android-build-server-guide

Guide to building a proper android build server, for continous integration using Gitlab CI.

#INSTALLING JDK Depending on compileSdkVersion you can compile java classes using jdk 7 or 8. Thought the procedure for installing jdk 7 and 8 is same, except you download different files (i recommend installing jdk7)

The manual way

• Download JDK 7 from oracle website

  The file names follows below format

    jdk-7u<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
  

  Where is the update number currently the latest is 79.

  So for 32bit version 79 linux OS it would be jdk-7u79-linux-x86.tar.gz and 64 bit it would be jdk-7u79-linux-x64.tar.gz

  So download the jdk depending on your linux os being 32bit or 64bit and the version of your choice.

• Unzip the downloaded tar.gz file

    $ tar zxvf jdk-7u<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
  

  This command untar(uncompresses) the compressed folder and its contents

  I would recommend unzipping it to /usr/local/java

• For gradle you need to add JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME environment variables

  Do sudo gedit /etc/profile or if you don't have a GUI but are running a terminal only version of linux OS, then do sudo nano /etc/profile I'm assuming you know how to use the nano editor if not google!

  You need to add these lines at the bottom of the file

    JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java/jdk1.7.0_79
    JRE_HOME=$JAVA_HOME/jre
    PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin:$JRE_HOME/bin
    export JAVA_HOME
    export JRE_HOME
    export PATH
  

  press ctrl+o to write out, press ctrl+x to exit the nano editor.

  reboot the OS.

  (Taken from http://askubuntu.com/a/55960)

• Now run

  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/local/java/jdk1.7.0_79/bin/java" 1
  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javac" "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0_79/bin/javac" 1
  sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/javaws" "javaws" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0_79/bin/javaws" 1
  

  This will assign Oracle JDK a priority of 1, which means that installing other JDKs will replace it as the default. Be sure to use a higher priority if you want Oracle JDK to remain the default.

• Correct the file ownership and the permissions of the executables:

  sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/java
  sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javac
  sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/javaws
  sudo chown -R root:root /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0
  

  N.B.: Remember - Java JDK has many more executables that you can similarly install as above. java, javac, javaws are probably the most frequently required. This answer lists the other executables available.

• Run

  sudo update-alternatives --config java
  

  You will see output similar to the one below - choose the number of jdk1.8.0 - for example 3 in this list (unless you have have never installed Java installed in your computer in which case a sentence saying "There is nothing to configure" will appear):

  $ sudo update-alternatives --config java
  There are 3 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).
  
    Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
  ------------------------------------------------------------
    0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      auto mode
    1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      manual mode
  * 2            /usr/local/java/jdk1.7.0_79/bin/java             1         manual mode
    3            /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0/bin/java                   1         manual mode
  
  Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3
  update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode
  

  Repeat the above for:

  sudo update-alternatives --config javac
  sudo update-alternatives --config javaws
  

#INSTALLING GRADLE

• Download either the gradle binary-only/all distribution, dont download the gradle source code distribution as it would require you to build the source.

• Extract the zip file and add the environment variable GRADLE_HOME=your gradle installation home folder, in my case i unzipped it to /usr/local/gradle/grade-2.10

• Next add the path GRADLE_HOME/bin to the environment variable PATH by editing the /etc/profile file.

    sudo  nano /etc/profile
  

  Add the the below lines similarly like adding the java env variables to profile.

    GRADLE_HOME=/usr/local/gradle/gradle-2.10
  

  Edit the below line with PATh to look like this

    PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin:$JRE_HOME/bin:$GRADLE_HOME/bin
  

  Then press ctrl+o to write out (save) ctrl+x to exit nano editor.

Done you have successfully installed gradle.