How can I build an Android apk without Gradle on the command line?

I wrote an Android app that uses no dependencies or modules, has a single activity, and has a single layout file.

How can I build an apk file of my app on the command line without using Gradle (or other "build systems" or "dependency management" software)?

Solution

Use the following steps to build your apk manually, if you don't want use ant/gralde to build. But you must have Android SDK installed at least.

create R.java from aapt
use javac to compile all java source to *.class
use d8 (or dx in older SDKs) to convert all *.class to dex file, e.g output is classes.dex
create initial version of APK from assets, resources and AndroidManfiest.mk, e.g output is MyApplication.apk.unaligned
use aapt to add classes.dex generated in step 3 to MyApplication.apk.unaligned
use jarsigner to sign MyApplication.apk.unaligned with debug or release key
use zipalign to align the final APK, e.g output is MyApplication-debug.apk or MyApplication-release.apk if signing with release key
Done

I have created a sample script to do all the stuffs above, see here

Actually, Some articles have discussed this topic, see the following links.