how to fix proguard warning 'can't find referenced method' for existing methods 'clone' and 'finalize' of class java.lang.Object

Question

I try to compress an android app that consumes ical4j.jar.

When i build the apk with proguard using gradle proguardDebug i get

• Warning: net.fortuna.ical4j.model.CalendarFactory: can't find referenced method 'void finalize()' in library class java.lang.Object
  • 6 additional similar warnings for finalize()
• Warning: net.fortuna.ical4j.model.CalendarFactory: can't find referenced method 'java.lang.Object clone()' in library class java.lang.Object
  • 6 additional similar warnings for clone()

I already verified that android-7 supports finalize() and clone(): "...\Android...\sdk\platforms\android-7\android.jar" has methods finalize() and clone() in class java.lang.Object .

Do you have any idea how to fix this?

Note: this is not a duplicate of other 'proguard can't find referenced method' questions because in my specific case i think that the missing method should be there.

I am using

• proguard-4.11 with
• gradle-1.11
  • Groovy: 1.8.6
  • Ant: Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.2 compiled on July 8 2013
  • Ivy: 2.2.0
  • JVM: 1.7.0_25 (Oracle Corporation 23.25-b01)
  • OS: Windows 7 6.1 amd64
• ical4j.jar 1.0.5

this is proguard config proguard-rules.txt that probably need some fix:

#  proguard-rules.txt
## ical4j also contains groovy code which is not used in android 
-dontwarn groovy.**
-dontwarn org.codehaus.groovy.**
-dontwarn org.apache.commons.logging.**
-dontwarn sun.misc.Perf

-dontnote com.google.vending.**
-dontnote com.android.vending.licensing.**

This is my build.gradle

    buildscript {
        repositories {
            mavenCentral()
        }
        dependencies {
            classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.9.+'
            classpath 'net.sf.proguard:proguard-gradle:4.11'
        }
    }

    allprojects {
        repositories {
            mavenCentral()
        }
    }

    apply plugin: 'android'

    configurations {
        compile.exclude group: 'commons-logging' // referenced in some portable lib. use androids internal instead
    }

    android {
        compileSdkVersion 19
        buildToolsVersion '19.0.3'

        packagingOptions {
            exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
            exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
        }

        defaultConfig {
            minSdkVersion 7
            targetSdkVersion 19
        }

        buildTypes {
            release {
                runProguard false
                proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
            }

            // used for testing. remove if it works as expected
            debug {
                runProguard true
                proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
            }
        }
    }

    dependencies {
        compile 'org.mnode.ical4j:ical4j:1.0.5'
        compile 'backport-util-concurrent:backport-util-concurrent:3.1'
        compile 'commons-codec:commons-codec:1.8'
        compile 'commons-lang:commons-lang:2.6'
    }

[Update 2014-12-20]

I have added my working configuration as answer below.

Note: with Current Android Studio 1.0 (android.buildToolsVersion >= '20') you must replace runProguard with minifyEnabled

Example

    android {
        buildTypes {
            release {
                minifyEnabled true
                proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
            }
    }

Answer 1

net.fortuna.ical4j.model.CalendarFactory extends groovy.util.AbstractFactory which extends java.lang.Object. However, the middle class is missing from your input (you're suppressing the corresponding warnings with -dontwarn). With part of the class hierarchy missing, ProGuard doesn't realize that CalendarFactory may access the protected methods clone and finalize, and it prints out these warnings.

Since your code probably doesn't use the class at all, you can suppress the warnings:

-dontwarn net.fortuna.ical4j.model.CalendarFactory

Or for covering all similar classes:

-dontwarn net.fortuna.ical4j.model.**

You shouldn't add any -keep options for this issue; the Android SDK already specifies the basic Android-related -keep options for you.