dex — Dalvik Executable Format

Copyright © 2007 The Android Open Source Project

This document describes the layout and contents of .dex files, which are used to hold a set of class definitions and their associated adjunct data.

Guide To Types

Name

Description

byte

8-bit signed int

ubyte

8-bit unsigned int

short

16-bit signed int, little-endian

ushort

16-bit unsigned int, little-endian

int

32-bit signed int, little-endian

uint

32-bit unsigned int, little-endian

long

64-bit signed int, little-endian

ulong

64-bit unsigned int, little-endian

sleb128

signed LEB128, variable-length (see below)

uleb128

unsigned LEB128, variable-length (see below)

uleb128p1

unsigned LEB128 plus 1, variable-length (see below)

LEB128

LEB128 ("Little-Endian Base 128") is a variable-length encoding for arbitrary signed or unsigned integer quantities. The format was borrowed from the DWARF3 specification. In a .dex file, LEB128 is only ever used to encode 32-bit quantities.

Each LEB128 encoded value consists of one to five bytes, which together represent a single 32-bit value. Each byte has its most significant bit set except for the final byte in the sequence, which has its most significant bit clear. The remaining seven bits of each byte are payload, with the least significant seven bits of the quantity in the first byte, the next seven in the second byte and so on. In the case of a signed LEB128 (sleb128), the most significant payload bit of the final byte in the sequence is sign-extended to produce the final value. In the unsigned case (uleb128), any bits not explicitly represented are interpreted as 0.

Bitwise diagram of a two-byte LEB128 value

First byte

Second byte

1

bit6

bit5

bit4

bit3

bit2

bit1

bit0

0

bit13

bit12

bit11

bit10

bit9

bit8

bit7

                               

The variant uleb128p1 is used to represent a signed value, where the representation is of the valueplus one encoded as a uleb128. This makes the encoding of -1 (alternatively thought of as the unsigned value 0xffffffff) — but no other negative number — a single byte, and is useful in exactly those cases where the represented number must either be non-negative or -1 (or 0xffffffff), and where no other negative values are allowed (or where large unsigned values are unlikely to be needed).

Here are some examples of the formats:

Encoded Sequence

As sleb128

As uleb128

As uleb128p1

00

0

0

-1

01

1

1

0

7f

-1

127

126

80 7f

-128

16256

16255

Overall File Layout

Name

Format

Description

header

header_item

the header

string_ids

string_id_item[]

string identifiers list. These are identifiers for all the strings used by this file, either for internal naming (e.g., type descriptors) or as constant objects referred to by code. This list must be sorted by string contents, using UTF-16 code point values (not in a locale-sensitive manner).

type_ids

type_id_item[]

type identifiers list. These are identifiers for all types (classes, arrays, or primitive types) referred to by this file, whether defined in the file or not. This list must be sorted by string_id index.

proto_ids

proto_id_item[]

method prototype identifiers list. These are identifiers for all prototypes referred to by this file. This list must be sorted in return-type (by type_id index) major order, and then by arguments (also bytype_id index).

field_ids

field_id_item[]

field identifiers list. These are identifiers for all fields referred to by this file, whether defined in the file or not. This list must be sorted, where the defining type (by type_id index) is the major order, field name (bystring_id index) is the intermediate order, and type (by type_id index) is the minor order.

method_ids

method_id_item[]

method identifiers list. These are identifiers for all methods referred to by this file, whether defined in the file or not. This list must be sorted, where the defining type (by type_id index) is the major order, method name (by string_id index) is the intermediate order, and method prototype (by proto_id index) is the minor order.

class_defs

class_def_item[]

class definitions list. The classes must be ordered such that a given class's superclass and implemented interfaces appear in the list earlier than the referring class.

data

ubyte[]

data area, containing all the support data for the tables listed above. Different items have different alignment requirements, and padding bytes are inserted before each item if necessary to achieve proper alignment.

link_data

ubyte[]

data used in statically linked files. The format of the data in this section is left unspecified by this document; this section is empty in unlinked files, and runtime implementations may use it as they see fit.

Bitfield, String, and Constant Definitions

DEX_FILE_MAGIC

embedded in header_item

The constant array/string DEX_FILE_MAGIC is the list of bytes that must appear at the beginning of a .dexfile in order for it to be recognized as such. The value intentionally contains a newline ("/n" or 0x0a) and a null byte ("/0" or 0x00) in order to help in the detection of certain forms of corruption. The value also encodes a format version number as three decimal digits, which is expected to increase monotonically over time as the format evolves.

ubyte[8] DEX_FILE_MAGIC = { 0x64 0x65 0x78 0x0a 0x30 0x33 0x35 0x00 }

                        = "dex/n035/0"

Note: At least a couple earlier versions of the format have been used in widely-available public software releases. For example, version 009 was used for the M3 releases of the Android platform (November-December 2007), and version 013 was used for the M5 releases of the Android platform (February-March 2008). In several respects, these earlier versions of the format differ significantly from the version described in this document.

