<li>A client, which runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a shell by issuing an adb command. Other Android tools such as the ADT plugin and DDMS also create adb clients. </li>
<li>A server, which runs as a background process on your development machine. The server manages communication between the client and the adb daemon running on an emulator or device. </li>
<li>A daemon, which runs as a background process on each emulator or device instance. </li>
<p>When you start an adb client, the client first checks whether there is an adb server process already running. If there isn't, it starts the server process. When the server starts, it binds to local TCP port 5037 and listens for commands sent from adb clients—all adb clients use port 5037 to communicate with the adb server. </p>
<p>The server then sets up connections to all running emulator/device instances. It locates emulator/device instances by scanning odd-numbered ports in the range 5555 to 5585, the range used by emulators/devices. Where the server finds an adb daemon, it sets up a connection to that port. Note that each emulator/device instance acquires a pair of sequential ports — an even-numbered port for console connections and an odd-numbered port for adb connections. For example: </p>
<p>As shown, the emulator instance connected to adb on port 5555 is the same as the instance whose console listens on port 5554. </p>
<p>Once the server has set up connections to all emulator instances, you can use adb commands to control and access those instances. Because the server manages connections to emulator/device instances and handles commands from multiple adb clients, you can control any emulator/device instance from any client (or from a script).</p>
<p>The sections below describe the commands that you can use to access adb capabilities and manage the state of an emulator/device. Note that if you are developing Android applications in Eclipse and have installed the ADT plugin, you do not need to access adb from the command line. The ADT plugin provides a transparent integration of adb into the Eclipse IDE. However, you can still use adb directly as necessary, such as for debugging.</p>
<p>When you issue a command, the program invokes an adb client. The client is not specifically associated with any emulator instance, so if multiple emulators/devices are running, you need to use the <code>-d</code> option to specify the target instance to which the command should be directed. For more information about using this option, see <a href="#directingcommands">Directing Commands to a Specific Emulator/Device Instance</a>. </p>
<a name="devicestatus"></a>
<h2>Querying for Emulator/Device Instances</h2>
<p>Before issuing adb commands, it is helpful to know what emulator/device instances are connected to the adb server. You can generate a list of attached emulators/devices using the <code>devices</code> command: </p>
<pre>adb devices</pre>
<p>In response, adb prints this status information for each instance:</p>
<ul>
<li>Serial number — A string created by adb to uniquely identify an emulator/device instance by its
console port number. The format of the serial number is <code><type>-<consolePort></code>.
Here's an example serial number: <code>emulator-5554</code></li>
<p>The output for each instance is formatted like this: </p>
<pre>[serialNumber] [state]</pre>
<p>Here's an example showing the <code>devices</code> command and its output:</p>
<pre>$ adb devices
List of devices attached
emulator-5554 device
emulator-5556 device
emulator-5558 device</pre>
<a name="directingcommands"></a>
<h2>Directing Commands to a Specific Emulator/Device Instance</h2>
<p>If multiple emulator/device instances are running, you need to specify a target instance when issuing adb commands. To so so, use the <code>-s</code> option in the commands. The usage for the <code>-s</code> option is:</p>
<p>As shown, you specify the target instance for a command using its adb-assigned serial number. You can use the <code>devices</code> command to obtain the serial numbers of running emulator/device instances. </p>
<p>Note that, if you issue a command without specifying a target emulator/device instance using <code>-s</code>, adb generates an error.
<a name="move"></a>
<h2>Installing an Application</h2>
<p>You can use adb to copy an application from your development computer and install it on an emulator/device instance. To do so, use the <code>install</code> command. With the command, you must specify the path to the .apk file that you want to install:</p>
<p>Note that, if you are using the Eclipse IDE and have the ADT plugin installed, you do not need to use adb (or aapt) directly to install your application on the emulator/device. Instead, the ADT plugin handles the packaging and installation of the application for you. </p>
<a name="forwardports"></a>
<h2>Forwarding Ports</h2>
<p>You can use the <code>forward</code> command to set up arbitrary port forwarding — forwarding of requests on a specific host port to a different port on an emulator/device instance. Here's how you would set up forwarding of host port 6100 to emulator/device port 7100:</p>
<pre>adb forward tcp:6100 tcp:7100</pre>
<p>You can also use adb to set up forwarding to named abstract UNIX domain sockets, as illustrated here:</p>
<pre>adb forward tcp:6100 local:logd </pre>
<a name="copyfiles"></a>
<h2>Copying Files to or from an Emulator/Device Instance</h2>
<p>You can use the adb commands <code>pull</code> and <code>push</code> to copy files to and from an emulator/device instance's data file. Unlike the <code>install</code> command, which only copies an .apk file to a specific location, the <code>pull</code> and <code>push</code> commands let you copy arbitrary directories and files to any location in an emulator/device instance. </p>
<p>To copy a file or directory (recursively) <em>from</em> the emulator or device, use</p>
<pre>adb pull <remote> <local></pre>
<p>To copy a file or directory (recursively) <em>to</em> the emulator or device, use</p>
<pre>adb push <local> <remote></pre>
<p>In the commands, <code><local></code> and <code><remote></code> refer to the paths to the target files/directory on your development machine (local) and on the emulator/device instance (remote).</p>
