Build LDC for Android
This page will show you how to build a ldc cross-compiler for Android/ARM on linux, along with how to build and run both the druntime/phobos tests and an Android D app using the cross-compiler. Prebuilt native and cross-compilers are available here.
All of the standard library's unit tests and the full compiler testsuite passes on Android/ARM. Remaining work to be done is listed last.
Contents
Prerequisites
- linux host, where you'll build and run ldc
- You can use a virtual machine like VirtualBox/VMware, with at least 512 MB of memory and 1 GB of swap, particularly if building the phobos unit tests, and 10 GB of disk space.
- Windows 10: You can also use Bash on Ubuntu on Windows (Windows Subsystem for Linux) to create Android applications
- C++ compiler and toolchain, to build a slightly patched llvm and parts of ldc
- A pre-built D compiler for linux, as the ldc frontend is written in D.
- You can get the official dmd release for linux or one of the ldc releases for linux. Many distros also have D compiler packages.
- Common development tools, such as CMake and git, and ldc uses libconfig++
- ldc/druntime/phobos source
- Get the source using git, as these Android patches were tested on the release-1.0.0 branch of each repo.
- llvm 3.8 source, either from the official release or git
- Android native toolchain, the NDK and optionally the SDK
- The SDK is necessary if you want to package a GUI app; the NDK is enough if you just want to build a command-line binary, such as a test runner. If you get the SDK, all that's needed is the "SDK Tools only" version, as long as you don't plan on using their IDE integration. I will only write about using the command-line tools. The SDK requires JDK 7: follow their instructions to make sure it's installed right.
- Android/ARM, whether a device or emulator
- The SDK comes with an emulator. I use actual hardware, so that's what I'll discuss.
Notes for Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
- Necessary packages
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install unzip
sudo apt-get install libconfig-dev
- DMD Compiler
cd ~
curl -O -L http://downloads.dlang.org/releases/2.x/2.072.1/dmd_2.072.1-0_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i dmd_2.072.1-0_amd64.deb
- Android Native Development Kit
sudo mkdir -p /opt/android-sdk/ndk-bundle
curl -O -L https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r13b-linux-x86_64.zip
sudo unzip android-ndk-r13b-linux-x86_64.zip 'android-ndk-r13b/*' -d /opt/android-sdk/ndk-bundle
export NDK=/opt/android-sdk/ndk-bundle/android-ndk-r13b
As Windows Subsystem for Linux does not support USB you have to install Android SDK and Ant on your windows system and execute the commands "android" and "ant" from your DOS console.
Compile llvm
Get the source for llvm, either the latest official 3.8.0 release or a git repository, like this llvm mirror. Download the patch for llvm, apply it, and then build llvm as you would normally, with the ARM target:
curl -O -L http://llvm.org/releases/3.8.0/llvm-3.8.0.src.tar.xz
tar xvf llvm-3.8.0.src.tar.xz
cd llvm-3.8.0.src/
curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/joakim-noah/1fb23fba1ba5b7e87e1a/raw/ff54ecbe824b5f45669ea3a86f136ded16b1dd91/android_tls
git apply android_tls
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=ARM
make -j5
Build ldc for Android/ARM
Clone the ldc repository, check out the release-1.0.0 branch, apply the Android patch, set the DMD environment variable to the path of your pre-built D compiler, set the NDK environment variable to the location of your NDK and NDK_ARCH to its architecture, either x86 or x86_64, and build ldc as usual:
cd ../../
git clone --recursive https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc.git
cd ldc/
git checkout -b ddmd origin/release-1.0.0
git submodule update
curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/joakim-noah/eff6d4ccca7975f32c3c35eb85f29554/raw/671c0d99e7b0d312ba5f197c158551ad0cbbebcc/ldc_1.0.0_android_arm
git apply ldc_1.0.0_android_arm
mkdir build
cd build/
export DMD=/path/to/your/dmd2/linux/bin64/dmd
export NDK=/path/to/your/android-ndk-r12
export NDK_ARCH=x86_64
cmake .. -DLLVM_CONFIG=../../llvm-3.8.0.src/build/bin/llvm-config
make ldc2 -j5
Download and apply the patch for druntime and the patch for phobos before building them:
cd ../runtime/druntime/
curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/joakim-noah/069036835dd92cf648a8219bfe4d68c3/raw/9f42b65b0a17c9a15edc800bcdf644de99ffa72c/druntime_1.0.0_ldc_arm
git apply druntime_1.0.0_ldc_arm
cd ../phobos/
curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/joakim-noah/17c5c37c32609dec218ba6031658a2c9/raw/689d1fc66cd0661a93d0eee55809569aeda1a0f2/phobos_1.0.0_ldc_arm
git apply phobos_1.0.0_ldc_arm
cd ../../build/
make druntime-ldc phobos2-ldc -j5
More info about the Android/ARM patches can be found with their release.
