What's the difference between "minifyEnabled" and "useProguard" in the Android Plugin for Gradle?

Question

I see that the Android Plugin for Gradle has a minifyEnabled property as well as a useProguard property, as follows:

android {
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            minifyEnabled true
            useProguard false
        }
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            useProguard true
        }
    }
}

What's the difference between these two properties? Or, rather, what's the meaning of each?

You could read about it here http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/resource-shrinking — OneCricketeer, May 03 '16 at 15:02
That document (at the time of writing this comment) contains nothing about the `useProguard` property @cricket_007. Unless `useProguard` is a rename of the `shrinkResources` property in recent releases of the Android Plugin for Gradle? — Adil Hussain, May 03 '16 at 15:09
"resource shrinking only works in conjunction with code shrinking (such as ProGuard)" — OneCricketeer, May 03 '16 at 15:10

score 71 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '16 at 15:01

71

Quoting from tools.android.com:

Built-in shrinker

Version 2.0 of Android Plugin for Gradle ships with an experimental built-in code shrinker, which can be used instead of ProGuard. The built-in shrinker supports fast incremental runs and is meant to speed up iteration cycles. It can be enabled using the following code snippet:
android {
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            minifyEnabled true
            useProguard false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt')
        }
    }
}
The built-in shrinker can only remove dead code, it does not obfuscate or optimize. It can be configured using the same files as ProGuard, but will ignore all flags related to obfuscation or optimization.

Unlike ProGuard, we support using the built-in shrinker together with Instant Run: depending on the project, it may significantly decrease the initial build and install time. Any methods that become reachable after a code change will appear as newly added to the program and prevent an Instant Run hotswap.

answered May 03 '16 at 15:01

Mattia Maestrini

32,270
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1

Thanks so much @Mattia. This explains it. So `minifyEnabled` removes dead code but does not obfuscate or optimize. – Adil Hussain May 03 '16 at 15:37
2

Seems to directly contradict this answer which is saying that minify does obfuscate a bit https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17290023/obfuscation-in-android-studio – pete Jul 10 '17 at 17:31
updated link to the documentation : https://developer.android.com/studio/build/shrink-code.html#gradle-shrinker – mx1up Jan 04 '18 at 17:46
Updated developer link, https://developer.android.com/studio/build/shrink-code.html#gradle-shrinker – Jitendar M Jan 26 '18 at 06:16
1

So it's recommended to use `minifyEnabled true` in both debug and release? It works fine with Proguard enabled? What happens when we use `useProguard false`, while setting the proguard files? Proguard rules are ignored? – android developer Jul 01 '19 at 11:48

score 35 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 05 '19 at 12:21

You don't need useProguard true anymore.

Code shrinking with R8 is enabled by default when you set the minifyEnabled property to true.

When you build your project using Android Gradle plugin 3.4.0 or higher, the plugin no longer uses ProGuard to perform compile-time code optimization. Instead, the plugin works with the R8 compiler to handle the tasks according to the official document.

If you want to use ProGuard instead of R8. Add this line in the gradle.properties file

 android.enableR8=false

tried this, but there was no clue whether its working it or not. The mapping.txt file also not generated. — arango_86, Dec 16 '20 at 16:05

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '20 at 05:09

20

I set minifyEnabled true for my release buildType and it removed an entire enum which it thougt to be unused code i guess. This made my app crash due to a NoSuchFieldException. Took me 4 hours to find the reason for this crash. 0/10 can not recommend minifyEnabled.

answered Dec 08 '20 at 05:09

J7bits

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it means you don't want minifyEnabled to be true? – gumuruh Mar 29 '22 at 13:41
1

I don't want my app to crash in production, that is correct – J7bits Apr 13 '22 at 17:31

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 14 '18 at 16:06

8

Just enable minifyEnabled will have code both optimized and obfuscated. This is because useProguard true is default so no need to set it explicitly.

What's the difference between "minifyEnabled" and "useProguard" in the Android Plugin for Gradle?

4 Answers4

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