16 ms·

Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app with no rooting

278 points by ZnZirconium 6y ago

sigmonsays 6y ago
what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.
- jack-of-some 6y ago
  I've used it for ssh-ing into my various machines, both work and personal. I also did some development work using this when I was stuck without a laptop. And one time it was useful in sending out a mass text.
- sxp 6y ago
  On phones, I've installed node & python in it and used those systems as a powerful handheld calculator. On my tablet, I used it as an ssh client. On my VR headset, I used it to create a self-contained development environment: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_quest_termux_selfcontained_hmd_cyberdeck/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_qu... You can use its PRoot functionality to run various Linux distros: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot And you can run Linux GUI apps if they are compiled properly: https://github.com/adi1090x/termux-desktop https://github.com/adi1090x/termux-desktop
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  I could see it as a rather easy way to get people to try programming with a tablet / keyboard combo. You can install Go, or Python and run a web server and visit it from within the browser... It's pretty impressive and capable honestly. You can find < $100 Android phones that are prepaid these days, I got a few ages ago.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- crtasm 6y ago
  A bash script that scps today's photos to my NAS Persistent SSH session to a server running Weechat for IRC (Remember to run 'pkg update' every so often, a recent update to the app required a reinstall or manual fix for anyone like me who didn't know it could be a problem)
- bergie 6y ago
  I'm using this almost daily for various open source work. It has my vim setup, tmux, node, and git. Primary usage is via Samsung DeX so I have multiple windows and a proper mechanical keyboard.
  - maelito 6y ago
    Same, but miss a real browser with devtools so much. Everything's great apart from that. UserLand is ok but the VNC mode messes with a proper environment with alt-tab.
- muxator 6y ago
  Just a few days ago I thought about using termux-api to do a quick poc for a monitoring application. Namely, I wanted to send an SMS when an event occurred. Termux-api used to offer this [0], but apparently some time ago google decided to make it impossible: > Usage of this API is no longer allowed by Google and we had to disable it to prevent delisting of Termux:API application from the Google Play. It's my device, my SMS plan over a (supposedly) open source system. But it's the vendor's platform, and a huge part of it is proprietary (the play services). This is the windows monopoly all over again, but in our pockets and with deep analytics backed in. OK sorry, this ended being a rant. Is there an escape hatch? When will we have a credible free software mobile operating system? [0] https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-sms-send https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-sms-send
  - lytedev 6y ago
    You can buy Linux phones right now!
    - arminiusreturns 6y ago
      Any thoughts on the best options for those of us wanting one? It seems pretty much to be Pinephone or Librem 5, are there others? Both are preorder only. Anything generally available?
      - opan 6y ago
        PinePhones have periodic batches, not sure if that's considered a pre-order exactly. Check out the devices[0] list on the postmarketOS wiki to see which Android phones and other things have support. In general none of them will work as well as the PinePhone, because Pine isn't fighting this sort of thing the way most manufacturers are, but it could be a fun thing to look into if you own anything already supported. You could also port it to a device not yet on the list if you're up for it. [0] https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
  - _underfl0w_ 6y ago
    Termux:API is available on F-Droid. Maybe the functionality exists in that version?
- MarkusWandel 6y ago
  Syncing photos off. Termux has sshd (you have to start it manually once, then it stays running until Termux is killed or the phone is rebooted). With ssh-copy-id it takes a single command (1-line script) to rsync the phone's DCIM directory to my main machine for further processing. Nothing needs to be done on the phone at all other than to lightly nudge it to wake it up so sshd sees the connection attempt. Downside: Android security clampdowns mean termux can't see the SD card. So I can only sync down the phone's internal camera directory and that's where I have to store the new pictures and videos. This means space occasionally runs low and I have to move stuff to the SD card. But in the future, they probably won't allow Termux to even work any more in its current form - no "exec" of executables that werent' installed as part of the apk. Why do all this? Because I'm old school. My phone is an extension of my data ecosystem, which lives on (redundant and backed-up) hard disks in my home computing setup. I don't even let the phone sync the photos to the cloud. Admittedly I've found no other practical uses for it; all the interesting stuff is blocked by Android security (e.g. back up or otherwise process your call/SMS history).
