Changelog

We've moved our bug tracker to GitHub: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues

Hotfix r11c

• ndk-gdb.py actually works now. http://i.imgur.com/gHcGr.jpg
• Added an optional package name argument to ndk-gdb's --attach flag: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/13.
• Fixed invalid toolchain paths for 32-bit Windows: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/45.
• Fixed the relative path in ndk-which: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/29.
• Fixed use of cygpath for libgcc: http://b.android.com/195486.

Hotfix r11b

• ndk-gdb.py actually works now. Had regressed entirely: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/3.
• ndk-gdb works on Mac again: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/2.
• Added more top level shortcuts for command line tools:
  • ndk-depends
  • ndk-gdb
  • ndk-stack
  • ndk-which (was previously missing entirely)
• Fixed standalone toolchains for libc++, which were missing __cxxabi_config.h.
• Fixed help documenation for --toolchain in make-standalone-toolchain.sh.
• Note that __thread doesn't actually work as r11 had claimed. The version of Clang we currently ship is missing a bugfix for emulated TLS support.

Clang

• PSA: Everyone should be switching to Clang.
• Clang has been updated to 3.8svn (r243773, build 2481030).
  • Note that this is now a nearly pure upstream clang.
  • Also note that Clang packaged in the Windows 64 NDK is actually 32-bit.
• Support for emulated TLS.
  • __thread is now supported by the compiler by emulating ELF TLS with pthread thread-specific data.
  • C++11 thread_local will work in some cases, but will not work for data with non-trivial destructors except when running on Marshmallow (android-23) or newer because those cases require support from libc.
  • Does not yet work with Aarch64 when TLS variables are accessed from a shared library.

GCC

• GCC in the NDK is now deprecated.
  • Time to start using Clang if you haven’t already. If you have problems with Clang, please file bugs!
  • The NDK will not be upgrading to 5.x, nor will we be accepting non-critical backports.
  • Maintenance for miscompiles and internal compiler errors in 4.9 will be handled on a case by case basis.
• GCC 4.8 has been removed. All targets now use GCC 4.9.
• Synchronized with google/gcc-4_9 to r224707 (from r214835).

NDK

• The samples are no longer included in the NDK. They are instead available on GitHub.
• The documentation is no longer included in the NDK. It is instead available on the Android Developer website.
• Make ARM standalone toolchains default to arm7.
  • The old behavior can be restored by passing -target armv5te-linux-androideabi.
• Use -isystem for platform includes.
  • Warnings caused by bionic will no longer break app builds.
• Fixed segfault when throwing exceptions via gabi++ (see http://b.android.com/179410).
• Change libc++’s inline namespace to std::__ndk1 to prevent ODR issues with platform libc++.
• Support for mips64r2 has been partially dropped. The rest will be dropped in the future.
• All libc++ libraries are now built with libc++abi.
• Bump default APP_PLATFORM to Gingerbread.
  • Expect support for Froyo and older to be dropped in a future release.
• Updated gabi++ _Unwind_Exception struct for 64 bits.
• cpufeatures: Detect SSE4.1 and SSE4.2 as well.
• cpufeatures: Detect cpu features on x86_64 as well.
• Update libc++abi to upstream r231075.
• Added native tracing API to android-23.
• Added native multinetwork API to android-23.
• byteswap.h, endian.h, sys/procfs.h, sys/ucontext.h, sys/user.h, and uchar.h have all been updated from ToT Bionic.
• sys/cdefs.h has been synchronized across all API levels.
• Support for _WCHAR_IS_8BIT has been removed.
• Fixed fegetenv and fesetenv for arm
• Fix end pointer size/alignment of crtend_* for mips64 and x86_64
• Removed sed.
• Removed mclinker.
• Removed Perl.
• Removed symbols which are not exported by the current platform libc/m/dl from all versions of NDK libc/m/dl
• libc/m/dl provide versioned symbols starting with v21
• Added Vulkan headers and library to API level 24.

Binutils

• Unified binutils source between Android and ChromiumOS.
• For full details see https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/182865/.
• Gold for aarch64 should now be much more reliable. Use -fuse-ld=gold at link time to use gold instead of bfd. The default will likely switch in the next release.
• Good linking time improvement for huge binaries for Gold ARM backend (up to 50% linking time reduction for debuggable Chrome Browser).
• New option: --pic-veneer.
• The 32-bit Windows package no longer contains ld.gold. It is available in the 64-bit package.
  • Current gold no longer builds when targeting 32-bit Windows (causes internal compiler failures in mingw).

GDB

• gdb has been updated to version 7.10.
• ndk-gdb has been removed in favor of ndk-gdb.py.
• ndk-gdb.py has been significantly rewritten.
  • Performance should be somewhat better.
  • Error messages have been significantly improved.
  • Relative project paths should always work now.
  • Ctrl-C no longer kills the backgrounded gdbserver.
  • Improve Windows support.

Yasm

• Yasm has been updated to version 1.3.0.

Known Issues

• This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all outstanding bugs.
• x86 ASAN does not currently work. See discussion on https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/186276/
• The combination of Clang, x86, stlport_static, and optimization levels higher than -O0 causes test failures with dynamic_cast. See https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/185920
• Exception handling will often fail when using c++_shared on ARM32. The root cause is incompatibility between the LLVM unwinder used by libc++abi for ARM32 and libgcc. This is not a regression from r10e.
• The version of Clang we're shipping is missing a bugfix for emulated TLS. This is already fixed for r12.