Develop Reference

Python automated script file transferring

I am looking for a solution for copying all the files from a specific directory on the hard drive, to a specific or non specific directory on my android phone, once this device is connected.
I would like these files to be automatically moved (or at least copied) to my phone once I connect it to the computer and run the .py file.
I have windows 7 and python 2.7
I was trying this from another answer but I can't understand because there is few explanation, therefore I cannot get it to work.
edit: I have figured out how to transfer files between to folders but I want to my phone. So how can I fix the error of my system not finding the path of my phone, that'll fix my problem I believe. The code works fine the problem is the path.
Here is my code:
import os
import shutil
sourcePath = r'C:\Users\...\What_to_copy_to_phone'
destPath = r'Computer\XT1032\Internal storage'
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(sourcePath):
#figure out where we're going
dest = destPath + root.replace(sourcePath, '')
#if we're in a directory that doesn't exist in the destination folder
#then create a new folder
if not os.path.isdir(dest):
os.mkdir(dest)
print 'Directory created at: ' + dest
#loop through all files in the directory
for f in files:
#compute current (old) & new file locations
oldLoc = root + '\\' + f
newLoc = dest + '\\' + f
if not os.path.isfile(newLoc):
try:
shutil.copy2(oldLoc, newLoc)
print 'File ' + f + ' copied.'
except IOError:
print 'file "' + f + '" already exists'
I am sorry I am being handful but I thought I had solved it.

In theory, there is no way to access your phone's internal memmory with a drive letter, because, Android connects as an MTP device, and not as a Mass Storage device. But, there are some weird solutions:
Root the phone and get a application which enables "Mass Storage" .
If you can not root and if(only if) both the computer are on the same network, run FTP server in you phone, and you get access for file copy by ftp.
But for you case I recommend adb- adb push C:\src /phone_destination is the best solution.You can google and easily find out way to do this in python.

Google offers adb-sync, which is also available in python. This allows backup/synchronization of files on android device to PC.
The following github repo provides instructions on how to setup the process ie: enable USB Debugging, etc... however I suggest installing 15 second adb installer as opposed to downloading/installing the massive Android SDK just to get adb.
adb-sync: https://github.com/google/adb-sync
15 Sec ADB installer: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979

A little late to answer, but I use SSH certs and crontab to run a ping command against my local IP and pipe that to an scp recursive copy. It will copy any changes over. No issue yet, and it's been running 4 years straight. I can't for the life of me find the command line that's running.

debug.log for XposedBridge?