<p>Here's an example: </p>
<pre>adb push foo.txt /sdcard/foo.txt</pre>
<a name="commandsummary"></a>
<h2>Listing of adb Commands</h2>
<p>The table below lists all of the supported adb commands and explains their meaning and usage. </p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Category</th>
<th>Command</th>
<th>Description</th>
<th>Comments</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="3">Options</td>
<td><code>-d</code></td>
<td>Direct an adb command to the only attached USB device.</td>
<td>Returns an error if more than one USB device is attached.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>-e</code></td>
<td>Direct an adb command to the only running emulator instance.</td>
<td>Returns an error if more than one emulator instance is running. </td>
<li><code>[parm]... </code> — zero or more PPP/PPPD options, such as <code>defaultroute</code>, <code>local</code>, <code>notty</code>, etc.</li></ul>
<td>Prints the adb instance serial number string.</td>
<td rowspan="2">See <a href="#devicestatus">Querying for Emulator/Device Instances</a> for more information. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>get-state</code></td>
<td>Prints the adb state of an emulator/device instance.</td>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>wait-for-device</code></td>
<td>Blocks execution until the device is online — that is, until the instance state is <code>device</code>.</td>
<td>You can prepend this command to other adb commands, in which case adb will wait until the emulator/device instance is connected before issuing the other commands. Here's an example:
<pre>adb wait-for-device shell getprop</pre>
Note that this command does <em>not</em> cause adb to wait until the entire system is fully booted. For that reason, you should not prepend it to other commands that require a fully booted system. As an example, the <code>install</code> requires the Android package manager, which is available only after the system is fully booted. A command such as
would issue the <code>install</code> command as soon as the emulator or device instance connected to the adb server, but before the Android system was fully booted, so it would result in an error. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2">Server</td>
<td><code>start-server</code></td>
<td>Checks whether the adb server process is running and starts it, if not.</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>kill-server</code></td>
<td>Terminates the adb server process.</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2">Shell</td>
<td><code>shell</code></td>
<td>Starts a remote shell in the target emulator/device instance.</td>
<td rowspan="2">See <a href="#shellcommands">Issuing Shell Commands</a> for more information. </td>
<p>When you are ready to exit the remote shell, use <code>CTRL+D</code> or <code>exit</code> to end the shell session. </p>
<p>The sections below provide more information about shell commands that you can use.</p>
<a name="sqlite" id="sqlite"></a>
<h3>Examining sqlite3 Databases from a Remote Shell</h3>
<p>From an adb remote shell, you can use the
<a href="http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite.html">sqlite3</a> command-line program to
manage SQLite databases created by Android applications. The
<code>sqlite3</code> tool includes many useful commands, such as
<code>.dump</code> to print out the contents of a table and
<code>.schema</code> to print the SQL CREATE statement for an existing table.
The tool also gives you the ability to execute SQLite commands on the fly.</p>
<p>To use <code>sqlite3</code>, enter a remote shell on the emulator instance, as described above, then invoke the tool using the <code>sqlite3</code> command. Optionally, when invoking <code>sqlite3</code> you can specify the full path to the database you want to explore. Emulator/device instances store SQLite3 databases in the folder <code><span chatdir="1"><span chatindex="259474B4B070F261">/data/data/<em><package_name></em>/databases</span></span>/</code>. </p>
<p>Once you've invoked <code>sqlite3</code>, you can issue <code>sqlite3</code> commands in the shell. To exit and return to the adb remote shell, use <code>exit</code> or <code>CTRL+D</code>.
<a name="monkey"></a>
<h3>UI/Application Exerciser Monkey</h3>
<p>The Monkey is a program that runs on your emulator or device and generates pseudo-random
streams of user events such as clicks, touches, or gestures, as well as a number of system-level
events. You can use the Monkey to stress-test applications that you are developing,
in a random yet repeatable manner.</p>
<p>The simplest way to use the monkey is with the following command, which will launch your
application and send 500 pseudo-random events to it.</p>
<p>The table below lists several of the adb shell commands available. For a complete list of commands and programs, start an emulator instance and use the <code>adb -help</code> command. </p>
<pre>adb shell ls /system/bin</pre>
<p>Help is available for most of the commands. </p>
<p>The Android logging system provides a mechanism for collecting and viewing system debug output. Logs from various applications and portions of the system are collected in a series of circular buffers, which then can be viewed and filtered by the <code>logcat</code> command.</p>
<p>You can use the <code>logcat</code> command to view and follow the contents of the system's log buffers. The general usage is:</p>
<p>You can use the <code>logcat</code> command from your development computer or from a remote adb shell in an emulator/device instance. To view log output in your development computer, you use</p>
<p>See <a href="{@docRoot}tools/debugging/debugging-log.html">Reading and Writing Logs</a> for complete information about logcat commend options and filter specifications.</p>
<p>In some cases, you might need to terminate the adb server process and then restart it. For example, if adb does not respond to a command, you can terminate the server and restart it and that may resolve the problem. </p>
<p>To stop the adb server, use the <code>kill-server</code>. You can then restart the server by issuing any adb command. </p>
