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apkc is a bare-bones Android app build system. It lets you build simple native Android apps in APK or AAB format without entire Android IDE. It does a subset of what Android Gradle plugin does. This makes it quick and runs with low resources. apkc is mostly suitable for learning purposes.

Features

  • Base project has zero dependencies. APK is <20 KB.
  • Builds base project in <3 seconds.
  • Can use external JAR libraries.
  • Can use external native shared libs built with C/Go/Rust etc.
  • Code completion can be setup in VSCode or other editors.

Getting started

  1. Install JDK and Android SDK and make sure to have ANDROID_HOME and JAVA_HOME env variables setup.
  2. Download apkc from Github releases for your OS/ARCH.
  3. Use doctor command to verify all the paths are correct.
$ apkc doctor

[doctor] java /usr/local/opt/openjdk@11/ 
[doctor] javac /usr/local/opt/openjdk@11/bin/javac 
[doctor] jarsigner /usr/local/opt/openjdk@11/bin/jarsigner 
[doctor] sdk /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk 
[doctor] aapt /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/30.0.3/aapt 
[doctor] aapt2 /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/30.0.3/aapt2 
[doctor] d8 /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/30.0.3/d8 
[doctor] zipalign /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/30.0.3/zipalign 
[doctor] android jar /Users/ajinasokan/Library/Android/sdk/platforms/android-30/android.jar
  1. Create a hello world project.
$ apkc create myapp

Package name (com.myapp): com.ajinasokan.myapp
App name (My App): Hello World
  1. Build APK and run in connected device. Logs from app will be streamed after successful run.
$ cd myapp

$ apkc build

[build] compiling res/layout/main.xml 
[build] compiling res/values/styles.xml 
[build] bundling resources 
[build] compiling java files 
[build] bundling classes and jars 
[build] bundling native libs 
[build] no native libs 
[build] signing apk 
[build] running zipalign 
[apkc] finished in 1.580135483s

$ apkc run

[run] installing in device(serialabcxyz) 
[run] launching main activity 

07-06 11:23:29.894 22390 22390 I libc    : SetHeapTaggingLevel: tag level set to 0
07-06 11:23:29.933 22390 22390 E jinasokan.myap: Not starting debugger since process cannot load the jdwp agent.
....
....

To build APK with custom key store run apkc build --keystore "/path/to/keystore.jks" --storepass "password" --keyalias "alias".

To build AAB run apkc build --aab. Output file will be at build/app.{apk/aab}.

You can add external jar dependencies to myapp/jar directory and native libs to myapp/lib in appropriate architecture sub directories.

You can add raw assets to myapp/assets directory.

Code completion in VSCode

  1. Install Java extension
  2. Add android.jar path from doctor command output to referencedLibraries list of your workspace VSCode settings file. myapp/.vscode/settings.json
{
    "java.project.referencedLibraries": [
        "<pathtosdk>/platforms/android-30/android.jar"
    ]
}
  1. You could also add other external jar file dependencies

Backstory

apkc was born in 2016 as a bash script for some of my experiments. It then evolved into a Makefile and was used for production builds of one of my apps. Since the Play Store started enforcing AAB files for publishing I had to move away from apkc. This project is a rewrite of the Makefile, without the incremental compilation. Incremental compilation is in the todo list.