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androidadb

Get value of EXTERNAL_STORAGE environment variable on handset from shell script on OS X

I would like to be able to fetch the value of the EXTERNAL_STORAGE variable on my Android handset from an ant build.xml script running on OS X so that I can subsequently perform an adb push of a file to that location on the handset.

When I am shelled into the handset, I can see the value just fine:

$ adb shell
shell@android:/ $ echo $EXTERNAL_STORAGE
/mnt/sdcard

When I try to get that value back on OS X using a one-line adb shell command, I get nothing:

$ adb shell "echo $EXTERNAL_STORAGE"

Any ideas on how to get this to work?

Solution

  • You need to escape the $. Like this:

    adb shell "echo \$EXTERNAL_STORAGE"

    Otherwise shell variable expansion happens locally before the command gets sent to the device and your command ends up being adb shell "echo " since the local $EXTERNAL_STORAGE is not set.