android-sdk-tools

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Build the Android platform-tools and build-tools from the AOSP source with CMake, such as aapt aapt2 aidl zipalign adb fastboot ... etc.

• Static by default: the executables are fully statically linked, no runtime dependencies
• Multiple toolchains: Android NDK, zig, the host compilers, or any CMake toolchain file
• Multiple arch: aarch64, arm, x86_64, i686
• Prebuilt binaries: built by GitHub Actions and published to Releases

If you need other tools, please refer to the existing tools to add a CMake file.

Tools

directory	tools
build-tools	aapt aapt2 aidl zipalign dexdump split-select
platform-tools	adb fastboot sqlite3 etc1tool hprof-conv e2fsdroid sload_f2fs mke2fs make_f2fs make_f2fs_casefold
others	veridex

Toolchains

toolchain	libc	output
ndk (default)	bionic	Android executables
zig	musl (static) / glibc (shared)	Linux executables, the static ones run on Android as well
host	the build machine ($CC/$CXX, clang by default)	native executables
custom	any CMake toolchain file	cross gcc / clang / musl-cross ...

The Android abi names arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86 are accepted for --arch as well.

The zig toolchain is experimental: the build system supports it, but some AOSP sources are only built for bionic / glibc upstream and may need extra patches for musl.

Download

Download android-sdk-tools-static-<arch>.zip from Releases. The release tag is the PLATFORM_TOOLS_VERSION of patches/misc/platform_tools_version.h, e.g. 36.0.0.

Build with Docker

The Dockerfile provides a build environment with the NDK, zig and all the dependencies, the project directory is mounted into the container.

docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t android-sdk-tools .

# fetch the sources and build with the NDK
docker run --rm -it --platform linux/amd64 -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -v "$PWD:/work" android-sdk-tools \
    sh -c "python3 get_source.py && python3 build.py --arch aarch64"

# build with zig
docker run --rm -it --platform linux/amd64 -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -v "$PWD:/work" android-sdk-tools \
    python3 build.py --toolchain zig --arch aarch64

Build arguments: NDK_VERSION (default r29) and ZIG_VERSION (default 0.16.0), set one to empty to skip it, e.g. --build-arg ZIG_VERSION=.

Build manually

1. Dependencies

git patch python3 cmake (>= 3.19) ninja bison flex go, a host C/C++ compiler, and the toolchain you want to use (NDK or zig).

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install git patch python3 cmake ninja-build bison flex golang-go build-essential

2. Get the source

get_source.py clones all the repositories of repository.json and applies the patches. The default tag is platform-tools-<PLATFORM_TOOLS_VERSION>.

python get_source.py

# specific branches or tags
# see available tags https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+refs
python get_source.py --tags platform-tools-36.0.0

# other options: --jobs (parallel clones), --retries, --skip-patch
python get_source.py --help

The source patches only apply to specific tags, a patch which can't be applied to the selected tag is skipped with a message.

3. Build

build.py builds the host protoc (used to generate the sources of aapt2 and adb) automatically, then compiles the tools and packages them as android-sdk-tools-<static|shared>-<arch>.zip.

# NDK (default toolchain), static link (default)
python build.py --ndk=/path/to/android-ndk-xxx --arch=aarch64

# zig, static musl executables
python build.py --toolchain=zig --arch=aarch64

# dynamic link
python build.py --ndk=/path/to/android-ndk-xxx --arch=aarch64 --link=shared

# the host compilers
python build.py --toolchain=host --arch=x86_64 --cc=clang --cxx=clang++

# any other toolchain with a CMake toolchain file
python build.py --toolchain=custom --toolchain-file=/path/to/toolchain.cmake --arch=aarch64

# use an existing host protoc
python build.py --ndk=/path/to/android-ndk-xxx --arch=aarch64 --protoc=/path/to/protoc

# build specified targets, recommended to locate errors
python build.py --ndk=/path/to/android-ndk-xxx --arch=aarch64 --target aapt2 adb

# extra cmake arguments after --
python build.py --toolchain=zig --arch=x86_64 -- -DSDK_STRIP=OFF

# all options
python build.py --help

The NDK path can also be set by ANDROID_NDK_HOME / ANDROID_NDK_ROOT. The build directory is build/<toolchain>-<link>-<arch>, the executables are in its bin directory.

Use CMake directly

option	default	description
SDK_STATIC	ON	link fully static executables
SDK_STRIP	ON	strip the executables at link time (Release)
PROTOC_PATH		the host protoc
ZIG_TARGET		target of cmake/toolchains/zig.cmake, e.g. aarch64-linux-musl
ZIG_CPU		optional -mcpu of zig, e.g. cortex_a53

cmake -GNinja -B build/zig -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/zig.cmake \
    -DZIG_TARGET=aarch64-linux-musl -DPROTOC_PATH=/path/to/protoc
ninja -C build/zig

Project layout

├── CMakeLists.txt            top-level project, third-party libraries
├── cmake/
│   ├── platform.cmake        static link, strip, system libraries (toolchain independent)
│   ├── zlib.cmake            bundled static zlib
│   ├── modules/FindZLIB.cmake  redirects find_package(ZLIB) to the bundled zlib
│   └── toolchains/zig.cmake  zig toolchain file
├── lib/                      AOSP libraries (libbase, libutils, liblog ...)
├── build-tools/              aapt, aapt2, aidl ...
├── platform-tools/           adb, fastboot ...
├── others/                   veridex
├── patches/                  source patches and generated files
├── repository.json           the source repositories
├── get_source.py             fetch the sources
├── build.py                  build and package
├── Dockerfile                build environment
└── .github/workflows/        CI

GitHub Actions

.github/workflows/build.yml builds all the arch on every push with the NDK (zig can be selected when running the workflow manually), then publishes a release:

• the tag is PLATFORM_TOOLS_VERSION, e.g. 36.0.0, the title is v36.0.0
• the release notes are the latest commit message (replaced, never appended)
• when PLATFORM_TOOLS_VERSION doesn't change, no new release is created: the assets of the existing release are overwritten and the tag is moved to the latest commit
• the assets are split by arch: android-sdk-tools-static-aarch64.zip, android-sdk-tools-static-arm.zip, android-sdk-tools-static-x86_64.zip, android-sdk-tools-static-i686.zip

Pull requests are built without publishing.

License

Apache License 2.0