  - knaik94 6y ago
    If DCIM syncing from external SD card is an issue, I would suggest looking into FolderSync. I've used it personally for music syncing. I'm old school too when it comes to curating my own music library.
  - noja 6y ago
    Alternatives: Resilio Sync: use it in backup mode to sync photos to your desktop pc/mac/nas. Delete photos from phone when you want to free space. Also lets you access and edit normal files, either on demand or by sync. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resilio.sync&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resilio.sy... PhotoSync: sync your photos to pretty much anything. https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html
    - antocv 6y ago
      The thing with these apps is, not your suggestion in particular, is its not ever as it was 20 years ago "use this app it does this", now it is, "use this app it will maybe ask to ship your data to NSA or China, ask for account registering signup, for sure it will make some network calls to who knows where and include adtracking and other nastiness, and will nag about some license or buy-up". Termux, ssh and rsync. Thats it. It works. I tell my phone, try to rsync when its been charging for at least 5 minutes and its evening time. Hurray.
- knaik94 6y ago
  This takes some setup, but you can add ffmpeg and python, and from there youtube-dl. There's a url handler so I can download podcasts and other things by using the built in android share function from page links. People also use it on chromebooks for dev work that doesn't require low level compiling. I have seen NPM and webdev work being done using termux and I have seen people use it for Jupyter Notebooks too. It also integrates with Tasker (another android automation app).
  - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
    What setup? I thought it was just `pkg i ffmpeg python && pip install --user youtube-dl`?
    - knaik94 6y ago
      The setup I was focusing is creating a meaningful bash like script that runs when the URL is shared to Termux. I have also set up ways certain sites to have their audio stripped from the video, using ffmpeg and while basic, it does take about a couple hours to get things setup bug free in a way that's easy. Easy as in a two click, share -> termux and then just letting it run and it'll finish. And as other have mentioned, getting storage permissions right.
- jhbadger 6y ago
  Programming on the go. Ruby, Python, Rust, Go, Nim, and many other programming languages are available for it. As are editors like Emacs and Vim.
- UI_at_80x24 6y ago
  Troubleshooting services and bypassing Google's help. Scenario 1: You're in the middle of your data center. Internal tools/tests say that $service is running correctly, but external customers says it isn't working, and firewall won't let you use an external IP without having to run 3 floors away on the other side of the building. Solution 1: Open termux, and running telnet aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd $PORT and test Quicker then waiting for a co-worker to get back to you on Slack. Scenario 2: You are setting up a new VPN server and want to confirm that your outgoing connections are being routed through the correct IPs/Gateways. Solution 2: Open termux and run tracert and see where you are being routed. and many more....... I used to own a Nokia N900. Having a Linux CLI that works in portable device (wifi + cellular) is so damn handy. I use it atleast 2 times a week. It's a perfect diagnosing tool for OOB troubleshooting.
- jaggirs 6y ago
  Routing a development server to the phone's localhost so I can use https-only features like service workers and camera access without setting up https. ssh -L 8080:172.383.20.18:8080
- mcshicks 6y ago
  I use it for emacs, mostly org mode on my phone. It works reasonably well with a small bluetooth keyboard.
  - npsimons 6y ago
    > I use it for emacs, mostly org mode on my phone. I'm not the only weirdo who does this! Although I manage to get by with Hacker's Keyboard.
  - nanomonkey 6y ago
    This was my use case, unfortunately I never figured out how to get my keyboard to accept CapsLock as a Ctrl key. Any suggestions??!
    - mcshicks 6y ago
      That's actually the "reasonably" part. The BT keyboard mapping is not completely perfect for a few corner cases (I think alt-space was one?). Hackers keyboard is OK for small tasks. You might try a small USB keyboard and USB OTG cable if your phone supports USB peripherals. I used the setup more when I was going someplace and didn't want to drag a laptop. Since I'm not going much of anywhere these days it's of much less use, in fact last time my check termux busted on some update but I haven't needed it so I haven't fixed it.
