From c46efe6696ff5532335102cb381ca2ca6a9d4261 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Katie McCormick android
tool offers a graphical Android AVD
- Manager and a command-line interface for creating AVDs.android
tool. The android
tool also offers
+a command-line interface for creating and managing AVDs.In this document
-
@@ -74,15 +71,12 @@ reference of emulator options, please see the Emulator
documentation.
To create and manage AVDs, you use the android
tool provided in
-the tools/
directory of the Android SDK. The tool provides both a
-graphical AVD manager and a command-line interface that you can use to
-create AVDs. To access the graphical AVD manager, run the
-android
tool without options. The sections below describe how to
-use the android
command-line interface to create and manage AVDs.
-Note that some functionality, such as the capability to create an AVD with a
-custom hardware configuration, are only available through the command-line
-interface.
The easiest way to create an AVD is to use the graphical AVD Manager, which
+you can launch from Eclipse or from the command line using the
+android
tool. The android
tool is provided in the
+tools/
directory of the Android SDK. When you run the
+android
tool without options, it launches the graphical AVD
+Manager.
For more information about how to work with AVDs from inside your development
environment, see
-
- To create an AVD, you use the To create each AVD, you issue the command Here's the command-line usage for creating an AVD: You can use any name you want for the AVD, but since you are likely to be
-creating multiple AVDs, you should choose a name that lets you recognize the
-general characteristics offered by the AVD. As shown in the usage above, you must use the
-
- To specify the system image to use, you refer to its target ID
-— an integer — as assigned by the To generate a list of system image targets, use this command: The Once you have generated the list of targets available, you can look at the
-characteristics of each system image — name, API Level, external
-libraries, and so on — and determine which target is appropriate for the
-new AVD. Keep these points in mind when you are selecting a system image target for
-your AVD: When you've selected the target you want to use and made a note of its ID,
-use the If the target you selected was a standard Android system image ("Type:
-platform"), the If you want to set custom hardware emulation options for the AVD, enter
-"yes" and set values as needed. If you want to use the default hardware
-emulation options for the AVD, just press the return key (the default is "no").
-The If you are creating an AVD whose target is an SDK add-on, the
- For a list of options you can use in the The easiest way to create an AVD is to use the graphical AVD Manager, but the
+ To create an AVD: Alternatively, you can launch the graphical AVD Manager by running the
+ The Create New AVD dialog appears. The target is the system image that you want to run on the emulator,
+from the set of platforms that are installed in your SDK environment. You can
+choose a version of the standard Android platform or an SDK add-on. For more
+information about how to add platforms to your SDK, see Adding SDK Components. When are creating a new AVD that uses a standard Android system image ("Type:
-platform"), the When you create a new AVD that uses a standard Android system image ("Type:
+platform"), the AVD Manager
+ lets you set hardware emulation
+options for your virtual device.
+The table below lists the options available and the
default values, as well as the names of properties that store the emulated
-hardware options in the AVD's configuration file (the config.ini file in the
+hardware options in the AVD's configuration file (the android
tool, a command-line
-utility available in the <sdk>/tools/
directory. Managing
-AVDs is one of the two main function of the android
tool (the other
-is creating and updating Android projects). Open a terminal window and change to
-the <sdk>/tools/
directory, if neededandroid create avd
,
-with options that specify a name for the new AVD and the system image you want
-to run on the emulator when the AVD is invoked. You can specify other options on
-the command line also, such as to create an emulated SD card for the new AVD, set
-the emulator skin to use, or set a custom location for the AVD's files.android create avd -n <name> -t <targetID> [-<option> <value>] ...
-
--t
(or
---target
) argument when creating a new AVD. The argument sets up a
-mapping between the AVD and the system image that you want to use whenever the
-AVD is invoked. You can specify any Android system image that is available in
-your local SDK — it can be the system image of a standard Android platform
-version or that of any SDK add-on. Later, when applications use the AVD, they'll
-be running on the system that you specify in the -t
argument.android
tool. The
-target ID is not derived from the system image name, version, or API Level, or
-other attribute, so you need to have the android
tool list the
-available system images and the target ID of each, as described in the next
-section. You should do this before you run the android create
-avd
command.
-Listing targets
-
-android list targets
-
-android
tool scans the <sdk>/platforms
and
-<sdk>/add-ons
directories looking for valid system images and
-then generates the list of targets. Here's an example of the command output:
-Available Android targets:
-id:1
- Name: Android 1.1
- Type: platform
- API level: 2
- Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, HVGA-P, QVGA-L, QVGA-P
-id:2
- Name: Android 1.5
- Type: platform
- API level: 3
- Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, HVGA-P, QVGA-L, QVGA-P
-id:3
- Name: Google APIs
- Type: add-on
- Vendor: Google Inc.
- Description: Android + Google APIs
- Based on Android 1.5 (API level 3)
- Libraries:
- * com.google.android.maps (maps.jar)
- API for Google Maps
- Skins: HVGA (default), HVGA-L, QVGA-P, HVGA-P, QVGA-L
-
-Selecting a target
-
-
-
-
-minSdkVersion
attribute of
-the application's manifest file. For more information about the relationship
-between system API Level and application minSdkVersion
, see Specifying
-Minimum System API Version.
-uses-library
element in its
-manifest file, the application can only run on a system image in which that
-external library is present. If you want your application to run on the AVD you
-are creating, check the application's uses-library
element and
-select a system image target that includes that library.
