Disclaimer

This is just a collection of tools i use personally. I hereby declare that the tools available in this repo are not developed by me. The original author of these tools have the complete rights.

apktool | signapk

Steps To Build MOD App

SL No.	Steps	Tools
1	Decompile	apktool
2	Edit	any text editor
3	Recompile	apktool
4	Sign	signapk

Installation

1. Download zip from releases and extract to where you want to save (i.e $HOME).

2. Add your extracted directory to PATH & reload ~/.bashrc:

   echo 'export PATH="<your_extracted_directory_path>:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

   example:

   $ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/apkmodtools:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   $ source ~/.bashrc
   

3. check installation:

   which apktool
   which signapk
   

   example:

   $ which signapk
   /home/chankruze/apkmodtools/signapk
   $ which apktool 
   /home/chankruze/apkmodtools/apktool
   

4. create apktool/framework folder to supress couldn't write to warning by apktool:

   (WARNING: Could not write to (/home/chankruze/.local/share/apktool/framework), using /tmp instead...)

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/apktool/framework
   

Usage

1. Apktool usage: https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/documentation/

2. Signing Apk: I have created a wrapper script to ease the process. By default the wrapper script usage certificate (certificate.pem) & key (key.pk8) found in this zip. If you wan to use your own, then replace these 2 files (name should be same as the existing) in your installation directory.

   Note:

   • certificate.pem is in format publickey.x509[.pem]
   • key.pk8 is in format privatekey.pk8

   To sign newly compiled apk execute below command:

   signapk <compiled_apk.apk> <name_to_save.apk>
   

Complete Example:

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ ls
YTMusic.apk

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ apktool d YTMusic.apk 
I: Using Apktool 2.4.0 on YTMusic.apk
I: Loading resource table...
I: Decoding AndroidManifest.xml with resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: /home/chankruze/.local/share/apktool/framework/1.apk
I: Regular manifest package...
I: Decoding file-resources...
I: Decoding values */* XMLs...
I: Baksmaling classes.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes2.dex...
I: Copying assets and libs...
I: Copying unknown files...
I: Copying original files...

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ apktool b -o YT-New.apk YTMusic
I: Using Apktool 2.4.0
I: Checking whether sources has changed...
I: Smaling smali folder into classes.dex...
I: Checking whether sources has changed...
I: Smaling smali_classes2 folder into classes2.dex...
I: Checking whether resources has changed...
I: Building resources...
I: Copying libs... (/lib)
I: Building apk file...
I: Copying unknown files/dir...
I: Built apk...

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ ls
YTMusic  YTMusic.apk  YT-New.apk

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ signapk YT-New.apk YT-New-signed.apk 

chankruze@geekofia:~/Lab$ ls
YTMusic  YTMusic.apk  YT-New.apk  YT-New-signed.apk