- rehemiau 6y ago
  ssh into a secured machine with port forwarding, then being able to access services exposed from that machine e.g. for web testing on Android, or using VNC / NoMachine to remote into it.
- npsimons 6y ago
  > what do people use this for? Emacs, org-mode, git and ssh. That's pretty much it, but allows me to have access to my org-mode files anywhere, just like on desktop. But I'm also one of those weirdos who runs his own email server and sshes in to read mail in mutt.
- michrassena 6y ago
  I've found it useful to occasionally ssh into my raspberry pi. But I don't think I could use it as a serious work tool unless I had a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my phone.
- donio 6y ago
  - ssh (with a proper openssh config and various convenience wrappers around it) - a local bookmark manager and search redirector that i wrote in Go (much easier to just run in termux than turning it into an Android app) - sshd to allow adhoc file transfer and command execution over ssh, getting various information from the phone using the termux cli APIs - random shell stuff although i tend to do most of that over the ssh connection.
- Spica 6y ago
  I learnt python and did coding on phone(too broke to buy pc) so I used it for running python projects, using git and deploying the projects on heroku with the CLI.
- trynumber9 6y ago
  I rarely use it for more than ssh into work servers on the weekend, downloading videos, or testing code snippets. But it's really nice to be able to use normal iperf rather than looking for some Android application that wraps it and may or may not contain ads.
  - onedr0p 6y ago
    This. Termux is a great AIO app for a lot of apps available on the Play Store. I use it for running kubectl, ssh, scp, rclone, rsync, etc.. if there is a ARM binary it will most likely run in Termux.
- briangray 6y ago
  A combination of general use and learning. General: Using T-UI because I'm not a fan of modern touch UIs, but it is limited to Android functions like messages and launching apps. Anything beyond that (SSH, text editing, web calls, etc) I do through Termux. I wish I could combine the two more seamlessly, but it's effortless to switch between the two. Learning: Wanted to learn to use vim. Termux provided simple vim access and vimtutor. I've also used Termux to freshen up on languages and write a few scripts. Namely, differences between Python2.7 to Python3 which I didn't look into until this year. Starting on C and/or Rust soon.
- trynewideas 6y ago
  I don't use it often, but I did use it twice to get a misbehaving apache service restarted while on the bus/train to work, saving me about 20 minutes of downtime before I could get in front of a better keyboard. There's a widget addon that makes doing those sorts of things one-tap: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Widget https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Widget Though naturally once I created a widget to kick apache, it never failed again.
- tomcooks 6y ago
  tmux + Termux + brow.sh allows me to do browsing, email, maps, even shopping online in the middle of nowhere with a few bars of 2g connectivity.
- miguelmota 6y ago
  You can run it on a FireTV stick by downloading termux via the F-Droid repository. Connect a bluetooth keyboard and you have a nice little linux environment to play around with. I installed archlinux on it and use it to test packages for ARM.
- gkfasdfasdf 6y ago
  A colleague used it to run iperf3 to test his home wifi.
- vharuck 6y ago
  For me, it's either to youtube-dl music onto my phone (mostly stuff from CDs I had bought but were stolen or lost), or run a small Python script to cheat at word games (finds all combinations of letters in a dictionary file). Things that don't rise to the level of deserving an app, but are nice to have.
- opan 6y ago
  - routine backups with rsync (one time setup in my shell config with a `bkup` alias and then I just run that when I think of it) - grabbing albums off my PC with sftp - easy way to unzip files - play audio via mpv - run `xdg-open` on a file and get a native popup to select an app to open it with - ssh into your other machines, works well to pick up your irc chat away from your pc if you use irssi + tmux (or weechat, or screen, etc.) - use a "real" editor like vim or emacs locally on your phone - api stuff, you can control the torch, notifications, etc. you can make scripts around that (imagine a simple `sleep 30m && ...` sort of one liner that turns on your light and plays some audio to wake you from a nap (I haven't done much with this part of termux)
- a_e_k 6y ago
  - Stand up an ad-hoc web server with `python -m http.server 8000` and use it fetch some photos onto the desktop over local wifi. - Having a backup of my private repos and dot files that's always with me. Easily keep them up to date with a pull every now and then. - Occasionally do some lightweight symbolic math or high precision arithmetic with Emacs' calc. - Test the portability of a library I've been writing by building and running its test suite on a lower-powered ARM environment.
