Inside the android build system

del.icio.us Tags: android

With one day of study, my first impress is that android has a pretty good build architecture.

• support multiple targets/hosts/toolchains
• has good templates for developer to insert new modules for android (app/static/dynamic/C|C++ executables/Java libraries)
• has a pretty good document about build system in source tree (see below)
• it’s non-recursive makefile architecture which will be base for build faster
• centralized output directory across platform which get “make clean” more reliable
• support component standalone build/clean
• support CCACHE which help build faster via reusing objects
• support parallel build on multiple-CPU/core computer (make –j <N>)
• support different mode of build (eng/user/userdebug)
• good architect to support both global variables and local variables well
  

TODO list for myself

• study how dependency is managed
• study how stuffs are compiled into final image (system.img)
• study how to release SDK periodically for developers
• study if it could be compiled with distcc quickly
• how to get modules compiled/debug in eclipse directly without turn to command line
• how to add a new product support base on android
• frequently used SCM rules when developing android modules
• summarize a internal quick-start guideline for my team
• naming rules for version number of various build (version_defaults.mk)
• study how the published api change is detected
• how to support different localization
• stay tuned for more

 

References:

• * Anroid build system overview (<root>/development/pdk/docs/build_system.html)
• * Android build system guide (<root>/build/core/build-system.html)
• Android编译环境(1) - 编译Native C的helloworld模块
• Porting Android to A1200
• Android build system [from discuz-android.blogspot.com]
• Android-DL Wiki
• Android build system [from Steve Guo Blog]
• Android on OMAP