page.title=What is the NDK?
@jd:body
<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
<h2>In this document</h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="#choosing">When to Develop in Native Code</a></li>
<li>
<a href="#contents">Contents of the NDK</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#tools">Development tools</a></li>
<li><a href="#docs">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#samples">Sample applications</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#reqs">System and Software Requirements</a></li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<p>The Android NDK is a toolset that lets you embed components that make use of native code in
your Android applications.</p>
<p>Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. The NDK allows you to implement parts
of your applications using native-code languages such as C and C++. This can provide benefits to
certain classes of applications, in the form of reuse of existing code and in some cases
increased speed.</p>
<p>The NDK provides:</p>
<ul>
<li>A set of tools and build files used to generate native code libraries from C and C++
sources</li>
<li>A way to embed the corresponding native libraries into an application package file
(<code>.apk</code>) that can be deployed on Android devices</li>
<li>A set of native system headers and libraries that will be supported in all future versions
of the Android platform, starting from Android 1.5. Applications that use native activities
must be run on Android 2.3 or later.</li>
<li>Documentation, samples, and tutorials</li>
</ul>
<p>The latest release of the NDK supports the following instruction sets:</p>
<ul>
<li>ARMv5TE, including Thumb-1 instructions (see {@code docs/CPU-ARCH-ABIS.html} for more
information)</li>
<li>ARMv7-A, including Thumb-2 and VFPv3-D16 instructions, with optional support for
NEON/VFPv3-D32 instructions (see {@code docs/CPU-ARM-NEON.html} for more information)</li>
<li>x86 instructions (see {@code docs/CPU-X86.html} for more information)</li>
<li>MIPS instructions (see {@code docs/CPU-MIPS.html} for more information)</li>
</ul>
<p>ARMv5TE machine code will run on all ARM-based Android devices. ARMv7-A will run only on
devices such as the Verizon Droid or Google Nexus One that have a compatible CPU. The main
difference between the two instruction sets is that ARMv7-A supports hardware FPU, Thumb-2, and
NEON instructions. You can target either or both of the instruction sets — ARMv5TE is the
default, but switching to ARMv7-A is as easy as adding a single line to the application's
<code>Application.mk</code> file, without needing to change anything else in the file. You can also build for
both architectures at the same time and have everything stored in the final <code>.apk</code>.
Complete information is provided in the CPU-ARCH-ABIS.HTML in the NDK package.</p>
<p>The NDK provides stable headers for libc (the C library), libm (the Math library), OpenGL ES
(3D graphics library), the JNI interface, and other libraries, as listed in the <a href=
"#tools">Development Tools</a> section.</p>
<h2 id="choosing">When to Develop in Native Code</h2>
<p>The NDK will not benefit most applications. As a developer, you need to balance its benefits
against its drawbacks; notably, using native code does not result in an automatic performance
increase, but always increases application complexity. In general, you should only use native
code if it is essential to your application, not just because you prefer to program in C/C++.</p>
<p>Typical good candidates for the NDK are self-contained, CPU-intensive operations that don't
allocate much memory, such as signal processing, physics simulation, and so on. Simply re-coding
a method to run in C usually does not result in a large performance increase. When examining
whether or not you should develop in native code, think about your requirements and see if the
Android framework APIs provide the functionality that you need. The NDK can, however, can be an
effective way to reuse a large corpus of existing C/C++ code.</p>
<p>The Android framework provides two ways to use native code:</p>
<ul>
<li>Write your application using the Android framework and use JNI to access the APIs provided
by the Android NDK. This technique allows you to take advantage of the convenience of the
Android framework, but still allows you to write native code when necessary. If you use this
approach, your application must target specific, minimum Android platform levels, see <a
href="#platform-compat">Android platform compatibility</a> for more information.</li>
<li>
<p>Write a native activity, which allows you to implement the lifecycle callbacks in native
code. The Android SDK provides the {@link android.app.NativeActivity} class, which is a
convenience class that notifies your
native code of any activity lifecycle callbacks (<code>onCreate()</code>, <code>onPause()</code>,
<code>onResume()</code>, etc). You can implement the callbacks in your native code to handle
these events when they occur. Applications that use native activities must be run on Android
2.3 (API Level 9) or later.</p>
<p>You cannot access features such as Services and Content Providers natively, so if you want
to use them or any other framework API, you can still write JNI code to do so.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="contents">Contents of the NDK</h2>The NDK contains the APIs, documentation, and sample
applications that help you write your native code.
