Resource Leak or Mismanagement

[Yuge-Nie]

Checklist

• I am able to reproduce the bug with the latest version given here: CLICK THIS LINK.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Affected version

0.28.0

Steps to reproduce the bug

Describe the bug:
Our team is developing a tool that can automatically identify potential resource issues in Android applications.

To detect resource anomalies, we designed five neutral cycles—GUI event sequences that should not increase resource usage:

① DOC (Double Orientation Change)
② Home (Return to Home Screen → Resume AUT)
③ Notification (Open Notification Bar → Close Notification Bar)
④ Text (Input Text → Clear Text)
⑤ Scroll (Swipe Down/Right → Swipe Up/Left)

The first three cycles are designed to trigger 3 main pairs of lifecycle callback functions (i.e., onCreate() and onDestroy(), onStart()/onRestart() and onStop(), onResume() and onPause()), while cycles ④ and ⑤ are based on UI interaction semantics, covering user input and scrolling scenarios that may also affect resource usage.

If executing a specific neutral cycle 50 times in a given state leads to continuous growth in certain resource metrics, we regard it as a potential resource leak or mismanagement issue that may cause software aging.

The bugs that have been successfully reproduced are uploaded here.newpipe.zip
There may be some inaccuracies in state recognition, which could lead to duplicate reports. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Each bug corresponds to one screenshot (A)—the image shows the page where the issue occurs.
Other information is encoded in the image filename as follows:

{ActivityName (B)}_{ExecutedNeutralCycle (C)}_{ResourcesWithContinuousGrowth (D)}

We would greatly appreciate it if the developers could help us verify whether these issues truly exist. Your timely confirmation would be extremely valuable to our research and development efforts.

To Reproduce:
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open the Android app under test.
2. Execute the specified neutral cycle (based on C) 50 times in the indicated activity/state (based on A & B).
3. Observe the monitored resource metrics (based on D).
4. Identify whether any metric shows continuous growth.

Expected behavior

Neutral cycles should not cause resource metrics to continuously increase.

Actual behavior

Neutral cycles cause resource metrics to continuously increase.

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Logs

No response

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

Android 11

Affected device model

Google Pixel

Additional information

No response

[absurdlylongusername]

We are on version 0.28.0. Please update to the latest version

[absurdlylongusername]

After reading more: thanks! This looks like a pretty cool method of detecting resource leaks.

However, are we expected to do each of these 50 times manually? 😅 That's a bit much. Did you do it manually for all of these yourself? That's a lot of work lol

[CYL-collab]

Hi there. We have automatically replicated the uploaded bugs on version 0.28.0 (though the screenshots are captured on the old version). You may see the updated bug details in

newpipe.zip

.

As the plot shows, the trend is quite significant so you don't have to do each of these 50 times (10 to 20 reps may be enough). The next step is to locate the leaked resource in the lifecycle of activity or other ui components.

[absurdlylongusername]

What mechanism/program are you using to automate replicating the bugs? Are you able to share that with us so we can use it to make fixing these bugs easier?

[CYL-collab]

We are pleased to share our replication tool powered by uiautomator2 python wrapper. bug_confirm_mod.zip

• Configure behavior via the CONFIGURATION SECTION at the top of main.py (e.g. device_name, APPS_TO_TEST, thresholds).

• Run python main.py

• Interatively comfirm bugs by:

  • Manually navigate to the screen where the bug screenshot shows.
  • Press 'run test' button to run sequences.
  • Wait for the result:
    • If a bug exist, a pop-up window will show the trend of suspect resources. You may confirm it by pressing 'confirm bug' button so that the tool will write outputs under confirm_bugs/.
    • If there is no significant trend detected, you may press 'skip' to ignore this bug.