Build a command-line executable
Now that we have a D cross-compiler and cross-compiled the standard library for Android/ARM, let's try building a small program, the classic Sieve of Eratosthenes single-core benchmark:
./bin/ldc2 -mtriple=armv7-none-linux-androideabi
-c ../tests/d2/dmd-testsuite/runnable/sieve.d
$NDK/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-$NDK_ARCH/bin/clang -Wl,-z,nocopyreloc
--sysroot=$NDK/platforms/android-9/arch-arm -lgcc
-gcc-toolchain $NDK/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.9/prebuilt/linux-$NDK_ARCH
-target armv7-none-linux-androideabi -no-canonical-prefixes -fuse-ld=bfd
-Wl,--fix-cortex-a8 -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,-z,noexecstack -Wl,-z,relro
-Wl,-z,now -fPIE -pie -mthumb -Wl,--export-dynamic -lc -lm sieve.o lib/libphobos2-ldc.a
lib/libdruntime-ldc.a -o sieve
The compiler and linker flags were taken from the output from running a NDK sample app's build scripts in verbose mode.
Run this program on an Android device or emulator. I've solely run on actual Android devices, with either a terminal app or an SSH server app. Once you have either of those apps installed, copy the sieve program to the device, go to the app's local directory by typing 'cd' at its command-line, copy the program there, and run it:
cd
cp /sdcard/sieve .
./sieve foobar
The program requires an argument, which is ignored. If it runs correctly, you'll see the following output, saying it ran 10 times and found 1899 primes in the first 8191 integers:
10 iterations
1899 primes
Run the druntime and phobos unit tests
Go back to the linux host and build the tests for druntime and phobos (don't add the -j5 flag to build in parallel unless you have GBs of memory available, as compiling some of the phobos modules' tests takes a fair amount of RAM):
make test-runner
Copy the test-runner and this list of druntime and phobos modules to your device and run it. I use the SSH server app on a random port, here's what I'd do (replace 192.168.35.7 with the IP address of your device and 20345 with the port you configured for the SSH service):
scp -P20345 test.list runtime/test-runner jo@192.168.35.7:
ssh -p20345 jo@192.168.35.7
./test-runner
The tests take about 40 seconds to run on my dual Cortex-A15 device: all should pass. Two passing test blocks in rt.lifetime were disabled, as they cause problems for subsequent tests. One module, core.sync.semaphore, is not included in the list of modules, because sem_destroy works differently in bionic, which has been amended to match in the latest Android. Two test blocks in std.net.curl may fail, depending on what version of curl they're run against.
Build a sample OpenGL Android app ported to D
Clone my android repository, which contains several headers and a C/OpenGL app from the NDK, translated to D:
cd ../../
git clone https://github.com/joakim-noah/android.git
You can find more info about building using the NDK in my earlier instructions for Android/x86. This is just the essence, redone for ARM. You will build a purely native D apk without any Java source.
