Does Android SDK intentionally use an old version of ProGuard

Question

I use the Android SDK Manager to keep all the packages updated. The current (2014-03-05) Android SDK Tools is V22.6. I checked proguard.jar in C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\proguard\lib,and found its version is 4.7. The latest version of ProGuard is 4.11. V4.7 was released in 2011. Is there a good reason for the SDK to use an old version? Should I update ProGuard manually?

I heard that if proguard.jar is updated manually, updating the SDK via the Android SDK Manager will overwrite it. Any clarification will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The version in the Android SDK is often lagging behind. At this time, the Android SDK contains ProGuard 4.7, while the Android Gradle plugin refers to ProGuard 4.10 from Maven Central. I generally recommend to use the latest version, especially if you have enabled optimization and if you run into any bugs in older versions.

(I am the developer of ProGuard)