Dex Translator

A translation library and command-line-interface tool for converting between JVM and Dalvik bytecode.

Command line tool usage

Top level:

Usage: dex-translator [-hV] [COMMAND]
See the sub-commands for available operations
  -h, --help      Show this help message and exit.
  -V, --version   Print version information and exit.
Commands:
  d2j  Convert one or more DEX files to a JAR file
  j2d  Convert one or more JAR files to an DEX file

d2j:
  Usage: d2j [-fl] [-o=<outputFile>] <inputFiles>...
  Convert one or more DEX files to a JAR file
        <inputFiles>...      Path to one or more DEX files.
    -f, --force              Flag to enable force emitting output, even if some
                               method bodies are invalid. Invalid methods will be
                               replaced with no-op behavior.
    -l, --lenient            Flag to enable options that allow more leniency in
                               the conversion process. Some input validation will
                               be skipped.
    -o, --out=<outputFile>   Path to JAR file to write to.

jd2:
  Usage: j2d [-fl] [-o=<outputFile>] <inputFiles>...
  Convert one or more JAR files to an DEX file
        <inputFiles>...      Path to one or more JAR files.
    -f, --force              Flag to enable force emitting output, even if some
                               method bodies are invalid. Invalid methods will be
                               replaced with no-op behavior.
    -l, --lenient            Flag to enable options that allow more leniency in
                               the conversion process. Some input validation will
                               be skipped.
    -o, --out=<outputFile>   Path to DEX file to write to.

Library usage

Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>software.coley</groupId>
    <artifactId>dex-translator</artifactId>
    <version>${dexVersion}</version> <!-- See release page for latest version -->
</dependency>

Gradle dependency:

implementation group: 'software.coley', name: 'dex-translator', version: dexVersion
implementation "software.coley:dex-translator:${dexVersion}"

For most basic usage you can use the Converter and Loader types in types package. Using these looks like this:

Inputs inputs = new Inputs();
for (File inputFile : inputFiles)
	inputs.addJarArchive(inputFile.toPath());
Options options = new Options()
		.setReplaceInvalidMethodBodies(replaceInvalid)
		.setLenient(lenient)
		.setDexFileOutput(outputFile.toPath());
new Converter()
		.setInputs(inputs)
		.setOptions(options)
		.run()

For more in-depth usage you will likely want to work directly with the ApplicationData class. You can find example usage of it among the test classes.

Building

Currently, Dex Translator assumes the R8 artifact is available in the local Maven repository. In order to satisfy this assumption please clone our R8 fork and run gradlew publishToMavenLocal.