Bug 41066: Compress the APKs more

Merge Info

Related Issues

• tor-browser#
• mullvad-browser#xxxxx
• #41066 (closed)

Backporting

Timeline

• Immediate: patchset needed as soon as possible
• Next Minor Stable Release: patchset that needs to be verified in nightly before backport
• Eventually: patchset that needs to be verified in alpha before backport
• No Backport (preferred): patchset for the next major stable

(Optional) Justification

• Emergency security update: patchset fixes CVEs, 0-days, etc
• Censorship event: patchset enables censorship circumvention
• Critical bug-fix: patchset fixes a bug in core-functionality
• Consistency: patchset which would make development easier if it were in both the alpha and release branches; developer tools, build system changes, etc
• Sponsor required: patchset required for sponsor
• Other: unblock the release

Issue Tracking

• Link resolved issues with appropriate Release Prep issue for changelog generation

Review

Request Reviewer

• Request review from an applications developer depending on modified system:
  • NOTE: if the MR modifies multiple areas, please /cc all the relevant reviewers (since gitlab only allows 1 reviewer)
  • accessibility : henry
  • android : clairehurst, dan
  • build system : boklm
  • extensions : ma1
  • firefox internals (XUL/JS/XPCOM) : ma1
  • fonts : pierov
  • frontend (implementation) : henry
  • frontend (review) : donuts, richard
  • localization : henry, pierov
  • macos : clairehurst, dan
  • nightly builds : boklm
  • rebases/release-prep : boklm, dan, ma1, pierov, richard
  • security : ma1
  • signing : boklm, richard
  • updater : pierov
  • misc/other : pierov, richard

Change Description

We need to shave a few MBs from our x86 APK, so I tried to re-compress it with 7-zip.

The p7zip package included in bullseye gave me a few problems (but maybe I was using a wrong command line, after all?).

There's also a 7zip package. It seems p7zip changes were taken upstream, and in Trixie p7zip has recently become a transitional package.

Sadly, bullseye doesn't include a 7zip package. It does in backports, but I don't think we can use them, except for manually downloading the file and installing it as a prestep?

So, I moved the browser container to bookworm already, since apksigner works also on Java 17.

How Tested

Built with

rbm/rbm build browser --target torbrowser-android-x86 --target release

and:

1. noticed we have a reduced size: 115011751 -> 110845359
2. checked we're reproducible (I tested on my machine and in tb-build-02, but I used the same firefox-android artifact to avoid having to build everything - but I'll take for granted the contents were already reproducible)