| **ReTrace** is a companion tool for **ProGuard** that 'de-obfuscates' |
| stack traces. |
| |
| When an obfuscated program throws an exception, the resulting stack |
| trace typically isn't very informative. Class names and method names |
| have been replaced by short meaningless strings. Source file names and |
| line numbers are missing altogether. While this may be intentional, it |
| can also be inconvenient when debugging problems. |
| |
| <table class="diagram" align="center"> |
| <tr> |
| <td><div class="lightgreen box">Original code</div></td> |
| <td><div class="right arrow">ProGuard</div></td> |
| <td><div class="darkgreen box">Obfuscated code</div></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td/> |
| <td><div class="overlap"><div class="down arrow"></div></div> |
| <div class="overlap"><div class="green box">Mapping file</div></div></td> |
| <td><div class="down arrow">Crash!</div></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td><div class="lightgreen box">Readable stack trace</div></td> |
| <td><div class="left arrow">ReTrace</div></td> |
| <td><div class="darkgreen box">Obfuscated stack trace</div></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| ReTrace can read an obfuscated stack trace and restore it to what it |
| would look like without obfuscation. The restoration is based on the |
| mapping file that ProGuard can write out while obfuscating. The mapping |
| file links the original class names and class member names to their |
| obfuscated names. |
| |
| !!! note "" |
| {: .icon} The standard Android build |
| process automatically writes out mapping files to their traditional |
| locations in your Android project, e.g. |
| `build/outputs/release/mapping/mapping.txt`. |