ENDIAN_CONSTANT and REVERSE_ENDIAN_CONSTANT

embedded in header_item

The constant ENDIAN_CONSTANT is used to indicate the endianness of the file in which it is found. Although the standard .dex format is little-endian, implementations may choose to perform byte-swapping. Should an implementation come across a header whose endian_tag is REVERSE_ENDIAN_CONSTANT instead ofENDIAN_CONSTANT, it would know that the file has been byte-swapped from the expected form.

uint ENDIAN_CONSTANT = 0x12345678;

uint REVERSE_ENDIAN_CONSTANT = 0x78563412;

NO_INDEX

embedded in class_def_item and debug_info_item

The constant NO_INDEX is used to indicate that an index value is absent.

Note: This value isn't defined to be 0, because that is in fact typically a valid index.

Also Note: The chosen value for NO_INDEX is representable as a single byte in the uleb128p1 encoding.

uint NO_INDEX = 0xffffffff;    // == -1 if treated as a signed int

access_flags Definitions

embedded in class_def_itemfield_itemmethod_item, and InnerClass

Bitfields of these flags are used to indicate the accessibility and overall properties of classes and class members.

Name

Value

For Classes (andInnerClassannotations)

For Fields

For Methods

ACC_PUBLIC

0x1

public: visible everywhere

public: visible everywhere

public: visible everywhere

ACC_PRIVATE

0x2

private: only visible to defining class

private: only visible to defining class

private: only visible to defining class

ACC_PROTECTED

0x4

protected: visible to package and subclasses

protected: visible to package and subclasses

protected: visible to package and subclasses

ACC_STATIC

0x8

static: is not constructed with an outerthis reference

static: global to defining class

static: does not take a this argument

ACC_FINAL

0x10

final: not subclassable

final: immutable after construction

final: not overridable

ACC_SYNCHRONIZED

0x20

 

 

synchronized: associated lock automatically acquired around call to this method. Note: This is only valid to set when ACC_NATIVE is also set.

ACC_VOLATILE

0x40

 

volatile: special access rules to help with thread safety

 

ACC_BRIDGE

0x40

 

 

bridge method, added automatically by compiler as a type-safe bridge

ACC_TRANSIENT

0x80

 

transient: not to be saved by default serialization

 

ACC_VARARGS

0x80

 

 

last argument should be treated as a "rest" argument by compiler

ACC_NATIVE

0x100

 

 

native: implemented in native code

ACC_INTERFACE

0x200

interface: multiply-implementable abstract class

 

 

ACC_ABSTRACT

0x400

abstract: not directly instantiable

 

abstract: unimplemented by this class

ACC_STRICT

0x800

 

 

strictfp: strict rules for floating-point arithmetic

ACC_SYNTHETIC

0x1000

not directly defined in source code

not directly defined in source code

not directly defined in source code

ACC_ANNOTATION

0x2000

declared as an annotation class

 

 

ACC_ENUM

0x4000

declared as an enumerated type

declared as an enumerated value

 

(unused)

0x8000

 

 

 

ACC_CONSTRUCTOR

0x10000

 

 

constructor method (class or instance initializer)

ACC_DECLARED_
SYNCHRONIZED

0x20000

 

 

declared synchronizedNote: This has no effect on execution (other than in reflection of this flag, per se).

* Only allowed on for InnerClass annotations, and must not ever be on in a class_def_item.

MUTF-8 (Modified UTF-8) Encoding

As a concession to easier legacy support, the .dex format encodes its string data in a de facto standard modified UTF-8 form, hereafter referred to as MUTF-8. This form is identical to standard UTF-8, except:

  • Only the one-, two-, and three-byte encodings are used.
  • Code points in the range U+10000 … U+10ffff are encoded as a surrogate pair, each of which is represented as a three-byte encoded value.
  • The code point U+0000 is encoded in two-byte form.
  • A plain null byte (value 0) indicates the end of a string, as is the standard C language interpretation.

The first two items above can be summarized as: MUTF-8 is an encoding format for UTF-16, instead of being a more direct encoding format for Unicode characters.

The final two items above make it simultaneously possible to include the code point U+0000 in a stringand still manipulate it as a C-style null-terminated string.

However, the special encoding of U+0000 means that, unlike normal UTF-8, the result of calling the standard C function strcmp() on a pair of MUTF-8 strings does not always indicate the properly signed result of comparison of unequal strings. When ordering (not just equality) is a concern, the most straightforward way to compare MUTF-8 strings is to decode them character by character, and compare the decoded values. (However, more clever implementations are also possible.)

Please refer to The Unicode Standard for further information about character encoding. MUTF-8 is actually closer to the (relatively less well-known) encoding CESU-8 than to UTF-8 per se.

encoded_value Encoding

embedded in annotation_element and encoded_array_item

An encoded_value is an encoded piece of (nearly) arbitrary hierarchically structured data. The encoding is meant to be both compact and straightforward to parse.

Name

Format

Description

(value_arg << 5) | value_type

ubyte

byte indicating the type of the immediately subsequent value along with an optional clarifying argument in the high-order three bits. See below for the various value definitions. In most cases, value_arg encodes the length of the immediately-subsequent value in bytes, as (size - 1), e.g., 0 means that the value requires one byte, and 7 means it requires eight bytes; however, there are exceptions as noted below.

value

ubyte[]

bytes representing the value, variable in length and interpreted differently for different value_type bytes, though always little-endian. See the various value definitions below for details.

