How to compile C into an executable binary file and run it in Android from Android Shell?

Asked 2012-03-26T07:39:51.860

I have a Device on which I installed Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 Here i want to run C executable file on android device

I am able to run android NDK application on this Device and it runs perfect. But I want to run only one hello.c executable file on the Device.

/* #includes #defines ... */

int main(){
    // Do something when this is executed
    return 0;
}

Is there any way to compile this file with Android NDK tool chain so I can run this file's executable?

I found one thing here but this is not working for me. I am using Android NDK, Revision 7b for Linux. There is no directory structure like this.

android c android-ndk

Edit Report

2 Answers

First, let me say that my answer is dependent on your using NDK r7b (it'll work for r7c as well) on Linux (change paths appropriately for other systems).

Edit: Last tested with NDK r8e on Linux and Nexus 4 with adb from SDK Platform-Tools Rev 18 on Windows 7 (latest as of 2013-07-25) without root access.

Yet Another Edit: Please read this question for altering my instruction for native binaries that need to run on Android 5.0(Lollypop) and later.

Go to $NDK_ROOT (The topmost folder of NDK zip when unzipped).
Copy $NDK_ROOT/samples/hello-jni directory as $NDK_ROOT/sources/hello-world.
Go to $NDK_ROOT/sources/hello-world.
Edit AndroidManifest.xml to give the application an appropriate name (This is optional).
Go to $NDK_ROOT/sources/hello-world/jni. This is where the source code is.

Edit hello-jni.c, remove all the code, and put in your hello world code. Mine is:

#include 
int main( int argc, char* argv[])
{
    printf("Hello, World!");
    return 0;
}

Edit Android.mk and change the line include $(BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARY) to include $(BUILD_EXECUTABLE). You can also change the LOCAL_MODULE line to the name you want for your executable(default is hello-jni)
Go back to $NDK_ROOT/sources/hello-world
Run ../../ndk-build to create the executable.
Copy it from $NDK_ROOT/sources/hello-jni/libs/armeabi/hello-jni to /data/local/tmp on the Android device and change it's permissi

answered 2012-04-24T19:40:27.540

the "/sdcard" location is not executable, meaning that any file there is not executable at all.

the only way to "adb push" executable would be to put them in "/data/local", which should be writable for adb, and allow execution for anyone.

answered 2012-03-26T07:47:29.650

How to compile C into an executable binary file and run it in Android from Android Shell?

2 Answers

Your Answer