Merge #475 by oliviernotteghem: Fix non-deterministic properties.jar causing (remote) cache misses fo…

…r Robolectric tests

Robolectric tests in android_local_test rules produce a properties.jar archive containing test_config.properties. This jar is an input to the TestRunner action, so its SHA-256 hash is part of the remote cache key.

On CI, TestRunner consistently missed the remote cache even when nothing had changed.

In rules/android_local_test/impl.bzl, the _zip_file helper stages the file before zipping:

```
  cp $base/{f} {dir_name}
  zip -jt -X -q $base/{out_zip} {dir_name}/$(basename {f})
```

Because cp is used without -p, it resets the file's mtime to the current time. The zip tool embeds this timestamp into the archive. Note that zip -X does not reset mtime (which is the problem here).

As a result, two CI agents produce properties.jar files with identical content but different timestamps → different SHA-256 → cache miss.

Use `cp -p` to preserve the original mtime of file, which is deterministic (because file is created by starlark ctx.actions.expand_template method)

This makes the zip output deterministic across agents and stabilizes the TestRunner cache key.
Closes #475

COPYBARA_INTEGRATE_REVIEW=https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_android/pull/475 from oliviernotteghem:local_test_remote_caching d56c66f79500f1f4b511523d9377a3896b787aed
PiperOrigin-RevId: 896047270
Change-Id: I1ddf72b43c364d783a1dad1b761577036ea0bff8
1 file changed
tree: 23ed9ecc1560a1b36d04936b0af12ec906d5e5d8
  1. .bazelci/
  2. .bcr/
  3. .github/
  4. android/
  5. bzlmod_extensions/
  6. contrib/
  7. examples/
  8. kokoro/
  9. mobile_install/
  10. providers/
  11. py_support/
  12. rules/
  13. src/
  14. stardoc/
  15. test/
  16. third_party/
  17. toolchains/
  18. tools/
  19. .bazelignore
  20. .bazelrc
  21. .bazelversion
  22. .gitignore
  23. android_sdk_supplemental_repository.bzl
  24. AUTHORS
  25. BUILD
  26. CONTRIBUTING.md
  27. CONTRIBUTORS
  28. defs.bzl
  29. defs_dev.bzl
  30. go.mod
  31. go.sum
  32. groups
  33. LICENSE
  34. MODULE.bazel
  35. prereqs.bzl
  36. project.config
  37. README.md
  38. ROADMAP.md
  39. robolectric-bazel.patch
  40. rules_android_maven_install.json
  41. WORKSPACE
  42. WORKSPACE.bzlmod
README.md

Android support in Bazel

Disclaimer

NOTE: This branch is a development preview of the Starlark implementation of Android rules for Bazel. This code is incomplete and may not function as-is.

A recent version of Bazel (7.4+, 8.0+, HEAD, Bazel 9 pre-release) is required.

This ruleset depends on Protobuf, which has a minimum C++ language level of 17 (as of Protobuf v30, ~2025 Q3). Depending on your system‘s compiler version, you may have to set -std=c++17 in your C++ toolchain arguments. This repository’s .bazelrc file provides a minimal set of Bazel configuration flags to build an Android app.

Overview

This repository contains the Starlark implementation of Android rules in Bazel.

The rules are being incrementally converted from their native implementations in the Bazel source tree.

Stardoc for the Android rules can be found at https://bazelbuild.github.io/rules_android.

Getting Started

To use the Starlark Bazel Android rules, add the following to your WORKSPACE file:

load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
http_archive(
    name = "rules_android",
    sha256 = "fe3d8c4955857b44019d83d05a0b15c2a0330a6a0aab990575bb397e9570ff1b",
    strip_prefix = "rules_android-0.6.0-alpha1",
    url = "https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_android/releases/download/v0.6.0-alpha1/rules_android-v0.6.0-alpha1.tar.gz",
)

# Android rules dependencies
load("@rules_android//:prereqs.bzl", "rules_android_prereqs")
rules_android_prereqs()

##### rules_java setup for rules_android #####
load("@rules_java//java:rules_java_deps.bzl", "rules_java_dependencies")
rules_java_dependencies()
# note that the following line is what is minimally required from protobuf for the java rules
# consider using the protobuf_deps() public API from @com_google_protobuf//:protobuf_deps.bzl
load("@com_google_protobuf//bazel/private:proto_bazel_features.bzl", "proto_bazel_features")  # buildifier: disable=bzl-visibility
proto_bazel_features(name = "proto_bazel_features")
# register toolchains
load("@rules_java//java:repositories.bzl", "rules_java_toolchains")
rules_java_toolchains()

##### rules_jvm_external setup for rules_android #####
load("@rules_jvm_external//:repositories.bzl", "rules_jvm_external_deps")
rules_jvm_external_deps()
load("@rules_jvm_external//:setup.bzl", "rules_jvm_external_setup")
rules_jvm_external_setup()

##### rules_android setup #####
load("@rules_android//:defs.bzl", "rules_android_workspace")
rules_android_workspace()

# Android SDK setup
load("@rules_android//rules:rules.bzl", "android_sdk_repository")
android_sdk_repository(
    name = "androidsdk",
)

register_toolchains(
    "@rules_android//toolchains/android:android_default_toolchain",
    "@rules_android//toolchains/android_sdk:android_sdk_tools",
)

Or, if you want to use bzlmod, add the following to your MODULE.bazel file:

MODULE.bazel:

bazel_dep(name = "rules_java", version = "7.11.1")
bazel_dep(name = "bazel_skylib", version = "1.3.0")

bazel_dep(name = "rules_android", version = "0.6.5")

remote_android_extensions = use_extension(
    "@rules_android//bzlmod_extensions:android_extensions.bzl",
    "remote_android_tools_extensions")
use_repo(remote_android_extensions, "android_tools")

android_sdk_repository_extension = use_extension("@rules_android//rules/android_sdk_repository:rule.bzl", "android_sdk_repository_extension")
use_repo(android_sdk_repository_extension, "androidsdk")

register_toolchains("@androidsdk//:sdk-toolchain", "@androidsdk//:all")

Then, in your BUILD files, import and use the rules:

load("@rules_android//rules:rules.bzl", "android_binary", "android_library")
android_binary(
    ...
)

android_library(
   ...
)