- onedr0p 6y ago
  If there is a ARM64 binary, it will most likely run in Termux. I use it with helm, kubectl, rclone, ssh just to name a few. ssh is the most used for me because I don't want to use Termius (paid) or some other SSH wrapper app. Termux is free, allows you to easily create ssh keys and use ssh-copy-id.
  - BenjiWiebe 6y ago
    See if JuiceSSH fits the bill for you. I use it and love it.
    - onedr0p 6y ago
      I have... JuiceSSH is ssh wrapper, riddled with bugs, isn’t free and it’s abandoned. Termux is honestly the best ssh client because it’s so much more. The only place it falls short is syncing between devices.
- a3n 6y ago
  I run sshd on termux, and mount it wirelessly on my laptop via the phone's hotspot with sshfs on the laptop. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20660301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20660301 So I can copy photos from phone to laptop and post process with a script.
- dspillett 6y ago
  rsync over SSH for backups. Google photos want including the highest quality images, and I had tremendous terrible with both this and my last phone copying off large files (long recorded videos at high res) locally via normal USB methods. A script running rsync over SSH over wi-fi works every time. And as I use rsync for backups generally (have done for many years) this integrates nicely with my general way of doing things. I've not tried running SSHd to allow things to be pulled off or pushed to devices, but others report that working well too.
- Valkhyr 6y ago
  Primary: File management. I tend to prefer the command line for that kind of thing. Includes occasionally rsync-ing or scp-ing stuff to and from servers, and modding a few games I have on Android (Beamdog's Enhanced Edition mobile ports of old CRPGs). Secondary: Study programming - I am a self-taught programmer, and before the pandemic I would study a lot on public transit, in coffee shops, while waiting for people etc. This actually used to be the primary use case before I started working as a professional programmer and was also using breaks to study. Android/Termux is not really suitable for actual dev work (e.g. you'll probably need Docker at some point if you're doing backend, and you'll want a browser with dev tools for frontend), but for limited study projects (especially backend dev) it's absolutely awesome. It's also my SSH client to access a few servers I keep privately, but this is a feature that certain dedicated apps (e.g. JuiceSSH) could do equally well or better, and I'm just using Termux because I already have it.
rmorey 6y ago
see also: iSH for iOS (https://ish.app/ https://ish.app/)
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  The key caveat being that iSH does x86 emulation to achieve this, but otherwise it seems to looks pretty darn nice. I have yet to try it but now that I've switched over to iOS I may just download it to compare usage vs Termux.
  - jeromenerf 6y ago
    It is great but slow and 32bit.
    - brirec 6y ago
      It’s not that slow...
      - jeromenerf 6y ago
        It is. The design, somehow dictated by Apple constraints, makes it so. I find it usable as a text editor, git client and ssh client, which is great really. Any lightweight CLI usage should feel great. I was hoping to run go and python code locally, but even installing deps, not to mention running tests is unreliably slow.
        saagarjha 6y ago
        No dynamic code generation for apps on the App Store :(
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        It’s pretty slow; usually somewhere between 10 and 100 times slower for most language runtimes. On newer devices this is less of a big deal, but only because they are ridiculously fast.
fsflover 6y ago
It's much more convenient to use a native terminal on a GNU/Linux phone. Everything you would do on a desktop, you can do with it.
- thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
  Out of curiosity, what GNU/Linux phone would you recommend? Most of the ones I have read about are still fairly alpha-level products, particularly for the phone software and app ecosystem. I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programming capabilities.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    I recommend Librem 5: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5. The company develops both hardware and software respecting the users. Upd: Video showing Librem 5 used as desktop: https://puri.sm/posts/a-librem-5-video-made-on-a-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/a-librem-5-video-made-on-a-librem-5/
    - sneak 6y ago
      I want one, but it says it doesn't ship for 6 months. I think it's important to stick to things that exist today. The Librem 5 is cool, but it's still vaporware. Hopefully that changes.
