Aapt unknown command '--output-text-symbols'

Question

I've just upgraded my Android environment to:

macOS 10.13.5
Andorid Studio 3.1.4
gradle 4.6
gradle plugin 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.4'
Android SDK 28
Build tool 28.0.2

However, when I was going to build my project it always fails at the task processXXXDebugResources with such error:

AAPT err(Facade for 111853366) : No Delegate set : lost message:error: unknown command '--output-text-symbols'.
AAPT err(Facade for 111853366) : No Delegate set : lost message:Error
Failed to execute aapt

I have no idea where does the --output-text-symbols come from. It looks like the --output-text-symbols was a parameter for the program aapt but the latest gradle plugin uses another new aapt2.

The android.enableAapt2=false could make this issue disappear but a warning tells this option will be deprecated.

The option 'android.enableAapt2' is deprecated and should not be used anymore.
Use 'android.enableAapt2=true' to remove this warning.
It will be removed at the end of 2018..

--output-text-symbols Generates a text file containing the resource symbols of the R class in the specified folder. — Dr4ke the b4dass, Sep 04 '18 at 07:57
@InsaneCat I checked this option but as I mentioned it will be deprecated so I'm looking for a proper way. — jayatubi, Sep 04 '18 at 14:33

jayatubi · Answer 1 · 2018-09-04T14:34:40.527

I found a solution.

In my build.gradle there was an aaptOptions with a zero length string parameter:

aaptOptions {
    noCompress ""  // <- zero length string
}

It used to work on the 2.x gradle plugin, but failed on the latest 3.x version. It looks like the new plugin provided incorrect arguments for aapt command.

My suspicion:

In the old version the arguments might be:

aapt -0 '' --output-text-symbols
        ^
this is the zero-length string from aaptOptions in bulid.gradle

But in the latest version this becomes to:

aapt -0 --output-text-symbols
        ^
something is missing

And then I tried to use a one char length space string:

aaptOptions {
    noCompress " "  // <- one char length space string
}

I guess the arguments now become to:

aapt -0 ' ' --output-text-symbols
         ^
  the space comes back

Then it fix the problem for me.

You are exactly right, we've encountered this before and the support for this is added in 3.2 canaries. Good job figuring this out by yourself! — Izabela Orlowska, Sep 04 '18 at 14:41

Aapt unknown command '--output-text-symbols'

1 Answers1