The failure was not the app bar at all. Dumping the hierarchy at the point of failure showed a TextView whose text was 'Search this folder' and a desc='Clear search' beside it: the app was already in search mode, because the previous iteration left it there and CompilationMode.Ignore() reinstalls nothing between iterations. So the setup found a search field where it expected an action. openFixture now calls killProcess() before each iteration, and the test writes search-action-missing.xml into its external files directory when the action is missing, which is what turned this from a guess into a diagnosis.
With that, one run gives OK (4 tests): coldStart 531.6 ms median (475.6-552.0), opening a 1000-file folder 12 frames (12-17), scrolling it with four swipes 97 frames (92-100), and typing into search 39 frames (36-40). The run before it, same method, gave 519.5 ms / 14 / 94 / 38, so the numbers repeat. PERFORMANCE.md now carries both runs side by side and only lists what is genuinely still missing: larger folders, the photo grid, and any jank figure at all, since this phone reports frame counts and no frame durations.
The MIUI dialog was never the problem to solve; the install was. CompilationMode.None() reports shouldReset = true, which is what makes resetAndCompile uninstall the app and run pm install -t --skip-verification before every test - the one command MIUI intercepts with a FLAG_SECURE dialog that nothing inside a blocking install call can answer. CompilationMode.Ignore() reports shouldReset = false: the library installs nothing and measures what is installed. So the APK is installed once from the host and the run contains no install at all.
Measured on the phone: with Ignore() the four tests ran with zero installs - the watcher script logged heartbeats and no dialogs - and three passed. The numbers are the best yet and taken on a run with no install churn: coldStart 519.5 ms median (503.6-544.7), opening a 1000-file folder 14 frames median (11-17), scrolling it with four swipes 94 frames median (48-96). The search benchmark still fails on the app bar's search action not being in the accessibility tree.
Also recorded: the storage grant now survives because nothing uninstalls, MIUI refuses to let its SecurityCenter be disabled (Cannot disable miui core packages), and the fix for the whole afternoon is five lines in the benchmark's KDoc plus a documented am instrument command, because Gradle's own install steps are gated too.
With the install watcher answering MIUI's dialog, all four tests ran and three produced numbers: coldStart 574.17 ms P50 (553.95-730.19), opening a 1000-file folder 14 frames P50 (13-17), scrolling it with four swipes 98 frames P50 (93-100). The search benchmark still fails, on the app bar's search action not being in the accessibility tree after twenty seconds - the setup wait is raised from ten to twenty now that the folder render is known to be the slow step.
The frame counts are labelled as frame counts and not as jank, because this phone reports no frame durations at all: the same results file contains frameCount and nothing else, so 14 frames says the interaction is short and says nothing about whether a frame was slow. The doc also keeps the measurements that explain the watcher's shape - the dialog is FLAG_SECURE, its lifetime varies between under a second and 8.5 s, and pm install from an app uid fails earlier with MIUI's XSpace SecurityException - along with the honest cost: MIUI keeps mCurrentFocus on the installer after the window is gone, so a coordinate tap can land on the home screen, which it did. The watcher no longer reuses a saved position at all and refuses to tap within two seconds of the previous tap.
The run was installing app-debug.apk the whole time, which would have published debug numbers as the release-like ones. AGP 9's com.android.test extension has no testBuildType and no targetVariant - it exposes only targetProjectPath - and the target variant is matched by name against the test module's own build types. So the module now declares a benchmark build type, and inherits the debug signing config with initWith: a declared type starts unsigned, and an unsigned test APK fails with INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES. The command is now :benchmark:connectedBenchmarkAndroidTest, and -PbenchmarkBuild is gone from the workflow; the conditional testBuildType it used to set in :app only ever moved the unit-test variant, which is why it made :app:testDebugUnitTest disappear.
The storage grant also had to move into the test. The rule uninstalls and reinstalls the app before measuring, an uninstall clears app-ops, and appops set from inside the test does not work even under adoptShellPermissionIdentity - the command fails to stderr, which executeShellCommand does not return, and appops get still reads No operations. What does work is tapping what a user taps: Grant full access, then the platform consent, then back out of the all-files page. grantStorageAccess does that in setupBlock, unmeasured, and it is what turned three failing tests into three passing ones.
The search test now waits for the app bar's search action in setup instead of looking it up immediately inside the measured block, where it came back null one frame after a thousand rows rendered.
What the device answers: coldStart passes at 560.6 ms P50 (a third measurement of the 532 ms figure), scroll passes but reports only frameCount and no frame durations at all, open dies on INSTALL_FAILED_USER_RESTRICTED because the rule's reinstall wants a human, and search still cannot see the search action. PERFORMANCE.md now states that per benchmark instead of the earlier guess, names the four switches that make an unattended run possible, and says that three of the four numbers need a device that installs unattended and reports frame timing.
