How to install Standalone toolchain for Android

howto-standalone-toolchain.md

HOWTO Cross compiling on Android

5W1H

What is NDK

NDK (Native Develop Toolkit) is a toolchain from Android official, originally for users who writes native C/C++ code as JNI library. It's not designed for compiling standalone programs (./a.out) and not compatible with automake/cmake etc.

What is Standalone Toolchain

"Standalone" refers to two meanings:

1. The program is standalone (has nothing connect to NDK, and don't need helper scripts to run it)
2. The toolchain is made for building standalone programs and libs, and which can used by automake etc.

(Optional) Why NDK is hard to use

By default, NDK uses android flavor directory structure when it's finding headers and libs, which is different from GNU flavor, so the compiler cannot find them. For Example:

/home/tyeken8/Desktop/elab/geo/android-ndk-r9d/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.8/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.8/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/ld: error: cannot open crtbegin_dynamic.o: No such file or directory
/home/tyeken8/Desktop/elab/geo/android-ndk-r9d/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.8/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.8/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/ld: error: cannot open crtend_android.o: No such file or directory
/home/tyeken8/Desktop/elab/geo/android-ndk-r9d/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.8/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.8/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/ld: error: cannot find -lc
/home/tyeken8/Desktop/elab/geo/android-ndk-r9d/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.8/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/4.8/../../../../arm-linux-androideabi/bin/ld: error: cannot find -ldl
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Although we can manuall specify the path (someone wrote a program called "agcc" to handle this automatically, but still not good), it's really annoying.

Howto

1. Download Android NDK
   from https://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html
2. Extract the NDK
   tar xf android-ndk-r9d-*.tar.bz2 && cd android-ndk-r9d
3. Make GNU Android Toolchain from NDK
   build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh --toolchain=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8 --platform=android-19 --install-dir=../toolchain
4. Delete the NDK (Yes, we don't need it any more)
   cd .. && rm -rf android-ndk-r9d
5. Test the native toolchain
   cd toolchain/bin
echo "main(){}" | ./arm-linux-androideabi-gcc -x c -
file a.out # a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped
6. (Optional) Now you can use it as a standard GNU toolchain
   For example: ./configure --prefix=/opt/android --host=arm-linux-androideabi && make && make install

I downloaded android-ndk-r16b and after make-standalone-toolchain.sh the command
in step .5 echo "main(){}" | ./arm-linux-androideabi-gcc -x c - shows nothing.

Is this right, or did I something wrong ?

@hannesa2
echo "main(){}" | ./arm-linux-androideabi-gcc -x c - && file a.out

Is this procedure valid for mac(unix) also?

Tried in Debian 9, works like a charm!

This will only build the toolchain for one architecture that is "armv7-a". What about the other architectures? Can you please clarify?

I am having this issue:
"
expr: syntax error
expr: syntax error
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: can't open name: No such file or directory
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: OPTIONS_abstract_Specify: not found
expr: syntax error
expr: syntax error
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: can't open name: No such file or directory
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: OPTIONS_abstract_Specify: not found
expr: syntax error
expr: syntax error
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: can't open path: No such file or directory
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: can't open path: No such file or directory
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: OPTIONS_default_.=: not found
expr: syntax error
expr: syntax error
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: can't open name: No such file or directory
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: OPTIONS_abstract_Specify: not found
./make-standalone-toolchain.sh: OPTIONS_default_linux-armv7l=: not found
[and there's more]
"

At the top it says "WARNING: The shell running this script isn't bash. Although we try to avoid bashism in scripts, things can happen."
At the bottom it says that "--toolchain" is an unknown option. Even if --help is the first parameter it says it is an unknown option.

I'd appreciate any help. What can I do?

Tonys-MacBook-Pro:~ tonywilliams$ /Users/tonywilliams/android-ndk-r17b/build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh --toolchain=arm-linux-androideabi-4.8 --platform=android-19 --install-dir=../toolchain
HOST_OS=darwin
HOST_EXE=
HOST_ARCH=x86_64
HOST_TAG=darwin-x86_64
HOST_NUM_CPUS=4
BUILD_NUM_CPUS=8
Auto-config: --arch=arm
ERROR: Failed to create toolchain.

When trying to build the toolchain arm I am getting this error...Why is that?

i am using android-ndk 14 and i am getting the clang:error: unknown argument: '-mandroid' can any one help me

i an trying to build android-27 version

hello, i got "ignoring DT_PREINIT_ARRAY in shared library" when run my app on my phone, can you offer me some help or suggestion? thanks

i have issue in ndk-12b
command -: make TARGET=android-x86 build_spatialite build_gdal build_commoncommo build_assimp
make TARGET=android-x86 build_spatialite build_gdal build_commoncommo build_assimp
/home/yash/ndk/build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh
--platform=android-21
--arch=x86
--install-dir=/home/yash/AndroidTacticalAssaultKit-CIV/takthirdparty/builds/android-x86-release/toolchain
make: /home/yash/ndk/build/tools/make-standalone-toolchain.sh: Command not found
make: *** [target-config/android-x86.mk:11: /home/yash/AndroidTacticalAssaultKit-CIV/takthirdparty/builds/android-x86-release/toolchain] Error 127

This will only build the toolchain for one architecture that is "armv7-a". What about the other architectures? Can you please clarify?

Does someone have an answer concerning this ? Is it possible to specify other architectures ?