This page describes build changes added to AOSP to reduce unnecessary file changes between builds. Device implementers who maintain their own build system can use this information as a guide for reducing over-the-air (OTA) update size.
Android OTAs occasionally contain changed files that do not correspond to code changes but are instead artifacts of the build system. This can occur when the same code built at different times, from different directories, or on different machines produces a large number of changed files. These excess files not only increase the size of an OTA, but make it difficult to determine which code is changed in the OTA.
To make the contents of an OTA more transparent, AOSP includes build system changes designed to reduce OTA size by eliminating unnecessary file changes between builds. The aim is to reduce the size of OTAs to include only the files that relate to the patches contained in the OTA. AOSP also includes a build diff tool, which filters out common build-related file changes and provides a cleaner build file diff, and a block mapping tool, which helps you keep block allocation consistent.
The build system can create unnecessary file diffs in several ways. The following sections discuss some of these issues and solutions, providing examples of fixes in AOSP when possible.
File order
Problem: Filesystems don’t guarantee a file order when asked
for a list of files in a directory, though it’s commonly the same for the same
checkout. Tools such as ls
sort the results by default, but the
wildcard function used by commands such as find
and
make
do not. Before using these tools, you must sort the outputs.
Solution: Users of tools such as find
and
make
with wildcard must sort the output of these commands before
using them. Use of $(wildcard)
or $(shell find)
in
Android.mk
files should also be sorted. Some tools, such as Java,
do sort inputs so first verify sorting is necessary.
Examples: Many instances were fixed in the core build system
using the builtin all-*-files-under
macro, which includes
all-cpp-files-under
(as several definitions were spread out in
other makefiles). For details, refer to the following CLs:
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/4d66adfd0e6d599d8502007e4ea9aaf82e95569f
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/379f9f9cec4fe1c66b6d60a6c19fecb81b9eb410
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/7c3e3f8314eec2c053012dd97d2ae649ebeb5653
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/5c64b4e81c1331cab56d8a8c201f26bb263b630c
Build directory
Problem: Changing the directory in which things are built
can cause the binaries to be different. Most paths in the Android build are
relative paths so __FILE__
in C/C++ isn’t a problem. However, the
debug symbols encode the full pathname by default, and the
.note.gnu.build-id
is generated from hashing the pre-stripped
binary, so it will change if the debug symbols change.
Solution: AOSP now makes debug paths relative. For details, refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6a66a887baadc9eb3d0d60e26f748b8453e27a02.
Timestamps
Problem: Timestamps in the build output result in unnecessary file changes. This is likely to happen in the following locations:
__DATE__/__TIME__/__TIMESTAMP__
macros in C or C++ code.- Timestamps embedded in zip-based archives.
Solutions/Examples: To remove timestamps from the build output, use the instructions in the sections below.
__DATE__/__TIME__/__TIMESTAMP__ in C/C++
These macros always produce different outputs for different builds, so they shouldn’t be used. Here are a few options on how to eliminate these macros:
- Just remove them, they often aren’t necessary. For an example, refer to https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/30622bbb209db187f6851e4cf0cdaa147c2fca9f.
- To uniquely identify the running binary, read the build-id from the ELF header.
- To know when the OS was built, read the
ro.build.date
(should work for everything except incremental builds, which may not update this date). For an example, refer to https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libchrome/+/8b7977eccc94f6b3a3896cd13b4aeacbfa1e0f84.
Embedded timestamps in archives (zip, jar)
Android 7.0 fixed the problem of embedded timestamps in zip archives by
adding -X
to all uses of the zip
command, so the
UID/GID of the builder and the extended Unix timestamp are not embedded in the
zip file.
A new tool, ziptime
(located in
/platform/build/+/master/tools/ziptime/
)
resets the normal timestamps in the zip headers. For details, refer to the
README
file.
The signapk
tool sets timestamps for the APK files that may vary
depending on the server timezone. For details, refer to the CL
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6c41036bcf35fe39162b50d27533f0f3bfab3028.
Version strings
Problem: APK version strings often had the
BUILD_NUMBER
appended to the hardcoded version. Even if nothing
else changed in the APK, the APK would still be different.
Solution: Remove the build number from the APK version string.
Examples:
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Camera2/+/5e0f4cf699a4c7c95e2c38ae3babe6f20c258d27
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/d75d893da8f97a5c7781142aaa7a16cf1dbb669c
Consistent build tools
Problem: Tools that generate installed files must be consistent (the same input should always produce the same output).
Solutions/Examples: Changes were required in the following build tools:
- NOTICE file creator. The NOTICE file creator needed the changes. Refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/8ae4984c2c8009e7a08e2a76b1762c2837ad4f64.
- Java Android Compiler Kit (Jack). The Jack toolchain required an update to handle an occasional change in generated constructor ordering. Refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/jack/+/056a5425b3ef57935206c19ecb198a89221ca64b.
- ART AOT compiler (dex2oat). The ART compiler binary required an update to create a deterministic image. Refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/ace0dc1dd5480ad458e622085e51583653853fb9.
- The libpac.so file (V8). Every build creates a different
/system/lib/libpac.so
file because the V8 snapshot changes for each build. The solution is to remove the snapshot. Refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/v8/+/e537f38c36600fd0f3026adba6b3f4cbcee1fb29. - Application pre-dexopt’d (.odex) files. The pre-dexopt’d (.odex) files contained uninitialized padding on 64-bit systems. Refer to CL: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/34ed3afc41820c72a3c0ab9770be66b6668aa029.
Using the build diff tool
For cases where it is not possible to eliminate build-related file changes,
AOSP includes a build diff tool,
target_files_diff.py
for use in comparing two file packages. This tool performs a recursive diff
between two builds, excluding common build-related file changes, such as:
- Expected changes in the build output (for example, due to a build number change).
- Changes due to known issues in the current build system.
To use the build diff tool, run the following command:
target_files_diff.py dir1 dir2
dir1
and dir2
are base directories that contain the
extracted target files for each build.
Keeping block allocation consistent
In an non-A/B OTA, one of the factors that contribute to the time is block moves. For a given file, although its contents remain the same between two builds, the actual blocks that hold the data might have changed. As a result, the updater performs unnecessarily I/O to move the blocks around during an OTA.
To address this issue, in Android 7.0 we extended the
make_ext4fs
tool that tries to keep the block allocation consistent
across builds. make_ext4fs
accepts an optional
-d base_fs
flag that attempts to allocate files to the same blocks
when generating an ext4
image. You can extract the block mapping
files (i.e. the base_fs
map files) from a previous build's target
files zip file (IMAGES/system.map
and
IMAGES/vendor.map
). The base_fs
files can then be
checked in and specified via PRODUCT_SYSTEM_BASE_FS_PATH
and
PRODUCT_VENDOR_BASE_FS_PATH
. For example,
PRODUCT_SYSTEM_BASE_FS_PATH := path/to/base_fs_files/base_system.map PRODUCT_VENDOR_BASE_FS_PATH := path/to/base_fs_files/base_vendor.map
While this doesn’t help reduce the overall OTA package size, it does improve OTA performance by reducing the amount of I/O.