This is not a step-by-step tutorial but is designed to help those who are making their own roms / themes / patches on how to make an update-script. This script is required for an “update.zip” style flash in Android so that it knows what it is actually supposed to do. The tutorial is really going to revolve around how to create a script for a theme only. An update-script for a full rom is much more involved.

First off, your update.zip should have the following folder structure:

/META-INF/com/google/android/  –  your update script goes in this folder
/system/app/                                       –  put any stock applications you are replacing in this folder
/system/framework/                         — put any framework files that you are replacing in this folder

folder1

The first set of folders is required because that’s where your update-script goes. These mirror the folder structure on the phone itself and the only folders required are ones that you actually have files for. Inside of the android folder should be your actual update-script. This file is plain text but you can’t use notepad to create the file because it doesn’t understand the spacing that linux needs. I recommend using notepad++ as an alternative for windows. If you are on linux then gedit or any editor will work fine.

As I mentioned your update-script tells the system what it actually needs to do. So basically we are just going to instruct it to copy the /system/ folder on to /system/. When the script runs any files that already existed will be replaced, any that didn’t will be added. Here is what your script should look like for a theme.

script

Line one is just telling it to start the progress meter. Line 3 is telling it to copy the package system to the system. And line 5 is telling it that it’s the end of progress and it should be at 100%. That’s it! Obviously this is an extremely basic example of an update-script but it’s all you need for a theme. Save it as update-script (no extension) in /META-DATA/com/google/android/ , zip it all up and sign it and you’re done.

Get any errors? It should tell you what line they are on. Open your update-script and check that line and figure out why it’s a problem!  :)