How do I list the contents of an Android APK file programmatically?

Question

I need a list of all the files stored in a given APK file. I am using the NDK.

Challenges:

Get the path to the .APK file on the device.
Iterate through all of the files, recursing through the subdirectories.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 08 '14 at 02:12

1

You should be able to treat the apk file as if they are zip files. Since you're working within NDK, you can try using a C++ library like 7-zip to help you browse through the zip file entries.

answered Feb 08 '14 at 02:12

XiaoChuan Yu

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Just fyi, if you want to do this Java at some point, there are existing zip utility API in the standard library. – XiaoChuan Yu Feb 08 '14 at 02:14
Is there anyone with experience using candidate libraries who would like to chime in? I see zziplib as another possible choice. – Michael Labbé Feb 08 '14 at 02:14
This question may be helpful. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3883564/android-how-to-make-native-zip-application – XiaoChuan Yu Feb 08 '14 at 02:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

For the first part of your question, the path to the .apk on the device, refer to this question (it's on StackOverflow, so I won't bother recopying it).

For the second part your question, unzipping an .apk file on the device, download the source for Terminal IDE (Terminal IDE also works on non-rooted devices). Download its source from the download tab, not the browse source tab (which for some reason doesn't work right now).

It's a huge project mostly in Java (it's not exactly the language you're looking for), but it's well organized and remarkably readable.

How do I list the contents of an Android APK file programmatically?

2 Answers2