adbshell

A minimal, zero-overhead Rust wrapper around the adb command-line tool.

adbshell exposes [AdbShell], a stateless unit-struct whose associated functions cover the ADB operations most commonly needed by desktop Android companion apps: device discovery, system-property queries, file push, JAR execution, and reverse-tunnel management. Every call spawns a fresh adb subprocess — no persistent daemon connection is maintained.

Features

Device discovery: serial number, connection state, screen size and orientation.
System property queries via getprop.
File transfer with adb push.
Reverse-tunnel setup and teardown (adb reverse).
app_process JAR execution for launching Android server processes.
Optional per-call timeout support (backed by wait-timeout).
No async runtime required — pure std threads.

Quick start

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
adbshell = { path = "3rd-party/adbshell" }

use adbshell::{AdbResult, AdbShell};

AdbShell::verify_adb_available().expect("adb not found in PATH");

let serial = AdbShell::get_device_serial().expect("no device connected");

let sdk = AdbShell::get_prop(&serial, "ro.build.version.sdk").unwrap();
println!("Android SDK: {sdk}");

let state = AdbShell::get_device_state(&serial).unwrap();
println!("Device state: {:?}", state);

API overview

Function	Description
`AdbShell::verify_adb_available()`	Verify `adb` is installed and in `PATH`
`AdbShell::get_device_serial()`	Return the first connected device serial
`AdbShell::get_device_state(serial)`	Return `Connected`, `Disconnected`, or `Unknown`
`AdbShell::get_prop(serial, key)`	Read an Android system property
`AdbShell::get_android_version(serial)`	Return the API level as `u32`
`AdbShell::get_platform(serial)`	Return board/hardware platform string
`AdbShell::get_physical_screen_size(serial)`	Return `(width, height)` in pixels
`AdbShell::get_screen_orientation(serial)`	Return orientation 0–3
`AdbShell::get_ime_state(serial)`	Return whether the soft keyboard is visible
`AdbShell::push_file(serial, src, dst)`	Push a local file to the device
`AdbShell::execute_jar(serial, jar, …)`	Launch a JAR via `app_process`
`AdbShell::setup_reverse_tunnel(serial, …)`	Create an ADB reverse tunnel
`AdbShell::remove_reverse_tunnel(serial, …)`	Remove an ADB reverse tunnel

Error handling

All functions return AdbResult<T> (an alias for Result<T, AdbError>).

pub enum AdbError {
    NotFound(String),       // adb binary missing or failed to spawn
    CommandFailed(String),  // adb exited with non-zero status
    Timeout,                // command exceeded the given duration
    DeviceNotFound(String), // requested device not connected
}

Requirements

adb (Android platform-tools) must be installed and in PATH.
Rust 1.85+

License

Licensed under either of

at your option.