我们知道在app启动入口是ActivityThread类，会经过main()–>handleBindApplication()，ContentProvider正是这时候启动的。

总结

• ContentProvider在App进程启动时进行实例化，具体时机是在Application.onCreate()执行前
• 启动流程如下：
  

1.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication()

可以知道ContentProvider在Application.onCreate()之前执行，这是四大组件中比较特殊的。经常看到有些开源库会自定义的一个ContentProvider，来获取全局的Context，看到这里就知道原因了哈。

// frameworks\base\core\java\android\app\ActivityThread.java
private void handleBindApplication(AppBindData data) {
    ......
    // don't bring up providers in restricted mode; they may depend on the
    // app's custom Application class
    if (!data.restrictedBackupMode) {
        if (!ArrayUtils.isEmpty(data.providers)) {
            installContentProviders(app, data.providers);
        }
    }
    // Do this after providers, since instrumentation tests generally start their
    // test thread at this point, and we don't want that racing.
    mInstrumentation.onCreate(data.instrumentationArgs);
    mInstrumentation.callApplicationOnCreate(app);
    ......
}

2.ActivityThread.installContentProviders()

将providers遍历实例化后后通过AMS进行发布，providers是app启动时传递过来，这里就不向上追踪了，可以看到是app中所有的ContentProvider

// frameworks\base\core\java\android\app\ActivityThread.java
private void installContentProviders(
        Context context, List<ProviderInfo> providers) {
    final ArrayList<ContentProviderHolder> results = new ArrayList<>();
    for (ProviderInfo cpi : providers) {
        ContentProviderHolder cph = installProvider(context, null, cpi,
                false /*noisy*/, true /*noReleaseNeeded*/, true /*stable*/);
        if (cph != null) {
            cph.noReleaseNeeded = true;
            results.add(cph);
        }
    }
    try {
        ActivityManager.getService().publishContentProviders(
            getApplicationThread(), results);
    } catch (RemoteException ex) {
        throw ex.rethrowFromSystemServer();
    }
}

3.ActivityThread.installProvider()

将ContentProvider实例化，并进行本地缓存

/**
 * Installs the provider.
 *
 * Providers that are local to the process or that come from the system server
 * may be installed permanently which is indicated by setting noReleaseNeeded to true.
 * Other remote providers are reference counted.  The initial reference count
 * for all reference counted providers is one.  Providers that are not reference
 * counted do not have a reference count (at all).
 *
 * This method detects when a provider has already been installed.  When this happens,
 * it increments the reference count of the existing provider (if appropriate)
 * and returns the existing provider.  This can happen due to concurrent
 * attempts to acquire the same provider.
 */
@UnsupportedAppUsage
private ContentProviderHolder installProvider(Context context,
        ContentProviderHolder holder, ProviderInfo info,
        boolean noisy, boolean noReleaseNeeded, boolean stable) {
    ContentProvider localProvider = null;
    IContentProvider provider;
    if (holder == null || holder.provider == null) {
  
        Context c = null;
        ApplicationInfo ai = info.applicationInfo;
        ...
        // 一些获取Context逻辑
        try {
            final java.lang.ClassLoader cl = c.getClassLoader();
            LoadedApk packageInfo = peekPackageInfo(ai.packageName, true);
            if (packageInfo == null) {
                // System startup case.
                packageInfo = getSystemContext().mPackageInfo;
            }
            // 关键代码，AppFactory实例化了ContentProvider
            localProvider = packageInfo.getAppFactory().instantiateProvider(cl, info.name);
            provider = localProvider.getIContentProvider();
            localProvider.attachInfo(c, info);
        } catch (java.lang.Exception e) {
           ...
        }
    } else {
        provider = holder.provider;
    }
    ContentProviderHolder retHolder;
    // 下面代码主要是进行了本地缓存逻辑，提供执行效率
    ......
    return retHolder;
}

4.AppComponentFactory.instantiateProvider()