Value Formats

Type Name

value_type

value_argFormat

value Format

Description

VALUE_BYTE

0x00

(none; must be0)

ubyte[1]

signed one-byte integer value

VALUE_SHORT

0x02

size - 1 (0…1)

ubyte[size]

signed two-byte integer value, sign-extended

VALUE_CHAR

0x03

size - 1 (0…1)

ubyte[size]

unsigned two-byte integer value, zero-extended

VALUE_INT

0x04

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

signed four-byte integer value, sign-extended

VALUE_LONG

0x06

size - 1 (0…7)

ubyte[size]

signed eight-byte integer value, sign-extended

VALUE_FLOAT

0x10

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

four-byte bit pattern, zero-extendedto the right, and interpreted as an IEEE754 32-bit floating point value

VALUE_DOUBLE

0x11

size - 1 (0…7)

ubyte[size]

eight-byte bit pattern, zero-extended to the right, and interpreted as an IEEE754 64-bit floating point value

VALUE_STRING

0x17

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

unsigned (zero-extended) four-byte integer value, interpreted as an index into the string_ids section and representing a string value

VALUE_TYPE

0x18

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

unsigned (zero-extended) four-byte integer value, interpreted as an index into the type_ids section and representing a reflective type/class value

VALUE_FIELD

0x19

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

unsigned (zero-extended) four-byte integer value, interpreted as an index into the field_ids section and representing a reflective field value

VALUE_METHOD

0x1a

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

unsigned (zero-extended) four-byte integer value, interpreted as an index into the method_ids section and representing a reflective method value

VALUE_ENUM

0x1b

size - 1 (0…3)

ubyte[size]

unsigned (zero-extended) four-byte integer value, interpreted as an index into the field_ids section and representing the value of an enumerated type constant

VALUE_ARRAY

0x1c

(none; must be0)

encoded_array

an array of values, in the format specified by "encoded_array Format" below. The size of the value is implicit in the encoding.

VALUE_ANNOTATION

0x1d

(none; must be0)

encoded_annotation

a sub-annotation, in the format specified by "encoded_annotationFormat" below. The size of the valueis implicit in the encoding.

VALUE_NULL

0x1e

(none; must be0)

(none)

null reference value

VALUE_BOOLEAN

0x1f

boolean (0…1)

(none)

one-bit value; 0 for false and 1 fortrue. The bit is represented in thevalue_arg.

encoded_array Format

Name

Format

Description

size

uleb128

number of elements in the array

values

encoded_value[size]

a series of size encoded_value byte sequences in the format specified by this section, concatenated sequentially.

encoded_annotation Format

Name

Format

Description

type_idx

uleb128

type of the annotation. This must be a class (not array or primitive) type.

size

uleb128

number of name-value mappings in this annotation

elements

annotation_element[size]

elements of the annotataion, represented directly in-line (not as offsets). Elements must be sorted in increasing order by string_idindex.

annotation_element Format

Name

Format

Description

name_idx

uleb128

element name, represented as an index into the string_ids section. The string must conform to the syntax for MemberName, defined above.

value

encoded_value

element value

String Syntax

There are several kinds of item in a .dex file which ultimately refer to a string. The following BNF-style definitions indicate the acceptable syntax for these strings.

SimpleName

SimpleName is the basis for the syntax of the names of other things. The .dex format allows a fair amount of latitude here (much more than most common source languages). In brief, a simple name may consist of any low-ASCII alphabetic character or digit, a few specific low-ASCII symbols, and most non-ASCII code points that are not control, space, or special characters. Note that surrogate code points (in the range U+d800 … U+dfff) are not considered valid name characters, per se, but Unicode supplemental characters are valid (which are represented by the final alternative of the rule forSimpleNameChar), and they should be represented in a file as pairs of surrogate code points in the MUTF-8 encoding.

SimpleName 

 

SimpleNameChar (SimpleNameChar)*

SimpleNameChar 

 

'A' … 'Z'

|

'a' … 'z'

|

'0' … '9'

|

'$'

|

'-'

|

'_'

|

U+00a1 … U+1fff

|

U+2010 … U+2027

|

U+2030 … U+d7ff

|

U+e000 … U+ffef

|

U+10000 … U+10ffff

MemberName

used by field_id_item and method_id_item

MemberName is the name of a member of a class, members being fields, methods, and inner classes.

MemberName 

 

SimpleName

|

'<' SimpleName '>'

FullClassName

FullClassName is a fully-qualified class name, including an optional package specifier followed by a required name.

FullClassName 

 

OptionalPackagePrefix SimpleName

OptionalPackagePrefix 

 

(SimpleName '/')*

TypeDescriptor

used by type_id_item

TypeDescriptor is the representation of any type, including primitives, classes, arrays, and void. See below for the meaning of the various versions.

TypeDescriptor 

 

'V'

|

FieldTypeDescriptor

FieldTypeDescriptor 

 

NonArrayFieldTypeDescriptor

|

('[' * 1…255) NonArrayFieldTypeDescriptor

NonArrayFieldTypeDescriptor

 

'Z'

|

'B'

|

'S'

|

'C'

|

'I'

|

'J'

|

'F'

|

'D'

|

'L' FullClassName ';'

ShortyDescriptor

used by proto_id_item

ShortyDescriptor is the short form representation of a method prototype, including return and parameter types, except that there is no distinction between various reference (class or array) types. Instead, all reference types are represented by a single 'L' character.