Go to the native-activity sample app, compile the D source, then link the objects into a shared library and place it in the directory that the SDK expects:
cd android/samples/native-activity/
../../../ldc/build/bin/ldc2 -mtriple=armv7-none-linux-androideabi
-I../../ -c jni/main.d
../../../ldc/build/bin/ldc2 -mtriple=armv7-none-linux-androideabi
-I../../ -c ../../android/sensor.d
../../../ldc/build/bin/ldc2 -mtriple=armv7-none-linux-androideabi
-I../../ -c ../../android_native_app_glue.d
mkdir -p libs/armeabi-v7a/
$NDK/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-$NDK_ARCH/bin/clang -Wl,-soname,libnative-activity.so
-shared --sysroot=$NDK/platforms/android-9/arch-arm main.o sensor.o
../../../ldc/build/lib/libphobos2-ldc.a ../../../ldc/build/lib/libdruntime-ldc.a
android_native_app_glue.o -lgcc
-gcc-toolchain $NDK/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.9/prebuilt/linux-$NDK_ARCH
-no-canonical-prefixes -fuse-ld=bfd -target armv7-none-linux-androideabi
-Wl,--fix-cortex-a8 -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,-z,noexecstack -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now
-mthumb -L$NDK/platforms/android-9/arch-arm/usr/lib -llog -landroid -lEGL -lGLESv1_CM
-lc -lm -o libs/armeabi-v7a/libnative-activity.so
Package the app as the SDK directs. I use the older Ant approach, which is being deprecated: replace it with the Gradle command from a newer SDK if needed. For Ant, set the path to your SDK, then run these commands:
export SDK=/path/to/your/android-sdk-linux
$SDK/tools/android update project -p . -s --target 1
ant debug
Transfer the resulting bin/NativeActivity-debug.apk to your device, go to Settings->Security and allow installation of apps from unknown sources, ie outside the Play Store, then install it. Go to your app folder and run the app named NativeActivity: it'll show a black screen and start flashing a bunch of colors upon a touch.
Run the druntime and phobos unit tests in an apk
Create the libs/armeabi-v7a/ directory as shown in the last section, then download and apply the small patch to have the sample app invoke the test runner, and rebuild:
curl -O https://gist.githubusercontent.com/joakim-noah/8ba3cd4958266f357295/raw/a52fcf1e63715f8b1bd3527afaa85872087b0f30/native_ldc_arm
git apply native_ldc_arm
cd ../../../ldc/build/
make test-runner-apk
This assumes that the ldc and android repositories are in the same directory, as shown in these instructions. If not, modify ANDROID_DIR in the CMake build script to use the path you want.
Finally, package the test runner apk:
cd ../../android/samples/native-activity/
ant debug
Transfer the resulting bin/NativeActivity-debug.apk to your device, and install it as before. Also, copy the list of modules to test to the /sdcard/ directory. The app will append its results to /sdcard/test.log, so if you happen to have a file with that name, move it.
This time, it should show a black screen for about a minute, while all the tests run. A touch after that and it should start flashing a bunch of colors. If not, look at the output in /sdcard/test.log and check if the app hung after any particular tested module. You can remove that module from test.list and try running again.
Directions for future work
- Port the NDK support libraries and more of its sample apps to D, including apps that require using JNI, ie interfacing with Java.
- Two modules, core.thread and std.parallelism, have tests that cause the test runner to hang when run from inside an apk as opposed to on the command line. Trying to suspend a thread from another thread, either directly by calling thread_suspendAll() or indirectly when the GC runs a full collect on a multi-threaded app, fails, because pthread_kill doesn't return and hangs the calling thread. It appears that this is related to using SIGUSR1/2 for suspending and resuming threads: simply switching the two signals works around this issue for now.
- You may notice that I added an empty main function in the D translation of the C sample app: that's a hack to build a shared library. Some of the linux shared library support in druntime's rt.sections_elf_shared may eventually be integrated with Android to get rid of that.