      - fsflover 6y ago
        It technically should start shipping in November, but the preorder queue is so long that new orders have to wait for about 6 months.
    - thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
      Thank you for the recommendation. I will definitely put it on my list of possible candidates for my next phone.
j-james 6y ago
Termux has recently run into issues with Android 10 and the more recent APIs, which break its form of package management. Their workaround is fairly clever (although not yet implemented) but means that updates to the Play Store version have been temporarily put on hold. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-Android-10 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...
- rektide 6y ago
  Comments like this one[1] that mention having difficulty using Termux to access SD cards keep making me feel like we are radically over-securing devices. More and more it feels like the OS, the browser, are guarding the user not against bad apps, but also against the user. Firefox Mobile only allowing less than a dozen extensions. Chrome mobile supporting no extensions. These are different than the OS, but the same kind of decisions done "for the user" by removing capabilities from the environment. Even the people not fighting against people in the War on General Purpose Computing keep seceding our sovereign systems away from us. The need for security is real, but I don't see that we are approaching it with balance. We seem to be growing ever more heavyhanded, permitting users less & less, and I don't see a reciprocal respect & empowerment being considered, furthered or advanced. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24982862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24982862
  - heavyset_go 6y ago
    > More and more it feels like the OS, the browser, are guarding the user not against bad apps, but also against the user. This is something Stallman and others have been talking about[1] for more than a decade now. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881893 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881893
  - quicklime 6y ago
    What worries me most is that our devices are being radically over-secured according to a threat model that doesn't include companies that share my data without my permission, but does include open source developers building general-purpose tools. The former are actively encouraged, and the latter are considered collateral damage.
squarefoot 6y ago
"This version requires Android 7.0 or newer." Termux is a great piece of software; I'd love if they would keep supporting older OS versions as well, since it's the kind of software one would keep on that old tablet to be used as a terminal or generally as a Swiss army knife.
- JoshTriplett 6y ago
  I find things like termux most useful with network connectivity, and a device you can't update should never be connected to a network.
  - encom 6y ago
    Maximum snark: That covers most Android devices, then.
  - duckerude 6y ago
    I find Termux most useful when I don't have connectivity. Two thirds of what I do in Termux could also be done over SSH, but I like keeping it local.
  - jcynix 6y ago
    I beg to differ. Network connectivity in a managed home environment is fine. I use Termux to transfer backups, images, PDFs between my home server and an "old" Nexus7 tablet. And I sometimes use it as an offline map device while hiking, after downloading OSM maps and gpx files with track infos.
- jraph 6y ago
  I'm currently using an Android 6 phone. Fortunately, it is still possible to use Termux on it. Some things are not available (extra repositories) but many things are still here.
- casept 6y ago
  Put LineageOS on it.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
arendtio 6y ago
Does someone know if it is possible to use it on a FireTV Stick (without root)?
- midwestemo 6y ago
  Seems like yes if you side load f droid https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/d4rqma/termux_on_a_firetv_stick_got_bored_sideloaded/ https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/d4rqma/termux_on_a_...
- miguelmota 6y ago
  You don't need to root the FireTV stick at all. You can install termux from the F-Droid application by installing F-Droid first by installing the APK from the Downloader app. If you want to root the device for fun, I wrote a little tutorial post a few months ago https://miguelmota.com/blog/rooting-a-fire-tv-stick-4k/ https://miguelmota.com/blog/rooting-a-fire-tv-stick-4k/
- ohyeshedid 6y ago
  You might want to check out adbLink[1]. It makes managing firesticks pretty simple. 1: http://jocala.com/ http://jocala.com/
dirtnugget 6y ago
A while ago I ran TOR from this while serving a NodeJS chat via HiddenService. Had no issue reaching it from another network. Not sure if it’s still possible, but this app is quite powerful.
maelito 6y ago
If Android had a real browser with devtools (Firefox or Chrom*), with Termux and a command line editor like vim, Web developpement would be completely doable with Samsung Dex or a tablet.
