What is resources.ap_ and why does it have a penchant for not existing?

Question

Every once in a while a borked Eclipse build gets nailed down to the absence of this file, with the simple fix of cleaning the build, or occasionally doing a deeper clean on the project's metadata. I can live with this state of affairs, but the curious side of me has to ask why.

A search for it on developer.android.com turns up nothing :(, and a search on Google turns up various threads by folks wondering why their build is broken.

This guy is the closest thing I've found to an explanation of the thing itself. Hopefully some nice, patient guru can shed some light on the fundamentals here without this noob digging too far into the source :)

Answer 1

The resource.ap_ is all the resources for you file zipped up. Everything from the res, assets folders and the Manifest file.

The apk file added in the class.dex (all your compiled code) and any linked .so (native code).

Both of these files are in .zip format. They can easily be view by changing the extension to .zip and opening them.

Answer 2

The .ap_ file is probably your apk before it is signed with your certificate (by default, a debug certificate generated by ADT in your home directory.)