4daca65fe3
This system type was previously broken but is now fixed. Add it here to showcase the common task of launching a fully-fledged Android system with an included app store.
239 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
239 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Android
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author: Sander van der Burg
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date: 2018-11-18
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---
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# Android
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The Android build environment provides three major features and a number of
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supporting features.
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Deploying an Android SDK installation with plugins
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--------------------------------------------------
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The first use case is deploying the SDK with a desired set of plugins or subsets
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of an SDK.
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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let
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androidComposition = androidenv.composeAndroidPackages {
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toolsVersion = "25.2.5";
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platformToolsVersion = "27.0.1";
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buildToolsVersions = [ "27.0.3" ];
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includeEmulator = false;
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emulatorVersion = "27.2.0";
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platformVersions = [ "24" ];
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includeSources = false;
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includeDocs = false;
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includeSystemImages = false;
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systemImageTypes = [ "default" ];
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abiVersions = [ "armeabi-v7a" ];
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lldbVersions = [ "2.0.2558144" ];
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cmakeVersions = [ "3.6.4111459" ];
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includeNDK = false;
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ndkVersion = "16.1.4479499";
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useGoogleAPIs = false;
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useGoogleTVAddOns = false;
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includeExtras = [
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"extras;google;gcm"
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];
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};
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in
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androidComposition.androidsdk
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```
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The above function invocation states that we want an Android SDK with the above
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specified plugin versions. By default, most plugins are disabled. Notable
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exceptions are the tools, platform-tools and build-tools sub packages.
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The following parameters are supported:
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* `toolsVersion`, specifies the version of the tools package to use
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* `platformsToolsVersion` specifies the version of the `platform-tools` plugin
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* `buildToolsVersion` specifies the versions of the `build-tools` plugins to
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use.
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* `includeEmulator` specifies whether to deploy the emulator package (`false`
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by default). When enabled, the version of the emulator to deploy can be
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specified by setting the `emulatorVersion` parameter.
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* `includeDocs` specifies whether the documentation catalog should be included.
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* `lldbVersions` specifies what LLDB versions should be deployed.
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* `cmakeVersions` specifies which CMake versions should be deployed.
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* `includeNDK` specifies that the Android NDK bundle should be included.
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Defaults to: `false`.
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* `ndkVersion` specifies the NDK version that we want to use.
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* `includeExtras` is an array of identifier strings referring to arbitrary
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add-on packages that should be installed.
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* `platformVersions` specifies which platform SDK versions should be included.
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For each platform version that has been specified, we can apply the following
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options:
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* `includeSystemImages` specifies whether a system image for each platform SDK
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should be included.
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* `includeSources` specifies whether the sources for each SDK version should be
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included.
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* `useGoogleAPIs` specifies that for each selected platform version the
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Google API should be included.
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* `useGoogleTVAddOns` specifies that for each selected platform version the
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Google TV add-on should be included.
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For each requested system image we can specify the following options:
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* `systemImageTypes` specifies what kind of system images should be included.
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Defaults to: `default`.
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* `abiVersions` specifies what kind of ABI version of each system image should
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be included. Defaults to: `armeabi-v7a`.
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Most of the function arguments have reasonable default settings.
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When building the above expression with:
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```bash
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$ nix-build
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```
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The Android SDK gets deployed with all desired plugin versions.
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We can also deploy subsets of the Android SDK. For example, to only the the
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`platform-tools` package, you can evaluate the following expression:
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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let
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androidComposition = androidenv.composeAndroidPackages {
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# ...
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};
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in
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androidComposition.platform-tools
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```
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Using predefine Android package compositions
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--------------------------------------------
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In addition to composing an Android package set manually, it is also possible
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to use a predefined composition that contains all basic packages for a specific
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Android version, such as version 9.0 (API-level 28).
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The following Nix expression can be used to deploy the entire SDK with all basic
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plugins:
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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androidenv.androidPkgs_9_0.androidsdk
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```
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It is also possible to use one plugin only:
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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androidenv.androidPkgs_9_0.platform-tools
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```
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Building an Android application
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-------------------------------
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In addition to the SDK, it is also possible to build an Ant-based Android
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project and automatically deploy all the Android plugins that a project
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requires.
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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androidenv.buildApp {
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name = "MyAndroidApp";
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src = ./myappsources;
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release = true;
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# If release is set to true, you need to specify the following parameters
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keyStore = ./keystore;
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keyAlias = "myfirstapp";
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keyStorePassword = "mykeystore";
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keyAliasPassword = "myfirstapp";
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# Any Android SDK parameters that install all the relevant plugins that a
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# build requires
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platformVersions = [ "24" ];
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# When we include the NDK, then ndk-build is invoked before Ant gets invoked
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includeNDK = true;
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}
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```
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Aside from the app-specific build parameters (`name`, `src`, `release` and
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keystore parameters), the `buildApp {}` function supports all the function
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parameters that the SDK composition function (the function shown in the
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previous section) supports.
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This build function is particularly useful when it is desired to use
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[Hydra](http://nixos.org/hydra): the Nix-based continuous integration solution
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to build Android apps. An Android APK gets exposed as a build product and can be
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installed on any Android device with a web browser by navigating to the build
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result page.
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Spawning emulator instances
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---------------------------
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For testing purposes, it can also be quite convenient to automatically generate
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scripts that spawn emulator instances with all desired configuration settings.
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An emulator spawn script can be configured by invoking the `emulateApp {}`
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function:
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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androidenv.emulateApp {
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name = "emulate-MyAndroidApp";
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platformVersion = "28";
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abiVersion = "x86_64"; # armeabi-v7a, mips, x86
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systemImageType = "google_apis_playstore";
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}
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```
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It is also possible to specify an APK to deploy inside the emulator
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and the package and activity names to launch it:
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```nix
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with import <nixpkgs> {};
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androidenv.emulateApp {
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name = "emulate-MyAndroidApp";
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platformVersion = "24";
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abiVersion = "armeabi-v7a"; # mips, x86, x86_64
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systemImageType = "default";
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useGoogleAPIs = false;
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app = ./MyApp.apk;
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package = "MyApp";
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activity = "MainActivity";
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}
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```
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In addition to prebuilt APKs, you can also bind the APK parameter to a
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`buildApp {}` function invocation shown in the previous example.
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Querying the available versions of each plugin
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----------------------------------------------
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When using any of the previously shown functions, it may be a bit inconvenient
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to find out what options are supported, since the Android SDK provides many
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plugins.
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A shell script in the `pkgs/development/mobile/androidenv/` sub directory can be used to retrieve all
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possible options:
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```bash
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sh ./querypackages.sh packages build-tools
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```
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The above command-line instruction queries all build-tools versions in the
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generated `packages.nix` expression.
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Updating the generated expressions
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----------------------------------
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Most of the Nix expressions are generated from XML files that the Android
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package manager uses. To update the expressions run the `generate.sh` script
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that is stored in the `pkgs/development/mobile/androidenv/` sub directory:
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```bash
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sh ./generate.sh
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```
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