fezvrasta / aria2-android

Java components and build system for aria2 on Android

Android port of aria2

This repository contains source code, required to build Android port of aria2 (x86 and armeabi architectures, both PIC and non-PIC). The port includes frontend application and Android Service, written in Java, as well as binaries of aria2, cross-compiled for above-listed architectures. For details of how those binaries are launched by the Android application see manual of RootCommands (no root access is needed).

Wait, what?

aria2 is a powerful CLI BitTorrent client, with support for HTTP/HTTPS, FTP and Metalink (not available here) protocols. This port provides user-friendly way to launch aria2 daemon from easily installable Android application. It does not include any means to control the client, add/stop/remove/pause torrent downloads etc. - install one of following frontends to do that:

• http://www.transdroid.org/
• https://github.com/ziahamza/webui-aria2
• https://github.com/binux/yaaw

Rationale

Upstream aria2 developer provides aria2 binaries for ARM architecture, but those don't come handy, unless you are ready to manually launch commands in terminal. There is also no way to get PIC/non-PIC versions and x86 versions of aria2. But, most importantly, the Linux console app lacks integration with Android system; no notifications, no sane defaults, no way to start/stop the process in one click. This project attempts to fix those issues.

Building from sources

git clone --recursive "https://github.com/Alexander--/aria2-android"
cd aria2-android
export ANDROID_NDK="/path/to/android-ndk"
echo "ndk.dir=/path/to/android-ndk" > local.properties
./gradlew renameExecutables
./gradlew assembleDebug

If you have variable ANDROID_HOME set up and the directory in question is writable by user, the build will autimatically install correct SDK and tools versions there. Otherwise you have to do that yourself beforehand.

Current state

This port is generally usable, but some convenient features (such as ability to change default aria2 arguments) are missing. Stay tuned with development!

TODO

• Communicate with daemon over RPC to provide some services on-fly.
• Integrate basic wakelock/network lock support into the daemon, using websocket callbacks
• Async DNS resolution is disabled (see upstream notes), and there does not seem to be an easy way to fix it in launcher besides using RPC to supply values during each network change (see above).

FAQ

• Why does aria2 sometimes display misleading status ("there may have been errors") in notifications?

When aria2 (or any other Android application) dies from signal (gets killed by systems etc.), it's exit code (that contains information about last error) may be replaced by some rubbish. This should not normally happen during casual execution, but may occur when something in the system kills aria2 process or because of (virtually nonexistent) bugs in aria2 itself. One tough example of former, is when aria2 process takes it's time to stop current downloads, "stop aria2" switch times out, and the user hits said switch again, killing aria2 process for good. There is no way to understand if everything was really okay in this case.

• Why does Lollipop (aka Android 5.0) firmware prints a message about security issues when aria2 is started with output logging on?

This is a harmless and expected behavior, the solution is currently being searched for.

This message is caused by specifics of x86 platform and implies, that possible bugs in aria2 are slightly more likely be exploited by potential hackers. Fortunately aria2 is rather secure and constantly maintained application – it is much, MUCH less likely to be exploited, compared to your (likely already outdated and vulnerable) device firmware.

License

This application is licensed under GPLv3 (except for OpenSSL, which has it's own license); see COPYING and license headers in individual Git submodules for details.