fix(discovery): a cached negative is an answer, not a miss (t57)

The sweep asked `app_label()` whether a package still needed a label, and
that accessor answers "what should be displayed" — so a definitive negative
(a package whose pm dump ran and carried no label) came back as None,
indistinguishable from "never asked". Every sweep therefore re-dumped every
label-less package, throwing away the 24 h cache the label path exists for,
and a second sweep cost a full dump round for the whole app list.

`_known_label(package) -> (known, label)` is the accessor that keeps the two
apart: known-and-empty means the device already answered, so the row falls
back to its package id with ZERO further round trips. A forced re-sweep now
issues only the two list commands.

Pinned by tests: a second sweep dumps nothing at all (negatives included),
and a package whose fetch FAILED (no output — the UNIT 0 rule) stays
uncached and is retried by the next sweep, recovering its label.

custom_components/nvidia_shield/connection.py

@@ -612,6 +612,25 @@ class ShieldConnectionManager:
             self._app_label_requests.add(package)
         return None
 
+    def _known_label(self, package: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
+        """``(known, label)`` from the label cache — "known" = a fetch RAN (t57).
+
+        The accessor the DISCOVERY sweep needs and ``app_label`` deliberately is
+        not: ``app_label`` answers "what should be displayed", so a definitive
+        negative (a package with no manifest label) comes back as ``None``,
+        exactly like a miss. A sweep that used it would re-dump every label-less
+        package on every run and throw away the 24 h cache it is supposed to
+        benefit from. Here the two are distinguishable.
+        """
+        cached = self._app_labels.get(package)
+        if cached is None:
+            return False, ""
+        label, stamp = cached
+        if self._clock() - stamp > APP_LABEL_TTL:
+            self._app_labels.pop(package, None)  # stale — refetch on demand
+            return False, ""
+        return True, label
+
     def cache_app_label(self, package: str, label: str | None) -> None:
         """Record a label fetch that RAN, and what it found (t55, t57).
 
@@ -956,7 +975,7 @@ class ShieldConnectionManager:
         rows = [
             {
                 "package": package,
-                "name": labels.get(package) or self.app_label(package) or package,
+                "name": labels.get(package) or package,
                 "icon": icon_for_package(package, APP_ICON_FALLBACKS, APP_ICON_GENERIC),
             }
             for package in packages
@@ -979,15 +998,21 @@ class ShieldConnectionManager:
         Cached labels are reused, so a second sweep costs almost nothing; a
         failed fetch is NOT cached (t57 UNIT 0) and the app falls back to its
         package id for this table while the next sweep retries it.
+
+        The check goes through :meth:`_known_label` rather than
+        :meth:`app_label`, so a package the device has definitively answered
+        "no label" for is not re-dumped on every sweep.
         """
         cached: dict[str, str] = {}
         missing: list[str] = []
         for package in packages:
-            label = self.app_label(package)
-            if label:
-                cached[package] = label
-            else:
+            known, label = self._known_label(package)
+            if not known:
                 missing.append(package)
+            elif label:
+                cached[package] = label
+            # a known NEGATIVE needs no entry: the row falls back to its
+            # package id, and the cache already holds the definitive answer
         if not missing:
             return cached
 

tests/test_installed_apps.py

@@ -352,6 +352,23 @@ class TestDiscoverySweep:
         assert manager.installed_apps() == []
         assert manager.installed_apps_stale is True
 
+    async def test_the_watchdog_never_sweeps(self):
+        """Acceptance: nothing discovery-related runs on a state poll.
+
+        The watchdog cycle is what a poll drives. It may drain ONE label fetch
+        (the t24/t55 rule for the live entity path), but it must never list
+        packages or fan out into a discovery burst.
+        """
+        poller = _DiscoveryPoller()
+        manager = _manager(poller)
+
+        await manager._watchdog_cycle(5.0)
+        await asyncio.sleep(0)
+
+        assert not [c for c in poller.shell_calls if "pm list packages" in c]
+        assert not [c for c in poller.shell_calls if "resolve-activity" in c]
+        assert manager.installed_apps() == []
+
     async def test_concurrent_callers_share_one_sweep(self):
         poller = _DiscoveryPoller()
         manager = _manager(poller)
@@ -421,6 +438,61 @@ class TestDiscoveryDegradesGracefully:
         assert poller.shell_calls == []
 
 
+class TestDiscoveryUsesTheCachedLabelPath:
+    """Acceptance: labels come from the pm-dump path AND its 24 h cache."""
+
+    async def test_a_second_sweep_reuses_the_cached_labels(self):
+        """The 24 h cache is what makes a re-sweep cheap — negatives included.
+
+        A label-less package is a DEFINITIVE answer, so the second sweep must
+        not re-dump it. The check goes through the cache directly, because the
+        display accessor (`app_label`) cannot tell "no label" from "not asked".
+        """
+        poller = _DiscoveryPoller(dumps={"ar.tvplayer.tv": DUMP_TIVIMATE})
+        manager = _manager(poller)
+
+        await manager.async_refresh_installed_apps()
+        dumps = [c for c in poller.shell_calls if "pm dump" in c]
+        assert dumps  # the first sweep labelled everything it could
+        assert len(dumps) >= 5  # ...and it did dump for the unlabelled ones
+
+        # the cache now answers for EVERY package, so a forced re-sweep lists
+        # again but dumps nothing at all (the 24 h label cache, not the table TTL)
+        manager._installed_apps = None  # forget the table, keep the labels
+        rows = await manager.async_refresh_installed_apps(force=True)
+
+        assert [c for c in poller.shell_calls if "pm dump" in c] == dumps
+        assert manager.app_label("ar.tvplayer.tv") == "TiviMate"
+        by_pkg = {row["package"]: row for row in rows}
+        assert by_pkg["ar.tvplayer.tv"]["name"] == "TiviMate"
+        assert by_pkg["org.xbmc.kodi"]["name"] == "org.xbmc.kodi"
+
+    async def test_a_failed_label_is_retried_by_the_next_sweep(self):
+        """UNIT 0 semantics at scale: a transient failure is not permanent."""
+        poller = _DiscoveryPoller(dumps={"org.xbmc.kodi": "application-label: 'Kodi'"})
+        manager = _manager(poller)
+        real_shell = poller.shell
+        state = {"fail_kodi": True}
+
+        async def _flaky(cmd):
+            if state["fail_kodi"] and "pm dump" in cmd and "kodi" in cmd:
+                poller.shell_calls.append(cmd)
+                return None  # the transport delivered nothing
+            return await real_shell(cmd)
+
+        poller.shell = _flaky
+        rows = await manager.async_refresh_installed_apps()
+        by_pkg = {row["package"]: row for row in rows}
+        assert by_pkg["org.xbmc.kodi"]["name"] == "org.xbmc.kodi"  # fell back
+        assert manager.app_label("org.xbmc.kodi") is None  # NOT cached
+
+        state["fail_kodi"] = False
+        manager._installed_apps = None
+        rows2 = await manager.async_refresh_installed_apps()
+        by_pkg2 = {row["package"]: row for row in rows2}
+        assert by_pkg2["org.xbmc.kodi"]["name"] == "Kodi"  # recovered
+
+
 class TestInstalledAppsSensor:
     """The dashboard surface: state = count, attribute = the table."""