Where can I find documentation for Android build options related to proguard

Question

I have been doing a lot of work with the android build system and I ran into a situation that proguard was removing required classes causing a NoClassDefFoundError. I could tell the class was not being found however it took me a while to figure out that proguard was messing up the classes that were build with my code.

I finally found that I could prevent proguard from running by adding LOCAL_PROGUARD_ENABLED := disabled to the Android.mk file.

I was only able to do this because I happened to chance accross someone elses Android.mk file that did the same.

I have not been able to find any documentation for the following

LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAGS
LOCAL_PROGUARD_ENABLED
LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAG_FILES

As best I can tell the typical usage of LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAGS is to identify the location of the proguard configuration file used as follows:

LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAGS := -include $(LOCAL_PATH)/proguard.flags

Problem is I cannot figure out how it differs from the LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAG_FILES used as follows:

LOCAL_PROGUARD_FLAG_FILES := proguard.flags

The LOCAL_PROGUARD_ENABLED can be used to disable proguard however other than the disabled option I don't know what else can be used with this option.

LOCAL_PROGUARD_ENABLED := disabled

Does anyone know where I can find documentation (official or unofficial) for these build options? Google does not seem to return anything useful for my searches.

Answer 1

I searched for that information also and stumbled upon this patch:

    Now the meaning of the LOCAL_PROGUARD_ENABLED options:

    * full:
        Use the build system's default configurations:
        with shrink but no obfuscation or optimization,
        global proguard flags in build/core/proguard.flags
        are applied.
    * custom:
        The same as "full" except no aapt-generated resource-related
        proguard flags.
    * nosystem:
        Don't use any build system's default configurations; but
        aapt-generated proguard flags are still applied. You are
        responsible for any other flags.
    * disabled:
        Disable proguard.
    * obfuscation:
        The same as "full" but with obfuscation enabled.
    * optimization:
        The same as "full" but with optimization enabled.
    * no value (the default):
        The build system chooses the proper value: "full" if it's an
        app; "disabled" if it's a library.

Here is the link: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/7311a34%5E!/