Android SDK Tools in Debian
Description of the project: The Android platform is free software, including the tools used for developing apps for Android. Debian-derivatives are already a preferred platform for Android developers, and stretch already includes the core Android SDK tools, enough to build some apps. The Debian Android Tools team is working towards the goal of having the entire Android toolchain and SDK in Debian. That means Android apps can be developed using only free software from easy-to-use packages. In combination with Replicant, this will make the most popular operating system in the world, Android, into a 100% Free Software platform. This project is in conjunction with the Debian Java team, since many tools like gradle are for any Java software.
Confirmed Mentor: Hans-Christoph Steiner (UTC+2), hans@at.or.at and _hc on IRC
Confirmed co-mentors:
Chirayu Desai (UTC+5:30), chirayudesai1@gmail.com and cdesai on IRC
Andrej Shadura (UTC+2), andrewsh@debian.org, andrewsh on IRC
Saif Abdul Cassim (UTC+5:30), saif.15@cse.mrt.ac.lk and m36 on IRC
Deliverables of the project: The deliverables of this project will mostly be finished packages submitted to Debian sid, both for new packages and updated packages. Whenever possible, we should also try to get patches submitted and merged upstream in the Android sources.
Desirable skills: Building and packaging C/C++ and Java code, an understanding of git. Android development is preferable.
What the intern will learn: Students will learn to figure out large scale projects like Android, and how to organize their own work within such projects. They will also learn about building and packaging C and Java, as well as some of the guts of Android itself.
Application tasks: some test tasks that you want your applicants to complete during the application process. This helps us make sure the applicants are motivated to do the project, and to assess mentor/intern communication during the application step.
Related projects: links to some existing projects that are related.
Mentors affiliation with Debian: _hc, andrewsh, seamlik are DDs / cdesai is a member of Debian Android Tools Team
Application tasks: (simple tasks that could show your determination):
Find out what new/missing components (D8/R8? hidl-gen? sdkmanager?) and the location of their source code
build an Android app using only apt install android-sdk android-sdk-platform-23 android-sdk-helper, a very simple app is good for trying
test Android Tools bash completion (e.g. for adb, fastboot, etc), file bugs if it doesn't work properly
- anything else you think suitable.
Related projects: Replicant, the 100% free software Android ROM, uses our packages to provide a 100% free software Android SDK.
There are many chunks of work to be done, sorted in priority:
- Package Kotlin, which is heavily used by Gradle and the SDK itself
Package the latest Android Target Platform Framework (WIP)
Finish packaging all of the core development tools (Install android-sdk and compare /usr/lib/android-sdk with the one downloaded from Google)
Update android-tools and relevant pkg-java packages to the latest upstream version
Improve android-sdk-helper
Update gradle to 5.x, which is the official build system for Android apps
- Make all Android Tools packages build reproducibly
Add Continuous Integration tests
- Improve package build systems to be more tightly integrated with upstream build systems
- Package and improve related tools, like apktool, androguard, fdroidserver, drozer, libscout, qark, OWASP Dependency Check, etc.
- Package new parts of the Android upstream source, including the NDK, emulators, Android Studio, etc.
Since this project is a large one, multiple mentors and students could work on it simultaneously. You can find relevant documentation in READMEs in each git repo and source package. There is also this wiki section: AndroidTools
There is also a blog post about contributing to this project here
The Debian Android Tools Team works with git and git-buildpackage: PackagingWithGit