ShortyDescriptor 

 

ShortyReturnType (ShortyFieldType)*

ShortyReturnType 

 

'V'

|

ShortyFieldType

ShortyFieldType 

 

'Z'

|

'B'

|

'S'

|

'C'

|

'I'

|

'J'

|

'F'

|

'D'

|

'L'

TypeDescriptor Semantics

This is the meaning of each of the variants of TypeDescriptor.

Syntax

Meaning

V

void; only valid for return types

Z

boolean

B

byte

S

short

C

char

I

int

J

long

F

float

D

double

Lfully/qualified/Name;

the class fully.qualified.Name

[descriptor

array of descriptor, usable recursively for arrays-of-arrays, though it is invalid to have more than 255 dimensions.

Items and Related Structures

This section includes definitions for each of the top-level items that may appear in a .dex file.

header_item

appears in the header section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

magic

ubyte[8] = DEX_FILE_MAGIC

magic value. See discussion above under "DEX_FILE_MAGIC" for more details.

checksum

uint

adler32 checksum of the rest of the file (everything but magicand this field); used to detect file corruption

signature

ubyte[20]

SHA-1 signature (hash) of the rest of the file (everything butmagicchecksum, and this field); used to uniquely identify files

file_size

uint

size of the entire file (including the header), in bytes

header_size

uint = 0x70

size of the header (this entire section), in bytes. This allows for at least a limited amount of backwards/forwards compatibility without invalidating the format.

endian_tag

uint = ENDIAN_CONSTANT

endianness tag. See discussion above under "ENDIAN_CONSTANTand REVERSE_ENDIAN_CONSTANT" for more details.

link_size

uint

size of the link section, or 0 if this file isn't statically linked

link_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the link section, or 0 iflink_size == 0. The offset, if non-zero, should be to an offset into the link_data section. The format of the data pointed at is left unspecified by this document; this header field (and the previous) are left as hooks for use by runtime implementations.

map_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the map item, or 0 if this file has no map. The offset, if non-zero, should be to an offset into the data section, and the data should be in the format specified by "map_list" below.

string_ids_size

uint

count of strings in the string identifiers list

string_ids_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the string identifiers list, or 0 ifstring_ids_size == 0 (admittedly a strange edge case). The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the string_idssection.

type_ids_size

uint

count of elements in the type identifiers list

type_ids_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the type identifiers list, or 0 iftype_ids_size == 0 (admittedly a strange edge case). The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the type_ids section.

proto_ids_size

uint

count of elements in the prototype identifiers list

proto_ids_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the prototype identifiers list, or 0 if proto_ids_size == 0 (admittedly a strange edge case). The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the proto_idssection.

field_ids_size

uint

count of elements in the field identifiers list

field_ids_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the field identifiers list, or 0 iffield_ids_size == 0. The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the field_ids section.

method_ids_size

uint

count of elements in the method identifiers list

method_ids_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the method identifiers list, or 0if method_ids_size == 0. The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the method_ids section.

class_defs_size

uint

count of elements in the class definitions list

class_defs_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the class definitions list, or 0 ifclass_defs_size == 0 (admittedly a strange edge case). The offset, if non-zero, should be to the start of the class_defssection.

data_size

uint

Size of data section in bytes. Must be an even multiple of sizeof(uint).

data_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the start of the data section.

map_list

appears in the data section

referenced from header_item

alignment: 4 bytes

This is a list of the entire contents of a file, in order. It contains some redundancy with respect to theheader_item but is intended to be an easy form to use to iterate over an entire file. A given type may appear at most once in a map, but there is no restriction on what order types may appear in, other than the restrictions implied by the rest of the format (e.g., a header section must appear first, followed by a string_ids section, etc.). Additionally, the map entries must be ordered by initial offset and must not overlap.

Name

Format

Description

size

uint

size of the list, in entries

list

map_item[size]

elements of the list

map_item Format

Name

Format

Description

type

ushort

type of the items; see table below

unused

ushort

(unused)

size

uint

count of the number of items to be found at the indicated offset

offset

uint

offset from the start of the file to the items in question

Type Codes

Item Type

Constant

Value

Item Size In Bytes

header_item

TYPE_HEADER_ITEM

0x0000

0x70

string_id_item

TYPE_STRING_ID_ITEM

0x0001

0x04

type_id_item

TYPE_TYPE_ID_ITEM

0x0002

0x04

proto_id_item

TYPE_PROTO_ID_ITEM

0x0003

0x0c

field_id_item

TYPE_FIELD_ID_ITEM

0x0004

0x08

method_id_item

TYPE_METHOD_ID_ITEM

0x0005

0x08

class_def_item

TYPE_CLASS_DEF_ITEM

0x0006

0x20

map_list

TYPE_MAP_LIST

0x1000

4 + (item.size * 12)

type_list

TYPE_TYPE_LIST

0x1001

4 + (item.size * 2)

annotation_set_ref_list

TYPE_ANNOTATION_SET_REF_LIST

0x1002

4 + (item.size * 4)

annotation_set_item

TYPE_ANNOTATION_SET_ITEM

0x1003

4 + (item.size * 4)

class_data_item

TYPE_CLASS_DATA_ITEM

0x2000

implicit; must parse

code_item

TYPE_CODE_ITEM

0x2001

implicit; must parse

string_data_item

TYPE_STRING_DATA_ITEM

0x2002

implicit; must parse

debug_info_item

TYPE_DEBUG_INFO_ITEM

0x2003

implicit; must parse

annotation_item

TYPE_ANNOTATION_ITEM

0x2004

implicit; must parse

encoded_array_item

TYPE_ENCODED_ARRAY_ITEM

0x2005

implicit; must parse

annotations_directory_item

TYPE_ANNOTATIONS_DIRECTORY_ITEM

0x2006

implicit; must parse

string_id_item

appears in the string_ids section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

string_data_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the string data for this item. The offset should be to a location in the data section, and the data should be in the format specified by "string_data_item" below. There is no alignment requirement for the offset.

