Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) lets you connect your development workstation directly to your Android device so you can install packages and evaluate your changes. To learn the details of ADB, review its README.

Confirming you have ADB

The adb tool is part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). ADB is available after you've built or downloaded ADB.

To confirm you have the ADB binary, run the following command in a terminal:

adb version

If you have ADB installed, you see its version in the output.

Building ADB

If you don't yet have ADB, build Android. In summary:

  1. Check out the Android source code.
  2. Set up your environment and build Android:

    source build/envsetup.sh
    lunch <target>
    m
    

Downloading ADB

You can also download ADB as part of Android Studio or in the standalone SDK Platform Tools.

Enable USB debugging

Now enable USB Debugging on the Android device to allow the connection. You're also prompted when plugging the device into your machine.