the relevant documentation on call_load_methods() that directly addresses why this is thread safe in the way that it is:

/***********************************************************************
* call_load_methods
* Call all pending class and category +load methods.
* Class +load methods are called superclass-first. 
* Category +load methods are not called until after the parent class's +load.
* 
* This method must be RE-ENTRANT, because a +load could trigger 
* more image mapping. In addition, the superclass-first ordering 
* must be preserved in the face of re-entrant calls. Therefore, 
* only the OUTERMOST call of this function will do anything, and 
* that call will handle all loadable classes, even those generated 
* while it was running.
*
* The sequence below preserves +load ordering in the face of 
* image loading during a +load, and make sure that no 
* +load method is forgotten because it was added during 
* a +load call.
* Sequence:
* 1. Repeatedly call class +loads until there aren't any more
* 2. Call category +loads ONCE.
* 3. Run more +loads if:
*    (a) there are more classes to load, OR
*    (b) there are some potential category +loads that have 
*        still never been attempted.
* Category +loads are only run once to ensure "parent class first" 
* ordering, even if a category +load triggers a new loadable class 
* and a new loadable category attached to that class. 
*
* Locking: loadMethodLock must be held by the caller 
*   All other locks must not be held.
**********************************************************************/
void call_load_methods(void)