Android installation process and Application directory

Question

I read that during .apk installation process a new user is created and with this new user rights, the Applications directory(.apk is extracted here) in the internal storage is created (in /data/app , not very sure). I can't find any Application directory in /data/app , even /system/app also contain .apk not Application directories . Can someone explain where I can find Application directories ??

Also what are the things happens during installation process (I am interested in knowing if some specific files are copied to specific location).

Answer 1

You read wrong :) APKs are not extracted on the file system, just decompressed in memory. So you will only find APK files in /data/app, /system/app, etc. The whole process is version dependent (for example Jelly Bean adds forward locking/encryption). You need to read the Android source to get the actual details. Start with PackageManagerService.java.