AAPT2 On-Disk Formats

  • AAPT2 Container Format (extension .apc)
  • AAPT2 Static Library Format (extension .sapk)

AAPT2 Container Format (extension .apc)

The APC format (AAPT2 Container Format) is generated by AAPT2 during the compile phase and consumed by the AAPT2 link phase. It is a simple container format for storing compiled PNGs, binary and protobuf XML, and intermediate protobuf resource tables. It also stores all associated meta-data from the compile phase.

Format

The file starts with a simple header. All multi-byte fields are little-endian.

Size (in bytes)FieldDescription
4magicThe magic bytes must equal 'AAPT' or 0x54504141.
4versionThe version of the container format.
4entry_countThe number of entries in this container.

This is followed by entry_count of the following data structure. It must be aligned on a 32-bit boundary, so if a previous entry ends unaligned, padding must be inserted.

Size (in bytes)FieldDescription
4entry_typeThe type of the entry. This can be one of two types: RES_TABLE (0x00000000) or RES_FILE (0x00000001).
8entry_lengthThe length of the data that follows. Do not use if entry_type is RES_FILE; this value may be wrong.
entry_lengthdataThe payload. The contents of this varies based on the entry_type.

If the entry_type is equal to RES_TABLE (0x00000000), the data field contains a serialized aapt.pb.ResourceTable.

If the entry_type is equal to RES_FILE (0x00000001), the data field contains the following:

Size (in bytes)FieldDescription
4header_sizeThe size of the header field.
8data_sizeThe size of the data field.
header_sizeheaderThe serialized Protobuf message aapt.pb.internal.CompiledFile.
xheader_paddingUp to 3 bytes of zeros, if padding is necessary to align the data field on a 32-bit boundary.
data_sizedataThe payload, which is determined by the type field in the aapt.pb.internal.CompiledFile. This can be a PNG file, binary XML, or aapt.pb.XmlNode.
ydata_paddingUp to 3 bytes of zeros, if data_size is not a multiple of 4.

AAPT2 Static Library Format (extension .sapk)