The ARM-64 architecture (`arm64-v8a`) requires at least level 21 of Android API.
The default entry-point of the Docker image, [`paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh) generates the [Android cross-compiling standalone toolchain](https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/standalone_toolchain.html) based on the argument: `ANDROID_ABI` or `ANDROID_API`. For information about other configuration arguments, please continue reading.
The above command generates and outputs the inference library in `$PWD/install_android` and puts third-party libraries in `$PWD/install_android/third_party`.
## Cross-Compiling on Linux
The Linux-base approach to cross-compile is to run steps in `Dockerfile.android` manually on a Linux x64 computer.
Android NDK includes everything we need to build the [*standalone toolchain*](https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/standalone_toolchain.html), which in then used to build PaddlePaddle for Android. (We plan to remove the intermediate stage of building the standalone toolchain in the near future.)
- To build the standalone toolchain for `armeabi-v7a` and Android API level 21:
The generated standalone toolchain will be in `your/path/to/arm64_standalone_toolchain`.
**Please be aware that the minimum level of Android API required by PaddlePaddle is 21.**
### Cross-Compiling Arguments
CMake supports [choosing the toolchain](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.0/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html#cross-compiling). PaddlePaddle provides [`android.cmake`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/cmake/cross_compiling/android.cmake), which configures the Android cross-compiling toolchain for CMake. `android.cmake` is not required for CMake >= 3.7, which support Android cross-compiling. PaddlePaddle detects the CMake version, for those newer than 3.7, it uses [the official version](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.7/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html#cross-compiling).
Some other CMake arguments you need to know:
- `CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME` must be `Android`. This tells PaddlePaddle's CMake system to cross-compile third-party dependencies. This also changes some other CMake arguments like `WITH_GPU=OFF`, `WITH_AVX=OFF`, `WITH_PYTHON=OFF`, and `WITH_RDMA=OFF`.
- `WITH_C_API` must be `ON`, to build the C-based inference library for Android.
- `WITH_SWIG_PY` must be `OFF` because the Android platform doesn't support SWIG-based API.
Some Android-specific arguments:
- `ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN`: the absolute path of the Android standalone toolchain, or the path relative to the CMake build directory. PaddlePaddle's CMake extensions would derive the cross-compiler, sysroot and Android API level from this argument.
- `ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN`: could be `gcc` or `clang`. The default value is `clang`.
- For CMake >= 3.7, it should anyway be `clang`. For older versions, it could be `gcc`.
- Android's official `clang` requires `glibc` >= 2.15.
- `ANDROID_ABI`: could be `armeabi-v7a` or `arm64-v8a`. The default value is `armeabi-v7a`.
- `ANDROID_NATIVE_API_LEVEL`: could be derived from the value of `ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN`.
- `ANROID_ARM_MODE`:
- could be `ON` or `OFF`, and defaults to `ON`, when `ANDROID_ABI=armeabi-v7a`;
- no need to specify when `ANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a`.
- `ANDROID_ARM_NEON`: indicates if to use NEON instructions.
- could be `ON` or `OFF`, and defaults to `ON`, when `ANDROID_ABI=armeabi-v7a`;
- no need to specify when `ANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a`.
Other useful arguments:
- `USE_EIGEN_FOR_BLAS`: indicates if using Eigen. Could be `ON` or `OFF`, defaults to `OFF`.
- `HOST_C/CXX_COMPILER`: specifies the host compiler, which is used to build the host-specific protoc and target-specific OpenBLAS. It defaults to the value of the environment variable `CC`, or `cc`.
The ARM-64 architecture (`arm64-v8a`) requires at least level 21 of Android API.
The default entry-point of the Docker image, [`paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh) generates the [Android cross-compiling standalone toolchain](https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/standalone_toolchain.html) based on the argument: `ANDROID_ABI` or `ANDROID_API`. For information about other configuration arguments, please continue reading.
The above command generates and outputs the inference library in `$PWD/install_android` and puts third-party libraries in `$PWD/install_android/third_party`.
