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Setup Android development environment on a Mac

Here is a high level overview for what you need to do to get most of an Android environment setup and maintained.

Prerequisites (for Homebrew at a minimum, lots of other tools need these too):

  • XCode is installed (via the App Store)
  • XCode command line tools are installed (xcode-select --install will prompt up a dialog)
  • Java

Install Homebrew:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"

Make sure the doctor is happy (do what it tells you):

brew doctor
brew tap caskroom/cask

Install Python 3: brew install python3

Use Homebrew to install Android dev tools:

brew install ant
brew install maven
brew install gradle
brew cask install android-sdk
brew cask install android-ndk

Install all of the Android SDK components (you will be prompted to agree to license info and then this will take a while to run):

sdkmanager "platform-tools" "platforms;android-23"
sdkmanager "build-tools;23.0.1"

Install HAXM for blazing fast emulators. Check out the "Configuring VM Acceleration on Mac" section here: http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html

brew cask install intel-haxm // this might not work on high sierra.

Edit: You can download the dmg and install manually from Intel's site

Finally update your environment variables:

export ANT_HOME=/usr/local/opt/ant
export MAVEN_HOME=/usr/local/opt/maven
export GRADLE_HOME=/usr/local/opt/gradle
export ANDROID_HOME=/usr/local/share/android-sdk
export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=/usr/local/share/android-ndk
export INTEL_HAXM_HOME=/usr/local/Caskroom/intel-haxm

Update your paths (bonus points to a better solution to the hardcoded build tools version):

export PATH=$ANT_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH=$MAVEN_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH=$GRADLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$PATH
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/build-tools/23.0.1:$PATH

Optional: You will have to add the ANDROID_HOME to the profile configuration settings either on .zshrc, .bashrc or .bash_profile ( suggested )

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