Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Starting Android applications from shell

Starting application from the shell can be helpful in many scenarios. On scenario is when you want to limit the resources that the application is going to use with ulimit.
1. Start the shell.

2. Start the ActivityManager(am) command-line tool with appropriate parameters.
The syntax for the am command-line tool is the following.
ssue am command. am command syntax is as follow :
am [start|instrument]
am start [-a <action>] [-d ] [-t <mime_type>]
[-c <category> [-c <category>] ...]
[-e <extra_key> <extra_value> [-e <extra_key> <extra_value> ...]
[-n <component>] [-D] [<uri>]
am instrument [-e <arg_name> <arg_value>] [-p <prof_file>]
[-w] <component>


3. Start the web browser with the following command.

am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.browser/.BrowserActivity
to start your own application just type:
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n "Your Package"/."Your Activity"
If you hare unsure of what your package and main activity are look in your manifest file:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 package="com.TordSoft.HelloWorld">
  <application android:icon="@drawable/icon">
   <android:name=".HelloWorld" android:label="@string/app_name">
    <intent-filter>
    <action android:value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> </intent-filter>
  </activity></application>..</manifest>