Develop Reference

Gitlab CI - Android Sdk tools?

I use this Link for add gitlab CI in my android project. The CI work but I don't understand this part :
ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS: "4333796"
In the tutorial, android SDK tool is the last version available.
ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS is a little funny. It's what version of the command line tools we're going to download from the official site. So, that number really just comes from the latest version available there.
Installing packages.
But when click on the link, they send me in android studio download page.
How can i find the version code to put here ? Is it important to change it ?
I also tried with sdkmanager.bar --list in SDK > tool > bin directory
ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: D:\Software\JDK\openjdk-15_windows-x64_bin\jdk-15\bin
Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
location of your Java installation.

At the download page you'll find the "Command line tools only" section. The file name ends with the version number. As of now this is: 8092744 (it'll change in the future).
The name of the download URL and the zipped directory have been changed though, so you'll need to update your ci file accordingly. Using the template in the linked tutorial, the file could look like this (I only build a debug apk, you can add release versions too ofc, just like in the tutorial):
image: openjdk:8-jdk
variables:
ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK: "31"
ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS: "29.0.2"
ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS: "8092744"
before_script:
- apt-get --quiet update --yes
- apt-get --quiet install --yes wget tar unzip lib32stdc++6 lib32z1
- wget --quiet --output-document=android-sdk.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-${ANDROID_SDK_TOOLS}_latest.zip
- unzip -d android-sdk-linux android-sdk.zip
- echo y | android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/latest/ "platforms;android-${ANDROID_COMPILE_SDK}" >/dev/null
- echo y | android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/latest/ "platform-tools" >/dev/null
- echo y | android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/latest/ "build-tools;${ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS}" >/dev/null
- export ANDROID_HOME=$PWD/android-sdk-linux
- export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools/
- chmod +x ./gradlew
# temporarily disable checking for EPIPE error and use yes to accept all licenses
- set +o pipefail
- yes | android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/latest/ --licenses
- yes | android-sdk-linux/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=/builds/pauni/lara/android-sdk-linux --licenses
- set -o pipefail
stages:
- build
assembleDebug:
stage: build
script:
- ./gradlew assembleDebug
artifacts:
paths:
- app/build/outputs/

Android SDK on Alpine - adb No such file or directory

I'm trying to build an Alpine image containing the Android SDK - specifically, the platform-tools package.
My Dockerfile does the following:
Installs Java and sets JAVA_HOME (needed for Android).
Downloads the Android SDK tools from Google.
Unzips the package.
Sets ANDROID_HOME. Also sets PATH so the sdkmanager executable can be used.
Installs platform-tools using sdkmanager.
Adds platform-tools to PATH.
platform-tools contains an executable named adb, but for some reason it cannot be seen. Running adb returns:
bash: /android-sdk/platform-tools/adb: No such file or directory
Here is my Dockerfile:
FROM alpine:latest
# Install bash and java
RUN apk update
RUN apk add bash openjdk8
ENV JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8-openjdk
ENV PATH="$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin"
# Download Android SDK and set PATH
RUN mkdir /android-sdk
RUN wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-4333796.zip && unzip *.zip -d /android-sdk && rm *.zip
ENV ANDROID_HOME="/android-sdk"
ENV PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin"
# Install platform-tools
RUN yes | sdkmanager "platform-tools"
ENV PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools"
RUN adb version # throws error: adb not found
I've looked at this question but the problem should be fixed with platform-tools v24.0 and higher.

Alpine uses musl libc instead of glibc and friends, so certain software might run into issues depending on the depth of their libc requirements.
adb is compiled with glibc, so it won't be able to run in Alpine, which usually results in the error: No such file or directory.
You can verify that a file is compiled with glibc by running file <path to file> | grep "interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2".

This may help, although the Gradle daemon randomly crashes for me on Alpine Linux when using the compatibility layer.
gcompat is the go-to compatibility layer for Alpine users.
apk add gcompat
After that you run your binaries as normal.
Source: https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Running_glibc_programs

You can install android-tools like so:
RUN apk add \
android-tools \
--repository=http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing
The key is to set the --repository as shown, as it's only in the edge testing repo.
I don't think it includes the whole SDK, so may need to download and unzip as well for other tools. I don't know if this will handle everything you want, but adb prints a help document at least.