A separate package id for the app under test is the tidier design and cannot be used on this device: a new package id needs a human to approve the install every time, and installing by tapping the APK left the package listed by pm list packages yet unknown to pm enable and invisible to PackageManager. The benchmark build type therefore keeps the app's own id and takes the release key, so it updates an installed release build and keeps its data. The trade-off is stated where it happens: this build replaces a release install, and reinstalling the release APK puts it back.
Two bugs surfaced on the way and both are now commented at the line they belong to. -PbenchmarkBuild was read with providers.gradleProperty, which reported it absent, so the runner installed the debug APK and failed on it; hasProperty is what works. And the reason am instrument cannot be used for this module is now recorded: MacrobenchmarkRule uninstalls the target at the start of a run and reinstalls it from the APK paths the Gradle runner passes in, so without those the app is uninstalled and left that way - which is what produced NameNotFoundException for an app that was installed a second earlier, twice, with Benchmark: Uninstalling in logcat to prove it.
coldStart keeps its measured number (532 ms median). The three interaction benchmarks remain unmeasured for a reason that is now written down: each run needs one tap on the phone for the reinstall MIUI gates.
Gate green, map current.
coldStart measures 532 ms median (min 499, max 805) on the benchmark build - R8, not debuggable, profileable, CompilationMode.None - against 1814 ms on the debug build, which is the honest illustration of why a debug number must never be published as the app's performance. The tool also warns that it cannot clear the runtime image on this Android version, so the figure is optimistic by an unmeasured amount; that is in PERFORMANCE.md next to the number rather than in a footnote.
The three interaction benchmarks are written and compile but have not produced a number, and getting that far took four fixes worth naming. The app under test cannot keep the app's package id (signature) and cannot use .benchmark (the test APK owns that id, INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE); macrobenchmark needs package visibility for it or it reports NameNotFoundException for an app that pm list packages shows installed; UiAutomation.executeShellCommand runs as the test app's uid, so the fixture has to be made through adb instead - that one cost the first attempt a hang; and testBuildType has to be behind a flag or :app:testDebugUnitTest stops existing.
The workflow that works on a device with an install gate is now documented: install the two APKs by hand once, run tools/benchmark-fixture.sh, then am instrument. The Gradle task is documented as the alternative and as the reason the app under test disappeared once - it uninstalls around the run.
Gate green, map current, 386 tests unchanged.
docs/PERFORMANCE.md has been honest that three of its four numbers do not exist. They exist now as
measurements, if not yet as results: benchmark/ is a macrobenchmark module with four tests - cold start
with StartupTimingMetric, then opening, scrolling and searching a folder of a thousand files with
FrameTimingMetric - sharing a fixture at /sdcard/AABenchmark that is created once per run and deleted in
@AfterClass. Frames rather than a named trace section on purpose: what a user calls slow is jank on
screen, and the alternative puts benchmarking calls into production code for the sake of a number.
CompilationMode.None() is the honest cold-install baseline; Partial() plus a baseline profile is the
follow-up and needs the same module. The storage grant is applied with appops in setup, which is what
lets the run be unattended - a permission dialog is the one thing a test cannot answer.
Three build facts had to be discovered rather than designed, and each is now written where it will be
read. The app under test cannot keep its own package id: it needs a debug signature to install on a test
device, so it cannot replace a release install, and an un-suffixed build is exactly that. It also cannot
use the obvious suffix: `.benchmark` is already the benchmark module's own APK id, and the test APK then
fails to install with INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE - which is what the first attempt did. Hence
`.perf`. And `testBuildType = "benchmark"` cannot be set unconditionally, because it makes benchmark the
variant that *unit* tests run against and :app:testDebugUnitTest - the task the entire gate is built on -
stops existing; it is behind -PbenchmarkBuild instead. All three were measured, not guessed, and the
third would have broken CI silently.
Two smaller things came with it. tools/verify.sh --release now also compiles the app's benchmark variant
and the test APK, because build wiring nobody runs is wiring that rots; no device is involved. And the
code map grew an EXTRA_ROOTS section so it indexes benchmark/ too - a map that silently omits a module
lies by omission, which is worse than the one line it costs.
The numbers themselves are still missing, and for a device reason rather than a code one: installing the
new package id on this MIUI phone fails with INSTALL_FAILED_USER_RESTRICTED (the "Install via USB" gate,
which wants a human and answered too late). Both APKs are pushed to /sdcard/Download/ for a manual
install, and the run is one command away:
`adb shell am instrument -w -e class de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager.benchmark.BrowserBenchmark de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager.benchmark/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner`.
Gate green with --release, including the new compile step; map current; 386 tests unchanged.
SoftwareApp