我们知道这个组件工厂类就是用来实例化四大组件的，通过反射的的方式创建组件对象

// frameworks\base\core\java\android\app\AppComponentFactory.java
public @NonNull ContentProvider instantiateProvider(@NonNull ClassLoader cl,
    @NonNull String className)
     throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, ClassNotFoundException {
    return (ContentProvider) cl.loadClass(className).newInstance();
}

5.ActivityManagerService.publishContentProviders()

调用了ContentProviderHelper.publishContentProviders

public final void publishContentProviders(IApplicationThread caller,
        List<ContentProviderHolder> providers) {
     mCpHelper.publishContentProviders(caller, providers);
}

6.ContentProviderHelper.publishContentProviders()

从代码上看，将ContentProvider缓存到ProviderMap中，之后更新了app的oomAdj值

// frameworks\base\services\core\java\com\android\server\am\ContentProviderHelper.java
void publishContentProviders(IApplicationThread caller, List<ContentProviderHolder> providers) {
    ......
    synchronized (mService) {
        final ProcessRecord r = mService.getRecordForAppLOSP(caller);
        final long origId = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();
        boolean providersPublished = false;
        for (int i = 0, size = providers.size(); i < size; i++) {
            ContentProviderHolder src = providers.get(i);
            if (src == null || src.info == null || src.provider == null) {
                continue;
            }
            ContentProviderRecord dst = r.mProviders.getProvider(src.info.name);
            if (dst == null) {
                continue;
            }
    
            providersPublished = true;

            ComponentName comp = new ComponentName(dst.info.packageName, dst.info.name);
            mProviderMap.putProviderByClass(comp, dst);
            String[] names = dst.info.authority.split(";");
            for (int j = 0; j < names.length; j++) {
                mProviderMap.putProviderByName(names[j], dst);
            }

            boolean wasInLaunchingProviders = false;
            for (int j = 0, numLaunching = mLaunchingProviders.size(); j < numLaunching; j++) {
                if (mLaunchingProviders.get(j) == dst) {
                    mLaunchingProviders.remove(j);
                    wasInLaunchingProviders = true;
                    j--;
                    numLaunching--;
                }
            }
            if (wasInLaunchingProviders) {
                mService.mHandler.removeMessages(
                        ActivityManagerService.WAIT_FOR_CONTENT_PROVIDER_TIMEOUT_MSG, dst);
                mService.mHandler.removeMessages(
                        ActivityManagerService.CONTENT_PROVIDER_PUBLISH_TIMEOUT_MSG, r);
            }
            // Make sure the package is associated with the process.
            // XXX We shouldn't need to do this, since we have added the package
            // when we generated the providers in generateApplicationProvidersLocked().
            // But for some reason in some cases we get here with the package no longer
            // added...  for now just patch it in to make things happy.
            r.addPackage(dst.info.applicationInfo.packageName,
                    dst.info.applicationInfo.longVersionCode, mService.mProcessStats);
            synchronized (dst) {
                dst.provider = src.provider;
                dst.setProcess(r);
                dst.notifyAll();
                dst.onProviderPublishStatusLocked(true);
            }
            dst.mRestartCount = 0;
            if (hasProviderConnectionLocked(r)) {
                r.mProfile.addHostingComponentType(HOSTING_COMPONENT_TYPE_PROVIDER);
            }
        }

        // update the app's oom adj value and each provider's usage stats
        if (providersPublished) {
            mService.updateOomAdjLocked(r, OomAdjuster.OOM_ADJ_REASON_GET_PROVIDER);
            for (int i = 0, size = providers.size(); i < size; i++) {
                ContentProviderHolder src = providers.get(i);
                if (src == null || src.info == null || src.provider == null) {
                    continue;
                }
                maybeUpdateProviderUsageStatsLocked(r,
                        src.info.packageName, src.info.authority);
            }
        }

        Binder.restoreCallingIdentity(origId);
    }
}

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