Android, how to exclude a specific permission for a specific flavor?

Question

So I have 10 flavors in my android project: fl1, fl2, ..., fl10 with the permissions below. Now I want my fl5 not have the android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES. How to do this?

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES"/>

I know that I can have a different manifest file in fl5/AndroidManifest.xml. And it can include any excessive element for this specific build. But this can be a source of errors and mistakes as I should be careful of syncing every time I add an element to main manifest.

I have searched and found different solutions. But I couldn't implement them in my project because they weren't exact. Any help is appreciated.

Here is my fl5/AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
package="com.mycompany.myapp">

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES" tools:node="remove"></uses-permission >

And here it is my flavors in build.gradle file:

  productFlavors {
    fl1 {flavorDimensions "in_1"}
    fl2 {flavorDimensions "in_2"}
    fl3 {flavorDimensions "in_3"}
    fl4 {flavorDimensions "in_4"}
    fl5 {flavorDimensions "in_5"}  
    fl6 {flavorDimensions "in_6"}
    fl7 {flavorDimensions "in_7"}
    fl8 {flavorDimensions "in_8"}
    fl9 {flavorDimensions "in_9"}
    fl10 {flavorDimensions "in_10"}       
}

Answer 1

Add tools:node="remove" in your element. In your case, add the following line in fl5/AndroidManifest.xml.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES" tools:node="remove"/>

Take a look at Removing AndroidManifest element with gradle product flavors and How to remove specific permission when build Android app with gradle? questions.