The Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a versatile command line tool that lets you communicate with and control an Android-powered device over a USB link from a computer. It comes along with other useful tools and code bundled with the Android Software Development Kit (SDK).

The ADB program 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.

Setting Up ADB

On Windows and Linux

If you installed the Android SDK, the Android Debug Bridge will already be installed along with it. Otherwise, follow our guide on installing the Android SDK.

On Mac

If you have already downloaded the Android SDK, launch the SDK Manager by typing into a Terminal window:

<sdk>/tools/android

where <sdk> is the path to the tools directory. For example, if the Android SDK is located on the desktop, then you have to type into the terminal window:

/Users/MyName/Desktop/android-sdk-mac_86/tools/android

As soon as the SDK Manager is launched, click “Available packages”, then “Android Repository.” When the list of available packages pops up, choose the offered revision of “Android SDK Platform-tools”. Click “Install Selected.” If it is installed, the adb executable binary will be located in the platform-tools subdirectory.

If you don't have the Android SDK installed yet, download its latest version and unzip it into an appropriate destination folder then follow the instructions above.

Testing If ADB Works

We want to make sure that ADB is now working. First, see to it that your Android device is set up for debugging. On your Android device running Gingerbread, go to the Settings > Applications > Development screen and make sure “USB Debugging” is checked. If you're already on Ice Cream Sandwich, go to Settings > Developer options and tick “Android debugging” or “USB debugging.”

Connect your computer and Android device with a USB cable. Then, open a terminal on your computer and run the following command:

adb devices

You should see something like this:

List of devices attached
XXXXXXXXXXXX device

A result like that (where the X's represent your device's actual serial number) confirms that your ADB is set up and working.

Learning the Codes

Now that ADB is already set up on your machine, you might want to know how to use its various flags and command options.

Flags

-d

directs command to the only connected USB device; returns an error if more than one USB device is present.

-e

directs command to the only running emulator; returns an error if more than one emulator is running.

-s <serial number>

directs command to the USB device or emulator with the given serial number. Overrides ANDROID_SERIAL environment variable.

-p <product name or path>

simple product name like ‘sooner', or a relative/absolute path to a product out directory like ‘out/target/product/sooner'. If -p is not specified, the ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT environment variable is used, which must be an absolute path.

devices

list all connected devices

connect <host>:<port>

connect to a device via TCP/IP

disconnect <host>:<port>

disconnect from a TCP/IP device

Commands

adb push <local> <remote>

copy file/dir to device

adb pull <remote> [<local>]

copy file/dir from device

adb sync [ <directory> ]

copy host » device only if changed (see ‘adb help all')

adb shell

run remote shell interactively

adb shell <command>

run remote shell command

adb emu <command>

run emulator console command

adb logcat [ <filter-spec> ]

View device log

adb forward <local> <remote>

forward socket connections; forward specs are one of:

• tcp:<port>
• localabstract:<unix domain socket name>
• localreserved:<unix domain socket name>
• localfilesystem:<unix domain socket name>
• dev:<character device name>
• jdwp:<process pid> (remote only)

adb jdwp

list PIDs of processes hosting a JDWP transport

adb install [-l] [-r] [-s] <file>

push this package file to the device and install it

• -l means forward-lock the app
• -r means reinstall the app, keeping its data
• -s means install on SD card instead of internal storage

adb uninstall [-k] <package>

remove this app package from the device (-k means keep the data and cache directories)

adb bugreport

return all information from the device that should be included in a bug report.

adb help

show this help message

adb version

show version num

Data Options

DATAOPTS:

(no option)

don't touch the data partition

-w

wipe the data partition

-d

flash the data partition

Scripting

adb wait-for-device

block until device is online

adb start-server

ensure that there is a server running

adb kill-server

kill the server if it is running

adb get-state

prints: offline | bootloader | device

adb get-serialno

prints: <serial-number>

adb status-window

continuously print device status for a specified device

adb remount

remounts the /system partition on the device read-write

adb reboot [bootloader|recovery]

reboots the device, optionally into the bootloader or recovery program

adb reboot-bootloader

reboots the device into the bootloader

adb root

restarts the adbd daemon with root permissions

adb usb

restarts the adbd daemon listening on USB

adb tcpip <port>

restarts the adbd daemon listening on TCP on the specified port

Networking

adb ppp <tty> [parameters]

Run PPP over USB. Note: you should not automatically start a PPP connection.

• <tty> refers to the tty for PPP stream. Eg. dev:/dev/omap_csmi_tty1
• [parameters] – Eg. defaultroute debug dump local notty usepeerdns

Sync

adb sync [ <directory> ]

<localdir> can be interpreted in several ways:

• If <directory> is not specified, both /system and /data partitions will be updated.
• If it is “system” or “data”, only the corresponding partition is updated.

Once you already have ADB set up and functioning on your computer, you can start using it for a lot of important Android-related tasks, such as creating Android apps, debugging Android apps, and rooting your Android phone. Check out our how-to guides for rooting your Android phones.