How to run a specific Android app using Terminal?

Question

I installed Eclipse and Android SDK already. Everything is running fine.

I want to install an .apk file so I follow the instruction already. But the problem is, when I start the emulator, it doesn't run my app automatically.

Is there a command in the terminal that allow me to run the specific app that I ask for it?

do you a nice wait to stop the activity too ? kill $(pidof ...) ? — RzR, Aug 18 '11 at 15:38

Diego Torres Milano · Answer 1 · 2018-04-20T05:25:48.507

74

Use the cmd activity start-activity (or the alternative am start) command, which is a command-line interface to the ActivityManager. Use am to start activities as shown in this help:

$ adb shell am
usage: am [start|instrument]
       am start [-a <ACTION>] [-d <DATA_URI>] [-t <MIME_TYPE>]
                [-c <CATEGORY> [-c <CATEGORY>] ...]
                [-e <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_VALUE> [-e <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_VALUE> ...]
                [-n <COMPONENT>] [-D] [<URI>]
       ...

For example, to start the Contacts application, and supposing you know only the package name but not the Activity, you can use

$ pkg=com.google.android.contacts
$ comp=$(adb shell cmd package resolve-activity --brief -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER $pkg | tail -1)
$ adb shell cmd activity start-activity $comp

or the alternative

$ adb shell am start -n $comp

See also http://www.kandroid.org/online-pdk/guide/instrumentation_testing.html (may be a copy of obsolete url : http://source.android.com/porting/instrumentation_testing.html ) for other details.

To terminate the application you can use

$ adb shell am kill com.google.android.contacts

or the more drastic

$ adb shell am force-stop com.google.android.contacts

edited Apr 20 '18 at 05:25

answered Mar 31 '11 at 03:02

Diego Torres Milano

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Hi dtmilano. I am trying activity manager also, but I don't know the component of an application. Would you mind explaining further? – Lam Tran Mar 31 '11 at 03:16
For example: I have a compiled file in /opt/sdk/example.apk After I install it in, how can I make it run in commandline? – Lam Tran Mar 31 '11 at 03:37
so.. how do you stop? I've tried adb stop... – Katie Apr 04 '13 at 23:59
Is there a way to launch an application and wait until it stops? – Aleksei Petrenko Apr 11 '16 at 14:35
Do you mean when Activity is stopped? Add some log message in `onStop()` and then search `logcat` until you find the message. – Diego Torres Milano Apr 11 '16 at 14:48
@Diego: Would be great if you could update this answer and include some details/example on how to use the other command line switches like: `-e, -t, -d` etc. – not2qubit May 01 '16 at 10:47
Unfortunately getting an error: Starting: Intent { cmp=com.google.android.contacts/.ContactsActivity } Error type 3 Error: Activity class {com.google.android.contacts/com.google.android.contacts.ContactsActivity} does not exist. – giorgio79 Aug 24 '17 at 12:08
You forgot to mention that it is not trivial to find the main Activity of a package/app from the command line. – Robert Siemer Apr 20 '18 at 02:11
@RobertSiemer updated – Diego Torres Milano Apr 20 '18 at 05:26

Shubham Chaudhary · Answer 2 · 2020-03-02T20:30:08.210

7

I keep this build-and-run script handy, whenever I am working from command line:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

PACKAGE=com.example.demo
ACTIVITY=.MainActivity
APK_LOCATION=app/build/outputs/apk/app-debug.apk
echo "Package: $PACKAGE"

echo "Building the project with tasks: $TASKS"
./gradlew $TASKS

echo "Uninstalling $PACKAGE"
adb uninstall $PACKAGE

echo "Installing $APK_LOCATION"
adb install $APK_LOCATION

echo "Starting $ACTIVITY"
adb shell am start -n $PACKAGE/$ACTIVITY

edited Mar 02 '20 at 20:30

answered Jul 01 '15 at 15:35

Shubham Chaudhary

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When I run this command I'm getting an error saying **Error: Activity class {com.example.demo/com.example.demo.MainActivity} does not exist.**. You know how to solve this? It also says Error type 3 – Ezio Jun 14 '17 at 10:20
@Ezio Please change line 2 in script to point to your main activity. In my case it is: MainActivity.java in root of the package => com.example.demo.MainActivity. This will be something different for you. Also you need to update the package name (com.example.demo) at line 1 to your app's package name. – Shubham Chaudhary Jun 15 '17 at 09:02
I know about that Shubham, I made all the changes that you said but still getting the error. But now I used **adb shell monkey -p com.mypackage.name -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1** and it worked. I wrote an answer in case anyone else is facing similar issues – Ezio Jun 15 '17 at 10:17

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 10 '13 at 05:15

6

You can Start the android Service by this command.

adb shell am startservice -n packageName/.ServiceClass

edited Dec 10 '13 at 05:15

Siddharth

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answered Dec 10 '13 at 05:13

user3085499

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i appreciate you answer,but please describe your answer in some details not in only two lines for users help. – Hamad Dec 10 '13 at 05:32

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '17 at 10:19

5

I used all the above answers and it was giving me errors so I tried

adb shell monkey -p com.yourpackage.name -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1

and it worked. One advantage is you dont have to specify your launcher activity if you use this command.

answered Jun 15 '17 at 10:19

Ezio

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I could only get it with this monkey command thanks. The others were giving me permission errors. – giorgio79 Aug 24 '17 at 12:20
Is the monkey command on all Android devices? I have blind code execution on an embedded Android device, don't know what commands it has and what commands it doesn't have. – Billy Oct 05 '18 at 12:03
the monkey command is an adb command, it does not depend on the device, rather it is present in your development machine. – Ezio Oct 05 '18 at 15:40

How to run a specific Android app using Terminal?

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