How to build runnable apk with aapt2?

Question

I have a simple android project. This commands compile resources and build apk without dex:

aapt2 compile project/res/values/strings.xml project/res/layout/activity_main.xml -o project/compiled_res

aapt2 link -o project/apk/unsigned_app.apk -I sdk/platforms/android-28/android.jar --manifest project/src/AndroidManifest.xml -R project/compiled_res/*.flat --java project/src --auto-add-overlay

Quote from documentation:

However, the generated APK does not contain DEX bytecode and is unsigned
...
you can use other command line tools, such as d8 to compile Java bytecode into DEX bytecode and apksigner to sign your APK.

Ok. I can:

d8 project/compiled_classes/com/illuzor/buildtest/*.class --output project/dex

But how to pack this dex to apk? aapt2 can`t recognize classes.dex:

I can just add classes.dex to my apk by zipping:

zip -uj project/apk/unsigned_app.apk project/dex/classes.dex

And it works after aligning and signing. But must be another way, more proper.

Answer 1

I'm looking for a proper way too. But I have no luck even it is 2019 now, and I searched everywhere, for days.

I guess aapt add will get the job done, but your solution with zip is not bad.

Hope aapt won't be deprecated soon, or aapt2 should get enhanced before that happens.