<h3 id="tools">Development tools</h3>
<p>The NDK includes a set of cross-toolchains (compilers, linkers, etc..) that can generate
native ARM binaries on Linux, OS X, and Windows (with Cygwin) platforms.</p>
<p>It provides a set of system headers for stable native APIs that are guaranteed to be supported
in all later releases of the platform:</p>
<ul>
<li>libc (C library) headers</li>
<li>libm (math library) headers</li>
<li>JNI interface headers</li>
<li>libz (Zlib compression) headers</li>
<li>liblog (Android logging) header</li>
<li>OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 (3D graphics libraries) headers</li>
<li>libjnigraphics (Pixel buffer access) header (for Android 2.2 and above).</li>
<li>A Minimal set of headers for C++ support</li>
<li>OpenSL ES native audio libraries</li>
<li>Android native application APIS</li>
</ul>
<p>The NDK also provides a build system that lets you work efficiently with your sources, without
having to handle the toolchain/platform/CPU/ABI details. You create very short build files to
describe which sources to compile and which Android application will use them — the build
system compiles the sources and places the shared libraries directly in your application
project.</p>
<p class="caution"><strong>Important:</strong> With the exception of the libraries listed above,
native system libraries in the Android platform are <em>not</em> stable and may change in future
platform versions. Your applications should <em>only</em> make use of the stable native system
libraries provided in this NDK.</p>
<h3 id="docs">Documentation</h3>
<p>The NDK package includes a set of documentation that describes the capabilities of the NDK and
how to use it to create shared libraries for your Android applications. In this release, the
documentation is provided only in the downloadable NDK package. You can find the documentation in
the <code><ndk>/docs/</code> directory. Included are these files (partial listing):</p>
<ul>
<li>
INSTALL.HTML — describes how to install the NDK and configure it for your host
system</li>
<li>OVERVIEW.HTML — provides an overview of the NDK capabilities and usage</li>
<li>ANDROID-MK.HTML — describes the use of the Android.mk file, which defines the native
sources you want to compile</li>
<li>APPLICATION-MK.HTML — describes the use of the Application.mk file, which describes
the native sources required by your Android application</li>
<li>CPLUSPLUS-SUPPORT.HTML — describes the C++ support provided in the Android NDK</li>
<li>CPU-ARCH-ABIS.HTML — a description of supported CPU architectures and how to target
them.</li>
<li>CPU-FEATURES.HTML — a description of the <code>cpufeatures</code> static library that
lets your application code detect the target device's CPU family and the optional features at
runtime.</li>
<li>CHANGES.HTML — a complete list of changes to the NDK across all releases.</li>
<li>DEVELOPMENT.HTML — describes how to modify the NDK and generate release packages for it</li>
<li>HOWTO.HTML — information about common tasks associated with NDK development</li>
<li>IMPORT-MODULE.HTML — describes how to share and reuse modules</li>
<li>LICENSES.HTML — information about the various open source licenses that govern the Android NDK</li>
<li>NATIVE-ACTIVITY.HTML — describes how to implement native activities</li>
<li>NDK-BUILD.HTML — describes the usage of the ndk-build script</li>
<li>NDK-GDB.HTML — describes how to use the native code debugger</li>
<li>PREBUILTS.HTML — information about how shared and static prebuilt libraries work </li>
<li>STANDALONE-TOOLCHAIN.HTML — describes how to use Android NDK toolchain as a standalone
compiler (still in beta).</li>
<li>SYSTEM-ISSUES.HTML — known issues in the Android system images that you should be
aware of, if you are developing using the NDK.</li>
<li>STABLE-APIS.HTML — a complete list of the stable APIs exposed by headers in the
NDK.</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, the package includes detailed information about the "bionic" C library provided
with the Android platform that you should be aware of, if you are developing using the NDK. You
can find the documentation in the <code><ndk>/docs/system/libc/</code> directory:</p>
<ul>
<li>OVERVIEW.HTML — provides an overview of the "bionic" C library and the features it
offers.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="samples">Sample applications</h3>
