Swift Android Toolchain

Automated scripts to build Swift Android cross compilation toolchain for macOS

Installation

Prebuilt toolchains are located on Github Releases

Prepare environment (macOS x86_64 or macOS arm64)

1. Download and install Swift toolchain 6.0.3

2. Install the Android NDK:

• If you have Android SDK Command-Line Tools installed:

sdkmanager --install "ndk;26.2.11394342"

• otherwise:

curl -O https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r26c-darwin.dmg
hdiutil attach android-ndk-r26c-darwin.dmg
cp -r "/Volumes/Android NDK r26c/AndroidNDK11394342.app/Contents/NDK/" ./android-ndk-r26c
hdiutil detach "/Volumes/Android NDK r26c"

3. Install the Swift Android Toolchain

curl -L -O https://github.com/readdle/swift-android-toolchain/releases/latest/download/swift-android.zip
unzip swift-android.zip

4. Set Up Environment Variables

export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=<PATH_TO_NDK> 
export SWIFT_ANDROID_HOME=<PATH_TO_SWIFT_ANDROID>
 
export PATH=$ANDROID_NDK_HOME:$PATH
export PATH=$SWIFT_ANDROID_HOME/build-tools:$PATH

Build and Test swift modules

Our current swift build system is tiny wrapper over Swift PM. See Swift Package Manager docs for more info.

Command	Description
swift package clean	Clean build folder
swift package update	Update dependencies
swift android build	Build all products
swift android build --build-tests	Build all products and tests
swift android test	Connect to Android device and run all tests

swift android build wrapper scripts works as swift build from Swift Package Manager but is configured for Android. You can pass additional parameters such as -Xswiftc -DDEBUG , -Xswiftc -suppress-warnings or --configuration release

Example of compilation flags:

• Debug

swift android build --configuration debug -Xswiftc -DDEBUG

• Release

swift android build --configuration release

swift android test wrapper script builds, copies, and runs Swift Package Manager (SPM) tests on a connected Android device.

Build swift modules with Android Studio

This plugin integrates Swift Android Toolchain to Gradle

Other swift releated projects and articles

1. Swift for Android: Our Experience and Tools
2. Anotation Processor for generating JNI code
3. Cross-platform swift weather app