I currently work on an application with XposedBridge and I have a lot of questions. I will start with the simple ones.
How can I get the debug.log file?
I cannot find the debug.log file. I have tried the phone shell as well as two adb ways :
A. adb shell data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log/debug.log
B. adb shell "su -c 'cat data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log/debug.log'"
C. adb shell cat data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log/debug.log
adb says : " No such file or directory "
The phone shell can cd to /data and /data/data but not after. Cannot ls neither of the data's. Says access denied. So does adb when I try adb ls.
The phone, Moto E XT1023, is rooted. Despite, shell cannot read some directories. I have posted a question why here but no one seems to care to answer.
I had to go to ES File Explorer. Managed to get to /data. ES says folder empty. Managed to get to Emulator/0/de.robv.android.xposed.installer or something alike. There was a subdirectory called files. Inside was the installer. No debug.log.
Searched all directories with ES for debug.log. Nothing found.
Once I create the XposedBridge class in a separate file of the project and once I do whatever XposedBridge is supposed to do (override methods, insert code before and or after the methods, etcetera) the overridden methods or the methods with code run before and or after or the overridden data will continue to be overridden until the app exits. Is this true?
Is there any simple, yet powerful and comprehensive manual or reference or, the best, a tutorial?
Can I specify another directory for the debug.log.file?
In case I am able to make a directory \data\data manually, would this make the Xposed save debug.log there?
I am so happy I have managed to partially answer the first question which is not only related to XposedBridge but is a global root reach question for rooted phones, so I cannot even think of any other questions for now. I do not have a debug.log but I have error.log and I know how to read these. Here is how in case anyone is interested :
In order to be able to reed XposedBridge log files :
Go to the specialised Moto E adb ( may work with a standard one too ).
Type :
************
* adb root *
************
to ensure root access.
The Dollar Sign $ must appear as the sign before commands. $ means the adb shell environment has been entered.
After $, type :
******
* su *
******
The Sharp Sign # must appear as the sign before commands. # means root has been entered. Once root has been entered, there is a full access to the phone. Thus :
**************************************************
* cd /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer *
**************************************************
can be executed and the directory /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer will be entered.
Type :
******
* ls *
******
to see the contents of this directory.
In case error.log or debug.log files are there, type :
*****************
* cat error.log *
*****************
and or
*****************
* cat debug.log *
*****************
to view these files.
Type :
********
* exit *
********
to return to the safer $ prompt.
Type :
********
* exit *
********
to exit adb.
Note : adb root may not run while a project is developed. The rest works, though.
I still do not have any debug.log. May be the XposedBridge lines do not run. Will check with some simple method from the manual.
Here is what I have found out, though. I have created an empty text file called debug.log on the computer and transferred the file to the main root of the device, the /sdcard directory, themn copied the file to /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log just to see what happens. Nothing happens. The file is empty.
Here is what I have found out which may be helpful:
COMMANDS TO READ THE LOG FILES :
adb shell
su
cd /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log
cat error.log
USE cp SOURCE DESTINATION after su shell, the # prompt, to copy files from one
directory to another on the device.
IMPORTANT NOTES :
All Xposed classes must be put in xposed_init, otherwise Android Studio 1.2 reports them as never used.
In built.gradle, have :
/* SSB : Added manually so the gradle builds with the
XposedBridgeApi-54.jar which is in the app -> libs
but not to include the jar in the apk. */
dependencies {
provided fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
}
THESE HAVE BEEN PUT MANUALLY.
Update : I have been able to clean the code and have managed to find why I do not have a debug.log. This is because the two XposedBridge classes I have ( one is initialisation of zygote and the other is the work file with hooks and replacements ) are not loaded. The error.log shows : Didn't find class " package ( strts without a com. ) NameOfThePackageWithoutComDot.NameOfTheExposedClass in the NameOfThePackageWithoutComDot-2.apk "
THIS IS SAID FOR THE TWO CLASSES.

Problem partially solved:
I have removed the string " package " from the xposed_init and this solved the problem. Thus, instead of :
package TheNameOfThePackage.TheNameOfTheClass
xposed_init contains :
TheNameOfThePackage.TheNameOfTheClass
without the word " package " in front of the names as Android Studio usually puts and requires.
Now, the custom class seems to load OK and XMain where zygote is init generates a novel.
Regardless, the custom class with the test code works OK. The debug.log file is generated. However, the application does not seem to write in the file and the debug.log only says :
d.xposed.installer/log/debug.log
inside.

Libgit2 running on Android unable to perform clone operation - returns "failed to set permissions" error

I have just built Libgit2 (v0.20.0) for Android (target SDK version 18, debugging on a rooted device running Cyanogenmod 10.1.2, Android 4.2.2) and a simple function like getting the version number of Libgit2 works fine through the JNI. But when I use the git_clone function it stops right after the objects/info folder is created and returns this error:
Error -1 cloning repository - Failed to set permissions on '/storage/sdcard0/it/ptt/.git/objects/info': Operation not permitted
I have given the application the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission but I guess it still can't chmod unless owner of the file. When I use adb shell to check out the permission mode of the info folder I get:
d---rwxr-x system sdcard_rw 2014-05-15 09:31 info
And by using pwd.h functions I get the username that the c code (that is calling git_clone) is under to be u0_a92. How am I suppose to get pass this I suppose very Android related issue? Is there a simple way to stop Libgit2 from calling p_chmod or can I give it permissions to do so?

I ended up defining p_chmod as a method always returning true to get passed the error. In the bash script I use to build libgit2 I inserted the following lines that leaves the source files in an unmodified condition after building for android:
LIBGIT2_POSIX_PATH="$LIBGIT2_SOURCE_PATH/src/posix.h"
LIBGIT2_POSIX_BACKUP_PATH="$LIBGIT2_SOURCE_PATH/src/posix_original.h"
printf "#include \"always_success.h\"\nint always_success() { return 0; }" > "$LIBGIT2_SOURCE_PATH/src/always_success.c"
printf "int always_success();" > "$LIBGIT2_SOURCE_PATH/src/always_success.h"
cp $LIBGIT2_POSIX_PATH "$LIBGIT2_POSIX_BACKUP_PATH"
sed -i "s/^#define\sp_chmod(p, m).*$/#include \"always_success.h\"\n#define p_chmod(p, m) always_success()\nextern int always_success();\n/" $LIBGIT2_POSIX_PATH
# run the build process with cmake ...
# restore chmod manipulated source header
mv $LIBGIT2_POSIX_BACKUP_PATH $LIBGIT2_POSIX_PATH
There is probably a cleaner way to solve this but at least now I dont get that error anymore. Thanks to Carlos for his help!
UPDATE
Running adb shell mount | grep sdcard I could see that the sdcard which I am trying to clone the repository into uses the vfat file system which according to this forum thread doesn't support unix-style permissions.

