Build Android Studio app via command line

I want to build an Android Studio app (the Gradle build system), but I want to do this via the command line.

Android Studio automatically creates a Gradle wrapper in the root of your project, which is how it invokes Gradle. The wrapper is basically a script that calls through to the actual Gradle binary and allows you to keep Gradle up to date, which makes using version control easier. To run a Gradle command, you can simply use the gradlew script found in the root of your project (or gradlew.bat on Windows) followed by the name of the task you want to run. For instance, to build a debug version of your Android application, you can run ./gradlew assembleDebug from the root of your repository. In a default project setup, the resulting apk can then be found in app/build/outputs/apk/app-debug.apk. On a *nix machine, you can also just run find . -name '*.apk' to find it, if it's not there.

Try this (OS X only):

brew install homebrew/versions/gradle110
gradle build

You can use gradle tasks to see all tasks available for the current project. No Android Studio is needed here.

there are two build types to build your application using the Gradle build settings: one for debugging your application — debug — and one for building your final package for release — release mode.

Building in Debug Mode

• First Navigate to Android studio project Root folder using CMD

• run this command gradlew.bat assembleDebug

• Output window look like this

Build signed apk in Release Mode

• Edit the build.gradle file to build your project in release mode:

   android {
   ...
   defaultConfig { ... }
   signingConfigs {
       release {
           storeFile file("myreleasekey.keystore")
           storePassword "password"
           keyAlias "MyReleaseKey"
           keyPassword "password"
       }
   }
   buildTypes {
       release {
           ...
           signingConfig signingConfigs.release
       }
   }}
  

• run this command gradlew.bat assembleRelease

1. Install Gradle and the Android SDK

Either

• Install these however you see fit
• Run ./gradlew, or gradlew.bat if on Windows
  • chmod +x ./gradlew may be necessary

From this point onwards, gradle refers to running Gradle whichever way you've chosen. Substitute accordingly.

2. Setup the Android SDK

• If you've manually installed the SDK

  • export ANDROID_HOME=<install location>
  • You may want to put that in your ~/.profile if it's not done automatically

• Accept the licenses: yes | sdkmanager --licenses

  • sdkmanager can be found in $ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
  • sdkmanager may have to be run as root

• Try running gradle

  • If there are complaints about licenses or SDKs not being found, fix the directory permissions
    • chown -R user:group $ANDROID_HOME
    • If you're reckless and/or the only user: chmod 777 -R $ANDROID_HOME

3. Building

• gradle tasks lists all tasks that can be run
• :app:[appname] is the prefix of all tasks, which you'll see in the Gradle logs when you're building
  • This can be excluded when running a task

Some essential tasks

• gradle assemble: build all variants of your app
  • Resulting .apks are in app/[appname]/build/outputs/apk/[debug/release]
• gradle assembleDebug or assembleRelease: build just the debug or release versions
• gradle installDebug or installRelease build and install to an attached device
  • Have adb installed
  • Attach a device with USB debugging and USB file transfer enabled
  • Run adb devices, check that your device is listed and device is beside it

Automatically build and install upon changes

This avoids having to continuously run the same commands

gradle -t --continue installDebug

• -t: aka --continuous, automatically re-runs the task after a file is changed
• --continue: Continue after errors. Prevents stopping when errors occur

Run gradle -h for more help

You're likely here because you want to install it too!

Build

gradlew

(On Windows gradlew.bat)

Then Install

adb install -r exampleApp.apk

(The -r makes it replace the existing copy, add an -s if installing on an emulator)

Bonus

I set up an alias in my ~/.bash_profile, to make it a 2char command.

alias bi="gradlew && adb install -r exampleApp.apk"

(Short for Build and Install)

Cheatsheet for running Gradle from the command line for Android Studio projects on Linux:

cd <project-root>
./gradlew
./gradlew tasks
./gradlew --help

Should get you started..

For Mac use this command

  ./gradlew task-name

I faced the same problem and seems that there have been many changes by google.

