File or Block OTA

During a file-based OTA, Android attempts to change the contents of the system partition at the filesystem layer (on a file-by-file basis). The update is not guaranteed to write files in a consistent order, have a consistent last modified time or superblock, or even place the blocks in the same location on the block device. For this reason, file-based OTAs fail on a dm-verity-enabled device; after the OTA attempt, the device does not boot.

During a block-based OTA, Android serves the device the difference between the two block images (rather than two sets of files). The update checks a device build against the corresponding build server at the block level (below the filesystem) using one of the following methods:

• Full update. Copying the full system image is simple and makes patch generation easy but also generates large images that can make applying patches expensive.
• Incremental update. Using a binary differ tool generates smaller images and makes patch application easy, but is memory-intensive when generating the patch itself.

Note: adb fastboot places the exact same bits on the device as a full OTA, so flashing is compatible with block OTA.