Why Android uiautomator's UiDevice#takeScreenshot always return false on emulator

When using uiautomator, takeScreenshot(File storePath) always returns false no matter what parameter I pass in.
I've tried to give either new File(dir_name, file_name) or new File(file_name), neither of them works (of course mkdir first if the dir_name doesn't exist).
Every time it just return false and /data/local/tmp/ on emulator is empty.
BTW, I don't think it's a permission problem, since trying the similar dumpWindowHierarchy could generate a dump file there.
Thanks in advance for your help.

If you are using emulator to run the tests you should turn on "Use Host GPU" in your AVD configuration. After this change it worked for me.
If you still got a problem you may try screencap. It is command line tool for taking screenshots. It works in both emulator settings. To save screenshot in given path execute:
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("screencap <path>");
process.waitFor();
Use /data/local/tmp to avoid problems with permission. You can use SD Card dir as well. It is asynchronous so wait until process is finished with waitFor(). It will recognize desired output format by extension of provided file.
Or you can get PNG in InputStream (no need to wait):
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("screencap -p");
InputStream output = new BufferedInputStream(process.getInputStream());
You can omit -p if you wish to get file in JPEG. They JPEG screenshots are bigger, but it takes less time to get them.

The takeScreenshot() method is applicable from 4.2 and above android version devices
If the device version is appropriate, then use the following piece of code
File path = new File("/sdcard/filename.png");
int SDK_VERSION = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
if (SDK_VERSION >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) {
mUiAutomatorTestCase.getUiDevice().takeScreenshot(PATH);
}
We can view the file by following command
$ adb shell ls -l /sdcard/name-of-file

How can I copy the contentsof data/ to sdcard/ without using adb?

Hi I need to copy/move the contents of data/tombstones to sdcard/tombstones
I'm using the command below:
mv data/tombstones /sdcard/tombstones
"failed on 'tombstones' - Cross-device link"
but I'm getting above error.

You have a SANE VERSION of the mv command
paraphrasing a few bits from lbcoder from xda and darkxuser from androidforums
"failed on 'tombstones' - Cross-device link"
It means that you can't create a hard link on one device (filesystem) that refers to a file on a different filesystem.
This is an age-old unix thing. You can NOT move a file across a filesystem using most implementations of mv. mv is not made to copy data from device to device, it simply changes a file's location within a partition. Since /data and /sdcard are different partitions, it's failing.
Consider yourself fortunate that you have a SANE VERSION of the mv command that doesn't try anyway -- some old versions will actually TRY to do this, which will result in a hard link that points to NOTHING, and the original data being INACCESSIBLE.
The mv command does NOT MOVE THE DATA!!! It moves the HARDLINK TO
THE DATA.
If you want to move the file to a different filesystem, you need to use the "cp" command. Copy the file to create a SECOND COPY of it on a different filesystem, and then DELETE the OLD one with the "rm" command.
A simple move command:
#!/bin/bash
dd if="$1" of="$2"
rm -f "$1"
You will note that the "cp" command returns true or false depending on the successful completion of the copy, therefore the original will only be removed IF the file copied successfully.
OR
#!/bin/bash
cat data/tombstones > sdcard/tombstones
rm data/tombstones
These script can be copied into some place referenced by the PATH variable and set executable.
Different Interface
If you need a different interface from adb you may move files using the FileExplorer in DDMS View.
Side note:
You can move a file into a folder when:
You're root;
It is your app directory;
You've used chmod from adb or elsewhere to change permissions

Basically you don't have permission to access /data/tombstones in a production version .
It seems we have to 'root' the device first.
But I failed to root my Samsung S4 which is using Android 4.3