Get Android Source Code

This document describes how to set up your local work environment, how to use Repo to get the Android files, and how to build the files on your machine.

Related reading:

• For an overview of the entire code-review and code-update process, see Life of a Patch.
• For reference details about Repo, see Using Repo and Git.

What's in the source?

To see snapshots and histories of the files available in the public Android repositories, visit the GitWeb web interface.

The source is approximately 2.6GB in size. You will need 6GB free to complete the build.

Setting up your machine

To build the Android source files, you will need to use Linux or Mac OS. Building under Windows is not currently supported.

Linux

The Android build is routinely tested in house on recent versions of Ubuntu (10.04 and later), but most distributions should have the required build tools available. Reports of successes or failures on other distributions are welcome.

In general you will need:

• Python 2.4, which you can download from python.org.
• JDK 6 if you wish to build Gingerbread or newer; JDK 5 for Froyo or older. You can download either from java.sun.com.
• Git 1.5.4 or newer. You can find it at http://git.or.cz/.

Ubuntu Linux (64-bit)

The Sun JDK is no longer in Ubuntu's main package repository. In order to download it, you need to add the appropriate repository and indicate to the system which JDK should be used.

Java 6: for Gingerbread and newer

Java 5: for Froyo and older

To set up your development environment, install the following required packages:

You might also want Valgrind, a tool that will help you find memory leaks, stack corruption, array bounds overflows, etc.

Running Linux in a virtual machine

Mac OS X

To build the Android files in a Mac OS environment, you need an Intel/x86 machine running MacOS 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard), or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The Android build system and tools do not support the obsolete PowerPC architecture.

Android must be built on a case-sensitive file system because the sources contain files that differ only in case. We recommend that you build Android on a partition that has been formatted with the journaled file system HFS+. HFS+ is required to successfully build Mac OS applications such as the Android Emulator for OS X.

To set up your Mac OS development environment, follow these steps:

1. Install XCode from http://developer.apple.com. We recommend version 3.0 or newer. If you are not already registered as an Apple developer, you will have to create an Apple ID in order to download.
2. Install MacPorts from http://www.macports.org/.
3. Make sure that /opt/local/bin appears in your path BEFORE /usr/bin. If not, add
   export PATH=/opt/local/bin:$PATH
   to your ~/.bash_profile.
4. Get make, git, and GPG packages from port:
   $ POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 sudo port install gmake libsdl git-core gnupg
   If using Mac OS 10.4, also install bison:
   $ POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 sudo port install bison
5. Temporary step: There is a bug in gmake 3.82 that prevents android from building. You can install version 3.81 using MacPorts by taking the following steps:

   Edit /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf and a line that says

   file:///Users/Shared/dports
   above the rsync line. Then create this directory:
   $ mkdir /Users/Shared/dports
   In the new dports directory, run
   $ svn co --revision 50980 http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/devel/gmake/ devel/gmake/
   Create a port index for your new local repository:
   $ portindex /Users/Shared/dports
   Finally, install the old version of gmake with
   $ sudo port install gmake @3.81

6. Set an appropriate per-process file descriptor limit. To do this, add the following lines to your ~/.bash_profile:
   # set the number of open files to be 1024
   ulimit -S -n 1024

Installing Repo

Repo is a tool that makes it easier to work with Git in the context of Android. For more information about Repo, see Using Repo and Git.

To install, initialize, and configure Repo, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have a bin/ directory in your home directory, and that it is included in your path:
   $ mkdir ~/bin
   $ PATH=~/bin:$PATH
2. Download the Repo script and ensure it is executable:
   $ curl http://android.git.kernel.org/repo > ~/bin/repo
   $ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Initializing a Repo client

After installing Repo, set up your client to access the android source repository:

1. Create an empty directory to hold your working files:
   $ mkdir directory
   $ cd directory
2. Run repo init to bring down the latest version of Repo with all its most recent bug fixes. You must specify a URL for the manifest, which specifies where the various repositories included in the Android source will be placed within your working directory.
   $ repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git
   To check out a branch other than "master", specify it with -b:
   $ repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git -b cupcake
3. When prompted, please configure Repo with your real name and email address. To use the Gerrit code-review tool, you will need an email address that is connected with a registered Google account. Make sure this is a live address at which you can receive messages. The name that you provide here will show up in attributions for your code submissions.

Getting the files

To pull down files to your working directory from the repositories as specified in the default manifest, run

The Android source files will be located in your working directory under their project names.

Verifying Git Tags

Load the following public key into your GnuPG key database. The key is used to sign annotated tags that represent releases.

Building the code

To build the files, run envsetup, lunch, and make from within your working directory:

What's next?

See Using Eclipse for instructions on how to use an IDE for Android platform development. To learn about reporting an issue and searching previously reported issues, see Report bugs. For information about editing the files and uploading changes to the code-review server, see Contribute.