特定设备的targetSDKVersion、minimumSDKVersion和compileSDKVersion

Question

I'm programming for one specific device and I'm having trouble understanding how I should be setting minsdkversion, compilesdkversion, and targetsdkversion. I want to get a compiler error when I'm using a library that doesn't exist for API level 25. Here's what I gatherered. Minsdkversion prevents calling API that doesn't exist for API version. Compilesdkversion should always be the latest version. Targetsdkversion is what the app was tested against (don't understand what this means).

minsdkversion-25 compilesdkversion-28 (needed for AndroidX) targetSDKversion-25

Answer 1

Version settings

Among those version settings, only minSdkVersion takes effect to detect API level error. If you'd like to know details of the version settings, see documentation .

How to let build system report API level error

For release builds , place "lintOptions" in app/build.gradle and mark "NewApi" as "fatal". Then lintVitalRelease gradle task reports error during compilation.

android {

    lintOptions {
        fatal "NewApi"
    }

    compileSdkVersion 30

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 25
        targetSdkVersion 30

        :
    }
    :
} 

Checking API level manually

In debug builds , the lintOptions above doesn't have any effects because the lint is not included in debug build tasks (there is no lintVitalDebug gradle task). So rather, after coding, run "code inspection" manually to detect all the NewApi problems in your code. If incompatible API uses found, you'll see "calling new methods on older version" error in the inspection result.