What is Android NDK? Chances are, if you’ve found this article, you know already what the Android NDK is. If you’ve stumbled upon here by chance, however, here’s a quick explanation: The Android NDK is a set of tools provided by Google to allow Android developers to code portions of their applications in native C, which then gets compiled into the application to run just the same as any other Android application. The advantage to this is that there is a performance increase for some processes with native code (though not automatically) and some developers can harness it to see performance gains in their applications. It is important to note that the NDK does not guarantee performance increases; there are really only a few cases where native C compiling really does enhance performance, and for the most part working in the regular Android framework API is recommended by Google. The NDK can also be used to incorporate existing C libraries into your app, but if a Java library is available that serves the same function it’s almost always a better idea to use that. If, however, you still need to use the Android NDK, here are some handy tips and instructions on how to install it and integrate it in your development environment! Latest Android SDK (22.6.2), NDK (r9d) and Build/Platform Tools from Google. Nsight™ Tegra®, Visual Studio Edition 1.5.1 updated support for the latest NDK r9d, C++11 and precompiled headers compatibility. Download Ndk R9d For Mac FreeNOTE: The process for installing the NDK on Windows is much more laborious than for Mac or Windows, as the Android NDK does not run natively under Windows and requires the use of cygwin. Once Cygwin is installed, however, the process is much the same, since Cygwin is a UNIX-like CLI that allows for UNIX functionality in Windows. This guide will go through installing the NDK on Linux / Mac first, and then go through the additional steps required to install the NDK on Windows! Step 1: Acquiring the NDK NOTE: before you do this, make sure your Android SDK environment is up-to-date! Though they haven’t for awhile, Google releases new versions of the NDK periodically that usually require functions or libraries that are bundled with newer versions of the SDK. To acquire the NDK, head over to: and grab the latest version appropriate to your OS (the version current as of this writing is r5b, for Linux/Windows/Mac). The NDK isn’t an installer, so once you’ve got it you’ll have to unzip it to a directory of your choice. It can be anywhere you like, so long as it’s somewhere readable (I keep mine in ~/android_ndk). Step 2: Installing the NDK There’s not much to this step, actually: once you’ve unzipped the NDK, it’s pretty much good to go. To compile your native C code, pop them in the source/jni directory of your project, and create a makefile. Demoforge mirage driver for mac. Once that’s done, head over to your project directory and run the ndk-build script. Once the build finishes, compile your application normally; the Android compiler will package the native C source code into the generated apk file. This guide assumes that you have a makefile and source; creating the makefile is another matter entirely, and beyond the scope of this article. Here is an an in-depth guide to creating makefiles should you need to do so: And there you have it – you have a fully functioning Android NDK to compile native C code with! Pretty easy, all things considered! ADDENDUM: Windows Installs If you are on Windows, however, you’re going to need a bit more help than that.
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