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# Stop

Stops the service associated with the specified provider.

```
virtual kern_return_t Stop(IOService *provider);
```

## Parameters

`provider`

The provider associated with the current service. This object is the same one that the system previously passed to your service’s <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/SerialDriverKit/IOUserSerial/Start> method.

## Return Value

[`kIOReturnSuccess`](/documentation/DriverKit/kIOReturnSuccess) on success, or another value if an error occurs. For a list of error codes, see [Error Codes](/documentation/DriverKit/error-codes).

## Discussion

Before terminating the object in `provider`, the system calls this method to stop the service associated with that object. Use your implementation of this method to stop all activity and put your driver in a quiescent state. If your driver has any in-progress asynchronous tasks, cancel those tasks and wait for DriverKit to call the associated cancellation handler before calling the `super` version of this method.

Call `super` at the end of your implementation. After you call `super`, it is a programmer error to access the `provider` object.

Don’t use this method to release your `ivars` structure; use the [`free`](/documentation/DriverKit/IOService/free) method instead.

---

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