miguelmota 6y ago
One thing to note is that the directory hierarchy in Termux is not the same as a standard Linux. For example, in termux everything is under `/data/data/com.termux/files` and there is no `/tmp`. Use PRoot in termux to install a standard Linux distribution.
grawprog 6y ago
I played with termux a bunch. I found it to be lacking when not rooted though. If i remember right it also lacks a lot of access to most of the android api, making any kind of serious development not really practical. The one i really miss though is SL4A. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_Layer_for_Android https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_Layer_for_Android It's a shame it ended up being killed off. I wrote a bunch of lua scripts with it. Including a small app to fetch bus schedules from a current stop. I could add scripts to my launcher and run them the same as a native app.
antocv 6y ago
Termux, Termux-api, there is a termux job scheduler thing. Also rsync and openssh on it. Then you copy the ssh public key from the phone to your "home-server", and setup a job scheduler to run rsync - now you have better than nextcloud syncing of your phones pictures/what-have-you with your home-server.
- LibertyBeta 6y ago
  But what's the battery usage? And handling meshing? why not just use Syncthing?
  - antocv 6y ago
    Battery usage is basically zero, since I schedule it to run during evenings and night-time when it is charging with the termux-scheduler-thingie. Android wakes the script up, when those conditions are met, no battery waste. The script when waken up - it checks if the file left over from last time is older than 1h, if so continues to sync, otherwise exits. Setup of a ssh connection is similar to https, rsync exchange of rsync is usually "all good" and thats it. Rsync otherwise is a very efficient but not very documented protocol network-bandwidth-usage-wise. Mesh? Syncthing, tried it, sucked for reasons I cant remember now. Nextcloud - had it for years, mind you I was contributed to nextcloud the android app, fixing many bugs, but still it caused me data loss / picture loss. Which I only found out after implementing the rsync solution and seeing OMG rsync found so many pictures Nextcloud was supposed to keep in sync for the past year but it just bugged over.
  - jwalton 6y ago
    Twice now I've had, for reasons I can't explain, a folder on my Mac somehow gets renamed from "backgrounds" to "Backgrounds", and then syncthing complains it can't sync the folder for a day or two because the folder is still "backgrounds" on the other clients(which I usually don't notice until I go back digging through the logs), and then somehow syncthing deletes all of the files in this folder on all of the machines, and then spits out a steady stream of errors complaining it can't sync files because no machines currently online have these missing files that it just murdered.
jonny383 6y ago
Termux has saved one of our projects literally tens of thousands of dollars in SMS fees from someone like Twilio. We have a few areas where non urgent SMS reminders need to be sent to users. We literally just use a couple of cheap ($100) Android phones with termux on an unlimited message plan with a local provider (who approved us for commercial usage). The actual process is a glorified bash script that pulls API jobs down with curl and then uses termux-sms to actually send the message.
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  I love this anecdote. Inventive, cost-effective, simple, understandable, and brilliant. What's not to love
- dspillett 6y ago
  That sounds like it would be very useful for a personal project, but the docs for termux-sms state "Usage of this API is no longer allowed by Google and we had to disable it to prevent delisting of Termux:API application from the Google Play." - are you building your own version, or are there official builds off Play that include the feature?
  - jonny383 6y ago
    We're running builds from FDroid.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- hiq 6y ago
  How many SMS do you send daily? Do you have a regular plan with the local provider, or some specially negotiated one?
  - jonny383 6y ago
    Not totally sure but easily > 1,000. We negotiated but not at a high level.
dmead 6y ago
top has been busted for ages
ericol 6y ago
I found Termux a while ago, and thought it was interesting. then I found you can run python, ffmpeg and youtube-dl on it, and now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I'm still to try to run Jupyter on it, but I think it might be able to. As all my computers run Linux these days, it also has replaced all my "from-x-to-android" transfer apps.
- pokernaming 6y ago
  I am interested in knowing more about your file share set up
  - drran 6y ago
    scp?
