Android Debug Bridge (adb) is the most used command-line tool that allows communication between a personal computer and an attached Android-powered device or emulator instance via a USB cable or TCP/IP (wirelessly).

It offers support for various device actions such as networking, scripting, installing and debugging apps, and transferring files. It also grants access to a Unix shell, enabling execution of multiple Linux commands on the device.

adb functions as a client-server tool consisting of three main components:

• a client, which operates on your development machine and sends commands. You can invoke it from a command line by running an adb command.
• a daemon (adbd), which runs in the background on each device and executes commands.
• a server, which coordinates communication between the client and the daemon, running as a background process on your development machine.

The adb command-line utility comes bundled with the standalone Android SDK Platform Tools package, which is part of the Android SDK. Let’s explore how to download and install the latest version of the Android SDK Platform Tools package on Linux.

Install Android Debug Bridge (adb) in Linux

To install the adb package, run the appropriate command based on your Linux distribution:

<code>$ sudo apt install adb         [On <strong>Debian, Ubuntu and Mint</strong>]
$ sudo yum install adb         [On <strong>RHEL/CentOS/Fedora</strong> and <strong>Rocky/AlmaLinux</strong>]
$ sudo emerge -a dev-util/android-tools  [On <strong>Gentoo Linux</strong>]
$ sudo apk add adb            [On <strong>Alpine Linux</strong>]
$ sudo pacman -S android-tools            [On <strong>Arch Linux</strong>]
$ sudo zypper install adb      [On <strong>OpenSUSE</strong>]    </code>

Note: If you prefer to use the most recent version of adb, proceed to the next section to download and configure the latest binary from the Android SDK Platform Tools package release.

Install Android SDK Platform Tools in Linux

You can obtain the latest version of the Android SDK Platform command-line tools from the official SDK Platform Tools release page. Alternatively, execute the following commands to fetch the archived package, extract it, and navigate into the extracted directory:

<code>$ mkdir cli-tools
$ wget -c https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip
$ unzip platform-tools-latest-linux.zip 
$ cd platform-tools/</code>

Once the archive is extracted, you can list the contents of the folder where the adb command resides, as illustrated in the screenshot below:

<code>$ ls</code>

To verify the version of the adb command-line tool just installed, execute the following command:

<code>$ ./adb version

<strong>Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 34.0.1-9680074
Installed as /home/tecmint/Downloads/platform-tools/adb</strong></code>

How to Use Android Debug Bridge (adb) in Linux

In the examples below, we will be using the latest version of the adb command installed via the steps outlined earlier.

Once adb is set up on your Linux system, connect your Android device to the computer using a USB cable and enable USB debugging under Developer options in your device's settings.

Next, execute the following command to display all devices connected to the computer. Also, check your device for any prompts asking permission to allow access.

<code>$ ./adb devices</code>

From the output above, the string RZ8NA0V3HEY is generated by adb to uniquely identify the device by its port number. The second column indicates the device status — "device" means it is properly connected to the adb server. Other possible statuses are offline (device not responding) and no device (no device connected).

To get more detailed information about the connected device (such as product:a71naxx model:SM_A715F device:a71 transport_id:1), include the -l flag:

This becomes handy when multiple devices are connected:

<code>$ ./adb devices -l</code>

To install an Android app via adb, use the install sub-command as shown. If installing a test application, don't forget to add the -t flag:

<code>$ ./adb install ~/MusiX.apk
OR
$ ./adb install -t /path/to/testapp.apk</code>

If multiple devices are connected, use the -s option followed by the device’s serial number to specify which one should receive the command:

<code>$ ./adb -s RZ8NA0V3HEY install ~/MusiX.apk</code>

If your connection to the device is interrupted, you can restart your adb host from scratch:

<code>$ ./adb kill-server</code>

To view all available command-line arguments, use the following command:

<code>$ ./adb --help</code>

[ You might also like: Scrcpy – Display and Control Your Android Device via Linux Desktop ]

That concludes this guide! For further details, refer to the online adb documentation, which provides additional use cases and command-line examples.

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