It is possible to install and run Seedvault in an emulator. This is likely the path of least resistance, since you don't need to build AOSP from source to make and test code changes.
It's also helpful for quickly testing Seedvault on newer versions of Android. Please note that this process has only been tested on Linux.
After opening the project in Android Studio, try running the app:provisionEmulator Gradle task.
This task runs the script in scripts/provision_emulator.sh:
./app/development/scripts/provision_emulator.sh "seedvault" "system-images;android-33;google_apis;x86_64"
You should use the Gradle task app:startEmulator to develop with the emulator. This is to ensure
the -writable-system flag is set when the emulator starts (required to install Seedvault).
This task runs the script in scripts/start_emulator.sh:
./app/development/scripts/start_emulator.sh "seedvault"
Once the emulator is provisioned and running, you should be able to use the app:installEmulatorRelease
Gradle task to install updates.
This task depends on app:assembleRelease and runs the script in scripts/install_app.sh:
./app/development/scripts/install_app.sh
There's also an Android Studio runtime configuration app-emulator which will build, install, and automatically launch the com.stevesoltys.seedvault.settings.SettingsActivity as if you clicked Backup in settings.
The MANAGE_DOCUMENTS permission will not be granted unless you are using a base AOSP
image. Currently by default we are using the google-apis version of the image, which does not provide the
permission because it is not signed with the test platform key.
The generic AOSP images are signed with the test platform key, but at the time of writing there is no AOSP emulator image for Android 13 in the default SDK manager repositories.