<p>The NDK includes sample applications that illustrate how to use native code in your Android
applications:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>hello-jni</code> — a simple application that loads a string from a native
method implemented in a shared library and then displays it in the application UI.</li>
<li><code>two-libs</code> — a simple application that loads a shared library dynamically
and calls a native method provided by the library. In this case, the method is implemented in a
static library imported by the shared library.</li>
<li><code>san-angeles</code> — a simple application that renders 3D graphics through the
native OpenGL ES APIs, while managing activity lifecycle with a {@link
android.opengl.GLSurfaceView} object.</li>
<li><code>hello-gl2</code> — a simple application that renders a triangle using OpenGL ES
2.0 vertex and fragment shaders.</li>
<li><code>hello-neon</code> — a simple application that shows how to use the
<code>cpufeatures</code> library to check CPU capabilities at runtime, then use NEON intrinsics
if supported by the CPU. Specifically, the application implements two versions of a tiny
benchmark for a FIR filter loop, a C version and a NEON-optimized version for devices that
support it.</li>
<li><code>bitmap-plasma</code> — a simple application that demonstrates how to access the
pixel buffers of Android {@link android.graphics.Bitmap} objects from native code, and uses
this to generate an old-school "plasma" effect.</li>
<li><code>native-activity</code> — a simple application that demonstrates how to use the
native-app-glue static library to create a native activity</li>
<li><code>native-plasma</code> — a version of bitmap-plasma implemented with a native
activity.</li>
</ul>
<p>For each sample, the NDK includes the corresponding C source code and the necessary Android.mk
and Application.mk files. There are located under <code><ndk>/samples/<name>/</code>
and their source code can be found under <code><ndk>/samples/<name>/jni/</code>.</p>
<p>You can build the shared libraries for the sample apps by going into
<code><ndk>/samples/<name>/</code> then calling the <code>ndk-build</code> command.
The generated shared libraries will be located under
<code><ndk>/samples/<name>/libs/armeabi/</code> for (ARMv5TE machine code) and/or
<code><ndk>/samples/<name>/libs/armeabi-v7a/</code> for (ARMv7 machine code).</p>
<p>Next, build the sample Android applications that use the shared libraries:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you are developing in Eclipse with ADT, use the New Project Wizard to create a new
Android project for each sample, using the "Import from Existing Source" option and importing
the source from <code><ndk>/samples/<name>/</code>. Then, set up an AVD,
if necessary, and build/run the application in the emulator.</li>
<li>If you are developing with Ant, use the <code>android</code> tool to create the build file
for each of the sample projects at <code><ndk>/samples/<name>/</code>.
Then set up an AVD, if necessary, build your project in the usual way, and run it in the
emulator.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more information about developing with the Android SDK tools and what
you need to do to create, build, and run your applications, see
the <a href="{@docRoot}tools/workflow/index.html">Overview</a>
section for developing on Android.</p>
<h4 id="hello-jni">Exploring the hello-jni Sample</h4>
<p>The hello-jni sample is a simple demonstration on how to use JNI from an Android application.
The HelloJni activity receives a string from a simple C function and displays it in a
TextView.</p>
<p>The main components of the sample include:</p>
<ul>
<li>The familiar basic structure of an Android application (an <code>AndroidManifest.xml</code>
file, a <code>src/</code> and <code>res</code> directories, and a main activity)</li>
<li>A <code>jni/</code> directory that includes the implemented source file for the native code
as well as the Android.mk file</li>
<li>A <code>tests/</code> directory that contains unit test code.</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Create a new project in Eclipse from the existing sample source or use the
<code>android</code> tool to update the project so it generates a build.xml file that you can
use to build the sample.
