Re: [boost] Support for Android

Subject: Re: [boost] Support for Android
From: Vicente J. Botet Escriba (vicente.botet_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-01-21 14:58:34

Le 21/01/14 20:21, Antony Polukhin a écrit :
> 2014/1/21 Vicente J. Botet Escriba <vicente.botet_at_[hidden]>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I see that there are some trouble with Boost and Android:
>>
>>      https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/9082
>>
>>
>> http://www.boost.org/development/tests/develop/developer/output/apolukhin-Android-boost-bin-v2-libs-chrono-test-arithmetic_pass_h-test-gcc-androiddebug-debug.html
>>
> I'm the Android tests runner from the second link. Let me describe the
> situation with Android.
Hi Antony,
>
>> Could someone state what is the Boost approach to support Android?
>
> As far as I know the Boost approach is to support as many platforms as
> possible.
My concern was more how to support this platform. For the answer to the 
next question I suspect that Boost can support Android only if the user 
uses NDK.
>
>
>> Should the user build with NDK r8e?
>
> Android NDK gives an ability to compile for different Android API. Android
> API is Linux kernel functions + libc functions + Java methods. So the
> comment to the ticket (
> https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/9082#comment:1) is absolutely
> right. User must compile for at least android-9 API.
>
> NDK versions mainly differ in bugfixes and support for new Android API
> levels. android-9 API is pretty old, so there must be no problems even with
> older NDKs.
>
>
>> Does bjam supports a specific android platform?
>>
> Yes and no. Static libraries can be easily build (just a correctly setupped
> user-config.jam required). To build dynamic libraries bjam must be updated
> (Android has no librt, librt is a part of libc in Android).

Boost.Chrono has this on the buil

         <target-os>linux:<linkflags>"-lrt -lpthread"

Is there a specific target for Android I can use?

>
> Currently I'm fixing scripts that run tests on Android emulator. This is
> required for regression testing only, at work we successfully use Boost on
> Android for more than a year. All the major patches for Android were
> already applied to Boost libraries in last year. Scripts and
> user-config.jam for regression testings can be found here:
> https://github.com/apolukhin/regression_android
Would your scripts take care of -lrt?
What about -lpthread?
> Nearest plans (for a month or two):
> * finish the work with scripts
> * successfully run tests on Android
> * update the regression testing docs, adding a section about cross
> compiling and running tests on emulator/remote device
> * find someone who will agree to update bjam (there is a bunch of minor
> issues)
>
Have you requested the needed features already?

Best,
Vicente