--mode vs (deprecated) --variant flag - clarity required

[aljidy]

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In the #2026 PR, the deprecated variant flag was swapped out for mode. Looking at the code in the pr, it looks like they effectively do the same thing on Android and pass the buildVariant into Gradle to get the relevant Gradle task.

However the docs/help seem to imply they don't work the same.

--variant Specify your app's build variant.

Whereas:

--mode Mode to build the app. Either 'debug' (default) or 'release'.

Seems to imply it can only be debug or release, and not a buildVariant string.

Could I get some clarity on this?

Feel like either: @cortinico or @szymonrybczak might be best placed to answer this.

Many thanks!

[szymonrybczak]

hey @aljidy, I think we can update docs to also cover in --mode's description that it can accept buildVariant. Do you mind sending PR updating this? 🙏

[cortinico]

I feel we should be able to remove --variant entirely at this point?

[szymonrybczak]

@cortinico it's removed already.

[cortinico]

Oh from the docs as well?

[szymonrybczak]

Yup.

[aljidy]

Thanks folks, will get a PR up later this week and ping you both

[zfben]

I used the original value of the variant parameter to pass into mode, and I found that the error message indicates a dependency content could not be found.

Like:

android/app/src/debug/java/cn/demo/app/ReactNativeFlipper.java:10: error: package com.facebook.flipper.android does not exist
import com.facebook.flipper.android.AndroidFlipperClient;

Did I use it in wrong way?

[szymonrybczak]

hey @zfben, your error is not related to this issue. If the problem still occurs please create new issue with the related description and reproduction steps.

[Splanis]

Hello, after the upgrade from 0.72.8 to 0.74.1 I noticed that --variant is deprecated. I changed it to --mode but I noticed that the build was not on debug mode(not connected to metro). I tried to add this on build.gradle debuggableVariants = ["stagingdebug", "productiondebug"] but android won't connect to metro, I get error "could not load server". Is this related somehow?