How to share split APKs created while using instant-run, within Android itself?

I am the tech lead @Google for the Android Gradle Plugin, let me try to answer your question assuming I understand your use case.

First, some users mentioned you should not share your InstantRun enabled build and they are correct. The Instant Run builds on an application is highly customized for the current device/emulator image you are deploying to. So basically, say you generate an IR enabled build of your app for a particular device running 21, it will fail miserably if you try to use those exact same APKs on say a device running 23. I can go into much deeper explanation if necessary but suffice to say that we generate byte codes customized on the APIs found in android.jar (which is of course version specific).

So I do not think that sharing those APKs make sense, you should either use a IR disabled build or a release build.

Now for some details, each slice APK contains 1+ dex file(s), so in theory, nothing prevents you from unziping all those slice APKs, take all the dex files and stuff them back into the base.apk/rezip/resign and it should just work. However, it will still be an IR enabled application so it will start the small server to listen to IDE requests, etc, etc... I cannot imagine a good reason for doing this.

Hope this helps.

To merge multiple split apks to an single apk might be a little complicated.

Here is a suggestion to share the split apks directly and let the system to handle the merge and installation.

This might not be an answer to the question, since it's a little long, I post here as an 'answer'.

Framework new API PackageInstaller can handle monolithic apk or split apk.

In development environment

• for monolithic apk, using adb install single_apk

• for split apk, using adb install-multiple a_list_of_apks

You can see these two modes above from android studio Run output depends on your project has Instant run enable or disable.

For the command adb install-multiple, we can see the source code here, it will call the function install_multiple_app.

And then perform the following procedures

pm install-create # create a install session
pm install-write  # write a list of apk to session
pm install-commit # perform the merge and install

What the pm actually do is call the framework api PackageInstaller, we can see the source code here

runInstallCreate
runInstallWrite
runInstallCommit

It's not mysterious at all, I just copied some methods or function here.

The following script can be invoked from adb shell environment to install all split apks to device, like adb install-multiple. I think it might work programmatically with Runtime.exec if your device is rooted.

#!/system/bin/sh

# get the total size in byte
total=0
for apk in *.apk
do
    o=( $(ls -l $apk) )
    let total=$total+${o[3]}
done

echo "pm install-create total size $total"

create=$(pm install-create -S $total)
sid=$(echo $create |grep -E -o '[0-9]+')

echo "pm install-create session id $sid"

for apk in *.apk
do
    _ls_out=( $(ls -l $apk) )
    echo "write $apk to $sid"
    cat $apk | pm install-write -S ${_ls_out[3]} $sid $apk -
done

pm install-commit $sid

I my example, the split apks include (I got the list from android studio Run output)

app/build/output/app-debug.apk
app/build/intermediates/split-apk/debug/dependencies.apk
and all apks under app/build/intermediates/split-apk/debug/slices/slice[0-9].apk

Using adb push all the apks and the script above to a public writable directory, e.g /data/local/tmp/slices, and run the install script, it will install to your device just like adb install-multiple.

The code below is just another variant of the script above, if your app has platform signature or device is rooted, I think it will be ok. I didn't have the environment to test.

private static void installMultipleCmd() {
    File[] apks = new File("/data/local/tmp/slices/slices").listFiles(new FileFilter() {
        @Override
        public boolean accept(File pathname) {
            return pathname.getAbsolutePath().endsWith(".apk");
        }
    });
    long total = 0;
    for (File apk : apks) {
        total += apk.length();
    }

    Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: total apk size " + total);
    long sessionID = 0;
    try {
        Process pmInstallCreateProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/sh\n");
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(pmInstallCreateProcess.getOutputStream()));
        writer.write("pm install-create\n");
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();

        int ret = pmInstallCreateProcess.waitFor();
        Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: pm install-create return " + ret);