Travis: how to know android sdk/ndk path?

My android project is built with Ant and i have to edit ant.properties manually file to pass sdk.path variable pointing to android sdk directory. i'm going to change it to get sdk path from environment variable to make build possible on Travis CI. What is android sdk variable for this?
Also i have some jni code to be built with android ndk, so the similar question - what is env variable for android ndk on Travis?

Don't use the Travis's Android support; it uses the old 'android' CLI instead of the new sdkmanager CLI that supports installing the NDK. Do something like:
before_install:
- cd $HOME
- wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-3859397.zip -O $HOME/android-sdk.tgz
- mkdir android
- unzip android-sdk.tgz -d android/sdk
- export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/android/sdk/tools:$HOME/android/sdk/tools/bin
- cd build/<your-build-directory>
And then in the 'install' section:
install:
- echo y | sdkmanager 'ndk-bundle'
- echo y | sdkmanager 'cmake;3.6.3155560'
- export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/android/sdk
- export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$HOME/android/sdk/ndk-bundle
You can use the sdkmanager to install anything else you need. The benefit over the other answer is that this will grab the latest version of the NDK.
Finally, then you can set the environment variables ANDROID_HOME and ANDROID_NDK_HOME, and pass it to your specific environment.
Hope it helps.

Travis seems to provide Android support in beta. Android SDK can be found in /usr/local/android-sdk. However it seems that Android NDK is not provided and can't be found in /usr/local/android-ndk. The simple (and expensive walkaround for Travis) is to download/extract/use it right while building like this:
before_script:
- export NDK_VERSION=r10e
- curl -L http://dl.google.com/android/ndk/android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-linux-x86_64.bin -O
- chmod u+x android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-linux-x86_64.bin
- ./android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-linux-x86_64.bin > /dev/null
- rm android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}-linux-x86_64.bin
- export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=`pwd`/android-ndk-${NDK_VERSION}
- export PATH=${ANDROID_NDK_HOME}:${PATH}
Feel free to comment this solution if you have a better one.

You can export the Android variables using this command as well as Clive Lee's method
env:
global:
- ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/android/sdk
- ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$HOME/android/sdk/ndk-bundle

How to install Android SDK on Ubuntu?

For my Ubuntu machine, I downloaded the latest version of Android SDK from this page.
After extracting the downloaded .tgz file, I was trying to search for installation instructions and found:
To get started on Linux:
Unpack the .zip file you've downloaded. The SDK files are download separately to a user-specified directory.
Make a note of the name and location of the SDK directory on your system—you will need to refer to the SDK directory later when using the SDK tools from the command line.
What exactly are we supposed to do?

Option 1:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install android-sdk
The location of Android SDK on Linux can be any of the following:
/home/AccountName/Android/Sdk
/usr/lib/android-sdk
/Library/Android/sdk/
/Users/[USER]/Library/Android/sdk
Option 2:
Download the Android Studio.
Extract downloaded .zip file.
The extracted folder name will read somewhat like android-studio
To keep navigation easy, move this folder to Home directory.
After moving, copy the moved folder by right clicking it. This action will place folder's location to clipboard.
Use Ctrl Alt T to open a terminal
Go to this folder's directory using cd /home/(USER NAME)/android-studio/bin/
Type this command to make studio.sh executable: chmod +x studio.sh
Type ./studio.sh
A pop up will be shown asking for installation settings. In my particular case, it is a fresh install so I'll go with selecting I do not have a previous version of Studio or I do not want to import my settings.
If you choose to import settings anyway, you may need to close any old project which is opened in order to get a working Android SDK.
From now onwards, setup wizard will guide you.
Android Studio can work with both Open JDK and Oracle's JDK (recommended). Incase, Open JDK is installed the wizard will recommend installing Oracle Java JDK because some UI and performance issues are reported while using OpenJDK.
The downside with Oracle's JDK is that it won't update with the rest of your system like OpenJDK will.
The wizard may also prompt about the input problems with IDEA .
Select install type
Verify installation settings
An emulator can also be configured as needed.
The wizard will start downloading the necessary SDK tools
The wizard may also show an error about Linux 32 Bit Libraries, which can be solved by using the below command:
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 lib32z1
After this, all the required components will be downloaded and installed automatically.
After everything is upto the mark, just click finish
To make a Desktop icon, go to 'Configure' and then click 'Create Desktop Entry'
source