## Cross-Compiling on Linux
The Linux-base approach to cross-compile is to run steps in `Dockerfile.android` manually on a Linux x64 computer.
Android NDK includes everything we need to build the [*standalone toolchain*](https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/standalone_toolchain.html), which in then used to build PaddlePaddle for Android. (We plan to remove the intermediate stage of building the standalone toolchain in the near future.)
- To build the standalone toolchain for `armeabi-v7a` and Android API level 21:
The generated standalone toolchain will be in `your/path/to/arm64_standalone_toolchain`.
**Please be aware that the minimum level of Android API required by PaddlePaddle is 21.**
### Cross-Compiling Arguments
CMake supports [choosing the toolchain](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.0/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html#cross-compiling). PaddlePaddle provides [`android.cmake`](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/cmake/cross_compiling/android.cmake), which configures the Android cross-compiling toolchain for CMake. `android.cmake` is not required for CMake >= 3.7, which support Android cross-compiling. PaddlePaddle detects the CMake version, for those newer than 3.7, it uses [the official version](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.7/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html#cross-compiling).
Some other CMake arguments you need to know:
- `CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME` must be `Android`. This tells PaddlePaddle's CMake system to cross-compile third-party dependencies. This also changes some other CMake arguments like `WITH_GPU=OFF`, `WITH_AVX=OFF`, `WITH_PYTHON=OFF`, and `WITH_RDMA=OFF`.
- `WITH_C_API` must be `ON`, to build the C-based inference library for Android.
- `WITH_SWIG_PY` must be `OFF` because the Android platform doesn't support SWIG-based API.
Some Android-specific arguments:
- `ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN`: the absolute path of the Android standalone toolchain, or the path relative to the CMake build directory. PaddlePaddle's CMake extensions would derive the cross-compiler, sysroot and Android API level from this argument.
- `ANDROID_TOOLCHAIN`: could be `gcc` or `clang`. The default value is `clang`.
- For CMake >= 3.7, it should anyway be `clang`. For older versions, it could be `gcc`.
- Android's official `clang` requires `glibc` >= 2.15.
- `ANDROID_ABI`: could be `armeabi-v7a` or `arm64-v8a`. The default value is `armeabi-v7a`.
- `ANDROID_NATIVE_API_LEVEL`: could be derived from the value of `ANDROID_STANDALONE_TOOLCHAIN`.
- `ANROID_ARM_MODE`:
- could be `ON` or `OFF`, and defaults to `ON`, when `ANDROID_ABI=armeabi-v7a`;
- no need to specify when `ANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a`.
- `ANDROID_ARM_NEON`: indicates if to use NEON instructions.
- could be `ON` or `OFF`, and defaults to `ON`, when `ANDROID_ABI=armeabi-v7a`;
- no need to specify when `ANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a`.
Other useful arguments:
- `USE_EIGEN_FOR_BLAS`: indicates if using Eigen. Could be `ON` or `OFF`, defaults to `OFF`.
- `HOST_C/CXX_COMPILER`: specifies the host compiler, which is used to build the host-specific protoc and target-specific OpenBLAS. It defaults to the value of the environment variable `CC`, or `cc`.
执行上述`docker run`命令时，容器默认执行[paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/paddle/scripts/docker/build_android.sh)脚本。该脚本中记录了交叉编译Android版PaddlePaddle库常用的CMake配置，并且会根据`ANDROID_ABI`和`ANDROID_API`自动构建独立工具链、进行编译和安装。由于arm64架构要求Android API不小于21。因此当`ANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a`，`ANDROID_API<21`时，Docker容器中将默认使用`Android API 21`的编译工具链。用户可以参考下文**配置交叉编译参数**章节，根据个人的需求修改定制Docker容器所执行的脚本。编译安装结束之后，PaddlePaddle的C-API库将被安装到`$PWD/install_android`目录，所依赖的第三方库同时也被安装到`$PWD/install_android/third_party`目录。