string_data_item

appears in the data section

alignment: none (byte-aligned)

Name

Format

Description

utf16_size

uleb128

size of this string, in UTF-16 code units (which is the "string length" in many systems). That is, this is the decoded length of the string. (The encoded length is implied by the position of the 0 byte.)

data

ubyte[]

a series of MUTF-8 code units (a.k.a. octets, a.k.a. bytes) followed by a byte of value 0. See "MUTF-8 (Modified UTF-8) Encoding" above for details and discussion about the data format.

Note: It is acceptable to have a string which includes (the encoded form of) UTF-16 surrogate code units (that is, U+d800 … U+dfff) either in isolation or out-of-order with respect to the usual encoding of Unicode into UTF-16. It is up to higher-level uses of strings to reject such invalid encodings, if appropriate.

type_id_item

appears in the type_ids section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

descriptor_idx

uint

index into the string_ids list for the descriptor string of this type. The string must conform to the syntax for TypeDescriptor, defined above.

proto_id_item

appears in the proto_ids section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

shorty_idx

uint

index into the string_ids list for the short-form descriptor string of this prototype. The string must conform to the syntax for ShortyDescriptor, defined above, and must correspond to the return type and parameters of this item.

return_type_idx

uint

index into the type_ids list for the return type of this prototype

parameters_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of parameter types for this prototype, or 0 if this prototype has no parameters. This offset, if non-zero, should be in the data section, and the data there should be in the format specified by "type_list" below. Additionally, there should be no reference to the type void in the list.

field_id_item

appears in the field_ids section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

class_idx

ushort

index into the type_ids list for the definer of this field. This must be a class type, and not an array or primitive type.

type_idx

ushort

index into the type_ids list for the type of this field

name_idx

uint

index into the string_ids list for the name of this field. The string must conform to the syntax for MemberName, defined above.

method_id_item

appears in the method_ids section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

class_idx

ushort

index into the type_ids list for the definer of this method. This must be a class or array type, and not a primitive type.

proto_idx

ushort

index into the proto_ids list for the prototype of this method

name_idx

uint

index into the string_ids list for the name of this method. The string must conform to the syntax for MemberName, defined above.

class_def_item

appears in the class_defs section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

class_idx

uint

index into the type_ids list for this class. This must be a class type, and not an array or primitive type.

access_flags

uint

access flags for the class (publicfinal, etc.). See "access_flags Definitions" for details.

superclass_idx

uint

index into the type_ids list for the superclass, or the constant value NO_INDEXif this class has no superclass (i.e., it is a root class such as Object). If present, this must be a class type, and not an array or primitive type.

interfaces_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of interfaces, or 0 if there are none. This offset should be in the data section, and the data there should be in the format specified by "type_list" below. Each of the elements of the list must be a class type (not an array or primitive type), and there must not be any duplicates.

source_file_idx

uint

index into the string_ids list for the name of the file containing the original source for (at least most of) this class, or the special value NO_INDEX to represent a lack of this information. The debug_info_item of any given method may override this source file, but the expectation is that most classes will only come from one source file.

annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the annotations structure for this class, or0 if there are no annotations on this class. This offset, if non-zero, should be in the data section, and the data there should be in the format specified by "annotations_directory_item" below, with all items referring to this class as the definer.

class_data_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the associated class data for this item, or0 if there is no class data for this class. (This may be the case, for example, if this class is a marker interface.) The offset, if non-zero, should be in thedata section, and the data there should be in the format specified by "class_data_item" below, with all items referring to this class as the definer.

static_values_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of initial values for static fields, or0 if there are none (and all static fields are to be initialized with 0 or null). This offset should be in the data section, and the data there should be in the format specified by "encoded_array_item" below. The size of the array must be no larger than the number of static fields declared by this class, and the elements correspond to the static fields in the same order as declared in the corresponding field_list. The type of each array element must match the declared type of its corresponding field. If there are fewer elements in the array than there are static fields, then the leftover fields are initialized with a type-appropriate 0 or null.

class_data_item

referenced from class_def_item

appears in the data section

alignment: none (byte-aligned)

Name

Format

Description

static_fields_size

uleb128

the number of static fields defined in this item

instance_fields_size

uleb128

the number of instance fields defined in this item

direct_methods_size

uleb128

the number of direct methods defined in this item

virtual_methods_size

uleb128

the number of virtual methods defined in this item

static_fields

encoded_field[static_fields_size]

the defined static fields, represented as a sequence of encoded elements. The fields must be sorted by field_idxin increasing order.

instance_fields

encoded_field[instance_fields_size]

the defined instance fields, represented as a sequence of encoded elements. The fields must be sorted by field_idx in increasing order.

direct_methods

encoded_method[direct_methods_size]

the defined direct (any of static,private, or constructor) methods, represented as a sequence of encoded elements. The methods must be sorted by method_idx in increasing order.

virtual_methods

encoded_method[virtual_methods_size]

the defined virtual (none of static,private, or constructor) methods, represented as a sequence of encoded elements. This list should notinclude inherited methods unless overridden by the class that this item represents. The methods must be sorted by method_idx in increasing order.

