Getting an Android debug.keystore

[MatthewDoyleArt]

For those of you having trouble understanding the Android documentation on how to sign your apps (it is admittedly very difficult to follow), here are some basic instructions on generating a debug.keystore file for Android app development:

Method 1 - Via Eclipse and ADT

1. Download the Eclipse IDE and install it - http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
2. Install the ADT (Android Development Tool) plugin for Eclipse - http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/installing-adt.html
3. Configure the ADT Plugin (same link as above)
4. Setup a new Android project in Eclipse - http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-eclipse.html
5. Create a new AVD (Android Virtual Device) for testing - http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/managing-avds.html
6. Run your new test project using Debug in Eclipse.
7. The debug.keystore should be generated in your C:\Users\username\.android\ directory.

Method 2 - Via Cygwin & JDK Keytool.exe

Alternatively, you can generate a keystore without Eclipse with the following JDK command from wither a Windows command prompt or Cygwin with this command:

keytool -genkeypair -alias androiddebugkey -keypass android -keystore debug.keystore -storepass android -dname "CN=Android Debug,O=Android,C=US" -validity 9999

Keytool is a part of the JDK and needs to be in the system PATH to be used in this way. The path should be something like: C:\<location of my jdk install>\bin

Once generated, be sure to copy the keystore file into the proper location. If you ran the command from your Cygwin home directory (the directory cygwin starts in), you will find the debug.keystore file here: C:\<location of my cygwin install>\home\<my user directory>\