What is index.android.bundle in React Native and Why You Shouldn’t Commit to Repository

naandalist
2 min readNov 1, 2023

--

Photo by Guido Coppa on Unsplash

File index.android.bundle is a file used in React Native development. It contains the compiled and bundled JavaScript code for your app. This file is used when you want to install the application via Android Studio without running the metro bundler.

You can generate this bundle file using the following command in your terminal:

react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res

It command line will create index.android.bundle file in android/app/src/main/assets/ directory of your RN project. This bundle needs to be created every time before a release build. It helps your app running more quickly and reduces your app size by minifying your code.

In general, it’s a good practice to add index.android.bundle to your .gitignore file. This is because the index.android.bundle file is generated and it can be different for each developer depending on their local setup.

Including it in the repository could lead to unnecessary merge conflicts. Instead, each developer should generate their own index.android.bundle file locally when needed.

These files are the output of the build process and can be quite large. Storing them in your repository is not only unnecessary but can also bloat your repository size and slow down cloning and pulling operations for other team members.

Here’s an example of how you might set up your .gitignore file for an Android project:

# built application files
*.apk
*.ap_

# files for the dex VM
*.dex

# Java class files
*.class

# generated files
bin/
gen/

# Local configuration file (sdk path, etc)
local.properties

# Windows thumbnail db
Thumbs.db

# OSX files
.DS_Store

# Android Studio
*.iml
.idea
.gradle
build/
captures/
.externalNativeBuild

# bundle file
/**/index.android.bundle

Remember, entries in a .gitignore file have no effect on files that are already tracked.

the index.android.bundle is a critical part of React Native development for Android. However, it should never be committed to your version control repository due to reasons, such as repository size, and version challenges like merge conflicts, becauseindex.android.bundle file can be different for each developer depending on their local setup.

Based on a StackOverflow post, it appears that the index.android.bundle file started to go missing from the APK after upgrading to React Native 0.681. The issue was due to a discrepancy in the Gradle version.

Reference:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56038027/react-native-make-sure-your-bundle-is-packaged-correctly-or-youre-running-a-p

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16736856/what-should-be-in-my-gitignore-for-an-android-studio-project

--

--

naandalist

Endlessly exploring javascript, android, and serverless technology