Android Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v3.05, by Herong Yang
"aapt" - Android Asset Packaging Tool
This section describes 'aapt', the Android Asset Packaging Tool, which can be used to list, add and remove files in an APK file, package resources, crunching PNG files, etc.
Based on the "ant -verbose debug" output, "aapt package" is the tool used by Ant to do resource code generation.
If you run the "aapt" command with no argument, you will get the command usage description:
C:\herong\HelloAndroid>\local\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools\aapt Android Asset Packaging Tool Usage: aapt l[ist] [-v] [-a] file.{zip,jar,apk} List contents of Zip-compatible archive. aapt d[ump] [--values] WHAT file.{apk} [asset [asset ...]] badging Print the label and icon for the app declared in APK. permissions Print the permissions from the APK. resources Print the resource table from the APK. configurations Print the configurations in the APK. xmltree Print the compiled xmls in the given assets. xmlstrings Print the strings of the given compiled xml assets. aapt p[ackage] [-d][-f][-m][-u][-v][-x][-z][-M AndroidManifest.xml] [-0 extension [-0 extension ...]] [-g tolerance] [-j jarfile] [--debug-mode] [--min-sdk-version VAL] [--target-sdk-version VAL] [--app-version VAL] [--app-version-name TEXT] [--custom-package VAL] [--rename-manifest-package PACKAGE] [--rename-instrumentation-target-package PACKAGE] [--utf16] [--auto-add-overlay] [--max-res-version VAL] [-I base-package [-I base-package ...]] [-A asset-source-dir] [-G class-list-file] [-P public-definitions-file] [-S resource-sources [-S resource-sources ...]] [-F apk-file] [-J R-file-dir] [--product product1,product2,...] [-c CONFIGS] [--preferred-configurations CONFIGS] [-o] [raw-files-dir [raw-files-dir] ...] Package the android resources. It will read assets and resources that are supplied with the -M -A -S or raw-files-dir arguments. The -J -P -F and -R options control which files are output. aapt r[emove] [-v] file.{zip,jar,apk} file1 [file2 ...] Delete specified files from Zip-compatible archive. aapt a[dd] [-v] file.{zip,jar,apk} file1 [file2 ...] Add specified files to Zip-compatible archive. aapt c[runch] [-v] -S resource-sources ... -C output-folder ... Do PNG preprocessing and store the results in output folder. aapt v[ersion] Print program version. Modifiers: -a print Android-specific data (resources, manifest) when listing -c specify which configurations to include. The default is all configurations. The value of the parameter should be a comma separated list of configuration values. Locales should be specified as either a language or language-region pair. Some examples: en port,en port,land,en_US If you put the special locale, zz_ZZ on the list, it will perform pseudolocalization on the default locale, modifying all of the strings so you can look for strings that missed the internationalization process. For example: port,land,zz_ZZ -d one or more device assets to include, separated by commas -f force overwrite of existing files -g specify a pixel tolerance to force images to grayscale, default 0 -j specify a jar or zip file containing classes to include -k junk path of file(s) added -m make package directories under location specified by -J -o create overlay package (ie only resources; expects <overlay-package> in manifest) -u update existing packages (add new, replace older, remove deleted files) -v verbose output -x create extending (non-application) resource IDs -z require localization of resource attributes marked with localization="suggested" -A additional directory in which to find raw asset files -G A file to output proguard options into. -F specify the apk file to output -I add an existing package to base include set -J specify where to output R.java resource constant definitions -M specify full path to AndroidManifest.xml to include in zip -P specify where to output public resource definitions -S directory in which to find resources. Multiple directories will be scanned and the first match found (left to right) will take precedence. -0 specifies an additional extension for which such files will not be stored compressed in the .apk. An empty string means to not compress any files at all. --debug-mode inserts android:debuggable="true" in to the application node of the manifest, making the application debuggable even on production devices. --min-sdk-version inserts android:minSdkVersion in to manifest. If the version is 7 or higher, the default encoding for resources will be in UTF-8. --target-sdk-version inserts android:targetSdkVersion in to manifest. --max-res-version ignores versioned resource directories above the given value. --values when used with "dump resources" also includes resource values. --version-code inserts android:versionCode in to manifest. --version-name inserts android:versionName in to manifest. --custom-package generates R.java into a different package. --extra-packages generate R.java for libraries. Separate libraries with ':'. --generate-dependencies generate dependency files in the same directories for R.java and resource package --auto-add-overlay Automatically add resources that are only in overlays. --preferred-configurations Like the -c option for filtering out unneeded configurations, but only expresses a preference. If there is no resource available with the preferred configuration then it will not be stripped. --rename-manifest-package Rewrite the manifest so that its package name is the package name given here. Relative class names (for example .Foo) will be changed to absolute names with the old package so that the code does not need to change. --rename-instrumentation-target-package Rewrite the manifest so that all of its instrumentation components target the given package. Useful when used in conjunction with --rename-manifest-package to fix tests against a package that has been renamed. --product Specifies which variant to choose for strings that have product variants --utf16 changes default encoding for resources to UTF-16. Only useful when API level is set to 7 or higher where the default encoding is UTF-8. --non-constant-id Make the resources ID non constant. This is required to make an R java class that does not contain the final value but is used to make reusable compiled libraries that need to access resources.
Ok. "aapt" is a generic Android asset package tool that be used as:
In the next tutorial, we will try to run an "aapt package" command example.
Table of Contents
Installing JDK 1.8 on Windows System
Installation of Android SDK R24 and Emulator
Installing Apache Ant 1.9 on Windows System
Developing First Android Application - HelloAndroid
Android Application Package (APK) Files
Android Debug Bridge (adb) Tool
AboutAndroid - Application to Retrieve System Information
android.app.Activity Class and Activity Lifecycle
View Objects and Layout Resource Files
Using "adb logcat" Command for Debugging
►Build Process and Package File Content
"android create project" Command Options
Android Project Folder Structure
Android Application Project Build Process
Project Build Process Done by "ant debug" Command
Detailed Output of "ant -verbose debug" Command
Output of "ant -verbose debug" - Android SDK R17
►"aapt" - Android Asset Packaging Tool
"aapt package" Command - Resource Code Generation
"javac" - Java Compilation Command
"dx.bat --dex" Command - Converting .class Files into .dex File
"apkbuilder" Command - Packaging and Signing .apk File
"zipalign" Command - Aligning File Locations in .apk Package
"aapt dump" Command - Printing Contents of .apk Package
META-INF Files - Digests, Signature and Certificate
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Mini Tablet
USB Debugging Applications on Samsung Tablet
USB Debugging Applications on LG-V905R Tablet