morristech / adb-multi

ADB wrapper for multiple device development

ADB-multi

A simple ADB wrapper to manage your development needs for multiple devices.

Prerequisites

• Common sense
• Basic linux environment knowledge (I don't know what you need ADB for if you don't have it)
• ADB correctly installed in $PATH
• ~/bin directory inside $PATH
• CUSTOM $PATH variable directory inside $PATH (check #L32)
• multiple ADB enabled devices

What it's for

We all hate it when we try to quickly type an adb command like adb push only to be confronted by this hell:

error: more than one device/emulator

Of course, this is a byproduct of having simultaneously connected a lot of adb enabled devices to our development PC, and adb devices is having a party of unknown and random numbers (No, I don't remember what 008343w18bdde21c is).

ADB-multi is here to solve this.

How it works

It is an adb wrapper/script generation program which wraps around the standard adb commands and provides

• easier connections between devices
• valuable info during the programming, like the current connected device

The screenshot speaks for itself!

Script generation

If run with generate as the argument, the script will find your currently connected ADB devices, and create 5 scripts per device inside your CUSTOM $PATH variable directory. You can also specify the device names:

Current scripts:

• adb-$FILENAME: standard ADB wrapper, with current device info. Expect everything to work as it should (everything is piped through).
• adb-$FILENAME-push: automates one of the most usual adb push commands, and pushes the file to a specified $ADBDESTDIR directory (script variable). Default is /sdcard:

  adb push $FILE /sdcard
  

• adb-$FILENAME-screenshot: grabs a screenshot from the device using the screencap utility and saves it into the development's machine $SCREENDIR folder (script variable).
• adb-$FILENAME-activity: finds out the current activity path shown on the device
• adb-$FILENAME-install: installs an apk to the device, and handles the infamous case of "-r" argument on its own

Installation

Find a way to place adb-multi inside your $PATH. My preferred method is cloning the repository inside ~/bin and then adding ~/bin/adb-multi and CUSTOM $PATH variable to my $PATH, but you can improvise. As long as you can type adb-multi and the scripts answers, you're good.

it also assumes you have already installed the adb binary.