How to run (not only install) an android application using .apk file?

Question

Is there any command on cmd.exe that would allow me to start the main activity of a particular android application using the .apk file of that appl

Answer 1

if you're looking for the equivalent of "adb run myapp.apk"

you can use the script shown in this answer

(linux and mac only - maybe with cygwin on windows)

linux/mac users can also create a script to run an apk with something like the following:

create a file named "adb-run.sh" with these 3 lines:

pkg=$(aapt dump badging $1|awk -F" " '/package/ {print $2}'|awk -F"'" '/name=/ {print $2}')
act=$(aapt dump badging $1|awk -F" " '/launchable-activity/ {print $2}'|awk -F"'" '/name=/ {print $2}')
adb shell am start -n $pkg/$act

then "chmod +x adb-run.sh" to make it executable.

now you can simply:

adb-run.sh myapp.apk

The benefit here is that you don't need to know the package name or launchable activity name. Similarly, you can create "adb-uninstall.sh myapp.apk"

Note: This requires that you have aapt in your path. You can find it under the new build tools folder in the SDK