[Rust API] `BackgroundTask` progress text and cancellation not working in headless mode

[saruman9]

Version and Platform (required):

• Binary Ninja Version: 5.0.7290-stable
• Edition: Commercial
• OS: macOS
• OS Version: 14.5
• CPU Architecture: Apple M-series (ARM64)

Bug Description:
I'm using the Rust API to create a long-running analysis task. In GUI mode, everything works as expected:

• The progress text is shown correctly.
• I can cancel the task via the UI, and is_cancelled() reflects the cancellation.

However, in headless mode:

1. Progress text is not displayed at all, even though I call set_progress_text().
2. The cancellation check via is_cancelled() never returns true — even when I interrupt execution (e.g., via Ctrl-C), the task continues running until completion.

Relevant parts of the API:

• set_progress_text
• is_cancelled

Expected Behavior:
I expected to see progress text printed to the console and to be able to interrupt the analysis with Ctrl-C (or any other cancellation mechanism supported by BackgroundTask in headless mode).

Screenshots/Video Recording:
N/A

Binary:
Not applicable

Additional Information:
Should I be manually handling cancellation signals and progress output in headless mode, instead of relying on BackgroundTask? If so, what’s the recommended way to report progress and support user cancellation in this case?

[saruman9]

Update:
If it matters, the code in GUI mode that uses BackgroundTask is being executed via execute_on_worker_thread.
Just mentioning this in case it affects progress display or cancellation behavior in headless mode.

[saruman9]

Update / Partial Workaround:

As a temporary workaround, I implemented my own task structure:

#[derive(Clone)]
pub struct Task {
    background_task: Ref<BackgroundTask>,
    is_cancelled: OnceLock<()>,
}

impl Task {
    pub fn is_cancelled(&self) -> bool {
        self.background_task.is_cancelled() || self.is_cancelled.get().is_some()
    }

    pub fn cancel(&self) {
        self.background_task.cancel();
        self.is_cancelled.set(()).ok();
    }
}

And in the entry point of the binary, I added Ctrl-C handling using the ctrlc crate:

let task = Task::default();
{
    let task = task.clone();
    ctrlc::set_handler(move || {
        task.cancel();
    })?;
}

This handles my use case for now. For the progress updates, I’m currently just logging the progress_text manually.