To install it on a Debian based system simply do
# Install latest JDK
sudo apt install default-jdk
# get latest sdk tools - link will change. go to https://developer.android.com/studio/#downloads and look for "Command line tools only" download from webpage as you will need to accept terms. Then extract.
mkdir cmdline-tools
mv <folder-you-extracted> android-sdk/cmdline-tools
# So after this step is done you will have ~/cmdline-tools/tools with bin/ and lib/ in it.
Then add the Android SDK to your PATH, open ~/.bashrc in editor and add the following lines into the file
# Export the Android SDK path
export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/cmdline-tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools
Run
source ~/.bashrc
Show all available sdk packages
sdkmanager --list
Identify latest android platform (here it's 33) and run
sdkmanager "platform-tools" "platforms;android-33"
Now you have adb, fastboot and the latest sdk tools installed

Android SDK Manager
sudo snap install androidsdk
Usage
You can use the sdkmanager to perform the following tasks.
List installed and available packages
androidsdk --list [options]
Install packages
androidsdk packages [options]
The packages argument is an SDK-style path as shown with the --list command, wrapped in quotes (for example, "build-tools;29.0.0" or "platforms;android-28"). You can pass multiple package paths, separated with a space, but they must each be wrapped in their own set of quotes.
For example, here's how to install the latest platform tools (which includes adb and fastboot) and the SDK tools for API level 28:
androidsdk "platform-tools" "platforms;android-28"
Alternatively, you can pass a text file that specifies all packages:
androidsdk --package_file=package_file [options]
The package_file argument is the location of a text file in which each line is an SDK-style path of a package to install (without quotes).
To uninstall, simply add the --uninstall flag:
androidsdk --uninstall packages [options]
androidsdk --uninstall --package_file=package_file [options]
Update all installed packages
androidsdk --update [options]
Note
androidsdk it is snap wraper of sdkmanager
all options of sdkmanager work with androidsdk
Location of installed android sdk files : /home/user/AndroidSDK
See all sdkmanager options in google documentation

UPDATE: This method is no longer recommended and installation is as easy as downloading it from the official website, then running the downloaded binary.
ORIGINAL ANSWER:
There is no need to download any binaries or files or follow difficult installation instructions.
All you really needed to do is:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install android-sdk
Update: Ubuntu 18.04 only

I can tell you the steps for installing purely via command line from scratch.
I tested it on Ubuntu on 22 Feb 2021.
create sdk folder
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/usr/lib/android-sdk
sudo mkdir -p $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
install openjdk
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk
download android sdk
Go to https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
Then down to Command line tools only
Click on Linux link, accept the agreement and instead of downloading right click and copy link address
cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT
sudo wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
sudo unzip commandlinetools-linux-6858069_latest.zip
move folders
Rename the unpacked directory from cmdline-tools to tools,
and place it under $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools,
so now it should look like: $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools.
And inside it, you should have: NOTICE.txt bin lib source.properties.
set path
PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin
This had no effect for me, hence the next step
browse to sdkmanager
cd $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/tools/bin
accept licenses
yes | sudo sdkmanager --licenses
create build
Finally, run this inside your project
chmod 777 gradlew
sudo ./gradlew assembleDebug
This creates an APK named -debug.apk at //build/outputs/apk/debug
The file is already signed with the debug key and aligned with zipalign,
so you can immediately install it on a device.
REFERENCES
https://gist.github.com/guipmourao/3e7edc951b043f6de30ca15a5cc2be40
Android Command line tools sdkmanager always shows: Warning: Could not create settings
"Failed to install the following Android SDK packages as some licences have not been accepted" error
https://developer.android.com/studio/build/building-cmdline#sign_cmdline

