Exclude specific build variants

Question

I have the two default build types: debug / release and a couple of flavors: prod / dev.

Now I want to exclude the build variant dev-release, but keep all other possible combinations. Is there a way to achieve this?

Answer 1

Variant filter

Use the the android gradle plugin to mark certain combinations as ignored, here is an example for AGP 7+ in Kotlin DSL from the official documentation that works with flavor dimensions and shows how it can be used:

android {
  ...
  buildTypes {...}

  flavorDimensions += listOf("api", "mode")
  productFlavors {
    create("demo") {...}
    create("full") {...}
    create("minApi24") {...}
    create("minApi23") {...}
    create("minApi21") {...}
  }
}

androidComponents {
    beforeVariants { variantBuilder ->
        // To check for a certain build type, use variantBuilder.buildType == "<buildType>"
        if (variantBuilder.productFlavors.containsAll(listOf("api" to "minApi21", "mode" to "demo"))) {
            // Gradle ignores any variants that satisfy the conditions above.
            variantBuilder.enable = false
        }
    }
}
...

Note the comment on checking variantBuilder.buildType to validate the buildType.