Android Services Internals...

Have you ever wondered how an app gets an handle to the system services like POWER MANAGER or ACTIVITY MANAGER or LOCATION MANAGER and several others like these. To know that i dug into the source code of Android and found out how this is done internally.

So let me start from the application side’s java code.

At the application side we have to call the function getService and pass the ID of the system service (say POWER_SERVCE) to get an handle to the service.

Here is the code for getService defined in /frameworks/base/core/java/android/os/ServiceManager.java

/**
44     * Returns a reference to a service with the given name.
45     *
46     * @paramname the name of the service to get
47     * @return a reference to the service, or <code>null</code> if the service doesn't exist
48     */
49    publicstaticIBindergetService(Stringname) {
50        try {
51           IBinderservice =sCache.get(name);
52            if (service !=null) {
53                returnservice;
54            } else {
55                returngetIServiceManager().getService(name);
56            }
57        } catch (RemoteException e) {
58           Log.e(TAG, "error in getService", e);
59        }
60        returnnull;
61    }

Suppose we don’t have the service in the cache. Hence we need to concentrate on the line 55

returngetIServiceManager().getService(name);

This call actually gets an handle to the service manager and asks it to return a reference of the service whose name we have passed as a parameter.

Now let us see how the getIServiceManager() function returns a handle to the ServiceManager.

Here is the code of getIserviceManager() from /frameworks/base/core/java/android/os/ServiceManager.java

privatestaticIServiceManagergetIServiceManager() {
34        if (sServiceManager !=null) {
35            returnsServiceManager;
36        }
37
38        // Find the service manager
39        sServiceManager =ServiceManagerNative.asInterface(BinderInternal.getContextObject());
40        returnsServiceManager;
41    }

The ServicemanagerNative.asInterface() looks like the following:

/**
28     * Cast a Binder object into a service manager interface, generating
29     * a proxy if needed.
30     */
31    staticpublicIServiceManagerasInterface(IBinderobj)
32    {
33        if (obj ==null) {
34            returnnull;
35        }
36       IServiceManagerin =
37            (IServiceManager)obj.queryLocalInterface(descriptor);
38        if (in !=null) {
39            returnin;
40        }
41
42        returnnewServiceManagerProxy(obj);
43    }

So basically we are getting an handle to the native servicemanager.

This asInterface function is actually buried inside the two macros DECLARE_META_INTERFACE(ServiceManager) and IMPLEMENT_META_INTERFACE(ServiceManager, "android.os.IServiceManager");

defined in IserviceManager.h and IServiceManager.cpp respectively.

Lets delve into the two macros defined in /frameworks/base/include/binder/IInterface.h

DECLARE_META_INTERFACE(ServiceManager) macro.

Its defined as

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
73
74#defineDECLARE_META_INTERFACE(INTERFACE)                               \
75    staticconstandroid::String16descriptor;                          \
76    staticandroid::sp<I##INTERFACE>asInterface(                       \
77            constandroid::sp<android::IBinder>&obj);                  \
78   virtualconstandroid::String16&getInterfaceDescriptor() const;    \
79    I##INTERFACE();                                                     \
80   virtual ~I##INTERFACE();                                            \

And the IMPLEMENT_META_INTERFACE(ServiceManager, "android.os.IServiceManager");

has been defined as follows:

#defineIMPLEMENT_META_INTERFACE(INTERFACE,NAME)                       \
84    constandroid::String16 I##INTERFACE::descriptor(NAME);             \
85    constandroid::String16&                                            \
86            I##INTERFACE::getInterfaceDescriptor() const {              \
87        return I##INTERFACE::descriptor;                                \
88    }                                                                   \
89   android::sp<I##INTERFACE> I##INTERFACE::asInterface(                \
90            constandroid::sp<android::IBinder>&obj)                   \
91    {                                                                   \
92       android::sp<I##INTERFACE>intr;                                 \
93        if (obj !=NULL) {                                              \
94           intr =static_cast<I##INTERFACE*>(                          \
95               obj->queryLocalInterface(                               \
96                        I##INTERFACE::descriptor).get());               \
97            if (intr ==NULL) {                                         \
98               intr =newBp##INTERFACE(obj);                          \
99            }                                                           \
100        }                                                               \
101        returnintr;                                                    \
102    }                                                                   \
103    I##INTERFACE::I##INTERFACE() { }                                    \
104    I##INTERFACE::~I##INTERFACE() { } 

http://androidxref.com/4.0.4/xref/frameworks/base/include/binder/IInterface.h#81

So if we replace expand these two macros in IServiceManager.h & IServiceManager.cpp file with the appropriate replacement parameters they look like the following:

1. classIServiceManager :publicIInterface
   {
   public:
      staticconst android::String16 descriptor; 
2.     static android::sp<IServiceManager> asInterface( const android::sp<android::IBinder>& obj); 
3.     virtualconst android::String16& getInterfaceDescriptor() const;
4.     IServicemanager(); 
5.     virtual ~IServiceManager();

