ant debug failed to include gdb.setup in the apk file

I've been building (from a mac terminal) this native application successfully for a long time but today I've run across an error I can't seem to pin down. After tiring from all the javac warnings I upgraded to a newer version of ant. I'm not sure it is related but the timing is suspect. I can still build, deploy, and run my application but now I can no longer use ndk-gdb to debug the native part of the application. It appears on inspection that the gdb.setup file is not getting added to the debug apk.

here is the build sequence, abbreviated output, and information. I'm looking for suggestions on how to resolve the issue.

I've done a full clean on both NDK and ant builds

The android NDK version and android SDK versions are all up to date. I use the built in ndk-bundle that gets loaded with the android studio sdk tools.

The devices we develop on are not rooted and is not an option.

hsmith$ java -version java version "1.8.0_45"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_45-b14) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.45-b02, mixed mode)

hsmith$ $ANT_HOME

-bash: /Users/hsmith/dk/ant/apache-ant-1.9.6: is a directory

hsmith$ ndk-build -j4 NDK_DEBUG=1

[armebi-v7a] Gdbserver : [arm-linux-androideabi-4.8] libs//gdbserver

[armebi-v7a] Gdbsetup : libs//gdb.setup

[armebi-v7a] Install : lib1.so => libs/armebi-v7a/lib1.so

[armebi-v7a] Install : lib2.so => libs/armebi-v7a/lib2.so

[armebi-v7a] Install : lib3.so => libs/armebi-v7a/lib3.so

hsmith$ ant debug … -package: [apkbuilder] Found modified input file

[apkbuilder] Creating -debug-unaligned.apk and signing it with a debug key...

-post-package:

-do-debug:

[zipalign] Running zip align on final apk...

 [echo] Debug Package: /Users/hsmith/packageFolder/bin/<package>-debug.apk

[propertyfile] Updating property file: /Users/hsmith/packageFolder/bin/build.prop

-post-build:

debug:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

hsmith$ adb install -r ~/packageFolder/bin/-debug.apk

hsmith$ ndk-gdb adb --start

ERROR: Package is not debuggable ! You can fix that in two ways:

Rebuilt with the NDK_DEBUG=1 option when calling 'ndk-build'.
Modify your manifest to set android:debuggable attribute to "true",

then rebuild normally.

After one of these, re-install to the device!

I unzipped the apk file to find

unziped apk file/lib/target/

hsmith$ ls -la

total 48264

drwxr-xr-x 12 hsmith staff 408 Aug 25 14:50 .

drwxr-xr-x 5 hsmith staff 170 Aug 25 14:50 ..

-rwxr-xr-x 1 hsmith staff 409940 Jun 3 11:47 gdbserver

-rwxr-xr-x 1 hsmith staff 33920 Aug 25 14:44 lib1.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 hsmith staff 165092 Aug 25 14:44 lib2.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 hsmith staff 1614028 Aug 25 14:44 lib3.so

note there is no gdb.setup file

I don't use debuggable=true in the manifest because it isn't needed anymore however including it has no affect on the result.

UPDATE: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=183455 This is exactly the problem I'm having. if you copy the target gdb.setup file from the target directory to the ./lib directory you can get ndk-gdb to work; The COMPAT_ABI variable in ndk-gdb isn't being set correctly and sending the script into a spin. I hope they fix this one soon. almost three days wasted on a broken tool chain.

Solution