Android ProGuard - only obfuscation

Question

Is it possible to use ProGuard for only obfuscation. I don't want ProGuard to remove any classes from my projects. My intention to use ProGuard is only for obfuscation so as to prevent reverse engineering.

Solution

Yes, by specifying

-dontshrink
-dontoptimize

You can find details on all configuration options in the ProGuard manual.

Note that shrinking and optimization may help preventing reverse engineering a bit.

Comments

[Vinoth]

Thanks.I tried -dontoptimze before but it was still removing class files. When i tried both -dontshrink and -dontoptimize it works.

[Vinay W]

Hello, Its 2015 and things have changed. The android world is moving to gradle, for one. Is this still supposed to work? With Gradle?

[arnt]

Why would shrinking optimizing help prevent reverse engineering?

[Ankesh kumar Jaisansaria]

@Eric Lafortune How to Obfuscate code. I also want to only rename classes so that the decompiled code is unreadable. If I dont write anything in Proguard.pro then will it rename all the classes

[NukeouT]

Is this what I need to get it to run? # Add project specific ProGuard rules here. -dontshrink { *; } -dontoptimize { *; }

[tribbloid]

No it doesn't work, a quick experiment is to keep everything (**) in a jar. The output jar is still much smaller (about 3/4 in size)