<ul>
<li>In Eclipse:
<ol type="a">
<li>Click <strong>File > New Android Project...</strong></li>
<li>Select the <strong>Create project from existing source</strong> radio button.</li>
<li>Select any API level above Android 1.5.</li>
<li>In the <strong>Location</strong> field, click <strong>Browse...</strong> and select
the <code><ndk-root>/samples/hello-jni</code> directory.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Finish</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>On the command line:
<ol type="a">
<li>Change to the <code><ndk-root>/samples/hello-jni</code> directory.</li>
<li>Run the following command to generate a build.xml file:
<pre class="no-pretty-print">android update project -p . -s</pre>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Compile the native code using the <code>ndk-build</code> command.
<pre class="no-pretty-print">
cd <ndk-root>/samples/hello-jni
<ndk_root>/ndk-build
</pre>
</li>
<li>Build and install the application as you would a normal Android application. If you are
using Eclipse, run the application to build and install it on a device. If you are using Ant,
run the following commands from the project directory:
<pre class="no-pretty-print">
ant debug
adb install bin/HelloJni-debug.apk
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
<p>When you run the application on the device, the string <code>Hello JNI</code> should appear on
your device. You can explore the rest of the samples that are located in the
<code><ndk-root>/samples</code> directory for more examples on how to use the JNI.</p>
<h4 id="native-activity">Exploring the native-activity Sample Application</h4>
<p>The native-activity sample provided with the Android NDK demonstrates how to use the
android_native_app_glue static library. This static library makes creating a native activity
easier by providing you with an implementation that handles your callbacks in another thread, so
you do not have to worry about them blocking your main UI thread. The main parts of the sample
are described below:</p>
<ul>
<li>The familiar basic structure of an Android application (an <code>AndroidManifest.xml</code>
file, a <code>src/</code> and <code>res</code> directories). The AndroidManifest.xml declares
that the application is native and specifies the .so file of the native activity. See {@link
android.app.NativeActivity} for the source or see the
<code><ndk_root>/platforms/samples/native-activity/AndroidManifest.xml</code> file.</li>
<li>A <code>jni/</code> directory contains the native activity, main.c, which uses the
<code>android_native_app_glue.h</code> interface to implement the activity. The Android.mk that
describes the native module to the build system also exists here.</li>
</ul>
<p>To build this sample application:</p>
<ol>
<li>Create a new project in Eclipse from the existing sample source or use the
<code>android</code> tool to update the project so it generates a build.xml file that you can
use to build the sample.
<ul>
<li>In Eclipse:
<ol type="a">
<li>Click <strong>File > New Android Project...</strong></li>
<li>Select the <strong>Create project from existing source</strong> radio button.</li>
<li>Select any API level above Android 2.3.</li>
<li>In the <strong>Location</strong> field, click <strong>Browse...</strong> and select
the <code><ndk-root>/samples/native-activity</code> directory.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Finish</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>On the command line:
<ol type="a">
<li>Change to the <code><ndk-root>/samples/native-activity</code> directory.</li>
<li>Run the following command to generate a build.xml file:
<pre class="no-pretty-print">
android update project -p . -s
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Compile the native code using the <code>ndk-build</code> command.
