How to parse the AndroidManifest.xml file inside an .apk package

Question

This file appears to be in a binary XML format. What is this format and how can it be parsed programmatically (as opposed to using the aapt dump tool in the SDK)?

Answer 1

Use android-apktool

There is an application that reads apk files and decodes XMLs to nearly original form.

Usage:

apktool d Gmail.apk && cat Gmail/AndroidManifest.xml

Check android-apktool for more information