to compile : -------------- - you need ANDROID NDK make all : build all the programs make install : install all the programs make clean : clean all to test : cd 7za make test look at the makefile to see other tests III. Debuggable versus Release builds: -------------------------------------- In NDK r5, ndk-build has been modified to make it easier to switch between release and debug builds. This is done by using the NDK_DEBUG variable. For example: $NDK/ndk-build NDK_DEBUG=1 => forces the generation of debug binaries $NDK/ndk-build NDK_DEBUG=0 => forces the generation of release binaries If you don't specify NDK_DEBUG, ndk-build will keep its default behaviour, which is to inspect the AndroidManifest.xml, if any, and see if its element has android:debuggable="true". IMPORTANT: If you use the build tools of SDK r8 (or higher), you won't need to touch your AndroidManifest.xml file at all! That's because if you build a debug package (e.g. with "ant debug" or the corresponding option of the ADT plugin), the tool will automatically pick the native debug files generated with NDK_DEBUG=1. Also, as a convenience, the release and debug object files generated by the NDK are now stored in different directories (e.g. obj/local//objs and obj/local//objs-debug). This avoids having to recompile all your sources when you switch between these two modes (even when you only modified one or two source files).