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GeezerVison is showing github.com — Android testbed emulator needs more RAM · Issue #144418 · python/cpython

Android testbed emulator needs more RAM #144418

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#148054
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Android testbed emulator needs more RAM#144418
#148054
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OS-androidtestsTests in the Lib/test dirTests in the Lib/test dirtype-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or errorAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error

Description

@mhsmith
mhsmith
opened on Feb 3, 2026
Issue body actions

Bug report

Bug description:

The Android testbed uses an emulator with 2 GB of RAM. This is barely enough to run the Python test suite, so on the buildbot machines I've had to manually edit the emulator configuration files after creation, as described in Android/README.md.

This approach wouldn't work on GitHub Actions, because they use a fresh VM for every job. Fortunately this issue hasn't affected GitHub Actions yet for Python itself, but it will affect other packages which use the testbed via cibuildwheel. For example, I encountered it when trying to build Pandas for Android.

Unfortunately the tools don't make it easy to configure the RAM programmatically. This is supposed to be controlled by the hardware device profile, but avdmanager ignores this and limits it to 2 GB.

So the simplest solution I can think of is to add a Gradle task as a dependency of each of the built-in emulator creation tasks (e.g. maxVersionSetup), which does the following:

  • Based on the managed device settings, and the ANDROID_USER_HOME environment variable if set, determine the location where Gradle would create the AVD.
  • If the AVD doesn't already exist, then download its system image with sdkmanager if necessary, then create it with avdmanager.
  • Edit the config files to set the RAM to 4 GB.

Notes:

  • Unlike the rest of the Android build process, we do support running the tesbed on Windows, where the locations of the AVD and the manager tools will be different.
  • The paragraph about RAM in the README should be removed.

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Other

Linked PRs

  • gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB #148054
  • [3.14] gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (GH-148054) #148150
  • [3.13] gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (GH-148054) #148151
Reacted by Ryan Bebb

Activity

  1. mhsmith
    added
    type-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or errorAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error
    testsTests in the Lib/test dirTests in the Lib/test dir
    OS-android
    on Feb 3, 2026
  2. Kaushalt2004 commented on Feb 3, 2026

    @Kaushalt2004
    Kaushalt2004
    on Feb 3, 2026
    Contributor
    More actions

    i will review

  3. Kaushalt2004
    added 3 commits that reference this issue on Feb 10, 2026

    Merge branch 'main' into pythongh-144418-android-testbed-ram

    965dc8c

    pythongh-144418: add NEWS entry

    f708d44

    pythongh-144418: add NEWS entry

    7f41bcf
  4. freakboy3742
    added a commit that references this issue on Apr 6, 2026

    gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (#148054)

    a95ee3a
  5. freakboy3742
    closed this as completedin #148054on Apr 6, 2026
  6. miss-islington
    added 2 commits that reference this issue on Apr 6, 2026

    pythongh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (pytho…

    21fa250

    pythongh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (pytho…

    33e63dc
  7. freakboy3742
    added 2 commits that reference this issue on Apr 6, 2026

    [3.14] gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (GH-1…

    bf6bd15

    [3.13] gh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (GH-1…

    06f11ec
  8. ljfp
    added a commit that references this issue on Apr 25, 2026

    pythongh-144418: Increase Android testbed emulator RAM to 4 GB (pytho…

    ac526db
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