        BufferedReader pmCreateReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(pmInstallCreateProcess.getInputStream()));
        String l;
        Pattern sessionIDPattern = Pattern.compile(".*(\\[\\d+\\])");
        while ((l = pmCreateReader.readLine()) != null) {
            Matcher matcher = sessionIDPattern.matcher(l);
            if (matcher.matches()) {
                sessionID = Long.parseLong(matcher.group(1));
            }
        }
        Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: pm install-create sessionID " + sessionID);
    } catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    StringBuilder pmInstallWriteBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    for (File apk : apks) {
        pmInstallWriteBuilder.append("cat " + apk.getAbsolutePath() + " | " +
                "pm install-write -S " + apk.length() + " " + sessionID + " " + apk.getName() + " -");
        pmInstallWriteBuilder.append("\n");
    }

    Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: will perform pm install write \n" + pmInstallWriteBuilder.toString());

    try {
        Process pmInstallWriteProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/sh\n");
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(pmInstallWriteProcess.getOutputStream()));
        // writer.write("pm\n");
        writer.write(pmInstallWriteBuilder.toString());
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();

        int ret = pmInstallWriteProcess.waitFor();
        Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: pm install-write return " + ret);
        checkShouldShowError(ret, pmInstallWriteProcess);
    } catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    try {
        Process pmInstallCommitProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/sh\n");
        BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(pmInstallCommitProcess.getOutputStream()));
        writer.write("pm install-commit " + sessionID);
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();

        int ret = pmInstallCommitProcess.waitFor();
        Log.d(TAG, "installMultipleCmd: pm install-commit return " + ret);
        checkShouldShowError(ret, pmInstallCommitProcess);
    } catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

private static void checkShouldShowError(int ret, Process process) {
    if (process != null && ret != 0) {
        BufferedReader reader = null;
        try {
            reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getErrorStream()));
            String l;
            while ((l = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                Log.d(TAG, "checkShouldShowError: " + l);
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (reader != null) {
                try {
                    reader.close();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Meanwhile, the simple way, you can try the framework api. Like the sample code above, it might work if the device is rooted or your app has platform signature, but I didn't get a workable environment to test it.

private static void installMultiple(Context context) {
    if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
        PackageInstaller packageInstaller = context.getPackageManager().getPackageInstaller();

        PackageInstaller.SessionParams sessionParams = new PackageInstaller.SessionParams(PackageInstaller.SessionParams.MODE_FULL_INSTALL);

        try {
            final int sessionId = packageInstaller.createSession(sessionParams);
            Log.d(TAG, "installMultiple: sessionId " + sessionId);

            PackageInstaller.Session session = packageInstaller.openSession(sessionId);

            File[] apks = new File("/data/local/tmp/slices/slices").listFiles(new FileFilter() {
                @Override
                public boolean accept(File pathname) {
                    return pathname.getAbsolutePath().endsWith(".apk");
                }
            });

            for (File apk : apks) {
                InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(apk);

                OutputStream outputStream = session.openWrite(apk.getName(), 0, apk.length());
                byte[] buffer = new byte[65536];
                int count;
                while ((count = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
                    outputStream.write(buffer, 0, count);
                }

                session.fsync(outputStream);
                outputStream.close();
                inputStream.close();
                Log.d(TAG, "installMultiple: write file to session " + sessionId + " " + apk.length());
            }

            try {
                IIntentSender target = new IIntentSender.Stub() {

                    @Override
                    public int send(int i, Intent intent, String s, IIntentReceiver iIntentReceiver, String s1) throws RemoteException {
                        int status = intent.getIntExtra(PackageInstaller.EXTRA_STATUS, PackageInstaller.STATUS_FAILURE);
                        Log.d(TAG, "send: status " + status);
                        return 0;
                    }
                };
                session.commit(IntentSender.class.getConstructor(IIntentSender.class).newInstance(target));
            } catch (InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException | NoSuchMethodException | InvocationTargetException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            session.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

In order to use the hidden api IIntentSender, I add the jar library android-hidden-api as the provided dependency.

For me instant run was a nightmare, 2-5 minute build times, and maddeningly often, recent changes were not included in builds. I highly recommend disabling instant run and adding this line to gradle.properties:

android.enableBuildCache=true

First build often takes some time for large projects (1-2mins), but after it's cached subsequent builds are usually lightnight fast (<10secs).

Got this tip from reddit user /u/QuestionsEverythang which has saved me SO much hassling around with instant run!