Develop Reference

Problem with special filenames when trying to pull android files into windows pc recursively using adb

I want to download all files from /data/data/foo folder to my pc. I am using adb to connect with my phone.
cd /data/data/foo
ls -R
.:
cache
databases
files
lib
shared_prefs
./cache:
./databases:
errors.db
errors.db-journal
logs.db
logs.db-journal
./files:
cache_state.info
./shared_prefs:
LANG_CODE.xml
PPP.xml
CADD
.xml
To download files I am using:
adb pull "/data/data/foo" %USERPROFILE%/foo
And here's response:
pull: building file list...
skipping special file 'lib'
pull: /data/data/foo/files/cache_state.info -> C:\Users\root/foo/files/cache_state.info
pull: /data/data/foo/shared_prefs/CADD
.xml -> C:\Users\root/foo/shared_prefs/CADD
.xml
cannot create 'C:\Users\root\foo\shared_prefs\CADD
.xml': No such file or directory
And in fact, only this is copied:
foo/files/cache_state.info
foo/shared_prefs
What I am doing wrong here?

The problem:
What you're doing is right (the command is correct), but the problem comes from the nature of the task you're trying to achieve.
You're trying to copy files from a unix device (an ext filesystem) into your windows pc (with NTFS filesystem). This usually works fine but there are cases when it doesn't: different filesystems have different rules as to which filenames are valid, and if a filename is valid in the source but not in the destination, there's no way to copy it preserving it's name.
From the error I understand you have a file named CADD
.xml (with line break included in the name) that is valid in your android device but will give an error when trying to copy it into your windows filesystem (see Which file systems support newlines in file names?).
Possible solutions:
Copy the files one by one and set a different destination name for the file causing trouble (CADD\n.xml -> CADD.xml)
Get some ext filesystem (either create it in your disk or mount from an external disk) and copy the files there
Copy the file into the ext filesystem used by your in-windows bash shell (see How to Access Your Ubuntu Bash Files in Windows )

how should i eliminate : while pulling the folder using adb

How should i eliminate : while pulling the folder using adb some of the folders contain special characters? Its not supporting in windows platform.
C:\Users\Vijay\Desktop\bug_report>adb pull /data/ingenic-log
pull: building file list...
pull: /data/ingenic-log/15(2017-02-16 16:56:00)/logcat.txt -> ./15(2017-02-16 16
cannot create '.\15(2017-02-16 16:56:00)\logcat.txt': No such file or directory

How to extract tar (ed) Android repo?

I'm restoring my Linux partition from backups (mostly non compressed tarballs). I'm facing a problem while extracting a tarball which is backup of synced android repo. I tared my existing repo by simple tar -cf command and i'm extracting it using tar -xf blah.tar. I'm getting the following error.
http://pastebin.com/rkyu9qvD
Dump of tar -tvf blah.tar
http://pastebin.com/WyrwU3v2 (truncated)
I think the problem is symlinks. For example consider failed extraction of
.repo/projects/packages/providers/DownloadProvider.git/info/exclude
If the files are extracted serially as show by -t (correct me if i'm wrong) then first it should extract .repo/projects/packages/providers/DownloadProvider.git/info because it is symlink (Look at dump
lrwxrwxrwx bootmgr/bootmgr 0 2014-03-23 11:02 .repo/projects/packages/providers/DownloadProvider.git/info -> ../../../../project-objects/platform/packages/providers/DownloadProvider.git/info
) I thinks that is why it is getting error while extracting it.
Many other files are extracted wrongly in this way for ex, first it'll create a/b/c.x path to extract c.x but later founds that b is symlink to another directory and then throws error like file already exist
So any ideas how i should extract it or it is impossible.
If it is impossible then any other better way to backup existing Android repo so that i can move it to other HDD.

From the tar documentation:
Normally, when tar archives a symbolic link, it writes a block to the archive naming the target of the link. In that way, the tar archive is a faithful record of the file system contents. When--dereference' (-h') is used with--create' (-c'), tar archives the files symbolic links point to, instead of the links themselves.
So try to archive with tar -chf ... and I guess your issues will be solved.

Where to I place the OBB file to test Android Expansion Pack Files (OBB) on my Nexus 4?

I'm trying to test the Expansion Pack Files (OBB) In Android following the guide here:
http://developer.android.com/google/play/expansion-files.html
I'm in the step where I need to test my app on my Nexus 4.
I generated my .obb file with jobb and adb-pushed it in the device in this location:
/mnt/shell/emulated/0/Android/obb/my.package/main.1.my.package.obb
When the app run it doesn't find the file.
Method:
Helpers.doesFileExist(context, fileName, xf.mFileSize, false)
return false for my file.
I debugged and found out it is looking for the file in:
/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb/my.package/main.1.my.package.obb
Specifically this is the path returned by:
Helpers.generateSaveFileName(c, fileName)
The /storage/emulated/0, returned by Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() doesn't exist browsing the device with adb shell.
But it DOES at runtime, inside the app, I also checked what it contains: it contains almost the same things I found in /mnt/shell/emulated/0, it contains the Android/obb dir, which is empty.
How I found out the path /mnt/shell/emulated/0/Android/obb/my.package/main.1.my.package.obb where I placed my obb file:
$ adb shell
$ ls -ld sdcard
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2013-10-16 17:34 sdcard -> /storage/emulated/legacy
$ ls -ld /storage/emulated/legacy
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2013-10-16 17:34 legacy -> /mnt/shell/emulated/0
And inside that I already found the Android/obb directory, empty.
So the question is: where should I put my obb file for it to be in the right position at runtime?
I did everything said there:
created a draft application in the Market to get the public key
generated a random array of 20 byte (salt)
integrated play_licensing/library and play_apk_expansion/download_library
wrote my Service / Receiver
did the check using the Helpers etc.. exactly like the documentation say.
I suppose everything works but I can't just yet release on Play Store! I need to test locally and I'll have the need to change my obb file pretty often in this initial phase of development.
I can't test on the Emulator because I use 3D and device camera.

Since Android 4.2 multi users support have been added.
To support that Android mount an emulated disk for each users acting as a sandbox layer around the actual filesystem: this let Android handle gracefully either sharing of files between users either personal files.
Long story short:
/storage/emulated
is the emulated filesystem.
if you enter that directory from adb shell you may see a
/storage/emulated/obb
directory. Sometimes it doesn't show up, for some reason (see below for what to do if this happen)
It's not in /Android/obb but that's the right directory where to place your app package / obb file!
If you don't see that directory try looking in:
/mnt/shell/emulated/obb
You should be able to put your file there.
It will be correctly picked up at runtime ending at the
/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb/my.package/main.1.my.package.obb
path.
I think the Android documentation should explain this.
(I answer my own question because I found out how to solve it while writing it.)

For me the correct location is : mnt/sdcard/Android/obb/nameofyourpackage/
NOT "/mnt/shell"

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