7.14 Build Version
Any number of these fields can be present, each specifying a version to
automatically build from source. The value is a comma-separated list.
For example:
‘Build Version:0.12,3,651696a49be2cd7db5ce6a2fa8185e31f9a20035’
The above specifies to build version 0.12, which has a version code of 3.
The third parameter specifies the tag, commit or revision number from
which to build it in the source repository.
If the commit version starts with a !, that version is not built. Instead,
everything after the ! is used as a reason why it can't be built. The
purpose of this feature is to allow non-buildable releases (e.g. the source
is not published) to be flagged, so the scripts don't generate repeated
messages about them. (And also to record the information for review later).
In addition to the three, always required, parameters described above,
further parameters can be added (in name=value format) to apply further
configuration to the build. These are:
subdir=<path>- Specifies to build from a subdirectory of the checked out source code.
Normally this directory is changed to before building,
bindir=<path>- Normally the build output (apk) is expected to be in the bin
subdirectory below the ant build files. If the project is configured
to put it elsewhere, that can be specified here, relative to the base
of the checked out repo.
oldsdkloc=yes- The sdk location in the repo is in an old format, or the build.xml is
expecting such. The 'new' format is sdk.dir while the VERY OLD format
is sdk-location. Typically, if you get a message along the lines of:
"com.android.ant.SetupTask cannot be found" when trying to build, then
try enabling this option.
target=<target>- Specifies a particular SDK target, when the source doesn't. This is
likely to cause the whole build.xml to be rewritten, which is fine if
it's a 'standard' android file or doesn't already exist, but not a
good idea if it's heavily customised.
rm=<relpath>- Specifies the relative path of file to delete before the build is
done. The path is relative to the base of the build directory - i.e.
the root of the directory structure checked out from the source
respository - not necessarily the directory that contains
AndroidManifest.xml.
Multiple files can be specified by separating they with ';'.
antcommand=xxx- Specify an alternate ant command (target) instead of the default
'release'.
forceversion=yes- If specified, the package version in AndroidManifest.xml is replaced
with the version name for the build as specified in the metadata.
This is useful for cases when upstream repo failed to update it for
specific tag, or to build an arbitrary revision.
forcevercode=yes- If specified, the package version code in the AndroidManifest.xml is
replaced with the version code for the build. See also forceversion.
update=xxx- By default, 'android update project' is used to generate or update the
build.xml file. Specifying update=no bypasses that.
Specifiying update=force forces rebuilding of the build.xml file at the
same time - this is frequently needed with r14 of the Android platform
tools. Be aware of any customisations in build.xml when using
update=force.
Otherwise, value can be a semicolon-separated list of directories in
which to run 'android update project' relative to the main
application directory (which may include 'subdir' parameter).
Default value is '.', and passing non-default value may be
useful for multi-component projects. Note that --subprojects
switch is automatically passed to 'android update project', so using
explicit list may be needed only for peculiar source layouts.
initfun=yes- Enables a selection of mad hacks to make com.funambol.android build.
Probably not useful for any other application.
buildjni=[yes|no|<dir list>]- Enables building of native code via the ndk-build script before doing
the main ant build. The value may be a list of directories relative
to the main application directory in which to run ndk-build, or 'yes'
which corresponds to '.' . Using explicit list may be useful to build
multi-component projects.
The build and scan processes will complain (refuse to build) if this
parameter is not defined, but there is a jni directory present.
If the native code is being built by other means, you can specify
no here to avoid that. However, if the native code is actually
not required, remove the directory instead (using prebuild for
example).
scanignore=path1;path2;...- Enables one or more files/paths to be exlcuded from the scan process.
This should only be used where there is a very good reason, and
probably accompanied by a comment explaining why it is necessary.
When scanning, files whose relative paths start with any of the paths
given here are ignored.
submodules=yes- Use if the project (git only) has submodules - causes git submodule
init and update to be executed after the source is cloned.
encoding=xxxx- Adds a java.encoding property to local.properties with the given
value. Generally the value will be 'utf-8'. This is picked up by the
SDK's ant rules, and forces the Java compiler to interpret source
files with this encoding. If you receive warnings during the compile
about character encodings, you probably need this.
prebuild=xxxx- Specifies a shell command (or commands - chain with &&) to run before
the build takes place. Backslash can be used as an escape character to
insert literal commas, or as the last character on a line to join that
line with the next. It has no special meaning in other contexts; in
particular, literal backslashes should not be escaped.
Note that nothing should be build during this prebuild phase - scanning
of the code and building of the source tarball, for example, take place
after this. For custom actions that actually build things, use 'build'
instead.
You can use $$name$$ to substitute the path to a referenced srclib - see
the srclib directory for details of this.
You can use $$SDK$$, $$NDK$$ and $$MVN3$$ to substitute the paths to the
android SDK and NDK directories, and maven 3 executable respectively.
init=xxxx- As for 'prebuild', but runs on the source code BEFORE any other processing
takes place.
You can use $$SDK$$, $$NDK$$ and $$MVN3$$ to substitute the paths to the
android SDK and NDK directories, and maven 3 executable respectively.
build=xxxx- As for 'prebuild', but runs during the actual build phase (but before the
main ant/maven build). Use this only for actions that do actual building.
Any prepartion of the source code should be done using 'init' or 'prebuild'.
You can use $$SDK$$, $$NDK$$ and $$MVN3$$ to substitute the paths to the
android SDK and NDK directories, and maven 3 executable respectively.
novcheck=yes- Don't check that the version name and code in the resulting apk are
correct by looking at the build output - assume the metadata is
correct. This takes away a useful level of sanity checking, and should
only be used if the values can't be extracted.
fixtrans=yes- Modifies any instances of string resources that use multiple
formatting arguments, but don't use positional notation. For example,
"Hello %s, %d" becomes "Hello %1$s, %2$d". Newer versions of the
Android platform tools enforce this sensible standard. If you get
error messages relating to that, you need to enable this.
fixapos=yes- Like fixtrans, but deals with an even older issue relating to
'unescaped apostrophes' in translation strings.
maven=yes- Build with maven instead of ant
patch=x- Apply patch(es). 'x' names one (or more - comma-seperated)
files within a directory below the metadata, with the same
name as the metadata file but without the extension. Each of
these patches is applied to the code in turn.
extlibs=a;b;c- Specifies a list of external libraries (jar files) from the
build/extlib library, which will be placed in the libs directory
of the project. Separate items with semicolons.
srclibs=a@r;b@r1;- Specifies a list of source libraries (kept up to date using version control)
from a predefined set. Separate items with semicolons, and each item is of
the form name@rev where name is the predefined source library name and rev is
the revision in source control to use. You can then also use $$name$$ in the
prebuild command to substitute the relative path to the library directory.
The available source libraries are current hard-coded in common.py. This will
later be data-driven.
Another example, using extra parameters:
‘Build Version:1.09.03,10903,45,subdir=Timeriffic,oldsdkloc=yes’