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Xamarin.Android Directory Structure

There are two project configurations, Debug and Release. The project configuration is controlled by the $(Configuration) MSBuild property. By default this is Debug. make jenkins will build both Debug and Release configurations. The configuration name is used within many of the output directories which are created.

  • bin: Build output.
    • Build$(Configuration): Artifacts needed to build Xamarin.Android itself. Files within this directory will not be needed to build apps outside of the xamarin-android repo.
    • $(Configuration): These are the redistributable artifacts you're looking for.
      • bin: Programs that are intended to be installed into $(prefix)/bin, for Unix-style installable files.
      • lib\xamarin.android\xbuild\Xamarin\Android: MSBuild project integrations. This is where Xamarin.Android.CSharp.targets lives.
      • lib\xamarin.android\xbuild-frameworks\MonoAndroid\v1.0: Xamarin.Android BCL assemblies
      • lib\xamarin.android\xbuild-frameworks\MonoAndroid\*: Xamarin.Android framework assemblies. This is where the $(TargetFrameworkVersion)-specific assemblies live.
    • Test$(Configuration): Unit test output root.
  • build-tools: Tooling that is used only to build the xamarin-android repo itself. Output from these projects appears in bin/Build$(Configuration).
    • android-toolchain: Maintains the Android NDK and SDK within $(AndroidToolchainDirectory).
    • api-merge: Merges API descriptions; used by src/Mono.Android
    • jnienv-gen: Generator for Android.Runtime.JNIEnv; used by src/Mono.Android
    • mono-runtimes: Builds mono
  • Documentation: Project documentation
  • external: git submodules
    • Java.Interop: Core JNI interaction support
    • mono: Used to execute IL on Android
  • packages: NuGet packages; created by make prepare.
  • samples: Sample applications.
  • src: Projects which are redistributable, the outputs of which will be in bin/$(Configuration).
    • Mono.Android: Builds Mono.Android.dll for a specific $(AndroidApiLevel) and $(AndroidFrameworkVersion).
    • Mono.Android.Export: Builds Mono.Android.Export.dll.
    • Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks: MSBuild tasks for Xamarin.Android projects.
    • Xamarin.Android.Build.Utilities: MSBuild tasks support sources.
    • Xamarin.Android.NUnitLite: NUnitLite for Android sources.
    • Xamarin.AndroidTools.Aidl: AIDL processor, used in MSBuild tasks.
    • Xamarin.Android.Tools.BootstrapTasks: supplemental build tasks used by some build-tools. (This should be in build-tools; oops.)
  • tools: Utilities which are built into bin/$(Configuration).
    • xabuild: MSBuild "wrapper" to easily build Xamarin.Android projects without requiring system-wide installation of Xamarin.Android

$(TargetFrameworkVersion)s

There is a separate Mono.Android.dll binding assembly for each API level.

The bin/$(Configuration)/lib/xamarin.android/xbuild-frameworks/MonoAndroid directory contains directories based on $(TargetFrameworkVersion) values, where each $(TargetFrameworkVersion) value is specific to an Android API level.

This means there is no single Mono.Android.dll, there is instead a set of them.

This complicates the "mental model" for the Mono.Android project, as a project can have only one output, not many (...within reason...). As such, building the Mono.Android project will only generate a single Mono.Android.dll.

To control which API level is bound, set the $(AndroidApiLevel) and $(AndroidFrameworkVersion) MSBuild properties. $(AndroidApiLevel) is the Android API level, usually a number, while $(AndroidFrameworkVersion) is the Xamarin.Android $(TargetFrameworkVersion).

The default values will target Android API-27/Android 8.1.

For example, to generate Mono.Android.dll for API-19 (Android 4.4):

cd src/Mono.Android
msbuild /p:AndroidApiLevel=19 /p:AndroidFrameworkVersion=v4.4
# creates bin\Debug\lib\xamarin.android\xbuild-frameworks\MonoAndroid\v4.4\Mono.Android.dll