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4 Simple Binary Repository

If you want to maintain a simple repository hosting only binary APKs obtained and compiled elsewhere, the process is quite simple:

  1. Set up the server tools, as described in Setup.
  2. Make a directory for your repository. This is the directory from which you will do all the work with your repository. Create a config file there, called config.py, by copying ./examples/config.py from the server project and editing it.
  3. Within that, make a directory called repo and put APK files in it.
  4. Run fdroid update.
  5. If it reports that any metadata files are missing, you can create them in the metadata directory and run it again.
  6. To ease creation of metadata files, run fdroid update with the -c option. It will create ’skeleton’ metadata files that are missing, and you can then just edit them and fill in the details.
  7. Then, if you’ve changed things, run fdroid update again.
  8. Running fdroid update adds an Icons directory into the repo directory, and also creates the repository index (index.xml, and also index.jar if you’ve configured the system to use a signed index).
  9. Publish the resulting contents of the repo directory to your web server.

Following the above process will result in a repo directory, which you simply need to push to any HTTP (or preferably HTTPS) server to make it accessible.

While some information about the applications (and versions thereof) is retrieved directly from the APK files, most comes from the corresponding file in the metadata directory. The metadata file covering ALL versions of a particular application is named package.id.txt where package.id is the unique identifier for that package.

See the Metadata chapter for details of what goes in the metadata file. All fields are relevant for binary APKs, EXCEPT for Build: entries, which should be omitted.


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