Script that will use the provided Android App Bundle (.aab) and change its version code and version name to the provided values, avoiding re-building the whole .aab. This enables us to re-submit a previously submited aab to the play store, doing a rollback to the given version.

rollback_aab.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script that will use the provided Android App Bundle (.aab) and change its version code and version name to the provided values, avoiding re-building the whole .aab.
# Run this script with: sh rollback.sh your_project.aab android_signing_key.key key_alias key_pwd version_code version_name
# 
# Necessary setup:
# 
# jarsigner - This binary should exist in the path
#
# Configuration.proto and Resources.proto can be found in aapt2's github
#  https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_base/tree/master/tools/aapt2/Configuration.proto
#  https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_base/tree/master/tools/aapt2/Resources.proto
# 
# PROTO_BIN - The location of the protoc - Google's protobuf compiler
#  Swap <proto_bin_folder> for your setup's protoc folder
# 
# ZIP_ALIGN - The location of Android's zipalign tool found on:
#  <Android_sdk_path>/build-tools/<build_version>/zipalign
#
# BUNDLE_TOOL - The location of Google's oficial bundletool. This dependency is just to generate the relevant .apk to verify that everything worked properly.
#               Download from:
#  https://github.com/google/bundletool/releases
# 
if [ $# -ne 6 ] ; then
    echo "Not enough parameters supplied"
fi

# Begin - Setup necessary
PROTO_BIN=<proto_bin_folder>
ZIP_ALIGN=<Android_sdk_path>/build-tools/<build_version>/zipalign
BUNDLE_TOOL=bundletool-all-0.8.0.jar
# End - Setup

# Inputs
ORIGINAL_AAB=$1
ANDROID_SIGNING_KEY=$2
KEY_ALIAS=$3
SIGN_KEY_PWD=$4
VERSION_CODE=$5
VERSION_NAME=$6

SOURCE_FOLDER="${ORIGINAL_AAB%.*}"
DEST_FOLDER=`basename $ORIGINAL_AAB .aab`
OUT_FILE=$DEST_FOLDER.aab
TEMP_FILE=temp_$OUT_FILE

echo "Unpacking AAB - $ORIGINAL_AAB"
unzip $ORIGINAL_AAB -d $DEST_FOLDER

echo "Decoding AndroidManifest.xml"
$PROTO_BIN --decode=aapt.pb.XmlNode --proto_path=tools Configuration.proto Resources.proto < $DEST_FOLDER/base/manifest/AndroidManifest.xml > AndroidManifest_temp.xml

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "Decoding AndroidManifest.xml failed."
fi

echo "Change Version Code"
REGEX=`echo 's/(.*[vV]ersionCode"\\n.*")[0-9]+("\\n)((?:.*\\n)*?)(.*int_decimal_value: )[0-9]+/$1 . '$VERSION_CODE' . $2 . $3 . $4 . '$VERSION_CODE'/eg'`
perl -0777 -i.backup -pe "$REGEX" AndroidManifest_temp.xml

echo "Change Version Name"
REGEX=`echo 's/(.*[vV]+ersionName"\\n.*value: )"[0-9\.]+"/\1"'$VERSION_NAME'"/g'`
perl -0777 -i.backup -pe "$REGEX" AndroidManifest_temp.xml

echo "Encoding edited AndroidManifest.xml"
rm -rf $DEST_FOLDER/base/manifest/AndroidManifest.xml
$PROTO_BIN --encode=aapt.pb.XmlNode --proto_path=tools Configuration.proto Resources.proto < AndroidManifest_temp.xml > $DEST_FOLDER/base/manifest/AndroidManifest.xml
rm -rf AndroidManifest_temp.xml
rm -rf AndroidManifest_temp.xml.backup

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "Encoding edited AndroidManifest.xml failed."
fi

echo "Generating"
pushd $DEST_FOLDER
rm -rf ./base/root/META-INF
rm -rf ./META-INF
zip -r -D ../$TEMP_FILE *
popd

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "zipping failed"
fi

echo "Processing"
jarsigner -verbose -keystore $ANDROID_SIGNING_KEY -storepass $SIGN_KEY_PWD $TEMP_FILE $KEY_ALIAS

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "jarsigner failed"
fi

$ZIP_ALIGN -f -v -p 4 $TEMP_FILE $OUT_FILE

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "zipalign failed"
fi

echo "Validation"
java -Djava.io.tmpdir=$PWD -jar $BUNDLE_TOOL build-apks --bundle $OUT_FILE --mode universal --output rollback.apks --ks $ANDROID_SIGNING_KEY --ks-pass "pass:$SIGN_KEY_PWD" --ks-key-alias "$KEY_ALIAS" --key-pass "pass:$SIGN_KEY_PWD"

if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
    echo "bundletool failed to generate apk"
fi

rm -rf $TEMP_FILE $DEST_FOLDER

How to use this script ?

First of all, thanks to Farious for this script. This is my setup running this script on Ubuntu 22.04 installed in Hyper-V:

• I fixed this script partially:
  • Changed #!/bin/sh to #!/bin/bash (I think it's not necessary, but I just wanted to ensure. Just run this script with bash because sh won't recognize pushd and popd)
  • Changed \1 to $1 at line 62 (I think it's just a typo)
• Install dependencies: JDK, Protobuf compiler, Android SDK (via Android Studio), bundletool, Configuration.proto and Resources.proto
  • sudo apt install default-jdk protobuf-compiler
  • Configuration.proto and Resources.proto should be in tools directory which should be at the same level as this script (see line 51 and 67)
  • Change import at line 19 of Resources.proto to import "Configuration.proto";
• Fill in your dependencies at the first part of this script
• Now run this script as bash rollback.sh your_project.aab android_signing_key.key key_alias key_pwd version_code version_name

just to clarify

<proto_bin_folder> can be replaced with protoc

<Android_sdk_path> usually can be replaced with /home/your_username/Android/Sdk (change your_username)

Configuration.proto and Resources.proto should be in tools directory which should be at the same level as this script (see line 51 and 67)

means - create folder tools and put Configuration.proto and Resources.proto in this folder

Change import at line 19 of Resources.proto to import "Configuration.proto";

means - open Resources.proto and change code on line 19 with import "Configuration.proto";

Change import at line 19 of Resources.proto to import "Configuration.proto";

Can be done like this:

sed -i -r "s#(import[[:space:]]+\")[^\"]+/(Configuration\.proto\")#\\1\\2#" Resources.proto

Configuration.proto and Resources.proto can be retrieved programatically like this:

wget -O Configuration.proto.b64 "https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/heads/main/tools/aapt2/Configuration.proto?format=TEXT" && base64 -d Configuration.proto.b64 > Configuration.proto && rm Configuration.proto.b64

wget -O Resources.proto.b64 "https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/heads/main/tools/aapt2/Resources.proto?format=TEXT" && base64 -d Resources.proto.b64 > Resources.proto && rm Resources.proto.b64