Create android apk manually via command line (Makefile)

Issue

Problem

I want to create an android app

• via a vim & makefile only
• no gradle, no ant, no maven, no android.mk and all other stuff

Why?

It is a high performance C++ code that is wrapped for an android device.

• Ergo, I do not need 99% of gradles services
• 15+ seconds built time via gradle for a small program? That is unacceptable.
• The incorporation of native code in gradle is ridiculous. These gradle guys come up with an experimental ndk plugin that keeps changing syntax.
• I only target ARMv8-A. I will have partly AARCH64 assembler code. And I use a pre-processor m4 that generates *.cpp before they get compiled. Can't imagine gradle has something for this.

My Progress

I know that the following steps are REQUIRED:

1. Create keystore by keytool from $JAVA_HOME/bin.
2. Compile source files via javac from $JAVA_HOME/bin.
3. Create Dalvik Executables for the device by dx from $ANDROID_HOME/built-tools.
4. Create the .apk file by aapt from $ANDROID_HOME/built-tools.
5. Sign apk package by jarsigner from $JAVA_HOME/bin.
6. Align apk package by zipalign from $ANDROID_HOME/built-tools.
7. Install software on phone by adb from $ANDROID_HOME/tools.

The app crashes on startup. Even when I want to create a blank activity.

-

Solution

ok, I figured it out. I placed my sample code on https://github.com/skanti/Android-Manual-Build-Command-Line

Hope it helps you guys too.

Answered By - Armen Avetisyan