Skip to main content

Android - Are LogCat calls visible to end users if phone is in debug mode?

Image
By User


I've been using Log.whatever() calls to Log various bits of information as I've been developing my Android app. As I prepare to publish my app to the Android Marketplace, I'm trying to figure out what I need to remove.



According to the Android developer Dev Guide , before publishing, they suggest: 





Deactivate any calls to Log methods in the source code.


How does one deactivate the Log methods? Obviously I could go through and erase them all (which is a bit of a pain) but is there some other way to deactivate Log calls that I'm unaware of?



Also, what danger is there to having Log calls in a published application? It's can anyone install Eclipse, plugin in their phone and enable Debug mode and see all the same LogCat information that I see as I'm developing?



Also the Dev Guide suggests: 





Remove the android:debuggable="true" attribute from the <application> element of the manifest.


I was unaware of this flag until now. What does it do exactly? I've been developing and debugging my app just fine up to this point and this flag is not set to true or false for in my Manifest.


Source: Tips4all, CCNA FINAL EXAM
Labels:

Comments

  1. UserMay 14, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Yes, anyone can install the Android SDK (with or without Eclipse) to view all log messages on your device.

    I don't recommend completely removing your logging code, but instead wrap it, such as: if (DEBUG) Log.d(...) where DEBUG is some static boolean you define in a convenient place. I prefer to create a utility class so that all log calls across various classes can be enabled/disabled at once.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UserMay 14, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Simplest chnages for that would be to define one custom Class say MyLog, now replace all the calls of Log.d() to MyLog.d().
    Now inside your class you can have one flag that can enable or disable logs.
    hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UserMay 14, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    A good practice is to use something like if (DEBUG) Log.whatever, and then simply make DEBUG false.

    There is no real danger except that you may expose some underlying implementaion which may expose glitches and hackable points in you app. The real problem is the performance penalty that you will get from logging too much.

    As for android:debuggable="true", search for it in here

    Finally, yes, Logcat logs are global and can be seen by anyone using the Android SDK.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UserMay 14, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Yep, most certainly. Everyone can see them.

    If you don't want that to happen, delete them from your code. It's quite normal though. I see a lot of apps using logs, and odds are that almost none of your users will be using that to check your logs.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[韓日関係] 首相含む大幅な内閣改造の可能性…早ければ来月１０日ごろ＝韓国

By Unknown
Post a Comment
Read more

div not scrolling properly with slimScroll plugin

By User
I am using the slimScroll plugin for jQuery by Piotr Rochala Which is a great plugin for nice scrollbars on most browsers but I am stuck because I am using it for a chat box and whenever the user appends new text to the boxit does scroll using the .scrollTop() method however the plugin's scrollbar doesnt scroll with it and when the user wants to look though the chat history it will start scrolling from near the top. I have made a quick demo of my situation http://jsfiddle.net/DY9CT/2/ Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
1 comment
Read more

Why does this javascript based printing cause Safari to refresh the page?

By User
The page I am working on has a javascript function executed to print parts of the page. For some reason, printing in Safari, causes the window to somehow update. I say somehow, because it does not really refresh as in reload the page, but rather it starts the "rendering" of the page from start, i.e. scroll to top, flash animations start from 0, and so forth. The effect is reproduced by this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/fYmnB/ Clicking the print button and finishing or cancelling a print in Safari causes the screen to "go white" for a sec, which in my real website manifests itself as something "like" a reload. While running print button with, let's say, Firefox, just opens and closes the print dialogue without affecting the fiddle page in any way. Is there something with my way of calling the browsers print method that causes this, or how can it be explained - and preferably, avoided? P.S.: On my real site the same occurs with Chrome. In the ex
5 comments
Read more