If you are on Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty), and you literally just need the SDK (no Android Studio), you can install it like on Debian:
sudo apt install android-sdk android-sdk-platform-23
export ANDROID_HOME=/usr/lib/android-sdk
In build.gradle, change compileSdkVersion to 23 and buildToolsVersion to 24.0.0
run gradle build

install the android SDK for me was not the problem, having the right JRE and JDK was the problem.
To solve this install the JVM 8 (the last fully compatible, for now):
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
Next use update-alternative to switch to the jre-8 version:
sudo update-alternatives --config java
You can revert JVM version when you want with the same update-alternatives command
Note that you problably have to do the same after this with javac also (now you have only java command at version 8)
first do:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk
next:
sudo update-alternatives --config javac
After this you can install android SDK that require this specific Java version

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer oracle-java7-set-default
wget https://dl.google.com/dl/android/studio/ide-zips/2.2.0.12/android-studio-ide-145.3276617-linux.zip
unzip android-studio-ide-145.3276617-linux.zip
cd android-studio/bin
./studio.sh

Install Android Studio with
sudo snap install android-studio --classic
when you open it for the first time it will install the SDK for you (with options) .

How to install Android SDK Build Tools on the command line?

I want to setup the Android dev environment from command line, and encounter the following issue:
wget http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r22.0.5-linux.tgz
after extract the file, run
tools/android update sdk --no-ui
However, it is too slow on running
Fetching https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/addons_list-2.xml
The result is that nothing in folder build-tools, and I want is aapt and apkbuilder, since I want to build apk from command line without ant.

By default, the SDK Manager from the command line does not include the build tools in the list. They're in the "obsolete" category. To see all available downloads, use
android list sdk --all
And then to get one of the packages in that list from the command line, use:
android update sdk -u -a -t <package no.>
Where -u stands for --no-ui, -a stands for --all and -t stands for --filter.
If you need to install multiple packages do:
android update sdk -u -a -t 1,2,3,4,..,n
Where 1,2,..,n is the package number listed with the list command above

As mentioned in other answers, you can use the --filter option to limit the installed packages:
android update sdk --filter ...
The other answers don't mention that you can use constant string identifiers instead of indexes (which will change) for the filter options. This is helpful for unattended or scripted installs. Man for --filter option:
... This also accepts the identifiers returned by 'list sdk --extended'.
android list sdk --all --extended :
Packages available for installation or update: 97
----------
id: 1 or "tools"
Type: Tool
Desc: Android SDK Tools, revision 22.6.2
----------
id: 2 or "platform-tools"
Type: PlatformTool
Desc: Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 19.0.1
----------
id: 3 or "build-tools-19.0.3"
Type: BuildTool
Desc: Android SDK Build-tools, revision 19.0.3
Then you can use the string ids as the filter options to precisely specify the versions you want:
android update sdk --filter tools,platform-tools,build-tools-19.0.3 etc