Note: All elements' field_ids and method_ids must refer to the same defining class.

encoded_field Format

Name

Format

Description

field_idx_diff

uleb128

index into the field_ids list for the identity of this field (includes the name and descriptor), represented as a difference from the index of previous element in the list. The index of the first element in a list is represented directly.

access_flags

uleb128

access flags for the field (publicfinal, etc.). See "access_flags Definitions" for details.

encoded_method Format

Name

Format

Description

method_idx_diff

uleb128

index into the method_ids list for the identity of this method (includes the name and descriptor), represented as a difference from the index of previous element in the list. The index of the first element in a list is represented directly.

access_flags

uleb128

access flags for the method (publicfinal, etc.). See "access_flagsDefinitions" for details.

code_off

uleb128

offset from the start of the file to the code structure for this method, or 0 if this method is either abstract or native. The offset should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "code_item" below.

type_list

referenced from class_def_item and proto_id_item

appears in the data section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

size

uint

size of the list, in entries

list

type_item[size]

elements of the list

type_item Format

Name

Format

Description

type_idx

ushort

index into the type_ids list

code_item

referenced from method_item

appears in the data section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

registers_size

ushort

the number of registers used by this code

ins_size

ushort

the number of words of incoming arguments to the method that this code is for

outs_size

ushort

the number of words of outgoing argument space required by this code for method invocation

tries_size

ushort

the number of try_items for this instance. If non-zero, then these appear as the tries array just after the insnsin this instance.

debug_info_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the debug info (line numbers + local variable info) sequence for this code, or0 if there simply is no information. The offset, if non-zero, should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "debug_info_item" below.

insns_size

uint

size of the instructions list, in 16-bit code units

insns

ushort[insns_size]

actual array of bytecode. The format of code in an insnsarray is specified by the companion document "Bytecode for the Dalvik VM". Note that though this is defined as an array of ushort, there are some internal structures that prefer four-byte alignment. Also, if this happens to be in an endian-swapped file, then the swapping is only done on individual ushorts and not on the larger internal structures.

padding

ushort (optional) = 0

two bytes of padding to make tries four-byte aligned. This element is only present if tries_size is non-zero andinsns_size is odd.

tries

try_item[tries_size](optional)

array indicating where in the code exceptions may be caught and how to handle them. Elements of the array must be non-overlapping in range and in order from low to high address. This element is only present if tries_sizeis non-zero.

handlers

encoded_catch_handler_list(optional)

bytes representing a list of lists of catch types and associated handler addresses. Each try_item has a byte-wise offset into this structure. This element is only present if tries_size is non-zero.

try_item Format

Name

Format

Description

start_addr

uint

start address of the block of code covered by this entry. The address is a count of 16-bit code units to the start of the first covered instruction.

insn_count

ushort

number of 16-bit code units covered by this entry. The last code unit covered (inclusive) is start_addr + insn_count - 1.

handler_off

ushort

offset in bytes from the start of the associated encoded handler data to thecatch_handler_item for this entry

encoded_catch_handler_list Format

Name

Format

Description

size

uleb128

size of this list, in entries

list

encoded_catch_handler[handlers_size]

actual list of handler lists, represented directly (not as offsets), and concatenated sequentially

encoded_catch_handler Format

Name

Format

Description

size

sleb128

number of catch types in this list. If non-positive, then this is the negative of the number of catch types, and the catches are followed by a catch-all handler. For example: A size of 0 means that there is a catch-all but no explicitly typed catches. A size of 2 means that there are two explicitly typed catches and no catch-all. And a size of -1means that there is one typed catch along with a catch-all.

handlers

encoded_type_addr_pair[abs(size)]

stream of abs(size) encoded items, one for each caught type, in the order that the types should be tested.

catch_all_addr

uleb128 (optional)

bytecode address of the catch-all handler. This element is only present if size is non-positive.

encoded_type_addr_pair Format

Name

Format

Description

type_idx

uleb128

index into the type_ids list for the type of the exception to catch

addr

uleb128

bytecode address of the associated exception handler

debug_info_item

referenced from code_item

appears in the data section

alignment: none (byte-aligned)

Each debug_info_item defines a DWARF3-inspired byte-coded state machine that, when interpreted, emits the positions table and (potentially) the local variable information for a code_item. The sequence begins with a variable-length header (the length of which depends on the number of method parameters), is followed by the state machine bytecodes, and ends with an DBG_END_SEQUENCE byte.

The state machine consists of five registers. The address register represents the instruction offset in the associated insns_item in 16-bit code units. The address register starts at 0 at the beginning of eachdebug_info sequence and may only monotonically increase. The line register represents what source line number should be associated with the next positions table entry emitted by the state machine. It is initialized in the sequence header, and may change in positive or negative directions but must never be less than 1. The source_file register represents the source file that the line number entries refer to. It is initialized to the value of source_file_idx in class_def_item. The other two variables, prologue_end andepilogue_begin, are boolean flags (initialized to false) that indicate whether the next position emitted should be considered a method prologue or epilogue. The state machine must also track the name and type of the last local variable live in each register for the DBG_RESTART_LOCAL code.