    - ericol 6y ago
      Yes, exactly. BTW, I never said I was sharing files :) just that I replaced the corresponding apps. Lately I was using Feem, but grew tired of it because it won't allow you to choose the folder when transferring using the free app.
antman 6y ago
I run Jupyter Notebook python etc and create termux simple apps you even with a small web gui visible through my phone's browser. But due to the restrictions that were placed on Android a few years back I lost the capability to make system apps in python. I had a cleanup, backup, and could make custom interfaces enhance other applications using their sqlite data. I guess now I am protected, from me.
- Valkhyr 6y ago
  Don't you feel much safer now?
scoot_718 6y ago
Yup, use it to run jupyter notebooks.
quintonish 6y ago
termux-url-opener has been an excellent tool to easily make use of Android's share menu. Taking inspiration from "YouTube-DL the easy way on Android" [1], I made a script that adds a URL to my bookmarks server [2]. It'd be even better to write a script that has some rules or a prompt so that different URLs can be handled differently (e.g. video URLs prompt for download, or there could be a prompt to add the page to archive.org). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/baufql/youtubedl_the_easy_way_on_android/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/baufql/youtubedl_th... [2] https://github.com/zvakanaka/termux-bookmark#readme https://github.com/zvakanaka/termux-bookmark#readme
- bklaasen 6y ago
  Here's my termux-url-opener: $ cat ~/bin/termux-url-opener #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/env bash read -ep "[c]ast or [d]ownload: " -i "c" choice case "${choice}" in c|C) catt cast "${1}" ;; d|D) pip install --upgrade youtube-dl cd ~/storage/movies youtube-dl "${1}" ;; *) echo "Sorry, that's invalid." exit 65 ;; esac

278 points by ZnZirconium 6y ago

sigmonsays 6y ago

what do people use this for? While I was really excited when i encountered it, I didn't find any practical uses.

jack-of-some 6y ago
I've used it for ssh-ing into my various machines, both work and personal. I also did some development work using this when I was stuck without a laptop. And one time it was useful in sending out a mass text.
sxp 6y ago
On phones, I've installed node & python in it and used those systems as a powerful handheld calculator. On my tablet, I used it as an ssh client. On my VR headset, I used it to create a self-contained development environment: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_quest_termux_selfcontained_hmd_cyberdeck/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_qu... You can use its PRoot functionality to run various Linux distros: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/PRoot And you can run Linux GUI apps if they are compiled properly: https://github.com/adi1090x/termux-desktop https://github.com/adi1090x/termux-desktop
giancarlostoro 6y ago
I could see it as a rather easy way to get people to try programming with a tablet / keyboard combo. You can install Go, or Python and run a web server and visit it from within the browser... It's pretty impressive and capable honestly. You can find < $100 Android phones that are prepaid these days, I got a few ages ago.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
crtasm 6y ago
A bash script that scps today's photos to my NAS Persistent SSH session to a server running Weechat for IRC (Remember to run 'pkg update' every so often, a recent update to the app required a reinstall or manual fix for anyone like me who didn't know it could be a problem)
bergie 6y ago
I'm using this almost daily for various open source work. It has my vim setup, tmux, node, and git. Primary usage is via Samsung DeX so I have multiple windows and a proper mechanical keyboard.
- maelito 6y ago
  Same, but miss a real browser with devtools so much. Everything's great apart from that. UserLand is ok but the VNC mode messes with a proper environment with alt-tab.
muxator 6y ago
Just a few days ago I thought about using termux-api to do a quick poc for a monitoring application. Namely, I wanted to send an SMS when an event occurred. Termux-api used to offer this [0], but apparently some time ago google decided to make it impossible: > Usage of this API is no longer allowed by Google and we had to disable it to prevent delisting of Termux:API application from the Google Play. It's my device, my SMS plan over a (supposedly) open source system. But it's the vendor's platform, and a huge part of it is proprietary (the play services). This is the windows monopoly all over again, but in our pockets and with deep analytics backed in. OK sorry, this ended being a rant. Is there an escape hatch? When will we have a credible free software mobile operating system? [0] https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-sms-send https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-sms-send
- lytedev 6y ago
  You can buy Linux phones right now!
