Debug Android Source Builds

Question

There's documentation to build the android source code base. But it's hard to find information on how to run the android os and its applications in the emulator environment so you can test your changes.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I am unfamiliar with Linux development.

Answer 1

you need to run the emulator you just built. if you've followed the build instructions, it should be on your path, so just run it.

running "source build/envsetup.sh" from the root of your source tree is a good way to ensure you've got pretty much the same setup that google engineers use.

a quick web search found this, which looks about right to me:

http://devtcg.blogspot.com/2009/03/building-running-and-debugging-android.html

(though i'd use "lunch generic-eng" rather than a numeric lunch. and, yes, that really is "lunch", as in "lunch combo", as in "what would you like today?".)

if you want to test on a device, there are extra instructions:

http://source.android.com/documentation/building-for-dream