Error Generating Signed APK

Question

I've got a React-Native Android app I'm trying to bundle. I've copied the main app to a 'test' folder to do this and I'm following the instructions here:

Guide to Generate Signed APK

I'm at the point where I run:

$ cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease

All seems to go well until I get an error. Running with stacktrace gives me:

org.gradle.api.GradleException: Could not list contents of '/Users/me/React/myapp/node_modules/.bin/defs'.
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.walkDir(DirectoryFileTree.java:147)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.walkDir(DirectoryFileTree.java:172)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.walkDir(DirectoryFileTree.java:172)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.walkDir(DirectoryFileTree.java:172)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.visitFrom(DirectoryFileTree.java:125)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTree.visit(DirectoryFileTree.java:115)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.FileTreeAdapter.visit(FileTreeAdapter.java:96)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileTree.getFiles(AbstractFileTree.java:37)
at org.gradle.api.internal.file.CompositeFileCollection.getFiles(CompositeFileCollection.java:39)
at org.gradle.api.internal.changedetection.state.DefaultFileCollectionSnapshotter.snapshot(DefaultFileCollectionSnapshotter.java:47)
at org.gradle.api.internal.changedetection.rules.TaskUpToDateState.<init>(TaskUpToDateState.java:55)
at org.gradle.api.internal.changedetection.changes.DefaultTaskArtifactStateRepository$TaskArtifactStateImpl.getStates(DefaultTaskArtifactStateRepository.java:126)
at org.gradle.api.internal.changedetection.changes.DefaultTaskArtifactStateRepository$TaskArtifactStateImpl.isUpToDate(DefaultTaskArtifactStateRepository.java:69)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:52)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:58)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:42)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:52)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:53)
at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
at org.gradle.api.internal.AbstractTask.executeWithoutThrowingTaskFailure(AbstractTask.java:310)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.executeTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:79)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.processTask(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:63)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.AbstractTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.run(AbstractTaskPlanExecutor.java:51)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.process(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:88)
at org.gradle.execution.SelectedTaskExecutionAction.execute(SelectedTaskExecutionAction.java:37)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:62)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.access$200(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:23)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter$2.proceed(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:68)
at org.gradle.execution.DryRunBuildExecutionAction.execute(DryRunBuildExecutionAction.java:32)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:62)
at org.gradle.execution.DefaultBuildExecuter.execute(DefaultBuildExecuter.java:55)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:149)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:106)
at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:86)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:90)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ExecuteBuildActionRunner.run(ExecuteBuildActionRunner.java:28)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ChainingBuildActionRunner.run(ChainingBuildActionRunner.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:41)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:28)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.DaemonUsageSuggestingBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonUsageSuggestingBuildActionExecuter.java:50)
at org.gradle.launcher.exec.DaemonUsageSuggestingBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonUsageSuggestingBuildActionExecuter.java:27)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.RunBuildAction.run(RunBuildAction.java:40)
at org.gradle.internal.Actions$RunnableActionAdapter.execute(Actions.java:169)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:237)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$ParseAndBuildAction.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:210)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.JavaRuntimeValidationAction.execute(JavaRuntimeValidationAction.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.JavaRuntimeValidationAction.execute(JavaRuntimeValidationAction.java:24)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:206)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.CommandLineActionFactory$WithLogging.execute(CommandLineActionFactory.java:169)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.cli.ExceptionReportingAction.execute(ExceptionReportingAction.java:22)
at org.gradle.launcher.Main.doAction(Main.java:33)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.EntryPoint.run(EntryPoint.java:45)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.runNoExit(ProcessBootstrap.java:54)
at org.gradle.launcher.bootstrap.ProcessBootstrap.run(ProcessBootstrap.java:35)
at org.gradle.launcher.GradleMain.main(GradleMain.java:23)
at org.gradle.wrapper.BootstrapMainStarter.start(BootstrapMainStarter.java:30)
at org.gradle.wrapper.WrapperExecutor.execute(WrapperExecutor.java:127)
at org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain.main(GradleWrapperMain.java:61)

BUILD FAILED

Has anyone seen this before? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

What worked for me was, I deleted my node_modules folder and did

npm install

cd android

./gradlew assembleRelease

Answer 2

I have not run into this issue, but if the curl request succeeds it sounds like your build.gradle is somehow misconfigured. I use the react.gradle file available with the "default" react native project. My build.gradle configuration looks as pasted below (note: it uses a lot of the defaults, but I like to be explicit about the options). The resulting packager command looks as follows:

    react-native bundle --platform android --dev true --entry-file react/index.android.js --bundle-output mobile/android/app/build/intermediates/assets/debug/index.android.bundle --assets dest mobile/android/app/build/intermediates/res/merged/debug

If your build step gets to this stage and craps out, the remaining possibility is that your node environment is somehow misconfigured.

    // React Native build configuration
    project.ext.react = [
            // the name of the generated asset file containing your JS bundle
            bundleAssetName    : "index.android.bundle",
            // the entry file for bundle generation
            entryFile          : "react/index.android.js",
            // whether to bundle JS and assets in debug mode

            // When building from Android Studio bundleInDebug evalutes to false while using gradlew
            // it overrides to true as it should. I don't 100% understand why that is, but luckily this
            // is the behavior I want to have.
            bundleInDebug      : true,
            // whether to bundle JS and assets in release mode
            bundleInRelease    : true,
            // the root of your project, i.e. where "package.json" lives
            root               : "../../",

            // were to put the JS bundle asset in debug mode
            jsBundleDirDebug   : "$buildDir/intermediates/assets/debug",
            // where to put the JS bundle asset in release mode
            jsBundleDirRelease : "$buildDir/intermediates/assets/release",

            // where to put drawable resources / React Native assets, e.g. the ones you use via
            // require('./image.png')), in debug mode
            resourcesDirDebug  : "$buildDir/intermediates/res/merged/debug",

            // were to put drawable resources / React Native assets, e.g. the ones you use via
            // require('./image.png')), in release mode
            resourcesDirRelease: "$buildDir/intermediates/res/merged/release",

            // b default the gradle tasks are skipped if none of the JS files or assets change; this means
            // that we don't look at files in android/ or ios/ to determine whether the tasks are up to
            // date; if you have any other folders that you want to ignore for performance reasons (gradle
            // indexes the entire tree), add them here. Alternatively, if you have JS files in android/
            // for example, you might want to remove it from here.
            inputExcludes      : []
    ]
    apply from: 'react.gradle'