I can tell you the steps for installing purely via command line from scratch. I tested it on Ubuntu on 22 Feb 2021.

create sdk folder

export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/usr/lib/android-sdk
sudo mkdir -p $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT

install openjdk

sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

download android sdk

Go to https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html Then down to Command line tools only Click on Linux link, accept the agreement and instead of downloading right click and copy link address

cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
sudo wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
sudo unzip commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip

move folders

Rename the unpacked directory from cmdline-tools to tools, and place it under $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools, so now it should look like: $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools. And inside it, you should have: NOTICE.txt bin lib source.properties.

set path

PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin

This had no effect for me, hence the next step

browse to sdkmanager

cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin

accept licenses

yes | sudo sdkmanager --licenses

create build

Finally, run this inside your project

chmod 777 gradlew
sudo ./gradlew assembleDebug

This creates an APK named -debug.apk at //build/outputs/apk/debug The file is already signed with the debug key and aligned with zipalign, so you can immediately install it on a device.

FINAL STEPS

Here are the final steps. Make 2 .sh files with these contents. Use chmod 777 before on both. No sudo required.

Download_APK_Code_NOSUDO4.sh

# Don't forget to do chmod 777 Download_APK_Code_NOSUDO2.sh
#!/bin/bash

if [ -d "camera-samples" ]; then
  echo "############################# Deleting older code base.      ######################################"
  rm -rf camera-samples
fi

echo "###########################     Download Source Code: Start ... #####################################"
git clone git://git.quicinc.com/camera-samples -b iot-concam-apk.lnx.1.1
echo "##########################      Download Source Code: Done . . . ####################################"

Build_App_NOSUDO4.sh

# Don't forget to do chmod 777 Build_App_NOSUDO2.sh
#!/bin/bash

currentDir=$(pwd)
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$(pwd)

# echo "############################################   Install JDK ...  ################################################"
# apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

if [ -e "commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip" ]; then
  echo "############################# Deleting older zip file.      ######################################"
  rm -rf commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
fi
echo "###########################################   Download Command Line Tools .. ###################################"
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
echo "###########################################   Download Command Line Tools Done .. ##############################"

if [ -d "cmdline-tools" ]; then
  echo "############################# Deleting older cmdline-tools.      ######################################"
  rm -rf cmdline-tools
fi
echo "###########################################   Unzip Command Line Tools Start .. #################################"
unzip commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
echo "###########################################   Unzip Command Line Tools Done .. #################################"


echo "###########################################   Creating Directory Structure .. #################################"
mv cmdline-tools tools
mkdir cmdline-tools
cp -r  tools cmdline-tools/
rm -rf tools/


PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin
echo "##########################################   Updated Path : $PATH ###############################################"

cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin

echo "##########################################   Accept All Licenses .. #############################################"
yes | sdkmanager --licenses

cd $currentDir/camera-samples/Camera2Video
echo "sdk.dir = $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT" > local.properties

echo "########################################     Building APK . . . #################################################"
chmod 777 gradlew
./gradlew assembleDebug
echo "#######################################      Building APK Done. . .  ############################################"

echo "##################################### APK generated here:  $currentDir/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk ###################################"
##########################################################

Run these commands.

chmod 777 Download_APK_Code_NOSUDO4.sh
chmod 777 Build_App_NOSUDO4.sh
./Download_APK_Code_NOSUDO4.sh
./Build_App_NOSUDO4.sh

REFERENCES

https://gist.github.com/guipmourao/3e7edc951b043f6de30ca15a5cc2be40

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60440509/android-command-line-tools-sdkmanager-always-shows-warning-could-not-create-se

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54273412/failed-to-install-the-following-android-sdk-packages-as-some-licences-have-not

https://developer.android.com/studio/build/building-cmdline#sign_cmdline

///////////////////////////////////

WINDOWS

Here are the steps for Windows via Powershell. Tested on 6th March 2021. You can start completely from scratch.

