我们首先来看HandlerThread的创建过程，
public class HandlerThread extends Thread { @Override public void run() { mTid = Process.myTid(); Looper.prepare(); synchronized (this) { mLooper = Looper.myLooper(); notifyAll(); } Process.setThreadPriority(mPriority); onLooperPrepared(); Looper.loop(); mTid = -1; }}调用Looper.prepare()为当前现成准备一个Looper
public static void prepare() { prepare(true);}private static void prepare(boolean quitAllowed) { if (sThreadLocal.get() != null) { throw new RuntimeException("Only one Looper may be created per thread"); } sThreadLocal.set(new Looper(quitAllowed));}利用sThreadLocal来为保证每一个线程都有自己独一的Looper对象
最后在HandlerThread的run方法里面，进入到Looper.loop方法
public static void loop() { final Looper me = myLooper(); if (me == null) { throw new RuntimeException("No Looper; Looper.prepare() wasn't called on this thread."); } final MessageQueue queue = me.mQueue; // Make sure the identity of this thread is that of the local process, // and keep track of what that identity token actually is. Binder.clearCallingIdentity(); final long ident = Binder.clearCallingIdentity(); for (;;) { Message msg = queue.next(); // might block if (msg == null) { // No message indicates that the message queue is quitting. return; } // This must be in a local variable, in case a UI event sets the logger Printer logging = me.mLogging; if (logging != null) { logging.println(">>>>> Dispatching to " + msg.target + " " + msg.callback + ": " + msg.what); } msg.target.dispatchMessage(msg); if (logging != null) { logging.println("<<<<< Finished to " + msg.target + " " + msg.callback); } // Make sure that during the course of dispatching the // identity of the thread wasn't corrupted. final long newIdent = Binder.clearCallingIdentity(); if (ident != newIdent) { Log.wtf(TAG, "Thread identity changed from 0x" + Long.toHexString(ident) + " to 0x" + Long.toHexString(newIdent) + " while dispatching to " + msg.target.getClass().getName() + " " + msg.callback + " what=" + msg.what); } msg.recycleUnchecked(); }}可以看到这个里面是一个死循环，每一次都从MessageQueue里面取出一个Message出来进行处理，并进行dispatch。
Binder.clearCallingIdentity()的作用我猜测是用来清除远程调用者的ID，因为远程IPC的线程可能不具有某些权限，清除ID后，当前现成就可以代远程进程进行一些权限操作。
我们来看MessageQueue的next方法：
Message next() { // Return here if the message loop has already quit and been disposed. // This can happen if the application tries to restart a looper after quit // which is not supported. final long ptr = mPtr; if (ptr == 0) { return null; } int pendingIdleHandlerCount = -1; // -1 only during first iteration int nextPollTimeoutMillis = 0; for (;;) { if (nextPollTimeoutMillis != 0) { Binder.flushPendingCommands(); } nativePollOnce(ptr, nextPollTimeoutMillis); synchronized (this) { // Try to retrieve the next message. Return if found. final long now = SystemClock.uptimeMillis(); Message prevMsg = null; Message msg = mMessages; if (msg != null && msg.target == null) { // Stalled by a barrier. Find the next asynchronous message in the queue. do { prevMsg = msg; msg = msg.next; } while (msg != null && !msg.isAsynchronous()); } if (msg != null) { if (now < msg.when) { // Next message is not ready. Set a timeout to wake up when it is ready. nextPollTimeoutMillis = (int) Math.min(msg.when - now, Integer.MAX_VALUE); } else { // Got a message. mBlocked = false; if (prevMsg != null) { prevMsg.next = msg.next; } else { mMessages = msg.next; } msg.next = null; if (false) Log.v("MessageQueue", "Returning message: " + msg); return msg; } } else { // No more messages. nextPollTimeoutMillis = -1; } // Process the quit message now that all pending messages have been handled. if (mQuitting) { dispose(); return null; } // If first time idle, then get the number of idlers to run. // Idle handles only run if the queue is empty or if the first message // in the queue (possibly a barrier) is due to be handled in the future. if (pendingIdleHandlerCount < 0 && (mMessages == null || now < mMessages.when)) { pendingIdleHandlerCount = mIdleHandlers.size(); } if (pendingIdleHandlerCount <= 0) { // No idle handlers to run. Loop and wait some more. mBlocked = true; continue; } if (mPendingIdleHandlers == null) { mPendingIdleHandlers = new IdleHandler[Math.max(pendingIdleHandlerCount, 4)]; } mPendingIdleHandlers = mIdleHandlers.toArray(mPendingIdleHandlers); } // Run the idle handlers. // We only ever reach this code block during the first iteration. for (int i = 0; i < pendingIdleHandlerCount; i++) { final IdleHandler idler = mPendingIdleHandlers[i]; mPendingIdleHandlers[i] = null; // release the reference to the handler boolean keep = false; try { keep = idler.queueIdle(); } catch (Throwable t) { Log.wtf("MessageQueue", "IdleHandler threw exception", t); } if (!keep) { synchronized (this) { mIdleHandlers.remove(idler); } } } // Reset the idle handler count to 0 so we do not run them again. pendingIdleHandlerCount = 0; // While calling an idle handler, a new message could have been delivered // so go back and look again for a pending message without waiting. nextPollTimeoutMillis = 0; }}nativePollOnce(ptr, nextPollTimeoutMillis);的作用是调用JNI方法进行一次poll操作，如果当前消息队列为空（或者除了一些还没有到时的定时Message之外为空），那么只有当消息队列有新消息（或者超时时间到）时这个方法才会返回，在继续处理。
在循环的结尾，涉及到一个概念叫IdleHandler，就是当消息队列当前没有可以处理的消息的时候，这些IdleHandler会被调用，也就是说当IdleHandler被调用的时候，就说明消息队列目前处于无消息可以处理的状态，APP可以使用MessageQueue的addIdleHandler方法添加IdleHandler。