-
-Creating the AVD
-
-android create avd
command to create the AVD, supplying the
-target ID as the -t
argument. Here's an example that creates an
-AVD with name "my_android1.5" and target ID "2" (the standard Android 1.5
-system image in the list above): android create avd -n my_android1.5 -t 2
-
-android
tool next asks you whether you want to
-create a custom hardware profile. Android 1.5 is a basic Android platform.
-Do you wish to create a custom hardware profile [no]
-
-android
tool creates the AVD with name and system image mapping you
-requested, with the options you specified.
-
-android
tool does not allow you to set hardware emulation options.
-It assumes that the provider of the add-on has set emulation options
-appropriately for the device that the add-on is modeling, and so prevents you
-from resetting the options. android create avd
-command, see the table in Command-line options for AVDs,
-at the bottom of
-this page. android
tool also offers a command line option.
+
android
tool with no options.
+
+Setting hardware emulation options
-android
tool lets you set hardware emulation
-options for virtual device. The table below lists the options available and the
+config.ini
file in the
AVD's local directory).
Keyboard support | Whether the device has a QWERTY keyboard. Default value is "yes". | hw.keyboard | @@ -299,6 +199,7 @@ AVD's local directory).Maximum vertical camera pixels | Default value is "480". | hw.camera.maxVerticalPixels | +
Battery support | Whether the device can run on a battery. Default value is "yes". | hw.battery | +|||
Audio recording support | Whether the device can record audio. Default value is "yes". | hw.audioInput | +|||
SD Card support | Whether the device supports insertion/removal of virtual SD Cards. Default value is "yes". | hw.sdCard | +|||
Cache partition size | Default value is "66MB". | disk.cachePartition.size | +|||
Abstracted LCD density | -Sets the generalized density characteristic used by the AVD's screen. Default value is "160". | +Sets the generalized density characteristic used by the AVD's screen. Most +skins come with a value (which you can modify), but if a skin doesn't provide +its own value, the default is 160. | hw.lcd.density | ||
Max VM application heap size | +The maximum heap size a Dalvik application might allocate before being +killed by the system. Value is in megabytes. Most skins come with a value (which +you can modify), but if a skin doesn't provide its own value, the default is +16. | +vm.heapSize | +
When you create an AVD, the android
tool creates a dedicated directory for it
+
When you create an AVD, the AVD Manager creates a dedicated directory for it on your development computer. The directory contains the AVD configuration file, the user data image and SD card image (if available), and any other files associated with the device. Note that the directory does not contain a system image — instead, the AVD configuration file contains a mapping to the system image, which it loads when the AVD is launched.
-The android
tool also creates a <AVD name>.ini file for the AVD at the
-root of the .android/avd directory on your computer. The file specifies the
-location of the AVD directory and always remains at the root the .android
-directory.
The AVD Manager also creates a <AVD name>.ini
file for the
+AVD at the root of the .android/avd
directory on your computer. The file
+specifies the location of the AVD directory and always remains at the root the
+.android directory.
By default, the android
tool creates the AVD directory inside
+
By default, the AVD Manager creates the AVD directory inside
~/.android/avd/
(on Linux/Mac), C:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\.android\
on Windows XP, and
C:\Users\<user>\.android\
on Windows Vista.
If you want to use a custom location for the AVD directory, you
can do so by using the -p <path>
option when
-you create the AVD:
android create avd -n my_android1.5 -t 2 -p path/to/my/avd-
If the .android directory is hosted on a network drive, we recommend using +
If the .android
directory is hosted on a network drive, we recommend using
the -p
option to place the AVD directory in another location.
-The AVD's .ini file remains in the .android directory on the network
+The AVD's .ini
file remains in the .android
directory on the network
drive, regardless of the location of the AVD directory.
If, for any reason, the platform/add-on root folder has its name changed (maybe because the user has installed an update of the platform/add-on) then the AVD will not be able to load the system image that it is mapped to. In this case, the android list targets
command will produce this output:
-
-
The following Android Virtual Devices could not be loaded: -Name: foo -Path: <path>/.android/avd/foo.avd -Error: Invalid value in image.sysdir. Run 'android update avd -n foo'- -
To fix this error, use the android update avd
command to recompute the path to the system images.
+If you rename or move the root directory of a platform (or add-on), an AVD configured to use that platform will no longer be able to load the system image properly. To fix the AVD, use the Repair... button in the AVD Manager. From the command line, you can also use the android update avd
command to recompute the path to the system images.
You can use the android
tool to delete an AVD. Here is the command usage:
You can delete an AVD in the AVD Manager by selecting the +AVD and clicking Delete.
+ +Alternatively, you can use the android
tool to delete an AVD. Here is the command usage:
android delete avd -n <name>@@ -420,7 +333,21 @@ Error: Invalid value in image.sysdir. Run 'android update avd -n foo' specified name deletes the AVD's directory and files. -
You can use the android
tool to create and manage AVDs.
The command line for creating an AVD has the following syntax:
+ ++android create avd -n <name> -t <targetID> [-<option> <value>] ... ++ +
Here's an example that creates an AVD with the name "my_android2.2" and target ID "3":
+ ++android create avd -n my_android2.2 -t 3 +
The table below lists the command-line options you can use with the
android
tool.