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Build instructions

This document aims to explain how to build the Mullvad Android app. It's strongly recommended and primarily supported to build the app using the provided container, as it ensures the correct build environment.

Build process

The build process consist of two main steps. First building the native libraries (mullvad-daemon and wireguard-go) and then building the Android app/project which will bundle the previously built native libraries. Building the native libraries requires some specific toolchains and packages to be installed, so it's recommended to build using the provided build script and container image.

The native libraries doesn't have to be rebuilt very often, only when including daemon changes or after cleaning the project, so apart from that it's possible to build the Android app/project using the Gradle CLI or the Android Studio GUI.

Build with provided container (recommended)

NOTE: Build with provided container is only supported on Linux and may not work on other platforms.

Building both the native libraries and Android project can easily be achieved by running the containerized-build.sh script, which helps using the correct tag and mounting volumes. The script relies on podman by default, however another container runner such as docker can be used by setting the CONTAINER_RUNNER environment variable.

After the native libraries have been built, subsequent builds can that doesn't rely on changes to the native libraries can be ran using the Gradle CLI or the Android Studio GUI. This requires either:

  • Rust to be installed, since a tooled called mullvad-version is used to resolved the version information for the Android app.

or

Setup:

  • Install podman and make sure it's configured to run in rootless mode.

  • OPTIONAL: Get the latest stable Rust toolchain via rustup.rs.

Debug build

Run the following command to trigger a full debug build:

../building/containerized-build.sh android --dev-build

Release build

  1. Configure a signing key by following these instructions.
  2. Run the following command after setting the ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR environment variable to the directory configured in step 1:
../building/containerized-build.sh android --app-bundle

Build without* the provided container

NOTE: This guide is only supported on Linux and may not work on other platforms, if you are using macOS please refer to macOS build instructions

Building without the provided container requires installing multiple Sdk:s and toolchains, and is therefore more complex.

*: A container is still used to build wireguard-go for Android since it requires a patched version of go. See this patch for more information.

Setup build environment

These steps explain how to manually setup the build environment on a Linux system.

1. Install podman

Podman is required to build wireguard-go. Follow the installation instructions for your distribution.

2. Install protobuf-compiler

Install a protobuf compiler (version 3 and up), it can be installed on most major Linux distros via the package name protobuf-compiler. An additional package might also be required depending on Linux distro:

  • protobuf-devel on Fedora.
  • libprotobuf-dev on Debian/Ubuntu.

3. Install gcc

4. Install Android toolchain

  • Install the JDK

    sudo apt install zip openjdk-17-jdk

  • Install the SDK

    The SDK should be placed in a separate directory, like for example ~/android or /opt/android. This directory should be exported as the $ANDROID_HOME environment variable.

    Note: if sdkmanager fails to find the SDK root path, pass the option --sdk_root=$ANDROID_HOME to the command above.

    cd /opt/android     # Or some other directory to place the Android SDK
export ANDROID_HOME=$PWD

wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-8512546_latest.zip
unzip commandlinetools-linux-6609375_latest.zip
./tools/bin/sdkmanager "platforms;android-33" "build-tools;30.0.3" "platform-tools"

  • Install the NDK

    The NDK should be placed in a separate directory, which can be inside the $ANDROID_HOME or in a completely separate path. The extracted directory must be exported as the $ANDROID_NDK_HOME environment variable.

    cd "$ANDROID_HOME"  # Or some other directory to place the Android NDK
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r25c-linux.zip
unzip android-ndk-r25c-linux.zip

cd android-ndk-r25c
export ANDROID_NDK_HOME="$PWD"

5. Install and configure Rust toolchain

  • Get the latest stable Rust toolchain via rustup.rs.

  • Configure Android cross-compilation targets and set up linker and archiver. This can be done by setting the following environment variables:

    Add to ~/.bashrc or equivalent:

    export NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR="$ANDROID_NDK_HOME/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin"
export AR_aarch64_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/llvm-ar"
export AR_armv7_linux_androideabi="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/llvm-ar"
export AR_x86_64_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/llvm-ar"
export AR_i686_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/llvm-ar"
export CC_aarch64_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/aarch64-linux-android26-clang"
export CC_armv7_linux_androideabi="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/armv7a-linux-androideabi26-clang"
export CC_x86_64_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/x86_64-linux-android26-clang"
export CC_i686_linux_android="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/i686-linux-android26-clang"
export CARGO_TARGET_AARCH64_LINUX_ANDROID_LINKER="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/aarch64-linux-android26-clang"
export CARGO_TARGET_ARMV7_LINUX_ANDROIDEABI_LINKER="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/armv7a-linux-androideabi26-clang"
export CARGO_TARGET_I686_LINUX_ANDROID_LINKER="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/i686-linux-android26-clang"
export CARGO_TARGET_X86_64_LINUX_ANDROID_LINKER="$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR/x86_64-linux-android26-clang"

  • Install Android targets

    rustup target add aarch64-linux-android armv7-linux-androideabi i686-linux-android x86_64-linux-android

Debug build

Run the following command to build a debug build:

../build-apk.sh --dev-build

Release build

  1. Configure a signing key by following these instructions.
  2. Move, copy or symlink the directory from step 1 to ./credentials/ (<repository>/android/credentials/).
  3. Run the following command to build: 
    ../build-apk.sh --app-bundle

Configure signing key

  1. Create a directory to store the signing key, keystore and its configuration:

    export ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR=/tmp/credentials
mkdir -p $ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR

  2. Generate a key/keystore named app-keys.jks in ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR and make sure to write down the used passwords:

    keytool -genkey -v -keystore $ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR/app-keys.jks -alias release -keyalg RSA -keysize 4096 -validity 10000

  3. Create a file named keystore.properties in ANDROID_CREDENTIALS_DIR. Enter the following, but replace key-password and keystore-password with the values from step 2:

    keyAlias = release
keyPassword = key-password
storePassword = keystore-password

Gradle dependency metadata verification lockfile

This lockfile helps ensuring the integrity of the gradle dependencies in the project.

Update lockfile

When adding or updating dependencies, it's necessary to also update the lockfile. This can be done in the following way:

  1. Run update script (requires podman): 
    ./scripts/update-lockfile.sh
  2. Check diff before committing.

Disable during development

This is easiest done by temporarily removing the lockfile:

rm ./gradle/verification-metadata.xml

Gradle properties

Some gradle properties can be set to simplify development. These are listed below.

Always show changelog

For development purposes, ALWAYS_SHOW_CHANGELOG can be set in local.properties to always show the changelog dialog on each app start. For example:

ALWAYS_SHOW_CHANGELOG=true

Override version code and version name

To avoid or override the rust based version generation, the OVERRIDE_VERSION_CODE and OVERRIDE_VERSION_NAME properties can be set in local.properties. For example:

OVERRIDE_VERSION_CODE=123
OVERRIDE_VERSION_NAME=1.2.3

Disable version in-app notifications

To disable in-app notifications related to the app version during development or testing, the ENABLE_IN_APP_VERSION_NOTIFICATIONS property can be set in local.properties:

ENABLE_IN_APP_VERSION_NOTIFICATIONS=false