I'm facing the following problem at the moment:
I have developed app 'A' which uses permissions 1, 2, 3 and uses an 3rd party library 'B' as a dependency (added using maven & gradle).
Library 'B' uses the permissions 4 and 5. Now when building the app, the manifest merger adds the permissions 4 and 5 to app 'A'.
How can I prevent this and only have the permissions 1, 2 and 3 in the final manifest?
My first guess would be using one of the manifest merger markers as seen here: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide/manifest-merger#TOC-Markers
You need to use Selector
Each tools:node or tools:attr declaration can be augmented by a
tools:selector attribute which is contextual information on whether or
not the merging strategy should be applied to the current lower
priority XML description. For instance, this is useful when removing a
permission only if coming for one particular library as opposed to any
library:
<permission
android:name="permissionOne"
tools:node="remove"
tools:selector="com.example.lib1">
It would be next according your initial requirements
<!--suppress AndroidDomInspection -->
<uses-permission
tools:node="removeAll"/>
but keep in mind that all other <uses-permissions/>
will be removed.
As you know all libraries have a manifest file and will merge together.
you can remove a permission that is in one of your libraries by this:
tools:node="remove"
for an example removing location permission:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" tools:node="remove" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" tools:node="remove" />