Auto Debug for Windows Lite

Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile command-line tool that lets you communicate with a device. The adb command facilitates a variety of device actions, such as installing and debugging apps, and it provides access to a Unix shell that you can use to run a variety of commands on a device. It is a client-server program that includes three components:

• A client, which sends commands. The client runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a command-line terminal by issuing an adb command.
• A daemon (adbd), which runs commands on a device. The daemon runs as a background process on each device.
• A server, which manages communication between the client and the daemon. The server runs as a background process on your development machine.

adb is included in the Android SDK Platform-Tools package. You can download this package with the SDK Manager, which installs it at android_sdk/platform-tools/. Or if you want the standalone Android SDK Platform-Tools package, you can download it here.

For information on connecting a device for use over ADB, including how to use the Connection Assistant to troubleshoot common problems, see Run apps on a hardware device.

How adb works

When you start an adb client, the client first checks whether there is an adb server process already running. If there isn’t, it starts the server process. When the server starts, it binds to local TCP port 5037 and listens for commands sent from adb clients—all adb clients use port 5037 to communicate with the adb server.

The server then sets up connections to all running devices. It locates emulators by scanning odd-numbered ports in the range 5555 to 5585, the range used by the first 16 emulators. Where the server finds an adb daemon (adbd), it sets up a connection to that port. Note that each emulator uses a pair of sequential ports — an even-numbered port for console connections and an odd-numbered port for adb connections. For example: