bug: using striplibs causes installation failures

[Graywizard888]

Bug description

When using striplibs the apk patching is successfull but apps won't install, the installers shows zipalign issues.

Error logs

- Install output: Failure [-124: Failed parse during installPackageLI: Targeting R+ (version 30 and above) requires the resources.arsc of installed APKs to be stored uncompressed and aligned on a 4-byte boundary]

Solution

.

Additional context

.

Acknowledgements

• I have checked all open and closed bug reports and this is not a duplicate.
• I have chosen an appropriate title.

[prateek-who]

Could you share the exact command you ran and also the app you ran it for?

[kitadai31]

This occurs because the striplibs feature modifies the APK file after it has been aligned.

The alignment of the APK is performed at patcherResult.applyTo(this):

https://github.com/MorpheApp/morphe-patcher/blob/3475f1a7718a181e8cbc676f0f647ca6a823f193/src/main/kotlin/app/morphe/patcher/apk/ApkUtils.kt#L100

But CLI strips the libs after it, causing the alignment messes up.

morphe-cli/src/main/kotlin/app/morphe/cli/command/PatchCommand.kt

Lines 596 to 613 in 8591ff4

	inputApk.copyTo(temporaryFilesPath.resolve(inputApk.name), overwrite = true).apply {
	patchingResult.addStepResult(
	PatchingStep.REBUILDING,
	{
	patcherResult.applyTo(this)
	}
	)
	}.also { rebuiltApk ->
	if (striplibs.isNotEmpty()) {
	patchingResult.addStepResult(
	PatchingStep.STRIPPING_LIBS,
	{
	ApkLibraryStripper.stripLibraries(rebuiltApk, striplibs) { msg ->
	logger.info(msg)
	}
	}
	)
	}

This may not be reproducible in most of APK files, as it won't occur if the total sizes of stripped libs happens to be a multiple of 4 bytes.

A simple solution to this is stripping the library just before calling applyTo, after copying the input APK to a temporary folder.

---

However, as I thought (MorpheApp/morphe-patches#336), it's still be better to implement the striplibs functionality as a patch.
If you remove the library using the patcher's functionality, you won't need to consider this kind of issues.
Also, I just learned how striplibs are implemented using the CLI and Manager. I felt it seems inefficient because it involves editing and saving zip files separately from applying patches.

Even if implemented as a patch, the command line in the CLI remains largely unchanged.

--striplibs arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a

--enable "Strip libs" -OkeepArchNames arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a

Moreover, making it a patch allows users to specify whether to use strtiplibs and the architecture in options.json and reuse every time.

The settings in manager will also not be changed much.
The "Remove unused architectures" toggle is already a setting exclusive to Expert Mode, so the only difference is that the setting location has moved from Manager settings to the patch selection screen.

But if you prioritize the following policies, please disregard this suggestion since there is no way to avoid "pick and choose patches" when it becomes a patch.

We are trying to hide away from users the unfamiliarity and confusion over "pick and choose patches", and a simple expert setting like Manager that already exists is ideal.

[prateek-who]

Right now I have a fix ready for this. I simply use apkzlib's zfile with alignment rules matching morphe-patcher's ApkUtils instead of java.util.zip, so the APK stays properly aligned after stripping. The stripper now modifies entries in-place and calls realign() rather than rewriting the entire ZIP. i just need to know what apk they used it on, so that I could test it before submitting a PR. Unless you know an app that has this issue, I could quickly test it and get a PR out.

Making it a patch sounds fine too, but that's a architecture decision and that is Liso's call.

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

Fixing in CLI is ideal because no specific patch is needed, and the feature works with any patch bundle.

