adb: the full story
Many Android developers use adb on a daily basis, sometimes even without knowing. In this article, I’m going to explain what adb is, what you can do with it and how it works.
This article is based on my recent talk How to work with adb
at Podlodka Droidcrew. Feel free to check out the talk if you prefer to listen and know Russian.
What exactly is adb?
Many Android developers used Android Debug Bridge (or adb as it’s more commonly known) in the following way:
However, it’s not just a terminal utility.
adb is a contract between Android devices and developer tooling
What are the jobs of adb?
The general problem that adb is trying to solve is remote access to compute. To solve this problem adb has to first manage devices, that is:
- Provide CRUD-like API for devices
- Abstract transport layer
- Version the contract between dev tooling and Android devices
Besides managing devices, adb has to provide terminal access to remote devices as well as…