Version 25.2.3 (and higher) of Android SDK Tools package contains new tool - sdkmanager - which simplifies this task of installing build-tools from the command line.
It is located in android_sdk/tools/bin folder.
Usage (from documentation):
List installed and available packages:
sdkmanager --list [options] \
[--channel=channel_id] // Channels: 0 (stable), 1 (beta), 2 (dev), or 3 (canary)
Use the channel option to include a package from a channel up to and including channel_id. For example, specify the canary channel to list packages from all channels.
Install packages:
sdkmanager packages [options]
The packages argument is an SDK-style path, wrapped in quotes (for
example, "build-tools;25.0.0" or "platforms;android-25"). You can
pass multiple package paths, separated with a space, but they must
each be wrapped in their own set of quotes.
Example usage (on my Mac):
alex#mbpro:~/sdk/tools/bin$ ls ../../build-tools/
25.0.0/
alex#mbpro:~/sdk/tools/bin$ ./sdkmanager "build-tools;25.0.2"
done
alex#mbpro:~/sdk/tools/bin$ ls ../../build-tools/
25.0.0/ 25.0.2/
You can also specify various options, for example to force all connections to use HTTP (--no_https), or in order to use proxy server (--proxy_host=address and --proxy_port=port).
To check the available options, use the --help flag. On my machine (Mac), the output is as following:
alex#mbpro:~/sdk/tools/bin$ ./sdkmanager --help
Usage:
sdkmanager [--uninstall] [<common args>] \
[--package_file <package-file>] [<packages>...]
sdkmanager --update [<common args>]
sdkmanager --list [<common args>]
In its first form, installs, or uninstalls, or updates packages.
<package> is a sdk-style path (e.g. "build-tools;23.0.0" or
"platforms;android-23").
<package-file> is a text file where each line is a sdk-style path
of a package to install or uninstall.
Multiple --package_file arguments may be specified in combination
with explicit paths.
In its second form (with --update), currently installed packages are
updated to the latest version.
In its third form, all installed and available packages are printed out.
Common Arguments:
--sdk_root=<sdkRootPath>: Use the specified SDK root instead of the SDK containing this tool
--channel=<channelId>: Include packages in channels up to <channelId>.
Common channels are:
0 (Stable), 1 (Beta), 2 (Dev), and 3 (Canary).
--include_obsolete: With --list, show obsolete packages in the
package listing. With --update, update obsolete
packages as well as non-obsolete.
--no_https: Force all connections to use http rather than https.
--proxy=<http | socks>: Connect via a proxy of the given type.
--proxy_host=<IP or DNS address>: IP or DNS address of the proxy to use.
--proxy_port=<port #>: Proxy port to connect to.
* If the env var REPO_OS_OVERRIDE is set to "windows",
"macosx", or "linux", packages will be downloaded for that OS.

ADB Build-Tools Will Not be downloaded automatically, by command android update sdk --no-ui
So for installing Buil-Tool type (in console):
android list sdk --all
Remember the number that is listed before the item and execute the following:
android update sdk -u --all --filter <number>
commands should be typed in /YourFolder/android-sdk-linux/tools
Also for remote folder (server opened by ssh for example) type:
**./android** list sdk --all
**./android** update sdk -u --all --filter <number>
For simple list of ADB packages type in terminal:
android list sdk
for install all packages:
android update sdk --no-ui
Or with filters (comma is separator):
android update sdk --no-ui --filter 3,5,8,14

A great source of information I came across while trying to install everything Android SDK related from the command line, was this Dockerfile. Inside the Dockerfile you can see that the author executes a single command to install platform tools and build tools without any other interaction. In the case the OP has put forth, the command would be adapted to:
echo y | $ANDROID_HOME/tools/android update sdk --all --filter build-tools-21.1.0 --no-ui

If you have sdkmanager installed (I'm using MAC)
run sdkmanager --list to list available packages.
If you want to install build tools, copy the preferred version from the list of packages available.
To install the preferred version run
sdkmanager "build-tools;27.0.3"

