android-ndk-r7b\docs\NDK-BUILD.html
The Android NDK r4 introduced a new tiny shell script, named 'ndk-build', to simplify building machine code.
Options:
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ndk-build --> rebuild required machine code. ndk-build clean --> clean all generated binaries. ndk-build NDK_DEBUG=1 --> generate debuggable native code. ndk-build V=1 --> launch build, displaying build commands. ndk-build -B --> force a complete rebuild. ndk-build -B V=1 --> force a complete rebuild and display build commands. ndk-build NDK_LOG=1 --> display internal NDK log messages (used for debugging the NDK itself). ndk-build NDK_DEBUG=1 --> force a debuggable build. ndk-build NDK_DEBUG=0 --> force a release build. ndk-build NDK_APPLICATION_MK=<file> --> rebuild, using a specific Application.mk pointed to by the NDK_APPLICATION_MK command-line variable. ndk-build -C <project> --> build the native code for the project path located at <project>. Useful if you don't want to 'cd' to it in your terminal.
If you don't specify NDK_DEBUG, ndk-build will keep its default behaviour, which is to inspect the AndroidManifest.xml, if any, and see if its <application> element has android:debuggable="true". IMPORTANT: If you use the build tools of SDK r8 (or higher), you won't need to touch your AndroidManifest.xml file at all! That's because if you build a debug package (e.g. with "ant debug" or the corresponding option of the ADT plugin), the tool will automatically pick the native debug files generated with NDK_DEBUG=1. Also, as a convenience, the release and debug object files generated by the NDK are now stored in different directories (e.g. obj/local/<abi>/objs and obj/local/<abi>/objs-debug). This avoids having to recompile all your sources when you switch between these two modes (even when you only modified one or two source files).
Requirements:
-----------------
You need GNU Make 3.81 or later to use 'ndk-build' or the NDK in general.
The build scripts will detect that you're using a non-compliant Make tool
and will complain with an error message.
If you have GNU Make 3.81 installed, but that it is not launched by the
default 'make' command, define GNUMAKE in your environment to point to it
before launching 'ndk-build'. For example:
GNUMAKE=/usr/local/bin/gmake ndk-build
Or to make the change more permanent:
export GNUMAKE=/usr/local/bin/gmake
ndk-build
Adapt to your shell and GNU Make 3.81 installation location.
Internals:
-------------
'ndk-build' itself is a tiny wrapper around GNU Make, its purpose is simply
to invoke the right NDK build script, it is equivalent to;
$GNUMAKE -f $NDK/build/core/build-local.mk [parameters]
Where '$GNUMAKE' points to GNU Make 3.81 or later, and $NDK points to your
NDK installation directory.
Use this knowledge if you want to invoke the NDK build script from other
shell scripts (or even your own Makefiles).