install uninstall APKs programmatically PackageManager vs Intents

Question

My application installs other applications  and it needs to keep track of what applications it has installed  Of course  this could be achieved by simply keeping a list of installed applications  But this should not be necessary  It should be the responsibility of the PackageManager to maintain the installedBy a  b  relationship  In fact  according to the API it is   public abstract String getInstallerPackageName String packageName  -  Retrieve the package name of the application that installed a package  This identifies which market the package came from   The current approach  Install APK using Intent  Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW   intent setDataAndType apkUri   application vnd android package-archive    startActivity intent     Uninstall APK using Intent   Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION DELETE  Uri fromParts  package   getPackageManager   getPackageArchiveInfo apkUri getPath    0  packageName null    startActivity intent     This is obviously not the way e g  Android Market installs   uninstalls packages  They use a richer version of the PackageManager  This can bee seen by downloading the Android source code from the Android Git repository  Below are the two hidden methods that corresponds to the Intent approach  Unfortunately they are not available to external developers  But perhaps they will be in the future   The better approach  Installing APK using the PackageManager          hide        Install a package  Since this may take a little while  the result will    be posted back to the given observer   An installation will fail if the calling context    lacks the   link android Manifest permission INSTALL PACKAGES  permission  if the    package named in the package file s manifest is already installed  or if there s no space    available on the device         param packageURI The location of the package file to install   This can be a  file   or a     content   URI      param observer An observer callback to get notified when the package installation is    complete    link IPackageInstallObserver packageInstalled String  int   will be    called when that happens   observer may be null to indicate that no callback is desired      param flags - possible values    link  INSTALL FORWARD LOCK        link  INSTALL REPLACE EXISTING     link  INSTALL ALLOW TEST       param installerPackageName Optional package name of the application that is performing the    installation  This identifies which market the package came from      public abstract void installPackage          Uri packageURI  IPackageInstallObserver observer  int flags          String installerPackageName     Uninstalling APK using the PackageManager         Attempts to delete a package   Since this may take a little while  the result will    be posted back to the given observer   A deletion will fail if the calling context    lacks the   link android Manifest permission DELETE PACKAGES  permission  if the    named package cannot be found  or if the named package is a  system package       TODO  include pointer to documentation on  system packages          param packageName The name of the package to delete     param observer An observer callback to get notified when the package deletion is    complete    link android content pm IPackageDeleteObserver packageDeleted boolean   will be    called when that happens   observer may be null to indicate that no callback is desired      param flags - possible values    link  DONT DELETE DATA         hide     public abstract void deletePackage          String packageName  IPackageDeleteObserver observer  int flags     Differences   When using intents the local package manager is not made aware of which application the installation originated from  Specifically  getInstallerPackageName      returns null  The hidden method installPackage      takes the installer package name as a parameter  and is most likely capable of setting this value    Question  Is it possible to specify package installer name using intents    Maybe the name of the installer package can be added as an extra to the installation intent     Tip  If you want to download the Android source code you can follow the steps described here  Downloading the Source Tree  To extract the   java files and put them in folders according to the package hierarchy you can check out this neat script  View Android Source Code in Eclipse

User · Accepted Answer

This is not currently available to third party applications. Note that even using reflection or other tricks to access installPackage() will not help, because only system applications can use it. (This is because it is the low-level install mechanism, after the permissions have been approved by the user, so it is not safe for regular applications to have access to.)

Also the installPackage() function arguments have often changed between platform releases, so anything you do trying access it will fail on various other versions of the platform.

EDIT:

Also it is worth pointing out that this installerPackage was only added fairly recently to the platform (2.2?) and was originally not actually used for tracking who installed the app -- it is used by the platform to determine who to launch when reporting bugs with the app, for implementing Android Feedback. (This was also one of the times the API method arguments changed.) For at least a long while after it was introduced, Market still didn't use it to track the apps it has installed (and it may very well still not use it), but instead just used this to set the Android Feedback app (which was separate from Market) as the "owner" to take care of feedback.

User · Answer

On a rooted device  you might use   String pkg   context getPackageName    String shellCmd    rm -r  data app     pkg      apk n                     rm -r  data data     pkg     n                     TODO remove data on the sd card                    sync n                     reboot n   Util sudo shellCmd     Util sudo   is defined here

User · Answer

According to Froyo source code  the Intent EXTRA INSTALLER PACKAGE NAME extra key is queried for the installer package name in the PackageInstallerActivity

User · Answer

Android P  requires this permission in AndroidManifest xml   lt uses-permission android name  android permission REQUEST DELETE PACKAGES    gt    Then   Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION DELETE   intent setData Uri parse  package com example mypackage     startActivity intent     to uninstall  Seems easier

