tech/ota/reduce_size.jd

page.title=Reducing OTA Size
@jd:body

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<p>A common problem with Android over-the-air updates (OTAs) is that they contain
changed files that do not correspond to code changes, but instead are artifacts
of the build system. This happens whenever the same code, built at different
times, from different directories, or on different machines, produces a large
number of changed files.  The excess files not only increase the size of an
OTA, but make it difficult to determine which code is changed in the OTA.</p>

<p>To make the contents of an OTA more transparent, we have added a number of
build system changes that reduce the size of an OTA 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.  We have also
introduced a build diff tool that filters out common build-related file changes
and provides a cleaner build file diff (see below).</p>

<p>This document provides an explanation of some of the build changes that have
been added to AOSP to reduce unnecessary file changes between builds.  For
device implementers who maintain their own build system,  it provides a guide
to some of the changes that need to be made to reduce OTA size.</p>

<h3 id=the_build_diff_tool>The build diff tool</h3>


<p>Since there are cases where it is not possible to eliminate build-related file
changes, we have supplied a build diff tool, <code><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/master/tools/releasetools/target_files_diff.py">target_files_diff.py</a></code>, that can be used to compare two target file packages. </p>

<p>The build diff  tool does a recursive diff between two builds, excluding common
build-related file changes.  Excluded changes include the following:</p>

<ul>
  <li> Expected changes in the build output (for example, due to build number
changing).
  <li> Changes due to known issues in the current build system.
</ul>

<p>To use the build diff tool, run the following command:</p>

<pre class=prettyprint>
$ target_files_diff.py dir1 dir2
</pre>


<p>where <code>dir1</code> and <code>dir2</code> are base directories that contain the extracted target files for each build.</p>

<h2 id=changes_to_reduce_ota_size>Changes to reduce OTA size</h2>


<p>There are several ways that the build system can create unnecessary file diffs.
 In the following sections, we discuss some of these issues, discuss solutions,
 and, where possible,  show examples of the fixes in AOSP.</p>

<h3 id=file_order>File Order</h3>


<p><strong>Problem</strong>: 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 <code>ls </code>sort the results by default, but the wildcard function used by commands such as <code>find</code> and <code>make </code>do not. So when any of these tools are used, you need to sort the outputs
before using them.</p>

<p><strong>Solution</strong>: Users of tools such as <code>find</code> and <code>make</code> with wildcard need to sort the output of these commands before using them.  In
fact, any uses of $(wildcard ) or $(shell find ) in Android.mk files should be
sorted. (Some tools (like java) will sort their inputs, so in some cases it may
not actually necessary.)</p>

<p><strong>Examples:</strong> Many instances of this were fixed in the core build system, especially when
you use the builtin <code>all-*-files-under</code> macros (and <code>all-cpp-files-under</code> was added, since there were several definitions spread out in other
makefiles):</p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/4d66adfd0e6d599d8502007e4ea9aaf82e95569f">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/4d66adfd0e6d599d8502007e4ea9aaf82e95569f</a>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/379f9f9cec4fe1c66b6d60a6c19fecb81b9eb410">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/379f9f9cec4fe1c66b6d60a6c19fecb81b9eb410</a>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/7c3e3f8314eec2c053012dd97d2ae649ebeb5653">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/7c3e3f8314eec2c053012dd97d2ae649ebeb5653</a>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/5c64b4e81c1331cab56d8a8c201f26bb263b630c">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/5c64b4e81c1331cab56d8a8c201f26bb263b630c</a>
</ul>

<h3 id=build_directory>Build Directory</h3>


<p><strong>Problem: </strong>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 <code>__FILE__</code> in C/C++ isn’t a problem. </p>

<p>But the debug symbols encode the full pathname by default. Then the <code>.note.gnu.build-id</code> is generated from hashing the pre-stripped binary, so it will change if the
debug symbols change. </p>

<p><strong>Solution:  </strong>To fix this, AOSP master has been changed to make the debug paths relative, as
shown here: </p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6a66a887baadc9eb3d0d60e26f748b8453e27a02">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6a66a887baadc9eb3d0d60e26f748b8453e27a02</a>
</ul>

<h3 id=timestamps>Timestamps</h3>


<p><strong>Problem:  </strong>Timestamps in the build output result in unnecessary file changes.  Two places
this is likely to happen are the following:</p>

<ul>
  <li> <code> __DATE__/__TIME__/__TIMESTAMP__ </code> macros in  C or C++ code.
  <li> Timestamps embedded in zip-based archives.
</ul>

<p><strong>Solutions/Examples:</strong></p>

<p>To remove timestamps from the build output in each of these instances, see the
instructions in the sections below.</p>

