[feature] [gui] Search for smali

[tyy-dev]

Describe your idea

e.g being able to search for "invoke-static {v0, p0}, Landroid/util/Log;->i(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)I"
Semi duplicate of #1409

[jpstotz]

At the moment Jadx-Gui performs Smali decoding only on demand. There is no way to perform Smali decoding on all classes and there is no search index that could be used.

I am not sure if a search index on the smali code would be used that often. Usually people who want to use Smali code use apktool to decompile and the use a full-text search program of their choice to search for specific Smali commands.

[tyy-dev]

At the moment Jadx-Gui performs Smali decoding only on demand. There is no way to perform Smali decoding on all classes and there is no search index that could be used.

I am not sure if a search index on the smali code would be used that often. Usually people who want to use Smali code use apktool to decompile and the use a full-text search program of their choice to search for specific Smali commands.

Given this method (Please don't take the example too litteral, but it is a showcase of why I am suggesting this)

void a(String str) {
  Log.i("The name", str)
}

The code in smali would look something like this (written out of my head, might be a tad inaccurate)

.method a(Ljava/lang/String;)
     const-string v0, "The Name"
    invoke-static {v0, p0}, Landroid/util/Log;->i(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)I
    return
.end

Now given this example, let's say you wanted to search for all methods that were to instantly log their given parameter.
You couldn't search for this even if you were to use a regex e.g Log.i\(".*", str\),
simply becausethis could appear anywhere lse in the code.

Now let's say you were able to search for invoke-static {v0, p0}, Landroid/util/Log;->i(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)I
That would instantly allow identifying such methods that log their parameters, which isn't currently possible.

Currently this requires using apktool to convert the whole dex to smali, and querying everyfile for such "code", which is a long process and much more limited than a inline search would be.

I get that smali just like java is probably lazy loaded till it's opened in the jadx-gui based on your response (I didn't know that), however couldn't there be a way to simplify it for the user still? i.g limiting the search to a certain package? so only a few amount are loaded, or have some sort of option to force loade all the smali classes, as smali code / instructions don't change after the initial load do they?

[jpstotz]

As workaround I would recommend to disable in Preferences -> Decompilation -> Use import statements (I also have this option disabled).

Then you can use regular Java search for android.util.Log.i(. That should not occur many times in regular code.