In this session we will talk about adding standard Linux developer tools to Android.

Description

To improve the tools available for embedded developers that care about the core platform, kernel and user space code, the Linaro Android Platform team considers it important to provide tools commonly used by low level GNU/Linux developers. We continuously monitor and identify areas where porting and integrating those tools with Android will benefit the overall Android community.

Discussion and reviews lead us to believe that focusing on the binary debugging front would be the most useful next step. The first part of this effort will be a research project that reviews debugging tools commonly used by embedded Linux developers, checking for applicability of those use cases to Android. We will also identify equivalent tools or gaps in the offering of the stock AOSP NDK and SDK. Potential candidates taken from pre-discussion that this research project will pay special attention to are:

oprofile
perf
valgrind
powerdebug

Based on the findings from the effort above, a priority ordered list of tools will be defined and the engineering plan expanded accordingly.

Acceptance Criteria

1. Results of the research project with a significant list of tools for porting are published


2. Debugging tools identified are integrated and available in Linaro Android Images or the NDK

See https://linaro.papyrs.com/page/4115/ANDROID2011-DEVTOOLS-1/# for the original description.

Agenda

Give a quick overview of what is already there (and what theoretically should be there)
Discuss what other tools we need (and what tools are realistic to port)
Best way to get there [see rsalveti comment on the BP whiteboard]

Goal of this Session

To identify the tools Android needs and brainstorm and generate concrete work items to integrate those tools into Linaro's LEBs.