<h4 id=date_time_timestamp_in_c_c>__DATE__/__TIME__/__TIMESTAMP__ in C/C++</h4>


<p>These macros always produce different outputs for different builds, so they
shouldn’t be used. </p>

<p>Here are a few options on how to eliminate these macros:</p>

<ul>
  <li> Just remove them, they often aren’t necessary.<br>
Example:<br><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/30622bbb209db187f6851e4cf0cdaa147c2fca9f">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/30622bbb209db187f6851e4cf0cdaa147c2fca9f</a>
  <li> If you just need to be able to uniquely identify the running binary, read the
build-id from the ELF header. (No example, we didn’t run into this problem.)
  <li> If you just want to know when the OS was built, you can read the ro.build.date
-- this should work for everything except incremental builds, which may not
update this date.<br>
Example:<br><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libchrome/+/8b7977eccc94f6b3a3896cd13b4aeacbfa1e0f84">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libchrome/+/8b7977eccc94f6b3a3896cd13b4aeacbfa1e0f84</a>
</ul>

<p>We have turned on <code>-Werror=date-time</code>, so that using timestamps is a build error.</p>

<h4 id=embedded_timestamps_in_zip-based_archives_zip_jar>Embedded Timestamps in Zip-based archives (zip, jar)</h4>


<p>We fixed the problem of embedded timestamps in zip archives by adding <code>-X</code> to all uses of the <code>zip</code> command, so that the UID/GID of the builder, and the extended Unix timestamp
weren’t embedded in the zip file. </p>

<p>A new tool, <code>ziptime</code>, resets the normal timestamps in the zip headers:</p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/master/tools/ziptime/">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/master/tools/ziptime/</a>
</ul>

<p>For more information, see the <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/master/tools/ziptime/README.txt">README file</a>.</p>

<p>The <code>signapk</code> tool sets timestamps for the APK files that may vary depending on the server
timezone.  This problems was fixed in the following CL:</p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6c41036bcf35fe39162b50d27533f0f3bfab3028">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/6c41036bcf35fe39162b50d27533f0f3bfab3028</a>
</ul>

<h3 id=version_strings>Version Strings</h3>


<p><strong>Problem:</strong> APK version strings often had the BUILD_NUMBER appended to the hardcoded
version. So even if nothing else changed in the APK, the APK would still be
different. </p>

<p><strong>Solution:</strong> Remove the build number from the APK version string.</p>

<p><strong>Examples: </strong></p>

<ul>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Camera2/+/5e0f4cf699a4c7c95e2c38ae3babe6f20c258d27">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Camera2/+/5e0f4cf699a4c7c95e2c38ae3babe6f20c258d27</a>
  <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/d75d893da8f97a5c7781142aaa7a16cf1dbb669c">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/d75d893da8f97a5c7781142aaa7a16cf1dbb669c</a>
</ul>

<h3 id=consistent_build_tools>Consistent build tools</h3>


<p><strong>Problem:</strong> Any tools that generate installed files need to be consistent, that is, the
same input should always produce the same output. </p>

<p><strong>Solutions/Examples: </strong>Changes were required in the following build tools:</p>

<ul>
  <li> <strong>NOTICE file creator </strong><br>
The NOTICE file creator needed the following changes:
  <ul>
    <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/8ae4984c2c8009e7a08e2a76b1762c2837ad4f64">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/build/+/8ae4984c2c8009e7a08e2a76b1762c2837ad4f64</a>
  </ul>
  <li> <strong>Java Android Compiler Kit (Jack) </strong><br>
The Jack toolchain required an update to handle an occasional change in
generated constructor ordering:
  <ul>
    <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/jack/+/056a5425b3ef57935206c19ecb198a89221ca64b">https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/jack/+/056a5425b3ef57935206c19ecb198a89221ca64b</a>
  </ul>
  <li><strong>ART AOT compiler (dex2oat)</strong><br>The ART compiler binary required an update to create a deterministic image:
  <ul>
    <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/ace0dc1dd5480ad458e622085e51583653853fb9">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/ace0dc1dd5480ad458e622085e51583653853fb9</a>
  </ul>
  <li> <strong>The libpac.so file (V8)</strong><br>
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:</p>
  <ul>
    <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/v8/+/e537f38c36600fd0f3026adba6b3f4cbcee1fb29">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/v8/+/e537f38c36600fd0f3026adba6b3f4cbcee1fb29</a>
  </ul>
  <li> <strong>Application pre-dexopt’d (.odex) files
</strong><br>The pre-dexopt’d (.odex) files contained uninitialized padding on 64-bit
systems, requiring the following fix:</p>
  <ul>
    <li> <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/34ed3afc41820c72a3c0ab9770be66b6668aa029">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/34ed3afc41820c72a3c0ab9770be66b6668aa029</a>
  </ul>
</ul>