Prerequisites

1. Download git
2. Install JDK. I used jdk-8u281-windows-x64.exe

Make a file DownloadAndBuild.ps1 with these contents.

$location = Get-Location

if (Test-Path "$location\camera-samples") {
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older code base: Start. ################################"
	Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "$location\camera-samples"
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older code base: Done. #################################"
}
Write-Host "########################## Download Source Code: Start. #####################################"
git clone https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/camera-samples -b iot-concam-apk.lnx.1.1
Write-Host "########################## Download Source Code: Done. ####################################"


if (Test-Path "$location\commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip") {
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older zip file: Start. ################################"
	Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "$location\commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip"
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older zip file: Done. #################################"
}
Write-Host "########################## Download Command Line Tools: Start. #####################################"
$client = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$client.DownloadFile("https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip","commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip")
Write-Host "########################## Download Command Line Tools: End. #####################################"

if (Test-Path "$location\cmdline-tools") {
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older folder: Start. ################################"
	Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "$location\cmdline-tools"
	Write-Host "########################### Deleting older folder: Done. #################################"
}
Write-Host "########################## Extract Command Line Tools: Start. #####################################"
Expand-Archive "$location\commandlinetools-win-6858069_latest.zip" -DestinationPath "$location"
Write-Host "########################## Extract Command Line Tools: End. #####################################"



Write-Host "########################## Create Directory Structure: Start. #####################################"
Rename-Item -Path "$location\cmdline-tools" -newName "$location\tools"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$location\cmdline-tools"
Move-Item -Path "$location\tools" -Destination "$location\cmdline-tools"
Write-Host "########################## Create Directory Structure: End. #####################################"

Write-Host "########################## Accept Licenses: Start. #####################################"
Set-Location -Path $location/cmdline-tools/tools/bin
for($i=0;$i -lt 100;$i++) { $response += "y`n"}; $response | ./sdkmanager.bat --licenses
Write-Host "########################## Accept Licenses: End. #####################################"


Write-Host "########################## Build APK: Start. #####################################"
Set-Location -Path $location/camera-samples/Camera2Video
$Env:ANDROID_SDK_ROOT = $location
.\gradlew assembleDebug
Write-Host "########################## Build APK: End. #####################################"

Write-Host "##################################### APK generated here:  $location/camera-samples/Camera2Video/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk ###################################"
PAUSE

Right-click and run via Powershell. This will download an Android project via git, install the SDK and build the Android App.

Edit as per your convenience.

MacOS variant

./gradlew <moduleName>:assemble<build_variant>
//e.g
./gradlew <moduleName>:assembleDebug

*./ means current directory

[More info]

Only for MAC Users

Extending Vji's answer.

Step by step procedure:

1. Open Terminal

2. Change your directory to your Project(cd PathOfYourProject)

3. Copy and paste this command and hit enter:

    chmod +x gradlew
   

4. As Vji suggested:

    ./gradlew task-name
   

DON'T FORGOT TO ADD .(DOT) BEFORE /gradlew

Official Documentation is here:

To build a debug APK, open a command line and navigate to the root of your project directory. To initiate a debug build, invoke the assembleDebug task:

gradlew assembleDebug

This creates an APK named module_name-debug.apk in project_name/module_name/build/outputs/apk/.

note, you can also do this within Android Studio by clicking the gradle window, and then the 'elephant' button. This will open a new window called "run anything" (can also be found by searching for that name in 'search everywhere') where you can manually type any gradle command you want in. Not "quite" command line, but often provides more of what I need than windows command line.

This allows you to give optional params to gradle tasks, etc.

enter code hereCreate script file with below gradle and adb command, Execute script file

./gradlew clean

./gradlew assembleDebug ./gradlew installDebug

adb shell am start -n applicationID/full path of launcher activity

Adding value to all these answers,

many have asked the command for running App in AVD after build sucessful.

adb install -r {path-to-your-bild-folder}/{yourAppName}.apk