…......….....…...…..
And in
IServiceManager.cpp

2.     const android::String16 IServiceManager::descriptor("android.os.IServiceManager”);            
3.     const android::String16& 
4.            IServiceManager::getInterfaceDescriptor() const { 
5.         return IServiceManager::descriptor;
6.     }   
7.     android::sp<IServiceManager> IServiceManager::asInterface(  
8.             const android::sp<android::IBinder>& obj) 
9.     {  
10.         android::sp< IServiceManager> intr;   
11.         if (obj != NULL) {    
12.             intr = static_cast<IServiceManager*>(  
13.                 obj->queryLocalInterface( 
14.                         IServiceManager::descriptor).get());   
15.             if (intr == NULL) {  
16.                 intr = new BpServiceManager(obj); 
17.             } 
18.         }    
19.         return intr;   
20.     }    
21.     IServiceManager::IServiceManager() { }   
22.     IServiceManager::~IIServiceManager { }     

So if you see the line 12 which shows if the Service Manager is up and running (and it should because the service manager starts in the init process during Android boot up) it returns the reference to it through the queryLocalinterface function and it goes up all the way to the java interface.
now once we get the reference of the Service Manager, we next call
publicIBindergetService(Stringname) throwsRemoteException {
116       Parceldata =Parcel.obtain();
117       Parcelreply =Parcel.obtain();
118       data.writeInterfaceToken(IServiceManager.descriptor);
119       data.writeString(name);
120       mRemote.transact(GET_SERVICE_TRANSACTION,data,reply, 0);
121       IBinderbinder =reply.readStrongBinder();
122       reply.recycle();
123       data.recycle();
124        returnbinder;
125    }

from ServiceManagerNative.java. in this function we pass the service that we are looking for.

And the onTransact function for GET_SERVICE_TRANSACTION on the remote stub looks like the following:
publicbooleanonTransact(intcode,Parceldata,Parcelreply, intflags)
51    {
52        try {
53            switch (code) {
54            case IServiceManager.GET_SERVICE_TRANSACTION: {
55               data.enforceInterface(IServiceManager.descriptor);
56               String name =data.readString();
57               IBinderservice =getService(name);
58               reply.writeStrongBinder(service);
59                returntrue;
60            }
61
62            caseIServiceManager.CHECK_SERVICE_TRANSACTION: {
63               data.enforceInterface(IServiceManager.descriptor);
64               Stringname =data.readString();
65               IBinderservice =checkService(name);
66               reply.writeStrongBinder(service);
67                returntrue;
68            }
69//Rest has been discarded for brevity…………………..
………………….………………….…………………

It returns the reference to the needed service through the function getService.




/////////////////////////////////////The getService function from /frameworks/base/libs/binder/IServiceManager.cpplooks like the following:
  virtualsp<IBinder>getService(constString16&name) const
134    {
135        unsigned n;
136        for (n = 0; n < 5; n++){
137           sp<IBinder>svc =checkService(name);
138            if (svc !=NULL) returnsvc;
139           LOGI("Waiting for service %s...\n",String8(name).string());
140           sleep(1);
141        }
142        returnNULL;
143    }
And the above checkService(name) looks like the following:

1. virtual sp<IBinder> checkService(constString16& name)const
3.     {
5.         Parcel data, reply;
7.         data.writeInterfaceToken(IServiceManager::getInterfaceDescriptor());
9.         data.writeString16(name);
11.         remote()->transact(CHECK_SERVICE_TRANSACTION, data,&reply);
13.         return reply.readStrongBinder();
15.     }

So it actually calls a remote service and pass CHECK_SERVICE_TRANSACTION code (its an enum value of 2) to it.
This remote service is actually implemented in frameworks/base/cmds/servicemanager/service_manager.cand its onTransact looks like the following.

1. switch(txn->code) {
2.    case SVC_MGR_GET_SERVICE:
3.    case SVC_MGR_CHECK_SERVICE:
4.        s = bio_get_string16(msg, &len);
5.        // TODO: do_find_service_ginger allows only certain user ids to bind to services
6.        ptr = do_find_service_ginger(bs, s, len, txn->sender_euid);
7.        // TODO: do_find_service allows anybody to bind to services
8. //        ptr = do_find_service(bs, s, len);
9.        if (!ptr)
10.            break;
11.        bio_put_ref(reply, ptr);
12.        return 0;

Hence we end up calling the function named do_find_service which gets a reference to the service and returns it back.

The do_find_service from the same file looks as follows:

void*do_find_service(struct binder_state *bs, uint16_t *s, unsigned len)

{

    struct svcinfo *si;

    si = find_svc(s, len);



//    ALOGI("check_service('%s') ptr = %p\n", str8(s), si ? si->ptr : 0);

    if(si && si->ptr){

        return si->ptr;

    }else{

        return0;

    }

}

The find_svc function looks as follows:

struct svcinfo *find_svc(uint16_t *s16, unsigned len)

{

    struct svcinfo *si;



    for(si = svclist; si; si = si->next){

        if((len == si->len)&&

            !memcmp(s16, si->name, len * sizeof(uint16_t))){

            return si;

        }

    }

    return0;

}

As it becomes clear that it traverses through the svclist and returns the the service we are looking for.

Hope it helps the Android learners to know about the internal of Android services.