Build Android 15 AOSP with Jenkins and Docker on an SSH Connected Agent

This guide walks you through setting up a Jenkins pipeline to build AOSP 15 using Docker on a remote SSH-connected agent.

It builds on the base Docker setup from:
Build Android 15 AOSP with Docker on Ubuntu 24.04

Why Jenkins + Docker for AOSP?

Using Jenkins to drive your AOSP builds in Docker gives you:

Fully reproducible, isolated build environments
Clean separation between infrastructure and build logic
Automation-friendly setup for CI/CD integration

However, making this work in Jenkins requires a few critical adjustments. This guide explains them step-by-step.

Problems Encountered and Fixes Applied

When using the same Docker image inside Jenkins, we hit several common issues:

Problem	Fix
`ssh-keyscan` not found	Install `openssh-client` in the Dockerfile
Missing `repo` tool	Download in the Dockerfile
`curl` SSL error when downloading repo	Install `ca-certificates` first
`repo` requires `python3`	Install `python3` in Dockerfile
`source` fails in `sh`	Run sh with #!/bin/bash in the first line

Prepare the Docker Image

Create Dockerfile, save this as aosp-builder/Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:24.04

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
ENV USE_CCACHE=1
ENV CCACHE_DIR=/ccache
ENV CCACHE_EXEC=/usr/local/bin/ccache

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    git-core \
    gnupg \
    flex \
    bison \
    build-essential \
    zip \
    curl \
    zlib1g-dev \
    libc6-dev-i386 \
    x11proto-core-dev \
    libx11-dev \
    lib32z1-dev \
    libgl1-mesa-dev \
    libxml2-utils \
    xsltproc \
    unzip \
    fontconfig \
    rsync \
    openssl \
    openssh-client \
    python3 \
    ca-certificates \
    && apt-get clean

RUN curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/repo https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/repo

COPY ccache /usr/local/bin/ccache

WORKDIR /workspace

Build the Image

docker build -t aosp-builder ./aosp-builder

Set Up Jenkins Environment

Connect a Remote Agent

A Linux host with Docker installed
Add the user to the docker group
Connect it as a Jenkins SSH agent
Label it as: ssh-agent-with-docker

Add Gerrit Credentials, In Manage Jenkins → Credentials:

Kind: SSH Username with private key
ID: gerrit-ssh-maksonlee
Username: maksonlee
Private key: Gerrit access key

Write the Jenkinsfile

Save this as Jenkinsfile in your repo:

pipeline {
  agent { label 'ssh-agent-with-docker' }

  environment {
    CCACHE_PATH = "/home/administrator/.cache/ccache"
  }

  stages {
    stage('Build AOSP') {
      steps {
        script {
          docker.image('aosp-builder').inside("-v ${CCACHE_PATH}:/ccache ") {
            sshagent(['gerrit-ssh-maksonlee']) {
              sh '''#!/bin/bash
                mkdir -p ~/.ssh
                chmod 700 ~/.ssh
                ssh-keyscan -p 29418 -H gerrit.maksonlee.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

                repo init -u ssh://maksonlee@gerrit.maksonlee.com:29418/platform/manifest -b android-15.0.0_r30
                repo sync -c
                
                source build/envsetup.sh
                lunch aosp_arm64-trunk_staging-userdebug
                m
              '''
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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