Remote-Container Android Native Development

Quick Start Ubuntu

sudo apt install docker.io code
code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers
git clone https://github.com/JCThomas4214/rc-androidndk-dev-env && cd rc-androidndk-dev-env/src
cd src && git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/googletest

Quick Start Windows

1. Download and install VSCode
2. Download and install the Remote-Container extention from the VSCode pluggin store (or install the extension in powershell)

code --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers

3. Download and install Docker Desktop or Docker Toolbox and make sure you login with your username (not email) and password
4. Git clone the necessary repos

git clone https://github.com/JCThomas4214/rc-androidndk-dev-env && cd rc-androidndk-dev-env/src
cd src && git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/googletest

After Quick Start

1. Start VSCode and "Open Folder..." to the cloned repo
2. Once the project is open a notification toast will appear in the bottom right corner of the VSCode window. Click "Reopen in Container" (Alternatively, you can click the green button at the bottom left of the vscode window and click the same option)
3. Wait Patiently... It may take 5-10 minutes depending on your hardware and network connection (this only happens once)
4. Once VSCode is loaded as normal you will be able to run Compile, Build, and Clean tasks for the project

VSCode Tasks

Click the button labeled "Tasks" in the bottom blue bar to view tasks to run. You can also press ctrl+shift+P and write "task", and find "Run Task" to select tasks to run. The task heirarchy is the following. Deeper tasks will be run by their parents.

├─ Compile
├─ Debug    
└─ Clean           

Debugging with gdbserver

Using breakpoints in VScode works! VScode will attach to a gdbserver running on a connected android device. The "GDB Attach (port: 5039)" launch configuration will do most of the work for you. (Make sure your ENV is set to the DEBUG version at the top of .vscode/tasks.json before attempting as it will compile with necessary debug symbols).

1. Attach an Android device
2. Make sure you have access to the device with 'adb devices'. If you do not, it may be because you need to add USB access to the VM that's running docker (for Windows) or there's a problem with the container config (Look in .devcontainer/.devcontainer.json)
3. Select a breakpoint and run the launch configuration in the debug tab. The launch config will first push the specified compiled binary/gdbserver(64), then 'adb forward' port 5039 so to have access to the running server over adb. The server will now run and you will see output in the VScode terminal tab.
4. Once you see the listening port of the gdbserver in the terminal, restart the debug cycle using cntl+shift+F5 or the green restart button as the host gdb will not attach on first run

Issues: Currently gdbserver64 is being run statically in the 'Run GDB server' task. You will need to manually specify the 32-bit version in this task (in task.json) if needed. Only works out of the box over adb but can be configured to operate over IP from the device using the "miDebuggerServerAddress" attribute in .vscode/launch.json. Only works with a single attached android device (adb shell -s (ID) is not being used) so will break otherwise.

Future

• container size optimization

Sources

• https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides
• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers
• https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.17/
• https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/cmake
• https://source.android.com/devices/tech/debug/gdb
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53519668/how-to-attach-to-remote-gdb-with-vscode