[Graywizard888]

I'm the dev of enhancify, its happening on most of user who are patching with striplibs with youtube and other apks, they are reporting it many times also I advised them to disable striplibs it's worked for them that time

[Graywizard888]

Also off topic of this issue, but the antisplit function should be shown in one line sentence instead of flooding the terminal, similar as inotia00 modified cli here :- https://github.com/inotia00/revanced-cli-patcher-22/releases

[prateek-who]

Also off topic of this issue, but the antisplit function should be shown in one line sentence instead of flooding the terminal, similar as inotia00 modified cli here :- https://github.com/inotia00/revanced-cli-patcher-22/releases

Should we do this? @LisoUseInAIKyrios The messages look something like this:

INFO: Merging APKM bundle                                            
00.000 I: [MERGE] Extracting to: tmp_a8989761                        
00.450 I: [MERGE] Searching apk files ...                            
                                                                     
00.456 I: [MERGE] Found apk files: 9                                 
00.530 I: [MERGE] Found modules: 9                                   
                                                                     
00.565 I: [MERGE] Merging: base                                      
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes.dex -> classes.dex            
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes2.dex -> classes2.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes3.dex -> classes3.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes4.dex -> classes4.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes5.dex -> classes5.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes6.dex -> classes6.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes7.dex -> classes7.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes8.dex -> classes8.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes9.dex -> classes9.dex          
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes10.dex -> classes10.dex        
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes11.dex -> classes11.dex        
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes12.dex -> classes12.dex        
00.566 I: [MERGE] Added [base] classes13.dex -> classes13.dex        
01.025 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.ru                           
                                                                     
01.182 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.pt                           
                                                                     
01.416 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.x86_64                       
01.416 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.xxhdpi                       
                                                                     
01.451 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.arm64_v8a                    
                                                                     
01.452 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.hdpi                         
                                                                     
01.486 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.en                           
                                                                     
01.642 I: [MERGE] Merging: split_config.es                           
02.000 I: [MERGE] Clearing META-INF ...                              
02.003 I: [MERGE] Sanitizing manifest ...                            
02.106 I: [MERGE] Applying: extractNativeLibs=false                  
02.106 I: [MERGE] Writing apk ...                                    
02.114 I: [MERGE] Buffering compress changed files ...               
06.287 I: [MERGE] Writing files: 3846

The INFO: Merging APKM bundle is from us, but the rest is coming from APKEditor's logging. We could disable it so that only our message shows up. But that would mean less detailed logging of the process. Errors during merging do throw the error message, so that will still stay, not to worry about that.

[Graywizard888]

Just Make it less verbose for currently it's flooding the terminal with merging texts

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

Users have asked for more verbosity in the patching process.

I think including the console output of apkeditor is helpful because it's the same output as-if the user ran apkeditor to first unsplit before patching.

[Graywizard888]

So will you can add the argument like --verbose so it will show in complete merging process, while without this argument it will show only
INFO: Merging APKM bundle which inotia00 cli shows.

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

--verbose works. We planned to add a verbosity argument for patcher to log additional developer relevant information, and merging information can be part of that.

That change can be in a separate PR.

[prateek-who]

Do we start implementing a --verbose flag? We could start with this merge message for now and slowly add more stuff in the future as and when we need it.

(And in case we do, do we just have it for the patch sub-command as of now?)

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

Yes the verbose PR can add the --verbose flag, and for now it could only apply to patch command.

--verbose should set the default logger to fine logging level so loggers inside patcher can print out relevant developer information.

[wchill]

Also, I just learned how striplibs are implemented using the CLI and Manager. I felt it seems inefficient because it involves editing and saving zip files separately from applying patches.

@kitadai31 this logic could be moved to patcher, since we already need to have a delete files step in there when rebuilding the apk. Additionally, with arsclib we extract all files to disk, so it is much simpler to strip libs via just deleting the files on disk compared to manipulating the apk via patches. This should not be too difficult to do.

[prateek-who]

After sitting and looking at where the ApkMerger's logging is happening, I finally realized this responsibility lies on the patcher's ApkMerger class. That is the one calling .info() for all the messages. The changes are required on two different repo's:

1. CLI Repo: If --verbose is called, then the cli sets it to FINE. We need to make this change here, but it is useless without the second change.
2. Morphe patcher repo: ApkMerger logs everything with .info(). Small examples below:

logger.info("Searching apk files ...")

logger.info("Renaming resources root dir: $resDirName")

logger.info("Validating resources dir ...")

logger.info("Clearing META-INF ...")

We'll have to change these merge messages to .trace() so that these get logged at the FINE level. This way without verbose, those other messages get hidden and with verbose, they get shown.