Pretty obvious from running ./make.sh, which gives this output:

Submodule 'jd-cli' (https://github.com/lxdvs/jd-core-java.git) registered for path 'jd-cli'
Cloning into 'jd-cli'...
remote: Counting objects: 91, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (64/64), done.
remote: Total 91 (delta 14), reused 91 (delta 14)
Unpacking objects: 100% (91/91), done.
Checking connectivity... done.
Submodule path 'jd-cli': checked out '560a13172520454c904a7b2ee6920cf144b92d11'
mvn package
make: mvn: No such file or directory
make: *** [target/jd-core-java-1.0.jar] Error 1

But I just figured the documentation should mention it.

See forum post at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2116973

This will make life easier via brew install apk2gold.

I'm in a little over my head. I just want to decompile an apk to find a short string of characters that will start with an asterisk.

I've found some other instructions on how to install apk2gold on ubuntu and it appears to be installed, but, I get a command not found error and I can't find the directory apk2gold that was created.

I am running linux mint15 and I have installed python, git, mercurial,jdk and jdk devel using the package manager. Then I ran:

git clone https://github.com/lxdvs/apk2gold.git
cd apk2gold
git submodule init
git submodule update
./make.sh

When I do:

apk2gold # dir

I get:

apk2gold apktool dex2jar-0.0.9.12 jd-cli linux make.sh osx README.md rreassoc.py

but when I look for this directory (apk2gold) with my file manager so I can put my apk file there as well I can't find it.

when I try to run it I get this:

apk2gold # apk2gold FP.apk
apk2gold: command not found

or as root

apk2gold FP.apk

apk2gold: command not found

fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 0.173 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2016-05-26T18:43:38+05:30
[INFO] Final Memory: 7M/309M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] The goal you specified requires a project to execute but there is no POM in this directory (/Users/demo/Desktop/apk2gold-master/jd-cmd). Please verify you invoked Maven from the correct directory. -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MissingProjectException
cp: jd-cli/target/jd-cli.jar: No such file or directory
/Users/demo/Desktop/apk2gold-master

I: Decoding AndroidManifest.xml with resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: /Users/Francis/Library/apktool/framework/1.apk
I: Regular manifest package...
I: Decoding file-resources...
W: Could not decode attr value, using undecoded value instead: ns=android, name=touchscreenBlocksFocus, value=0xffffffff
I: Decoding values / XMLs...
Exception in thread "main" brut.androlib.err.UndefinedResObject: resource spec: 0x0101048f
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResPackage.getResSpec(ResPackage.java:59)
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResTable.getResSpec(ResTable.java:58)
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResTable.getResSpec(ResTable.java:54)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResAttrDecoder.decode(ResAttrDecoder.java:36)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.AXmlResourceParser.getAttributeValue(AXmlResourceParser.java:369)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.XmlPullParserDelegate.getAttributeValue(XmlPullParserDelegate.java:69)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.writeStartTag(StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.java:267)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.event(StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.java:211)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.XmlPullStreamDecoder$1.event(XmlPullStreamDecoder.java:83)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.XmlPullStreamDecoder.decode(XmlPullStreamDecoder.java:141)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResStreamDecoderContainer.decode(ResStreamDecoderContainer.java:33)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResFileDecoder.decode(ResFileDecoder.java:107)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResFileDecoder.decode(ResFileDecoder.java:91)
at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.decode(AndrolibResources.java:322)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.decodeResourcesFull(Androlib.java:123)
at brut.androlib.ApkDecoder.decode(ApkDecoder.java:102)
at brut.apktool.Main.cmdDecode(Main.java:170)
at brut.apktool.Main.main(Main.java:86)
mv: rename Test/smali to Test/.smali: No such file or directory
dex2jar Test.apk -> Test-dex2jar.jar
Converting .class files to java...
Error: Unable to access jarfile ./jd-cli.jar
Reassociated 0 R.* references in 0 files

I was just using this tool to decompile an apk, and the version of apktool you've got included (2.0.0RC2) blows up with a null pointer exception.

When I substituted apktool 2.1.0, it worked beautifully!

On a fresh install of apk2gold all *.java files contain only the contents "null". Console output does not indicate any errors.

i am unable to make it run on windows

I ran the command ./apk2gold ap.apk, it gives me this problem, does anyone know where I can found this JAR ?

The API 21 build tools generate a differently formatted apk.
Apktool needs to be updated.

I can reproduce the issue with new projects created with android studio and also this apk:
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/gmail/gmail-5-0-1566562-apk/

R.layout.panel should become com.mypackage.android.R.layout.panel for disambiguation and import resolution reasons

~ ./make.sh
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
./make.sh: line 6: mvn: command not found
cp: jd-cli/target/jd-cli.jar: No such file or directory
/Users/lecong/downloads/apk2gold-master

Recently I sent pull request to the original jd-core-java repository: nviennot/jd-core-java#3
This PR fixed the issue on the case-insensitive file system like OS X. Originally, jd-core-java did not consider case-insensitive file system, decompiled class A could overwrite existing decompiled a class.

Can you merge this change into your fork as well? I believe this would be helpful to apk2gold users including me.