175 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
175 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
page.title=Tools Help
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@jd:body
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<p>The Android SDK includes a variety of tools that help you develop mobile
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applications for the Android platform. The tools are classified into two groups: SDK tools
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and platform tools. SDK tools are platform independent and are required no matter which
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Android platform you are developing on. Platform tools are customized to support the features of the
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latest Android platform.</p>
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<h2 id="tools-sdk">SDK Tools</h2>
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<p>The SDK tools are installed with the SDK starter package and are periodically updated.
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The SDK tools are required if you are developing Android applications. The most important SDK tools
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include the Android SDK Manager (<code>android sdk</code>), the AVD Manager (<code>android
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avd</code>) the emulator (<code>emulator</code>), and the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server
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(<code>ddms</code>). A short summary of some frequently-used SDK tools is provided below.</p>
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<h3 id="tools-virtual-device">Virtual Device Tools</h3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/avd-manager.html">Android Virtual Device Manager</a></dt>
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<dd>The AVD Manager provides a graphical user interface in which you can create
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and manage Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) that run in the Android Emulator. </dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/emulator.html">Android Emulator (emulator)</a></dt>
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<dd>A QEMU-based device-emulation tool that you can use to debug and test
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your applications in an actual Android run-time environment.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/mksdcard.html">mksdcard</a></dt>
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<dd>Helps you create a disk image that you can use with the emulator, to simulate the presence
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of an external storage card (such as an SD card).</dd>
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</dl>
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<h3 id="tools-development">Development Tools</h3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/android.html">android</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you manage AVDs, projects, and the installed components of the SDK.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/hierarchy-viewer.html">Hierarchy Viewer (hierarchyviewer)</a></dt>
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<dd>Provides a visual representation of the layout's View hierarchy with performance information
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for each node in the layout, and a magnified view of the display to closely examine the
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pixels in your layout.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/lint.html">lint</a></dt>
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<dd>The Android {@code lint} tool is a static code analysis tool that checks your Android
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project source files for potential bugs and optimization improvements.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/sdk-manager.html">SDK Manager</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you manage SDK packages, such as installed platforms and system images.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/sqlite3.html">sqlite3</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you access the SQLite data files created and used by Android applications.</dd>
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</dl>
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<h3 id="tools-debugging">Debugging Tools</h3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/adb.html">adb</a></dt>
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<dd>Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile command line tool that lets you communicate with
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an emulator instance or connected Android-powered device. It also provides access to the
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device shell.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/shell.html">ADB Shell Commands</a></dt>
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<dd>Learn the commands available for advanced command-line operations.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/debugging/ddms.html">Dalvik Debug Monitor
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Server (ddms)</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you debug Android applications.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/monitor.html">Device Monitor</a></dt>
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<dd>Android Device Monitor is a stand-alone tool that provides a graphical user interface for
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several Android application debugging and analysis tools.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/dmtracedump.html">dmtracedump</a></dt>
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<dd>Generates graphical call-stack diagrams from trace log files. The tool uses the
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Graphviz Dot utility to create the graphical output, so you need to install Graphviz before
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running <code>dmtracedump</code>. For more information on using <code>dmtracedump</code>, see <a
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href="{@docRoot}tools/debugging/debugging-tracing.html#dmtracedump">Profiling
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with Traceview and dmtracedump</a></dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/hprof-conv.html">hprof-conv</a></dt>
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<dd>Converts the HPROF file that is generated by the Android SDK tools to a standard format so
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you can view the file in a profiling tool of your choice.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/systrace.html">Systrace</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you analyze the execution of your application in the context of system processes,
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to help diagnose display and performance issues.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/traceview.html">traceview</a></dt>
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<dd>Provides a graphical viewer for execution logs saved by your application.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/systrace.html">Systrace</a></dt>
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<dd>Lets you analyze the execution of your application in the context of system processes,
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to help diagnose display and performance issues.</dd>
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</dl>
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<h3 id="tools-build">Build Tools</h3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/jobb.html">JOBB</a></dt>
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<dd>Allows you to build encrypted and unencrypted
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<a href="{@docRoot}google/play/expansion-files.html">APK expansion files</a> in Opaque
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Binary Blob (OBB) format.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/proguard.html">ProGuard</a></dt>
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<dd>Shrinks, optimizes, and obfuscates your code by removing unused code and renaming
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classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscure names.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/zipalign.html">zipalign</a></dt>
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<dd>Optimizes <code>.apk</code> files by ensuring that all uncompressed data starts with a
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particular alignment relative to the start of the file. This should always be used to align .apk
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files after they have been signed.</dd>
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</dl>
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<h3 id="tools-image">Image Tools</h3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/draw9patch.html">Draw 9-patch</a></dt>
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<dd>Allows you to easily create a {@link android.graphics.NinePatch} graphic using a
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WYSIWYG editor. It also previews stretched versions of the image, and highlights the area in which
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content is allowed.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/etc1tool.html">etc1tool</a></dt>
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<dd>A command line utility that lets you encode PNG images to the ETC1 compression standard and
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decode ETC1 compressed images back to PNG.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/gltracer.html">Tracer for OpenGL ES</a></dt>
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<dd>Allows you to capture OpenGL ES commands and frame by frame images to help you understand
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how your graphics commands are being executed.</dd>
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</dl>
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<h2 id="tools-platform">Platform Tools</h2>
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<p>The platform tools are typically updated every time you install a new SDK platform. Each update
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of the platform tools is backward compatible with older platforms. Usually, you directly use only
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one of the platform tools—the <a href="adb.html">Android Debug Bridge (<code>adb</code>)</a>.
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Android Debug Bridge is a versatile tool that lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or
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Android-powered device. You can also use it to install an Android application (.apk) file on a
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device.</p>
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<p>The other platform tools, such as <a href="{@docRoot}guide/components/aidl.html">aidl</a>,
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<code>aapt</code>, <code>dexdump</code>, and <code>dx</code>, are typically called by the Android
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build tools or Android Development Tools (ADT), so you rarely need to invoke these tools directly.
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As a general rule, you should rely on the build tools or the ADT plugin to call them as needed.</p>
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<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The Android SDK provides additional shell tools that can
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be accessed through <code>adb</code>, such as <a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/bmgr.html">bmgr</a> and
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<a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/logcat.html">logcat</a>.</p>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/bmgr.html">bmgr</a></dt>
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<dd>A shell tool you can use to interact with the Backup Manager on Android devices supporting
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API Level 8 or greater.</dd>
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<dt><a href="{@docRoot}tools/help/logcat.html">logcat</a></dt>
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<dd>Provides a mechanism for collecting and viewing system debug output.</dd>
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</dl>
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