Is it possible to run app tests on Android emulator inside Bitbucket pipelines?

Issue

I have a Docker image that runs Appium server and Android Emulator. I am totally able to run a container based on that image in my computer (it requires the --privileged flag for that). I am also able to run automated tests in the emulator without any issues.

Now, I would like to run the emulator on Bitbucket pipelines. However, Bitbucket pipelines don't allow starting a Docker container with --privileged (and many other Docker flags) by security reasons. As I understood, this flag is responsible for running the emulator.

I also tried to add to the Docker image to the bitbucket-pipelines.yml file, hoping that I would be able to run the emulator directly in the host, instead of inside a container, but didn't work either, I got empty result from the commands "adb devices" and "emulator -list-avds"

Does anyone know anything that could help achieve this goal? I mean, running automated UI tests on Android in Bitbucket pipelines?

Solution

Yes it is possible. There are several answers in the link below, which do not require using the --privileged flag:

• android environment using docker and bitbucket pipelines

In the answer of Ming C, there is a linked github page which has a guide on how to run the emulator in the Docker machine:

• https://github.com/mingchen/docker-android-build-box#run-an-android-emulator-in-the-docker-build-machine

Answered By - Mr-IDE