The "android" command is deprecated.
For command-line tools, use tools/bin/sdkmanager and tools/bin/avdmanager
If you do not need Android Studio, you can download the basic Android command line tools from developer.android.com in section Command line tools only.
from CLI it should be somfing like:
curl --output sdk-tools-linux.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-4333796.zip
or
wget --output-document sdk-tools-linux.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-4333796.zip
After that just unpack the archive to the target folder
unzip sdk-tools-linux.zip
And now we can install everything you need...
./tools/bin/sdkmanager --install 'build-tools;29.0.2' 'platform-tools' 'platforms;android-29' 'tools'
You can get a complete list of packages using the command ./tools/bin/sdkmanager --list
Some packages require acceptance of the license agreement. you can accept it interactively or just pass "y" to the input stream, like this(two agreements in case):
echo -ne "y\ny" | ./tools/bin/sdkmanager --install 'system-images;android-29;default;x86_64'
And of course, for your convenience, you can export variables such as ANDROID_HOME or ANDROID_SDK_ROOT (including doing it in ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile) or patch the PATH variable - all this is at your discretion.
Script example:
mkdir /opt/android-sdk
cd /opt/android-sdk
curl --output sdk-tools-linux.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/sdk-tools-linux-4333796.zip
unzip sdk-tools-linux.zip
echo -ne "y" | ./tools/bin/sdkmanager --install 'build-tools;29.0.2' 'platform-tools' 'platforms;android-29' 'tools'
Requirements:
curl(or wget) and unzip
Troubleshooting:
if you see Warning: Could not create settings, you need to have the tools directory inside the cmdline-tools directory inside the ANDROID_HOME (create it if needed with this exact name) see Android Command line tools sdkmanager always shows: Warning: Could not create settings

I just had a heck of a time getting android sdk dependencies installed via command line and since the documentation that comes with the tools and online are woefully lacking, I thought I'd post what I discovered here.
I'm working with android sdk r24.4.1 for linux. There are two commands that you can run to list the available packages:
android list sdk
and the more exhaustive:
android list sdk --all
The package numbers for specific packages differ for each command above! For example, the former lists package API 23.1 revision 3 as package #3 and the latter lists it as #29.
Now, there are two different ways to install using the android command.
tools/android update sdk --no-ui --filter <package number>
and
tools/android update sdk -u -a -t <package number>
Given that the install commands each can take the package # as a parameter, which package number do you use? After much online searching and trial and error, I discovered that
android update sdk --no-ui --filter uses the package numbers from android list sdk
and
android update sdk -u -a -t uses the package numbers from android list sdk --all
In other words - to install API 23.1 revision 3 you can do either:
android update sdk --no-ui --filter 3
or
android update sdk -u -a -t 29
Crazy, but it works.

Most of the answers seem to ignore the fact that you may need to run the update in a headless environment with no super user rights, which means the script has to answer all the y/n license prompts automatically.
Here's the example that does the trick.
FILTER=tool,platform,android-20,build-tools-20.0.0,android-19,android-19.0.1
( sleep 5 && while [ 1 ]; do sleep 1; echo y; done ) \
| android update sdk --no-ui --all \
--filter ${FILTER}
No matter how many prompts you get, all of those will be answered. This while/sleep loop looks like simulation of the yes command, and in fact it is, well almost. The problem with yes is that it floods stdout with 'y' and there is virtually no delay between sending those characters and the version I had to deal with had no timeout option of any kind. It will "pollute" stdout and the script will fail complaining about incorrect input. The solution is to put a delay between sending 'y' to stdout, and that's exactly what while/sleep combo does.
expect is not available by default on some linux distros and I had no way to install it as part of my CI scripts, so had to use the most generic solution and nothing can be more generic than simple bash script, right?
As a matter of fact, I blogged about it (NSBogan), check it out for more details here if you are interested.

However, it is too slow on running
Yes, I've had the same problem. Some of the file downloads are extremely slow (or at least they have been in the last couple of days). If you want to download everything there's not a lot you can do about that.
The result is that nothing in folder build-tools, and I want is aapt and apkbuilder, since I want to build apk from command line without ant.
Did you let it run to completion?
One thing you can do is filter the packages that are being downloaded using the -t switch.
For example:
tools/android update sdk --no-ui -t platform-tool
When I tried this the other day I got version 18.0.0 of the build tools installed. For some reason the latest version 18.0.1 is not included by this filter and the only way to get it was to install everything with the --all switch.

