Re: [PATCH 05/13] PM: Add option to disable /sys/power/state interface

Brian Swetland
2009-02-09T01:53:33Z

[Arve Hjønnevåg <arve@android.com>]
>
> > Still, I'm very much interested in your reply to the last paragraph of my
> > message, the one that you removed.
>
> Yes we need access to wakelocks from user space. We also allow third
> party apps to use wakelocks if they request the right permission. This
> could include a music player keeping the device on while playing a
> song, or an pop email client using an alarm to download email every
> hour.

To expand on this a bit: We don't allow arbitrary apps to directly grab
wakelocks with the sys interface -- instead a system service in
userspace manages wakelock requests on behalf of apps needing them.

This allows permission enforcement (users get to know/choose which
apps actually *can* keep the device awake in the background) and other
policy decisions to be made at the app framework level.

Brian