Using alternate version of NDK for library compliation

Issue

I don't have any experience with the NDK, and I am trying to debug an issue in a library I use. Apologies for my lack of knowledge on the issue. The library is packaged as an aar file.

The library is reporting an uncaught exception, and references ndk-r12-release in the error:

A/libc: /Volumes/Android/buildbot/src/android/ndk-r12-release/ndk/sources/cxx-stl/llvm-libc++abi/libcxxabi/src/abort_message.cpp:74: void abort_message(const char *, ...): assertion "terminating with uncaught exception of type char const*" failed
A/libc: Fatal signal 6 (SIGABRT) at 0x000066f2 (code=-6), thread 26754 (Thread-9778)

Discussing the issue with the developers of the library they tell me that it was built using "ndk-r13-release" and that using r13 solved a similar issue to what I am seeing.

Initially I did not have any NDK installed, and later installed the newest NDK from Android studio, version 13.1.3345770, and still I see the same reference to r12 in logcat.

My app is entirely Java, and has no other NDK library than this one component. So again, I am a bit uninformed to the ways of the NDK side of Android.

My question is whether or not the library, provided as an aar, is precompiled, and if this reference to ndk-r12-release would mean that it was in fact compiled with that, rather than r13 as I am being told? or am I compiling the library during my build, and am I able to force the library to use r13?

Any insight is welcomed!

Solution

From what you are saying, it seems like the problem cannot be your local NDK - a fact is that you did not have an NDK installed before, as you mentioned.

An aar file is a zipped file, like a Jar file, and the C++ library is already built inside. It seems to me that the library was built with NDK r12 - so if the library requires NDK r13 - you need to rebuild it with this version (or ask the developers to provide you with one).

Answered By - yakobom