I prefer to put a script that install my dependencies
Something like:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Install JUST the required dependencies for the project.
# May be used for ci or other team members.
#
for I in android-25 \
build-tools-25.0.2 \
tool \
extra-android-m2repository \
extra-android-support \
extra-google-google_play_services \
extra-google-m2repository;
do echo y | android update sdk --no-ui --all --filter $I ; done
https://github.com/caipivara/android-scripts/blob/master/install-android-dependencies.sh

I just had this problem, so I finally wrote a 1 line bash dirty solution by reading and parsing the list of aviable tools :
tools/android update sdk -u -t $(android list sdk | grep 'Android SDK Build-tools' | sed 's/ *\([0-9]\+\)\-.*/\1/')

Inspired from answers by #i4niac & #Aurélien Lambert, this is what i came up with
csv_update_numbers=$(./android list sdk --all | grep 'Android SDK Build-tools' | grep -v 'Obsolete' | sed 's/\(.*\)\- A.*/\1/'|sed '/^$/d'|sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//'| tr '\n' ',')
csv_update_numbers_without_trailing_comma=${csv_update_numbers%?}
( sleep 5 && while [ 1 ]; do sleep 1; echo y; done ) \
| ./android update sdk --all -u -t $csv_update_numbers_without_trailing_comma
Explanation
get a comma separated list of numbers which are the indexes of build tools packages in the result of android list sdk --all command (Ignoring obsolete packages).
keep throwing 'y's at the terminal every few miliseconds to accept the licenses.

Download android SDK from developer.android.com (its currently a 149mb file for windows OS). It is worthy of note that android has removed the sdkmanager GUI but has a command line version of the sdkmanager in the bin folder which is located inside the tools folder.
When inside the bin folder, hold down the shift key, right click, then select open command line here.
Shift+right click >> open command line here.
When the command line opens, type sdkmanager click enter.
Then run type sdkmanager (space), double hyphen (--), type list
sdkmanager --list (this lists all the packages in the SDK manager)
Type sdkmanager (space) then package name, press enter.
Eg. sdkmanager platform-tools (press enter)
It will load licence agreement. With options (y/n). Enter y to accept and it will download the package you specified.
For more reference follow official document here
I hope this helps. :)

Build tools could not be downloaded automatically by default as Nate said in https://stackoverflow.com/a/19416222/1104031 post.
But I wrote small tool that make everything for you
I used "expect" tool as danb in https://stackoverflow.com/a/17863931/1104031 post.
You only need android-sdk and python27, expect.
This script will install all build tools, all sdks and everything you need for automated build:
import subprocess,re,sys
w = subprocess.check_output(["android", "list", "sdk", "--all"])
lines = w.split("\n")
tools = filter(lambda x: "Build-tools" in x, lines)
filters = []
for tool in tools:
m = re.search("^\s+([0-9]+)-", tool)
tool_no = m.group(1)
filters.append(tool_no)
if len(filters) == 0:
raise Exception("Not found build tools")
filters.extend(['extra', 'platform', 'platform-tool', 'tool'])
filter = ",".join(filters)
expect= '''set timeout -1;
spawn android update sdk --no-ui --all --filter %s;
expect {
"Do you accept the license" { exp_send "y\\r" ; exp_continue }
eof
}''' % (filter)
print expect
ret = subprocess.call(["expect", "-c", expect])
sys.exit(ret)

As stated in other responses, the build tools requires the --all flag to be installed. You also better use a -t filter flag to avoid installing ALL the packages but there is no way to filter all the build tools.
There are already features requests for these two points in AOSP bug tracker. Feel free to vote for them, this might make them happen some day:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=78765
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=58337

I tried this for update all, and it worked!
echo y | $ANDROID_HOME/tools/android update sdk --no-ui

Try
1. List all packages
android list sdk --all
2. Install packages using following command
android update sdk -u -a -t package1, package2, package3 //comma seperated packages obtained using list command

android update sdk
This command will update and install all latest release for SDK Tools, Build Tools,SDK platform tools.
It's Work for me.

To setup android environment without installating the whole android studio :
Download JDK (version greater than 8)
Download gradle from https://gradle.org/install/
Download command line tools from https://developer.android.com/studio scroll down and download command line tools only
Setup the necessary environment variables
Download the necessary SDK tools