What does macOS kernel return 42 (KERN_SEMAPHORE_DESTROYED) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The Mach semaphore was destroyed before the requested semaphore operation could complete.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ippStsI18nGetMessageFail	Intel Ipp Status	Any
ENOMSG	errno	Linux
ENOPROTOOPT	errno	Mac
EUNATCH	errno	Solaris
EILSEQ	errno	Windows
INCONSISTENT_IRP	BugCheck Code	Windows

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KERN_LOCK_OWNED_SELF	KERN_RPC_SERVER_TERMINATED

KERN_SEMAPHORE_DESTROYED

A semaphore lifetime failure

KERN_SEMAPHORE_DESTROYED means the semaphore object is gone. This is not a normal empty-semaphore wait and not a timeout; the synchronization primitive itself has been destroyed while a caller still had work to perform against it.

Mach semaphores are counting synchronization objects with creation, signaling, waiting, and destruction interfaces. A shutdown sequence must prevent new users and resolve existing waiters before the final reference is destroyed.

What to inspect

Identify the ownership and destruction point for the semaphore.
Check whether a waiter, signaler, or callback retained a stale semaphore reference.
Verify that service teardown drains work before destroying synchronization state.
Distinguish this result from KERN_OPERATION_TIMED_OUT, which reports a wait that expired on a still-valid operation.

References

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