Shared system uid and android acore process

[Cheryl Sedota]

I am working on a custom platform build of Android, and I am noticing
that a subset of platform apps run under the shared android uid
"android.uid.shared"
and additionally some apps (not necessarily the same ones either) run
as part of the acore process:

<manifest ...
package="com.android.launcher"
android:sharedUserId="android.uid.shared"
android:sharedUserLabel="@string/uid_name">
...
<application
android:name="LauncherApplication"
android:process="android.process.acore"

Can someone from the Android team please explain the difference
between the two, and why an application would want to utilize one or
both of these attributes? There are several scenarios that don't make
complete sense to me:

- Launcher runs with android.uid.shared and android.process.acore
- Launcher2 does not specify either.
- ApplicationsProvider runs with android.process.acore only
- LatinIME and PinyinIME both run with android.process.acore only

Thanks!!
Cheryl

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[Dianne Hackborn]

The process android.process.acore is used to run multiple components to reduce memory usage; it is there for optimization.  An app must be give the user android.uid.shared to run in that process.

Launcher2 no longer runs there because it is targeting higher-end devices with more RAM.

--
Dianne Hackborn
Android framework engineer
hac...@android.com

Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and answer them.