The header is as follows:

Name

Format

Description

line_start

uleb128

the initial value for the state machine's line register. Does not represent an actual positions entry.

parameters_size

uleb128

the number of parameter names that are encoded. There should be one per method parameter, excluding an instance method's this, if any.

parameter_names

uleb128p1[parameters_size]

string index of the method parameter name. An encoded value of NO_INDEX indicates that no name is available for the associated parameter. The type descriptor and signature are implied from the method descriptor and signature.

The byte code values are as follows:

Name

Value

Format

Arguments

Description

DBG_END_SEQUENCE

0x00

 

(none)

terminates a debug info sequence for a code_item

DBG_ADVANCE_PC

0x01

uleb128 addr_diff

addr_diff: amount to add to address register

advances the address register without emitting a positions entry

DBG_ADVANCE_LINE

0x02

sleb128 line_diff

line_diff: amount to change line register by

advances the line register without emitting a positions entry

DBG_START_LOCAL

0x03

uleb128 register_num
uleb128p1 name_idx
uleb128p1 type_idx

register_num: register that will contain local
name_idx: string index of the name
type_idx: type index of the type

introduces a local variable at the current address. Either name_idx or type_idxmay be NO_INDEX to indicate that that value is unknown.

DBG_START_LOCAL_EXTENDED

0x04

uleb128 register_num
uleb128p1 name_idx
uleb128p1 type_idx
uleb128p1 sig_idx

register_num: register that will contain local
name_idx: string index of the name
type_idx: type index of the type
sig_idx: string index of the type signature

introduces a local with a type signature at the current address. Any ofname_idxtype_idx, or sig_idxmay be NO_INDEX to indicate that that value is unknown. (If sig_idx is -1, though, the same data could be represented more efficiently using the opcodeDBG_START_LOCAL.)

Note: See the discussion under "dalvik.annotation.Signature" below for caveats about handling signatures.

DBG_END_LOCAL

0x05

uleb128 register_num

register_num: register that contained local

marks a currently-live local variable as out of scope at the current address

DBG_RESTART_LOCAL

0x06

uleb128 register_num

register_num: register to restart

re-introduces a local variable at the current address. The name and type are the same as the last local that was live in the specified register.

DBG_SET_PROLOGUE_END

0x07

 

(none)

sets the prologue_end state machine register, indicating that the next position entry that is added should be considered the end of a method prologue (an appropriate place for a method breakpoint). Theprologue_end register is cleared by any special (>= 0x0a) opcode.

DBG_SET_EPILOGUE_BEGIN

0x08

 

(none)

sets the epilogue_beginstate machine register, indicating that the next position entry that is added should be considered the beginning of a method epilogue (an appropriate place to suspend execution before method exit). Theepilogue_begin register is cleared by any special (>= 0x0a) opcode.

DBG_SET_FILE

0x09

uleb128p1 name_idx

name_idx: string index of source file name;NO_INDEX if unknown

indicates that all subsequent line number entries make reference to this source file name, instead of the default name specified in code_item

Special Opcodes

0x0a…0xff

 

(none)

advances the line andaddress registers, emits a position entry, and clearsprologue_end andepilogue_begin. See below for description.

Special Opcodes

Opcodes with values between 0x0a and 0xff (inclusive) move both the line and address registers by a small amount and then emit a new position table entry. The formula for the increments are as follows:

DBG_FIRST_SPECIAL = 0x0a  // the smallest special opcode

DBG_LINE_BASE   = -4      // the smallest line number increment

DBG_LINE_RANGE  = 15      // the number of line increments represented

 

adjusted_opcode = opcode - DBG_FIRST_SPECIAL

 

line += DBG_LINE_BASE + (adjusted_opcode % DBG_LINE_RANGE)

address += (adjusted_opcode / DBG_LINE_RANGE)

annotations_directory_item

referenced from class_def_item

appears in the data section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

class_annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the annotations made directly on the class, or 0 if the class has no direct annotations. The offset, if non-zero, should be to a location in the datasection. The format of the data is specified by "annotation_set_item" below.

fields_size

uint

count of fields annotated by this item

annotated_methods_off

uint

count of methods annotated by this item

annotated_parameters_off

uint

count of method parameter lists annotated by this item

field_annotations

field_annotation[fields_size] (optional)

list of associated field annotations. The elements of the list must be sorted in increasing order, by field_idx.

method_annotations

method_annotation[methods_size](optional)

list of associated method annotations. The elements of the list must be sorted in increasing order, by method_idx.

parameter_annotations

parameter_annotation[parameters_size](optional)

list of associated method parameter annotations. The elements of the list must be sorted in increasing order, bymethod_idx.

