Android Debug Bridge (adb)

Chien-Chung ShenCIS, UD

cshen@cis.udel.edu

Introduction to adb

• Located in <sdk>/platform-tools• A versatile command line tool using client-server

paradigm of 3 components– Client on development machine: invoke a client from shell by running adb

command– Server on development machine– adb daemon on emulator or device

• When starting an adb client, check whether a server is running. If not, starts one which binds itself to local TCP port 5037

• Server sets up connections to all emulator/device instances by scanning odd-numbered ports in [5555,5585]– Even-numbered port – console connection– Odd-numbered port – adb connection

• More at http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html

Some Useful adb Commands

• adb push/pull• adb shell <shell command>• Remote shell - adb shell

– SharedPreferences files are stored in /data/data/<pkg name>/shared_prefs– e.g., root@android:/data/data/com.deitel.favoritetwittersearches/shared_prefs