"aapt" - Android Asset Packaging Tool

Android Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟"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.