How can I overcome the property length limitation of the "adb shell setprop"

Question

I get an error when I try set a value for property with name >= 32 characters

adb shell setprop 01234567890123456789012345678901 VALUE

Error:

could not set property

This works fine

adb shell setprop 0123456789012345678901234567890 VALUE
adb shell getprop 0123456789012345678901234567890
VALUE

Is there any way to set properties with longer names?

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 21 '11 at 16:57

11

It looks like there would be no way to bypass this limitation. I see the same rules in android java sources.

public class SystemProperties
{
    public static final int PROP_NAME_MAX = 31;
    public static final int PROP_VALUE_MAX = 91;

    ...
}

answered Feb 21 '11 at 16:57

alex2k8

42,496
57
170
221

6

[sigh] yes, the Android OS likes putting random limitations without a good enough reason. – Franci Penov Feb 21 '11 at 17:05
1

Inside the C code from the Android NDK used internally by the Java VM on Android you can find this in the usr/include/sys/system_properties.h header: https://gist.github.com/mnemonicflow/6c689f30899a654867b3#file-system_properties-h-L38 `#define PROP_NAME_MAX 32 #define PROP_VALUE_MAX 92` In C the additional byte is used to termine the string with a '\0' – Alex Bitek Feb 24 '16 at 20:12

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 15 '19 at 14:39

Update: The system property name limit of 32 characters was removed in Android O. You are free to have longer names now.

public class SystemProperties {
    /**
     * Android O removed the property name length limit, but com.amazon.kindle 7.8.1.5
     * uses reflection to read this whenever text is selected (http://b/36095274).
     */
    public static final int PROP_NAME_MAX = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    public static final int PROP_VALUE_MAX = 91;
    ...
}

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 07:32

2

I also faced same problem. as the answer mentioned above it's not possible use the NAME which longer than 31. so i change package name to shorter than 31 and it works now.

answered Jul 08 '14 at 07:32

idoitlpg

21
1

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 14 '15 at 08:22

0

Maybe using redirection?

Set small property which will hold file name for conf file:

setprop confFileName "myConf.yml"

in that conf file have all your big property names and values.

answered Jul 14 '15 at 08:22

vmiheer

147
9

How can I overcome the property length limitation of the "adb shell setprop"

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