Android Debug Bridge
Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile command line tool that lets you communicate with an emulator instance or connected Android-powered device. It is a client-server program that includes three components:
- A client, which runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a shell by issuing an adb command. Other Android tools such as the ADT plugin and DDMS also create adb clients.
- A server, which runs as a background process on your development machine. The server manages communication between the client and the adb daemon running on an emulator or device.
- A daemon, which runs as a background process on each emulator or device instance.
You can find the adb tool in <sdk>/platform-tools/.
When you start an adb client, the client first checks whether there is an adb server process already running. If there isn't, it starts the server process. When the server starts, it binds to local TCP port 5037 and listens for commands sent from adb clients—all adb clients use port 5037 to communicate with the adb server.
The server then sets up connections to all running emulator/device instances. It locates emulator/device instances by scanning odd-numbered ports in the range 5555 to 5585, the range used by emulators/devices. Where the server finds an adb daemon, it sets up a connection to that port. Note that each emulator/device instance acquires a pair of sequential ports — an even-numbered port for console connections and an odd-numbered port for adb connections. For example:
Emulator 1, console: 5554 Emulator 1, adb: 5555 Emulator 2, console: 5556 Emulator 2, adb: 5557 and so on...
As shown, the emulator instance connected to adb on port 5555 is the same as the instance whose console listens on port 5554.
Once the server has set up connections to all emulator instances, you can use adb commands to access those instances. Because the server manages connections to emulator/device instances and handles commands from multiple adb clients, you can control any emulator/device instance from any client (or from a script).
Enabling adb Debugging
In order to use adb with a device connected over USB, you must enable USB debugging in the device system settings, under Developer options.
On Android 4.2 and higher, the Developer options screen is hidden by default. To make it visible, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options at the bottom.
On some devices, the Developer options screen may be located or named differently.
Note: When you connect a device running Android 4.2.2 or higher to your computer, the system shows a dialog asking whether to accept an RSA key that allows debugging through this computer. This security mechanism protects user devices because it ensures that USB debugging and other adb commands cannot be executed unless you're able to unlock the device and acknowledge the dialog. This requires that you have adb version 1.0.31 (available with SDK Platform-tools r16.0.1 and higher) in order to debug on a device running Android 4.2.2 or higher.
Connecting to STB using ADB
- To make a connection between STB and PC it is necessary to:
- Open command line on PC (by pressing Windows button + R)
- Run cmd command
- Drag adb.exe to console and press Enter
- Connect adb host to device:
adb connect #.#.#.# connected to #.#.#.#:5555
If the adb connection is ever lost:
- Make sure that your host is still connected to the same network your STB is.
- Reconnect by executing the “adb connect” step again.
- Or if that doesn't work, reset your adb host and then start over from the beginning:
adb kill-server
Syntax
You can issue adb commands from a command line on your development machine or from a script. The usage is:
adb [-d|-e|-s <serialNumber>] <command>
If there's only one emulator running or only one device connected, the adb command is sent to that device by default.
If multiple emulators are running and/or multiple devices are attached, you need to use the -d, -e, or -s option to specify the target device to which the command should be directed.
Commands
The table below lists all of the supported adb commands and explains their meaning and usage.
| Category | Command | Description | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target device | -d | Direct an adb command to the only attached USB device | Returns an error if more than one USB device is attached |
| Target device | -e | Direct an adb command to the only running emulator instance | Returns an error if more than one emulator instance is running |
| Target device | -s <serialNumber> | Direct an adb command a specific emulator/device instance, referred to by its adb-assigned serial number | See Directing Commands to a Specific Emulator/Device Instance |
| General | devices | Prints a list of all attached emulator/device instances | See Querying for Emulator/Device Instances for more information |
| General | help | Prints a list of supported adb commands | |
| General | version | Prints the adb version number | |
| Debug | logcat [option] [filter-specs] | Prints log data to the screen | |
| Debug | bugreport | Prints dumpsys, dumpstate, and logcat data to the screen, for the purposes of bug reporting | |
| Debug | jdwp | Prints a list of available JDWP processes on a given device | You can use the forward jdwp:<pid> port-forwarding specification to connect to a specific JDWP process |
| Data | install <path-to-apk> | Pushes an Android application (specified as a full path to an .apk file) to an emulator/device | |
| Data | pull <remote> <local> | Copies a specified file from an emulator/device instance to your development computer | |
| Data | push <local> <remote> | Copies a specified file from your development computer to an emulator/device instance | |
| Ports and Networking | forward <local> <remote> | Forwards socket connections from a specified local port to a specified remote port on the emulator/device instance | Port specifications can use these schemes: |
| Ports and Networking | ppp <tty> [parm]… | Run PPP over USB, <tty> — the tty for PPP stream | Note that you should not automatically start a PPP connection |
| Scripting | get-serialno | Prints the adb instance serial number string | See Querying for Emulator/Device Instances for more information |
| Scripting | get-state | Prints the adb state of an emulator/device instance | |
| Scripting | wait-for-device | Blocks execution until the device is online — that is, until the instance state is device | |
| Server | start-server | Checks whether the adb server process is running and starts it, if not | |
| Server | kill-server | Terminates the adb server process | |
| Shell | shell | Starts a remote shell in the target emulator/device instance | See Issuing Shell Commands for more information |
| Shell | shell [shellCommand] | Issues a shell command in the target emulator/device instance and then exits the remote shell | See Issuing Shell Commands for more information |
More detailed information you can find on official website Android Debug bridge
