MissingPermission inconsistency bug reproduction project

This project demonstrates an issue with inconsistent behavior with lint reporting the MissingPermission issue.

Summary

A submodule calls a function which requires a dangerous permission, without checking first if the permission is granted.

./gradlew :app:lintDebug produces inconsistent results: sometimes it reports MissingPermission, sometimes it doesn't, depending on if/where a <uses-permission> is declared in a manifest file.

./gradlew lintDebug always reports MissingPermission.

Details

The project has a submodule, mymodule, which calls code which requires a dangerous permission (RECORD_AUDIO), but doesn't check for the permission:

object MyClass {
    fun foo(
    ) {
        fooImpl()
    }

    @RequiresPermission(Manifest.permission.RECORD_AUDIO)
    private fun fooImpl() {
    }
}

The implementation of foo() should check if the app has the RECORD_AUDIO permission, before calling fooImpl(), which requires this permission.

The app module has configured lint to check dependencies:

lintOptions {
    checkDependencies true
}

When running ./gradlew lintDebug, lint reports a MissingPermission check, as expected.

When running ./gradlew :app:lintDebug, lint only sometimes reports the MissingPermission check. It depends on if and where the permission is declared in an AndroidManifest.xml file as follows:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />

If this permission is declared only in the app manifest, then ./gradlew :app:lintDebug fails to report the MissingPermission issue.

In all the other combinations of this permission being declared, or not, in the app versus submodule, ./gradlew :app:lintDebug reports the issue.

./gradlew lintDebug always reports the issue.

Another way to represent this is in table format:

Expected behavior:

permission in app manifest	permission in module manifest	./gradlew lintDebug	./gradlew :app:lintDebug
❌	❌	Finds issue	Finds issue
✅	❌	Finds issue	Finds issue
❌	✅	Finds issue	Finds issue
✅	✅	Finds issue	Finds issue

Actual behavior:

permission in app manifest	permission in module manifest	./gradlew lintDebug	./gradlew :app:lintDebug
❌	❌	Finds issue	Finds issue
✅	❌	Finds issue	No issue 👈
❌	✅	Finds issue	Finds issue
✅	✅	Finds issue	Finds issue