Common adb commands I use while testing

Android Debug Bridge is a command-line tool that facilitates performing different actions such as installing or uninstalling apps, entering text, capturing screenshots, etc. on an Android device. I often use some adb commands to assist me during testing. Here's a list of adb commands that I commonly use:

Listing attached devices

Command to list all the devices that are connected to the adb server:
```
adb devices
```
This command prints the serial number and the state of the device.
If many devices are attached and we want to tell them apart, we could run the command with -l option to list more details about the device.
```
adb devices -l
```
This command shows us the device, it's model, etc.

Installing apps

Apps can be installed on devices by giving the path to the .apk file:
```
adb install <path_to_apk>.apk
```
If multiple devices are attached, running the command results in an error.
In such cases, the serial number of the target device should be specified using the -s option. The serial number is obtained by running adb devices.
```
adb -s <serial_number> install <path_to_apk>.apk
```
-s <serial_number> can be used in various adb commands when we want to target a specific device among a list of attached devices.

Listing packages

Package Manager tool within the adb shell can be used to list all packages that are installed on the device:
```
adb shell pm list packages
```
grep can be used to list just specific packages that match the search term.
This package information will be useful in a few other commands

Launching an Activity

Activity names for a given package can be found using the command:

adb shell dumpsys package | grep <package_name> | grep Activity

Activity can be launched using the command:

adb shell am start <package_name>/<activity_name>

An example:

adb shell am start com.google.android.apps.maps/com.google.android.maps.MapsActivity

Opening URL in the browser:

Activity manager tool can be used to open a URL in the Browser:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "<some_url>"

Example:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "https://developer.android.com/docs"

Entering text

Command to enter text in a text field that has focus:
```
adb shell input text "<some_input>"
```
Some characters like !, &, (, etc. would need to be escaped with backslash (\) in the input text command.
```
adb shell input text "\!\&\(\)\<\>\*\|"
```

Pressing home button

KEYCODE_HOME keyevent can be used to emulate pressing the home button:
```
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_HOME
```

Killing an app from app switcher

A series of keyevents can be used to kill an app from the app switcher:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_APP_SWITCH
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN
adb shell input keyevent DEL

Clearing app data

Command to clear app data:
```
adb shell pm clear <package_name>
```
In this example, Google Chrome has 4 tabs open. When app data is cleared and activity is launched again, the Terms of Service page (page shown on first launch) is shown indicating that the app cache and data are cleared.

Capturing screenshot

Commands to capture screenshot and pull it to the host machine:

adb shell screencap /sdcard/<screenshot_name>.png
adb pull /sdcard/<screenshot_name>.png

Capturing videos

Command to start recording screen:

adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/<some_video_name>.mp4

After performing actions on the device, to stop the video recording, ctrl + c needs to be pressed.
To pull the recorded video to the host machine:
```
adb pull /sdcard/<some_video_name>.mp4
```

Viewing app logs

Command to view logs:
```
adb logcat
```

Accessing app data directory

To be able to access the data directory of a debuggable app, the following commands can be run:
```
adb shell
run-as <package_name>
```

Uninstalling app

Command to uninstall an app:
```
adb uninstall <package_name>
```