
Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android - fredrikfornwall
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.termux
======
brillenfux
I'll leave this here
[http://kevinboone.net/kbox3.html](http://kevinboone.net/kbox3.html). I'm
using it for years now, together with Android Terminal Emulator.

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Thanks, KBOX have been one of the inspirations for the app!

The main technical difference between how Termux and KBOX runs packages is
that is that KBOX uses libfakechroot for running binaries under a fake chroot
environment, while Termux runs without a chroot, having instead patched the
packages to live under the file system hierarchy enforced by Android.

Besides that, the ambition is that Termux should give a more "out of the box"
user friendly experience directly after installation to encourage newcomers to
the world of terminals :).

~~~
eggy
How does this compare to TerminalIDE? I'll try this out and KBOX too for
myself. Thanks!

~~~
fredrikfornwall
I think TerminalIDE is rather similar, with Termux having more up-to-date
packages and terminal emulation.

Since Termux requires Lollipop or later, and TerminalIDE only works on Android
versions prior to lollipop, TerminalIDE could be an alternative for devices
running older Android versions.

Thanks for trying it out - let me know if you have any suggestions for
improving the app!

~~~
eggy
I tried 'apt-get install' by mistake. I see your help file uses 'apt install'.
I tried 'apt install picolisp', but no luck. Do you have your own package
repository? Thanks.

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Yes, the repository is an app-specific one, containing cross compiled (and
sometimes patched) packages to run directly without chroot. Just tell me about
desired packages (such as picolisp) and I will look into adding them!

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erikb
The main problem (imho) with Android is not the interface, but the input. We
have a touch display and I have yet to see an interface that I would like to
use 8h/day to do work with. The keyboards they blend in are better than
anything we had in the past for mobile devices, but they just don't cut it if
you want to work. For example a shortcut is likely not "touch ctrl" then
"touch a" then "touch k" then "touch y" (exit from screen). A shortcut might
be a drawn out pattern (I guess).

Another solution might include sounds, interacting with the microphone. Or
using the camera and recognizing gestures. There are many things the
traditional computer doesn't have. And in exchange we don't have on a mobile
device what we have on a computer: a desk to put a keyboard on.

I already have a terminal for Android, SSH, IDEs, etc. But where are people on
making the text (or command) come from my head into the app?

~~~
ilaksh
Try Hacker's Keyboard. Or a real bluetooth keyboard.

I now actually prefer the Hacker's Keyboard on my Nexus 6 in portrait because
the regular keyboard takes a lot of energy and generally is a hassle and
really loud.

I do all of my programming and everything on Android for the last 4 months.

~~~
sz4kerto
> I do all of my programming and everything on Android for the last 4 months.

On a Nexus 6? Or on a 9-inch tablet? Why?

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ilaksh
I used a 7 inch tablet and now my Nexus. I just need a terminal and/or ssh
window and a browser. I have also been sshing into my Linode so maybe that's
cheating.

But I can do that stuff fine on a tablet/phablet. Laptop is really big and
heavy and uses 2-10x as much energy. Seems outdated. And typing is really
loud.

------
michaelmior
This looks cool, but sadly not compatible with either of my devices. What
requirements does this have? It's never clear to me if I can find this out on
Google Play.

~~~
e12e
As far as I can tell the source for the APK itself isn't available -- but it
seems to be targeting Android 5.

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Yes, Android 5.0 or later is required due to the libc changes made in
lollipop. It also requires an arm(64) or x86(_64) cpu - no mips support at the
moment!

~~~
e12e
Finally updated my note3 to lollipop - I like your price point for the theme-
addon. Bought it. Keep up the good work! :)

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Great, thanks :). Let me know if you miss any font or colour theme from it!

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jekub
Very good ! Thanks.

There is still some problems, on my nexus 9 "make" complain that it doesn't
find "/bin/sh" which is normal, is it possible to change this so it can find
the provided shell ? And "ld" from binutils require gcc so it seems that it is
not possible to work only with clang ?

Thanks a lot, it is the best solution to develop on my Nexus 9, it really
shine again !

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Thanks! Is it the make program itself which tries to run /bin/sh, or does it
try to run a file from a project which has a #!/bin/sh start?

If it's GNU make itself which tries to call /bin/sh directly, that could be
patched from my side. But if it is a script from a file, you have to make the
shebang replacement #!/bin/sh -> #!${PREFIX}/bin/sh yourself on all script
files to be executed - there is a simple termux-fix-shebang script installed
by default for that!

~~~
jekub
I've tryed it on a very simple makefile and after some testing found what
trigger the message. It is simply a line with an "echo" command. It seems that
make try to run it with "/bin/sh".

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Thanks - this is now fixed, if you do an 'apt update && apt upgrade' it should
now work!

~~~
jekub
Thanks, it works perfectly now.

Do you plan to also make a version for 64bit ARM ? This one works perfectly on
my Nexus 9 but I would love to be able to develop for ARM64 directly on it.

Thank you for your work, From what I see on the play store, you plan to make
money with the extensions ? I will probably buy at least the theme one soon.

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Great! Yes, I've been experimenting with ARM64 packages, will look at it more
when things settle down a bit.

Nice, let me know if there is a font or colour theme you miss from it!

------
e12e
Looks very nice. You should perhaps make the github/source link[1] a bit
easier to find, than just pop it on the help-page -- at first I thought you
were ignoring the GPL for bash etc.

[1] [https://github.com/termux/termux-
packages](https://github.com/termux/termux-packages)

~~~
fredrikfornwall
Thanks! I'll think about making the source more obvious in the store listing
or the app interface.

------
frankiesardo
Just tried apt install emacs. Launched. It works!

I'm finally proud of my Nexus 9 with keyboard.

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ilaksh
Works awesome on my Nexus 6 so far. Woww.. great job!

fish package install output something weird but it works. And nodejs
installed!

You are da man, man! Now maybe I won't bother rooting it.

------
any1
This works quite well on my Nvidia Shield Android TV. Now I just need a way to
easily shift between the browser and the terminal.

