Update Android SDK Platform Tools via Command line

Question

I want to write a script to update the Android SDK platform tools and I need the command if available to run in order to achieve this. What I have found is that I can use the Android command under the /tools directory to update the software (images, sources, etc.), but nothing to update the tools themselves.

The guide on Factory Images for Nexus Devices says that I must be sure I have the latest tools

Be sure that you have the latest version of the Android SDK Platform-tools from the SDK Manager.

So, is it possible? If it is, how to do that?

Answer 1

Use of android tool is deprecated; instead use sdkmanager:

 androidsdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager --update

https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/sdkmanager.html

Answer 2

After further research, I came across this article from Stack Overflow that explains it and states that the Android command that can be used to update the platform-tools in the SDK directory.

You follow these instructions as shown on the above link

$ android list sdk
$ android update sdk --no-ui --filter 1,platform-tools

The first command lists the available packages that are still to be installed (indexed by number), as for example:

Packages available for installation or update: 9
   1- Android SDK Tools, revision 19
   2- Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 11
   ...

According to that list, you can issue the second command to install the packages that you want to install.

The --filter option limits the update to the packages that you want to install. You specify those packages in a comma-separated format. Also, you can filter them by the index number provided in the listing resulting from the first command.