Changelog

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Announcements

• ndk-build will default to using Clang in r13. GCC will be removed in a later release.
• make-standalone-toolchain.sh will be removed in r13. Make sure make_standalone_toolchain.py suits your needs.

r12b

• ndk-gdb.py has been fixed: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/118
• NdkCameraMetadataTags.h has been updated to no longer contain the invalid enum value.
• A bug in ndk-build that resulting in spurious warnings for static libraries using libc++ has been fixed: https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/238146/
• The OpenSLES headers have been updated for android-24.

NDK

• Removed support for the armeabi-v7a-hard ABI. See the explanation in the documentation.
• Removed all sysroots for pre-GB platform levels. We dropped support for them in r11, but neglected to actually remove them.
• Exception handling when using c++_shared on ARM32 now mostly works (see Known Issues). The unwinder will now be linked into each linked object rather than into libc++ itself.
• Default compiler flags have been pruned: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/27.
  • Full changes here: https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/207721/5.
• Added a Python implementation of standalone toolchains: build/tools/make_standalone_toolchain.py.
  • Windows users: you no longer need Cygwin to use this feature.
  • We'll be removing the bash flavor in r13, so test the new one now.
• -fno-limit-debug-info has been enabled by default for Clang debug builds. This should improve debugability with LLDB.
• --build-id is now enabled by default.
  • This will be shown in native crash reports so you can easily identify which version of your code was running.
• NDK_USE_CYGPATH should no longer cause problems with libgcc: http://b.android.com/195486.
• -Wl,--warn-shared-textrel and-Wl,--fatal-warnings are now enabled by default. If you have shared text relocations, your app will not load on Marshmallow or later (and have never been allowed for 64-bit apps).
• Precompiled headers should work better: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/14 and https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/16.
• Unreachable ARM (non-thumb) STL libraries have been removed.
• Added Vulkan support to android-24.
• Added Choreographer API to android-24.
• Added libcamera2 APIs for devices with INFO_SUPPORTED_HARDWARE_LEVEL_LIMITED or above (see Camera Characteristics).

Clang

• Clang has been updated to 3.8svn (r256229, build 2812033).
  • Note that Clang packaged in the Windows 64-bit NDK is actually 32-bit.
• __thread should work for real this time.

GCC

• Synchronized with the ChromeOS GCC @ google/gcc-4_9 r227810.
• Backported coverage sanitizer patch from ToT (r231296).
• Fixed libatomic to not use ifuncs: https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/31.

Binutils

• “Erratum 843419 found and fixed” info messages are silenced.
• Introduced option ‘--long-plt’ to fix internal linker error when linking huge arm32 binaries.
• Fixed wrong run time stubs for AArch64. This was causing jump addresses to be calculated incorrectly for very large DSOs.
• Introduced default option ‘--no-apply-dynamic’ to work around a dynamic linker bug for earlier Android releases.
• NDK r11 KI for dynamic_cast not working with Clang, x86, stlport_static and optimization has been fixed.

GDB

• Updated to GDB 7.11: https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/news/.
• Some bugfixes for ndk-gdb.py.

Known Issues

• This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all outstanding bugs.
• x86 ASAN still does not work. See discussion on https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/186276/
• Exception unwinding with c++_shared still does not work for ARM on Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich.
• Bionic headers and libraries for Marshmallow and N are not yet exposed despite the presence of android-24. Those platforms are still the Lollipop headers and libraries (not a regression from r11).
• RenderScript tools are not present (not a regression from r11): https://github.com/android-ndk/ndk/issues/7.