Note: All elements' field_ids and method_ids must refer to the same defining class.

field_annotation Format

Name

Format

Description

field_idx

uint

index into the field_ids list for the identity of the field being annotated

annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of annotations for the field. The offset should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "annotation_set_item" below.

method_annotation Format

Name

Format

Description

method_idx

uint

index into the method_ids list for the identity of the method being annotated

annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of annotations for the method. The offset should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "annotation_set_item" below.

parameter_annotation Format

Name

Format

Description

method_idx

uint

index into the method_ids list for the identity of the method whose parameters are being annotated

annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the list of annotations for the method parameters. The offset should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "annotation_set_ref_list" below.

annotation_set_ref_list

referenced from parameter_annotations_item

appears in the data section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

size

uint

size of the list, in entries

list

annotation_set_ref_item[size]

elements of the list

annotation_set_ref_item Format

Name

Format

Description

annotations_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to the referenced annotation set or 0 if there are no annotations for this element. The offset, if non-zero, should be to a location in the data section. The format of the data is specified by "annotation_set_item" below.

annotation_set_item

referenced from annotations_directory_itemfield_annotations_itemmethod_annotations_item, and annotation_set_ref_item

appears in the data section

alignment: 4 bytes

Name

Format

Description

size

uint

size of the set, in entries

entries

annotation_off_item[size]

elements of the set. The elements must be sorted in increasing order, by type_idx.

annotation_off_item Format

Name

Format

Description

annotation_off

uint

offset from the start of the file to an annotation. The offset should be to a location in the data section, and the format of the data at that location is specified by "annotation_item" below.

annotation_item

referenced from annotation_set_item

appears in the data section

alignment: none (byte-aligned)

Name

Format

Description

visibility

ubyte

intended visibility of this annotation (see below)

annotation

encoded_annotation

encoded annotation contents, in the format described by "encoded_annotation Format" under "encoded_value Encoding" above.

Visibility values

These are the options for the visibility field in an annotation_item:

Name

Value

Description

VISIBILITY_BUILD

0x00

intended only to be visible at build time (e.g., during compilation of other code)

VISIBILITY_RUNTIME

0x01

intended to visible at runtime

VISIBILITY_SYSTEM

0x02

intended to visible at runtime, but only to the underlying system (and not to regular user code)

encoded_array_item

referenced from class_def_item

appears in the data section

alignment: none (byte-aligned)

Name

Format

Description

value

encoded_array

bytes representing the encoded array value, in the format specified by "encoded_array Format" under "encoded_value Encoding" above.

System Annotations

System annotations are used to represent various pieces of reflective information about classes (and methods and fields). This information is generally only accessed indirectly by client (non-system) code.

System annotations are represented in .dex files as annotations with visibility set to VISIBILITY_SYSTEM.

dalvik.annotation.AnnotationDefault

appears on methods in annotation interfaces

An AnnotationDefault annotation is attached to each annotation interface which wishes to indicate default bindings.

Name

Format

Description

value

Annotation

the default bindings for this annotation, represented as an annotation of this type. The annotation need not include all names defined by the annotation; missing names simply do not have defaults.

dalvik.annotation.EnclosingClass

appears on classes

An EnclosingClass annotation is attached to each class which is either defined as a member of another class, per se, or is anonymous but not defined within a method body (e.g., a synthetic inner class). Every class that has this annotation must also have an InnerClass annotation. Additionally, a class may not have both an EnclosingClass and an EnclosingMethod annotation.

Name

Format

Description

value

Class

the class which most closely lexically scopes this class

dalvik.annotation.EnclosingMethod

appears on classes

An EnclosingMethod annotation is attached to each class which is defined inside a method body. Every class that has this annotation must also have an InnerClass annotation. Additionally, a class may not have both an EnclosingClass and an EnclosingMethod annotation.

Name

Format

Description

value

Method

the method which most closely lexically scopes this class

dalvik.annotation.InnerClass

appears on classes

An InnerClass annotation is attached to each class which is defined in the lexical scope of another class's definition. Any class which has this annotation must also have either an EnclosingClassannotation or an EnclosingMethod annotation.

Name

Format

Description

name

String

the originally declared simple name of this class (not including any package prefix). If this class is anonymous, then the name is null.

accessFlags

int

the originally declared access flags of the class (which may differ from the effective flags because of a mismatch between the execution models of the source language and target virtual machine)

dalvik.annotation.MemberClasses

appears on classes

MemberClasses annotation is attached to each class which declares member classes. (A member class is a direct inner class that has a name.)

Name

Format

Description

value

Class[]

array of the member classes

dalvik.annotation.Signature

appears on classes, fields, and methods

Signature annotation is attached to each class, field, or method which is defined in terms of a more complicated type than is representable by a type_id_item. The .dex format does not define the format for signatures; it is merely meant to be able to represent whatever signatures a source language requires for successful implementation of that language's semantics. As such, signatures are not generally parsed (or verified) by virtual machine implementations. The signatures simply get handed off to higher-level APIs and tools (such as debuggers). Any use of a signature, therefore, should be written so as not to make any assumptions about only receiving valid signatures, explicitly guarding itself against the possibility of coming across a syntactically invalid signature.

Because signature strings tend to have a lot of duplicated content, a Signature annotation is defined as an array of strings, where duplicated elements naturally refer to the same underlying data, and the signature is taken to be the concatenation of all the strings in the array. There are no rules about how to pull apart a signature into separate strings; that is entirely up to the tools that generate .dex files.

Name

Format

Description

value

String[]

the signature of this class or member, as an array of strings that is to be concatenated together

dalvik.annotation.Throws

appears on methods

Throws annotation is attached to each method which is declared to throw one or more exception types.

Name

Format

Description

value

Class[]

the array of exception types thrown

 

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