Creating a concurrent queue:

dispatch_queue_t concurrentQueue = dispatch_queue_create("com.demo.concurrentQueue", DISPATCH_QUEUE_CONCURRENT);

When I use LLDB to debug and print concurrentQueue:

po concurrentQueue

The output is:

<OS_dispatch_queue_concurrent: com.demo.concurrentQueue[0x600001ee8200] = { xref = 1, ref = 1, sref = 1, target = com.apple.root.default-qos[0x1000c4340], width = 0xffe, state = 0x0000041000000000, in-flight = 0}>

From the return value of the dispatch_queue_create function, it seems that concurrentQueue should be of type dispatch_queue_t structure. Why does LLDB print concurrentQueue as OS_dispatch_queue_concurrent? What exactly is OS_dispatch_queue_concurrent?

To find the answer, I looked at the source code of libdispatch:

dispatch_queue_t
dispatch_queue_create(const char *label, dispatch_queue_attr_t attr)
{
    return _dispatch_lane_create_with_target(label, attr,
            DISPATCH_TARGET_QUEUE_DEFAULT, true);
}

static dispatch_queue_t
_dispatch_lane_create_with_target(const char *label, dispatch_queue_attr_t dqa,
        dispatch_queue_t tq, bool legacy)
{
    dispatch_queue_attr_info_t dqai = _dispatch_queue_attr_to_info(dqa);

    //
    // Step 1: Normalize arguments (qos, overcommit, tq)
    //

    dispatch_qos_t qos = dqai.dqai_qos;
#if !HAVE_PTHREAD_WORKQUEUE_QOS
    if (qos == DISPATCH_QOS_USER_INTERACTIVE) {
        dqai.dqai_qos = qos = DISPATCH_QOS_USER_INITIATED;
    }
    if (qos == DISPATCH_QOS_MAINTENANCE) {
        dqai.dqai_qos = qos = DISPATCH_QOS_BACKGROUND;
    }
#endif // !HAVE_PTHREAD_WORKQUEUE_QOS

    _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_t overcommit = dqai.dqai_overcommit;
    if (overcommit != _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_unspecified && tq) {
        if (tq->do_targetq) {
            DISPATCH_CLIENT_CRASH(tq, "Cannot specify both overcommit and "
                    "a non-global target queue");
        }
    }

    if (tq && dx_type(tq) == DISPATCH_QUEUE_GLOBAL_ROOT_TYPE) {
        // Handle discrepancies between attr and target queue, attributes win
        if (overcommit == _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_unspecified) {
            if (tq->dq_priority & DISPATCH_PRIORITY_FLAG_OVERCOMMIT) {
                overcommit = _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_enabled;
            } else {
                overcommit = _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_disabled;
            }
        }
        if (qos == DISPATCH_QOS_UNSPECIFIED) {
            qos = _dispatch_priority_qos(tq->dq_priority);
        }
        tq = NULL;
    } else if (tq && _dispatch_queue_is_cooperative(tq)) {
        DISPATCH_CLIENT_CRASH(tq, "Cannot target object to cooperative root queue - not implemented");
    } else if (tq && !tq->do_targetq) {
        // target is a pthread or runloop root queue, setting QoS or overcommit
        // is disallowed
        if (overcommit != _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_unspecified) {
            DISPATCH_CLIENT_CRASH(tq, "Cannot specify an overcommit attribute "
                    "and use this kind of target queue");
        }
    } else {
        if (overcommit == _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_unspecified) {
            // Serial queues default to overcommit!
            overcommit = dqai.dqai_concurrent ?
                    _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_disabled :
                    _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_enabled;
        }
    }
    if (!tq) {
        uintptr_t flags = (overcommit == _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_enabled) ? DISPATCH_QUEUE_OVERCOMMIT : 0;
        tq = _dispatch_get_root_queue(
                qos == DISPATCH_QOS_UNSPECIFIED ? DISPATCH_QOS_DEFAULT : qos,
                    flags)->_as_dq;
        if (unlikely(!tq)) {
            DISPATCH_CLIENT_CRASH(qos, "Invalid queue attribute");
        }
    }

    //
    // Step 2: Initialize the queue
    //

    if (legacy) {
        // if any of these attributes is specified, use non legacy classes
        if (dqai.dqai_inactive || dqai.dqai_autorelease_frequency) {
            legacy = false;
        }
    }

    const void *vtable;
    dispatch_queue_flags_t dqf = legacy ? DQF_MUTABLE : 0;
    if (dqai.dqai_concurrent) {
        vtable = DISPATCH_VTABLE(queue_concurrent);
    } else {
        vtable = DISPATCH_VTABLE(queue_serial);
    }
    switch (dqai.dqai_autorelease_frequency) {
    case DISPATCH_AUTORELEASE_FREQUENCY_NEVER:
        dqf |= DQF_AUTORELEASE_NEVER;
        break;
    case DISPATCH_AUTORELEASE_FREQUENCY_WORK_ITEM:
        dqf |= DQF_AUTORELEASE_ALWAYS;
        break;
    }
    if (label) {
        const char *tmp = _dispatch_strdup_if_mutable(label);
        if (tmp != label) {
            dqf |= DQF_LABEL_NEEDS_FREE;
            label = tmp;
        }
    }

    dispatch_lane_t dq = _dispatch_object_alloc(vtable,
            sizeof(struct dispatch_lane_s));
    _dispatch_queue_init(dq, dqf, dqai.dqai_concurrent ?
            DISPATCH_QUEUE_WIDTH_MAX : 1, DISPATCH_QUEUE_ROLE_INNER |
            (dqai.dqai_inactive ? DISPATCH_QUEUE_INACTIVE : 0));

    dq->dq_label = label;
    dq->dq_priority = _dispatch_priority_make((dispatch_qos_t)dqai.dqai_qos,
            dqai.dqai_relpri);
    if (overcommit == _dispatch_queue_attr_overcommit_enabled) {
        dq->dq_priority |= DISPATCH_PRIORITY_FLAG_OVERCOMMIT;
    }
    if (!dqai.dqai_inactive) {
        _dispatch_queue_priority_inherit_from_target(dq, tq);
        _dispatch_lane_inherit_wlh_from_target(dq, tq);
    }
    _dispatch_retain(tq);
    dq->do_targetq = tq;
    _dispatch_object_debug(dq, "%s", __func__);
    return _dispatch_trace_queue_create(dq)._dq;
}

I looked at the source code and couldn’t find how concurrentQueue becomes OS_dispatch_queue_concurrent. Does anyone know the principle behind this transformation?