Develop Reference

How can I redirect android's getevent output to a file?

I'm trying to redirect the getevent command in Android to a file on the device.
I tried. getevent > /path/to/file, but that didn't work. When I CTRL+C'd, the file was empty.
After further investigation, I discovered that it works if I use getevent's -c flag, which tells the process to terminate after a certain number of events are received. This leads me to believe that the problem is related to the fact that I'm killing the process. When I use tee instead of a >, I can see that the output does not show in stdout until the process finishes gracefully.
The problem of course is that getevent never terminates, and I can't use the -c flag because I won't know beforehand how many events are going to be received.
How can I redirect the getevent to a file in such a way that it is there even when the process is killed?
It's fine if the solution requires the device to be rooted.
Edit: I've discovered through further investigation, that if I ensure that at least 25 events have been sent, it writes to the file. But if I ensure 30 events have been sent, only those 25 events will be written to the file. This confirmed my suspicion, that it's a buffer issue.

In the end, I had to write a script calling getevent -c 1 in a loop.

How to avoid lock screen event during monkey test

i am running monkey tests and i am facing issues with lock screen.
i have tried running tests with default command as below
"monkey -p com.xyz -v 1500000 -s 10000 --throttle 15000"
The tests start fine but eventually get to lock screen and thereby never able to unlock as i have alphanumeric key code as password which is very hard to guess by random events of monkey.
i just want the monkey to run only on app and ignore the lock screen events completely
i am enabling Never go to sleep from settings, please let me know if i can avoid monkey to stop pressing the power key.

You should write your own python script. Please take a look at a simple monkeyrunner program from Android doc and an example from this tutorial. When you write the sript don't use these types of events:
device.press('KEYCODE_POWER', 'DOWN_AND_UP')
device.press('KEYCODE_POWER', 'DOWN')
device.press('KEYCODE_POWER', 'UP')
which are reponsible for screen lock (more key codes). In order to run your own script use:
mokeyrunner srcipt_name.py
Another solution could be avoiding s (pseudo-random number generator) flag in adb shell monkey command. Then use interesting flags except for --pct-syskeys (These are keys that are generally reserved for use by the system, such as Home, Back, Start Call, End Call, or Volume controls.) More flags you find in http://developer.android.com/tools/help/monkey.html

How can I dismiss the android keyguard using adb intent

I am looking for a way to use ADB to dismiss the keyguard in order to automate some tasks.
I would like to start an ACTIVITY (perhaps to call the public method disableKeyguard in android.app.KeyguardManager.KeyguardLock), because I assume that it will work on all (or most) Android devices, but I am unsure of the syntax.
I do not wish to use MonkeyRunner, because it is not present (or perhaps, callable) on all devices. I also cannot send a MENU keycode (adb shell input keycode 82), because this does not dismiss the keyguard on all devices.
Currently I am sending events (low-level touch events), but this needs to be customized for each device, so it is a time consuming task.
Does anyone have a suggestion?

The "Activity Testing" article has a section called Unlocking the emulator or device that addresses this situation.
In short, there isn't a way to do it directly with adb but using disableKeyguard() isn't complicated (see the three lines of example code in the article linked to above). You could easily put together a little app that does nothing but disable the keyguard. It would then just be a matter of
adb install <apk>
adb shell am start <package>/.<activity>
# Whatever you need to automate
adb uninstall <package>
(Where <apk>, <package>, and <activity> all refer to the tiny app that just disables the keyguard.)

Stop running application with ADB

is there a simple way to stop a running application using ADB.
Szenario:
Working on App
Have a script which uploads, installs and starts App on change
Problem:
Currently running version gets killed (not shutdown), which make testing cleanup very hard. Option would be to "do cleanup in between", like after a certain time, but I would prefer to do it in the correct location (so like with the OS, as long as the App is still running, so need to save value, as soon as the OS tells me e.g. memory low or calls onDestroy, I want to save stuff)
Chris

I'm not aware of a way to do this. I was hoping there might be a way to send an intent to tell the app to exit using adb shell e.g.
adb shell am start -a [intent] -n [class]
However, I found that somebody asked this question on a Google forum but they haven't got an answer:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/browse_thread/thread/3fd02d01c6c3b41a/56814e518503efd6

How can I get root permissions through the Android SDK?

I'm learning Android programming, and I want to make an application which has to run as root. The logical thing would be to add a root permission in the Android Manifest.
I saw this link in the documentation, and especially noted the FACTORY_TEST permission:
public static final String FACTORY_TEST
Since: API Level 1
Run as a manufacturer test
application, running as the root user.
Only available when the device is
running in manufacturer test mode.
Constant Value:
"android.permission.FACTORY_TEST"
Is that the best way?
If it's not possible using the SDK, how can I make a "root" application work?

What you need to do is something like:
Process root = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
That causes SuperUser to show, which lets you either Allow or Block it from root access. This approach might not work if the user is not rooted. Here is a way you can test it.

First lets us get the basics right. Android run Linux kernel underneath. Now if you have to run your process on it with super user privileges(run it as root) the only way is to execute your process is via command line because it is the only way you can directly interact with the kernel. Also you need to use su before running any command. Also as Chris has mentioned in his comment on the 1st answer
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
will accomplish nearly nothing. It will just ask for super use privilege using dialog. What you can do is instead of just executing su you can execute your process with su as following
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "su", "-c", yourCommand});
The -c Option
Among the most commonly used of su's few options is -c, which tells su to execute the command that directly follows it on the same line. Such command is executed as the new user, and then the terminal window or console from which su was run immediately returns to the account of the former user after the command has completed execution or after any program that it has launched has been closed.(More details)
Alternate Option
Alternative to above method one another way that might work is to use command line to copy you app to /system/app/ directory. Then your application will run automatically with root privileges(same as System apps)

The SDK does not offer a way to run an app as root.