# Signing the Android build Every build produces an APK. Which key signs it depends entirely on whether four secrets are present: | secret | what it is | |---|---| | `ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64` | the keystore file, base64-encoded | | `ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD` | the store password | | `ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS` | the alias of the key inside the store | | `ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD` | the key password | With none of them set, `docker/android/assemble-apk.sh` generates a throwaway debug key and signs with that. That is the right answer for a branch build or a fork: the APK installs on a test device and nothing pretends it is a release. With all of them set, the same script signs with the real key. The names match JellyTau's deliberately. One convention across both Android projects is one thing to remember instead of two. ## Making the key Once, and then never again — keep it forever. Android identifies an app by its signature, so an app signed with a new key is a *different* app to every device that has the old one installed. There is no recovery from losing it beyond telling everybody to uninstall and reinstall. keytool -genkeypair -v \ -keystore darkroom-release.jks \ -alias darkroom \ -keyalg RSA -keysize 4096 -validity 10000 \ -dname "CN=Duncan Tourolle, O=tourolle.paris, C=FR" `keytool` prompts for the passwords rather than taking them on the command line, which keeps them out of shell history. Back the `.jks` up somewhere that is not this repository and not the machine that builds it. ## Loading the secrets base64 -w0 darkroom-release.jks > /tmp/ks.b64 tea api --method PUT /repos/dtourolle/DarkRoom/actions/secrets/ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64 \ -f data=@/tmp/ks.b64 shred -u /tmp/ks.b64 # and the three strings, read rather than typed so they miss the history read -rs PW && tea api --method PUT \ /repos/dtourolle/DarkRoom/actions/secrets/ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD -f data="$PW" ...and the same for `ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD` and `ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS`. Or paste them into Settings → Actions → Secrets in the web UI, which is less fiddly and just as good. ## Checking which key signed a build The packaging step prints it, and the APK carries it: apksigner verify --print-certs darkroom.apk A debug build says `CN=Android Debug`. Anything else is the real key. ## Signing locally `docker/android/package.sh` takes the same environment variables, so a local release-signed build is: KEYSTORE=$PWD/darkroom-release.jks KEY_ALIAS=darkroom \ KEYSTORE_PASS=... KEY_PASS=... ./docker/android/package.sh Without them it debug-signs, and keeps one debug keystore in the build cache so repeat installs to a device do not need an uninstall first.