Android: run main() once per process, not once per activity #161

Merged
logan merged 3 commits from fix/52-android-activity-recreation-restarts-the-process into main 2026-08-20 17:18:19 +00:00
2 changed files with 159 additions and 0 deletions
Showing only changes of commit d64b069053 - Show all commits
+55
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@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
"log/slog"
"os"
"strings"
"sync/atomic"
"github.com/golang-cz/devslog"
"github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/pkg/application"
@@ -28,7 +29,61 @@ var (
//go:embed all:frontend/dist
var frontendDistAssets embed.FS
// mainStarted latches the first entry into main().
//
// **On Android main() is called once per *activity*, and the process
// outlives the activity.** Wails' JNI entry point is
// `nativeInit`, which does two things: it re-points the native
// library's global reference at the calling `WailsBridge`, and it runs
// `go mainFunc()`. `MainActivity.onCreate` calls it, and Android
// recreates the activity — for a configuration change it does not
// declare, under memory pressure, or on every single background when
// the user has "Don't keep activities" switched on — **without
// restarting the process**.
//
// So main() ran again, on a live app, and every path out of that is
// fatal:
//
// - `application.New` returns the *existing* `globalApplication` when
// there is one, silently discarding the second set of Services.
// - `app.Run()` then refuses, by design: `a.starting` is still true,
// because Android's `platformRun` is `select{}` and never returns.
// It answers "application is running or a previous run has failed".
// - which lands on `os.Exit(1)` at the foot of this function, and
// that takes down the **first**, perfectly healthy app with it —
// its database, its queue, and the audio that a foreground service
// is holding the process alive to play.
//
// ActivityManager then restarts the app, which is the report: "crashes
// or restarts when reopened after running in the background". It never
// left a tombstone because `os.Exit` is not a crash, and it never left
// a log line because an Android app's fd 1 goes to /dev/null.
//
// The latch is the whole fix, and it has to be **first**: everything
// below it — `NewYellowJacketApp` above all, which opens the SQLite
// database — is work that must not happen twice in one process.
// Returning early is not a degraded mode: `nativeInit` has already
// re-attached the bridge, so the recreated activity's WebView talks to
// the app that is still running, with its queue and its playback
// position intact. See CLAUDE.md, "An activity is a view onto the
// process".
//
// It is inert off Android, where a process has exactly one main().
var mainStarted atomic.Bool
// claimMainOnce reports whether this is the first call to main() in
// this process. See mainStarted.
func claimMainOnce() bool {
return mainStarted.CompareAndSwap(false, true)
}
func main() {
// Android calls main() once per activity, and the process outlives
// the activity. Nothing below this line may run twice.
if !claimMainOnce() {
return
}
// **Mobile has no home directory, and this must run before anything
// asks for a path.** backend/system resolves config and data from
// $HOME or the OS equivalent, and on Android there is neither: its
+104
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@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
package main
import (
"go/ast"
"go/parser"
"go/token"
"testing"
)
// TestMainRunsOncePerProcess pins the latch itself.
func TestMainRunsOncePerProcess(t *testing.T) {
t.Parallel()
mainStarted.Store(false)
if !claimMainOnce() {
t.Fatal("the first call to claimMainOnce must claim it")
}
if claimMainOnce() {
t.Fatal("a second call to claimMainOnce must not claim it: " +
"on Android that second call is a second main() in a live " +
"process, and every path out of it ends in os.Exit(1)")
}
}
// TestMainClaimsBeforeItDoesAnything is the assertion that actually
// guards #52, and it is a source sweep for the reason
// TestNoDirectRuntimeEmits is: no tier here runs main() on Android, so
// nothing else can see work creeping in above the latch.
//
// The failure it exists for is not the latch being deleted — that is
// loud. It is a line being added above it: a second
// NewYellowJacketApp opens the SQLite database a second time in one
// process, and it would do so on every activity recreation, silently,
// on a build that otherwise looks entirely healthy.
func TestMainClaimsBeforeItDoesAnything(t *testing.T) {
t.Parallel()
fset := token.NewFileSet()
file, err := parser.ParseFile(fset, "main.go", nil, 0)
if err != nil {
t.Fatalf("parse main.go: %v", err)
}
var fn *ast.FuncDecl
for _, decl := range file.Decls {
d, ok := decl.(*ast.FuncDecl)
if ok && d.Name.Name == "main" && d.Recv == nil {
fn = d
break
}
}
if fn == nil {
t.Fatal("no func main in main.go — this test read the wrong file")
}
if len(fn.Body.List) == 0 {
t.Fatal("func main is empty")
}
if !claimsMainOnce(fn.Body.List[0]) {
t.Fatalf("the first statement of main() must be the "+
"`if !claimMainOnce() { return }` guard, got %T — see #52: "+
"Android calls main() once per activity, in a process that "+
"outlives the activity, so anything above the guard runs "+
"again on every recreation", fn.Body.List[0])
}
}
// claimsMainOnce reports whether stmt is `if !claimMainOnce() { return }`.
func claimsMainOnce(stmt ast.Stmt) bool {
ifStmt, ok := stmt.(*ast.IfStmt)
if !ok {
return false
}
unary, ok := ifStmt.Cond.(*ast.UnaryExpr)
if !ok || unary.Op != token.NOT {
return false
}
call, ok := unary.X.(*ast.CallExpr)
if !ok {
return false
}
ident, ok := call.Fun.(*ast.Ident)
if !ok || ident.Name != "claimMainOnce" {
return false
}
if len(ifStmt.Body.List) != 1 {
return false
}
_, ok = ifStmt.Body.List[0].(*ast.ReturnStmt)
return ok
}