are Android's debug logs really stripped at runtime?

Question

Android documentation ( http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/Log.html ) says:

Verbose should never be compiled into an application except d

Answer 1

No. You have to do this yourself. You can make your own Log.d wrapper like this:

public static void debug(String tag, String msg) {
    if (BuildConfig.DEBUG) {
        Log.d(tag, msg);
    }
}

Answer 2

The best way to remove logs is probably achieved with ProGuard

Check this question 'Android Proguard, removing all Log statements and merging packages'

Answer 3

This issue was reported here and a solution was provided in ADT 17.0.0 in Mar 2012

Added a feature that allows you to run some code only in debug mode. Builds now generate a class called BuildConfig containing a DEBUG constant that is automatically set according to your build type. You can check the (BuildConfig.DEBUG) constant in your code to run debug-only functions.