User · Answer

API level 14 introduced two new actions  ACTION INSTALL PACKAGE and ACTION UNINSTALL PACKAGE  Those actions allow you to pass EXTRA RETURN RESULT boolean extra to get an  un installation result notification   Example code for invoking the uninstall dialog   String app pkg name    com example app   int UNINSTALL REQUEST CODE   1   Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION UNINSTALL PACKAGE     intent setData Uri parse  package     app pkg name      intent putExtra Intent EXTRA RETURN RESULT  true   startActivityForResult intent  UNINSTALL REQUEST CODE     And receive the notification in your Activity onActivityResult method    Override protected void onActivityResult int requestCode  int resultCode  Intent data        super onActivityResult requestCode  resultCode  data       if  requestCode    UNINSTALL REQUEST CODE            if  resultCode    RESULT OK                Log d  TAG    onActivityResult  user accepted the  un install              else if  resultCode    RESULT CANCELED                Log d  TAG    onActivityResult  user canceled the  un install              else if  resultCode    RESULT FIRST USER                Log d  TAG    onActivityResult  failed to  un install

User · Answer

Prerequisite   Your APK needs to be signed by system as correctly pointed out earlier  One way to achieve that is building the AOSP image yourself and adding the source code into the build   Code   Once installed as a system app  you can use the package manager methods to install and uninstall an APK as following   Install   public boolean install final String apkPath  final Context context        Log d TAG   Installing apk at     apkPath       try           final Uri apkUri   Uri fromFile new File apkPath            final String installerPackageName    MyInstaller           context getPackageManager   installPackage apkUri  installObserver  PackageManager INSTALL REPLACE EXISTING  installerPackageName           return true        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            return false            Uninstall   public boolean uninstall final String packageName  final Context context        Log d TAG   Uninstalling package     packageName       try           context getPackageManager   deletePackage packageName  deleteObserver  PackageManager DELETE ALL USERS           return true        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            return false            To have a callback once your APK is installed uninstalled you can use this          Callback after a package was installed be it success or failure      private class InstallObserver implements IPackageInstallObserver         Override     public void packageInstalled String packageName  int returnCode  throws RemoteException            if  packageName    null                Log d TAG   Successfully installed package     packageName               callback onAppInstalled true  packageName             else               Log e TAG   Failed to install package                 callback onAppInstalled false  null                         Override     public IBinder asBinder             return null                  Callback after a package was deleted be it success or failure      private class DeleteObserver implements IPackageDeleteObserver         Override     public void packageDeleted String packageName  int returnCode  throws RemoteException           if  packageName    null                Log d TAG   Successfully uninstalled package     packageName               callback onAppUninstalled true  packageName             else               Log e TAG   Failed to uninstall package                 callback onAppUninstalled false  null                         Override     public IBinder asBinder             return null                  Callback to give the flow back to the calling class      public interface InstallerCallback       void onAppInstalled final boolean success  final String packageName       void onAppUninstalled final boolean success  final String packageName

User · Answer

If you are passing package name as parameter to any of your user defined function then use the below code        Intent intent new Intent Intent ACTION DELETE       intent setData Uri parse  package   packageName        startActivity intent

User · Answer

If you re using Kotlin  API 14   and just wish to show uninstall dialog for your app   startActivity Intent Intent ACTION UNINSTALL PACKAGE  apply       data   Uri parse  package  packageName        You can change packageName to any other package name if you want to prompt the user to uninstall another app on the device

User · Answer

If you have Device Owner  or profile owner  I haven t tried  permission you can silently install uninstall packages using device owner API   for uninstalling   public boolean uninstallPackage Context context  String packageName        ComponentName name   new ComponentName MyAppName  MyDeviceAdminReceiver class getCanonicalName         PackageManager packageManger   context getPackageManager        if  android os Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   android os Build VERSION CODES LOLLIPOP            PackageInstaller packageInstaller   packageManger getPackageInstaller            PackageInstaller SessionParams params   new PackageInstaller SessionParams                  PackageInstaller SessionParams MODE FULL INSTALL           params setAppPackageName packageName           int sessionId   0          try               sessionId   packageInstaller createSession params             catch  IOException e                e printStackTrace                return false                    packageInstaller uninstall packageName  PendingIntent getBroadcast context  sessionId                  new Intent  android intent action MAIN    0  getIntentSender             return true            System err println  old sdk        return false      and to install package   public boolean installPackage Context context                                       String packageName  String packagePath        ComponentName name   new ComponentName MyAppName  MyDeviceAdminReceiver class getCanonicalName         PackageManager packageManger   context getPackageManager        if  android os Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   android os Build VERSION CODES LOLLIPOP            PackageInstaller packageInstaller   packageManger getPackageInstaller            PackageInstaller SessionParams params   new PackageInstaller SessionParams                  PackageInstaller SessionParams MODE FULL INSTALL           params setAppPackageName packageName           try               int sessionId   packageInstaller createSession params               PackageInstaller Session session   packageInstaller openSession sessionId               OutputStream out   session openWrite packageName     apk   0  -1               readTo packagePath  out     read the apk content and write it to out             session fsync out               out close                System out println  installing                   session commit PendingIntent getBroadcast context  sessionId                      new Intent  android intent action MAIN    0  getIntentSender                 System out println  install request sent                return true            catch  IOException e                e printStackTrace                return false                      System err println  old sdk        return false

User · Answer

The only way to access those methods is through reflection  You can get a handle on a PackageManager object by calling getApplicationContext   getPackageManager   and using reflection access these methods  Checkout this tutorial

[android] install / uninstall APKs programmatically (PackageManager vs Intents)

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