<pre class="no-pretty-print">
cd <ndk-root>/platforms/samples/android-9/samples/native-activity
<ndk_root>/ndk-build
</pre>
</li>
<li>Build and install the application as you would a normal Android application. If you are
using Eclipse, run the application to build and install it on a device. If you are using Ant,
run the following commands in the project directory, then run the application on the device:
<pre class="no-pretty-print">
ant debug
adb install bin/NativeActivity-debug.apk
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="reqs">System and Software Requirements</h2>
<p>The sections below describe the system and software requirements for using the Android NDK, as
well as platform compatibility considerations that affect appplications using libraries produced
with the NDK.</p>
<h4>The Android SDK</h4>
<ul>
<li>A complete Android SDK installation (including all dependencies) is required.</li>
<li>Android 1.5 SDK or later version is required.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Supported operating systems</h4>
<ul>
<li>Windows XP (32-bit) or Vista (32- or 64-bit)</li>
<li>Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later (x86 only)</li>
<li>Linux (32 or 64-bit; Ubuntu 8.04, or other Linux distributions using GLibc 2.7 or
later)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Required development tools</h4>
<ul>
<li>For all development platforms, GNU Make 3.81 or later is required. Earlier versions of GNU
Make might work but have not been tested.</li>
<li>A recent version of awk (either GNU Awk or Nawk) is also required.</li>
<li>For Windows, <a href="http://www.cygwin.com">Cygwin</a> 1.7 or higher is required. The NDK
will <em>not</em> work with Cygwin 1.5 installations.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="platform-compat">Android platform compatibility</h4>
<ul>
<li>The native libraries created by the Android NDK can only be used on devices running
specific minimum Android platform versions. The minimum required platform version depends on
the CPU architecture of the devices you are targeting. The following table details which
Android platform versions are compatible with native code developed for specific CPU
architectures.
<table style="margin:1em;">
<tr>
<th>Native Code CPU Architecture Used</th>
<th>Compatible Android Platform(s)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ARM, ARM-NEON</td>
<td>Android 1.5 (API Level 3) and higher</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>x86</td>
<td>Android 2.3 (API Level 9) and higher</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MIPS</td>
<td>Android 2.3 (API Level 9) and higher</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>These requirements mean you can use native libraries produced with the NDK in
applications that are deployable to ARM-based devices running Android 1.5 or later. If you are
deploying native libraries to x86 and MIPS-based devices, your application must target Android
2.3 or later.</p>
</li>
<li>To ensure compatibility, an application using a native library produced with the NDK
<em>must</em> declare a <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html"><code>
<uses-sdk></code></a> element in its manifest file, with an
<code>android:minSdkVersion</code> attribute value of "3" or higher. For example:
<pre style="margin:1em;">
<manifest>
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" />
...
</manifest>
</pre>
</li>
<li>If you use this NDK to create a native library that uses the OpenGL ES APIs, the
application containing the library can be deployed only to devices running the minimum platform
versions described in the table below. To ensure compatibility, make sure that your application
declares the proper <code>android:minSdkVersion</code> attribute value, as shown in the
following table.</li>
<li style="list-style: none; display: inline">
<table style="margin:1em;">
<tr>
<th>OpenGL ES Version Used</th>
<th>Compatible Android Platform(s)</th>
<th>Required uses-sdk Attribute</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>OpenGL ES 1.1</td>
<td>Android 1.6 (API Level 4) and higher</td>
<td><code>android:minSdkVersion="4"</code></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>OpenGL ES 2.0</td>
<td>Android 2.0 (API Level 5) and higher</td>
<td><code>android:minSdkVersion="5"</code></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>For more information about API Level and its relationship to Android platform versions,
see <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels">Android API Levels</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>Additionally, an application using the OpenGL ES APIs should declare a
<code><uses-feature></code> element in its manifest, with an
<code>android:glEsVersion</code> attribute that specifies the minimum OpenGl ES version
required by the application. This ensures that Google Play will show your application only
to users whose devices are capable of supporting your application. For example:
<pre style="margin:1em;">
<manifest>
<!-- Declare that the application uses the OpenGL ES 2.0 API and is designed
to run only on devices that support OpenGL ES 2.0 or higher. -->
<uses-feature android:glEsVersion="0x00020000" />
...
</manifest>
</pre>
<p>For more information, see the <a href=
"{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html"><code><uses-feature></code></a>
documentation.</p>
</li>
<li>If you use this NDK to create a native library that uses the API to access Android {@link
android.graphics.Bitmap} pixel buffers or utilizes native activities, the application
containing the library can be deployed only to devices running Android 2.2 (API level 8) or
higher. To ensure compatibility, make sure that your application declares <code><uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="8" /></code> attribute value in its manifest.</li>
</ul>