How to exclude a file from an .AAR Android library archive with gradle

Question

I am trying to create an AAR file for a library Android project using Android Studio and gradle.

I want to exclude from this archive specific folders and files but I cannot find a working solution.

The project has 2 flavours.

app/
|--libs/
|--src/
   |--flavour1/
   |  |--java/
   |     |--a1/
   |     |  |--class_File1.java
   |--flavour2/
   |  |--java/
   |     |--a1/
   |     |  |--class_File1.java
   |--main/
      |--java/
      |  |--...
      |--res/
      |  |--raw/
      |  |  |--comments.txt
      |  |--...
      |--AndroidManifest.xml

and I use a build.gradle file like this one

apply plugin: 'com.android.library'

android {
compileSdkVersion 21
buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"

defaultConfig {
    minSdkVersion 10
    targetSdkVersion 21
}
packagingOptions {
    exclude 'assets'
    exclude '**/comments.txt'
}


sourceSets {

        flavour1 {
            resources {
                exclude '**/comments.txt'
            }
        }
        flavour2 {

        }

}

buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled true
        shrinkResources true
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
    }
}

productFlavors {

    flavour1 {

       packagingOptions {
            exclude 'assets'
            exclude 'res/raw/comments.txt'
        }
    }
    flavour2 {
    }
}
}

dependencies {
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:+'
}

Generally speaking, I have experimented a lot. I have tried packagingOptions, exclusion in sourceSets but nothing seems to work. What I am trying to achieve is not include for example in the .AAR archive the file comments.txt and the folder "assets" which is an optional folder. I examine each time the .AAR file by renaming it to zip and looking into the files included.

I have also looked into the documentation here, where maybe configurations could be a solution but I am not sure how to use it or how to move forward. Any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Think it is related to this issue. Generally you could try with:

• Source set excludes
• Packaging options
• Aapt options

I couldn't get either of them to work though.

That said, you could make some ugly hacks like this:

def filterVariant = { variantToFilter, filterTask->
        def vv = android.sourceSets."${variantToFilter}".res.srcDirs
        println "${variantToFilter} --> ${vv*.toString()}"

        def variantRes = android.sourceSets."${variantToFilter}".res
        variantRes.srcDirs.each{ resDir->
            def filterOutput = "${buildDir}/res-filter"
            if (resDir.toString().contains(filterOutput)) {
                return
            }

            println "begin filter ${resDir} to ${filterOutput}/${variantToFilter}"

            filterTask.from fileTree(dir: resDir, exclude: '**/comment.txt')
            filterTask.into "${filterOutput}/${variantToFilter}"


            variantRes.srcDirs = ["${filterOutput}/${variantToFilter}"]
        }
    }

    project.task('filterMainResources', type: Copy) {
        filterVariant 'main', it
    }

    android.libraryVariants.all{ variant ->
        project.task("filter${variant.name}Resources", type: Copy) { filterTask ->
            filterVariant "${variant.name}", filterTask
            filterTask.dependsOn "filterMainResources"
        }
        variant.mergeResources.dependsOn("filter${variant.name}Resources")
    }