ndk/docs/INSTALL.TXT

Android NDK Installation

Introduction:
-------------

Please read docs/OVERVIEW.TXT to understand what the Android NDK is and is not.
This file gives instructions on how to properly setup your NDK.


I. Requirements:
----------------

The Android NDK currently requires a Linux, OS X or Windows host operating system.
Windows users will need to install Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com) to use it. Note
that running the NDK under MSys has not been tested.

You will need to have the Android SDK and its dependencies installed. The NDK
cannot generate final application packages (.apk files), only the shared library
files that can go into them.


IMPORTANT:
    The Android NDK can only be used to target system images using
    the Cupcake (1.5) or later releases of the platform.

    This is due to subtle toolchain and ABI related changed that make
    it incompatible with 1.0 and 1.1 system images.

The NDK also requires GNU Make 3.81 or later being available on your development
system. Earlier versions of GNU Make might work but have not been tested.

You can check this by running 'make -v' from the command-line. The output
should look like:

    GNU Make 3.81
    Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    ...

On certain systems, GNU Make might be available through a different command like
'gmake' or 'gnumake'. For these systems, replace 'make' by the appropriate command
when invoking the NDK build system as described in the documentation.

On Windows, you will need to install a recent release of Cygwin to use the NDK.
See http://www.cygwin.com for instructions.


II. Download prebuilt cross-toolchain binaries:
-----------------------------------------------

Certain Android NDK packages do not include the host-specific binaries of the
cross-toolchain(s) required to build ARM binaries on Linux, OS X or Windows.

Check whether build/prebuilt/<system> exists and is populated, where <system>
is one of the following:

  linux-x86
  linux-x86_64
  darwin-x86
  windows

If not, you might need to download a package named:

  android-ndk-prebuilt-<system>-<date>.tar.bz2

And unpack it in the top-level NDK directory. For example, on 32-bit Linux:

  cd $NDK
  tar xjf android-ndk-prebuilt-linux-x86-<date>.tar.bz2

Please read docs/PREBUILTS.TXT to lean how to get the prebuilt packages.