  - arminiusreturns 6y ago
    Any thoughts on the best options for those of us wanting one? It seems pretty much to be Pinephone or Librem 5, are there others? Both are preorder only. Anything generally available?
    - opan 6y ago
      PinePhones have periodic batches, not sure if that's considered a pre-order exactly. Check out the devices[0] list on the postmarketOS wiki to see which Android phones and other things have support. In general none of them will work as well as the PinePhone, because Pine isn't fighting this sort of thing the way most manufacturers are, but it could be a fun thing to look into if you own anything already supported. You could also port it to a device not yet on the list if you're up for it. [0] https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
- _underfl0w_ 6y ago
  Termux:API is available on F-Droid. Maybe the functionality exists in that version?
MarkusWandel 6y ago
Syncing photos off. Termux has sshd (you have to start it manually once, then it stays running until Termux is killed or the phone is rebooted). With ssh-copy-id it takes a single command (1-line script) to rsync the phone's DCIM directory to my main machine for further processing. Nothing needs to be done on the phone at all other than to lightly nudge it to wake it up so sshd sees the connection attempt. Downside: Android security clampdowns mean termux can't see the SD card. So I can only sync down the phone's internal camera directory and that's where I have to store the new pictures and videos. This means space occasionally runs low and I have to move stuff to the SD card. But in the future, they probably won't allow Termux to even work any more in its current form - no "exec" of executables that werent' installed as part of the apk. Why do all this? Because I'm old school. My phone is an extension of my data ecosystem, which lives on (redundant and backed-up) hard disks in my home computing setup. I don't even let the phone sync the photos to the cloud. Admittedly I've found no other practical uses for it; all the interesting stuff is blocked by Android security (e.g. back up or otherwise process your call/SMS history).
- knaik94 6y ago
  If DCIM syncing from external SD card is an issue, I would suggest looking into FolderSync. I've used it personally for music syncing. I'm old school too when it comes to curating my own music library.
- noja 6y ago
  Alternatives: Resilio Sync: use it in backup mode to sync photos to your desktop pc/mac/nas. Delete photos from phone when you want to free space. Also lets you access and edit normal files, either on demand or by sync. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resilio.sync&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resilio.sy... PhotoSync: sync your photos to pretty much anything. https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html
  - antocv 6y ago
    The thing with these apps is, not your suggestion in particular, is its not ever as it was 20 years ago "use this app it does this", now it is, "use this app it will maybe ask to ship your data to NSA or China, ask for account registering signup, for sure it will make some network calls to who knows where and include adtracking and other nastiness, and will nag about some license or buy-up". Termux, ssh and rsync. Thats it. It works. I tell my phone, try to rsync when its been charging for at least 5 minutes and its evening time. Hurray.
knaik94 6y ago
This takes some setup, but you can add ffmpeg and python, and from there youtube-dl. There's a url handler so I can download podcasts and other things by using the built in android share function from page links. People also use it on chromebooks for dev work that doesn't require low level compiling. I have seen NPM and webdev work being done using termux and I have seen people use it for Jupyter Notebooks too. It also integrates with Tasker (another android automation app).
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  What setup? I thought it was just `pkg i ffmpeg python && pip install --user youtube-dl`?
  - knaik94 6y ago
    The setup I was focusing is creating a meaningful bash like script that runs when the URL is shared to Termux. I have also set up ways certain sites to have their audio stripped from the video, using ffmpeg and while basic, it does take about a couple hours to get things setup bug free in a way that's easy. Easy as in a two click, share -> termux and then just letting it run and it'll finish. And as other have mentioned, getting storage permissions right.
jhbadger 6y ago
Programming on the go. Ruby, Python, Rust, Go, Nim, and many other programming languages are available for it. As are editors like Emacs and Vim.
UI_at_80x24 6y ago
Troubleshooting services and bypassing Google's help. Scenario 1: You're in the middle of your data center. Internal tools/tests say that $service is running correctly, but external customers says it isn't working, and firewall won't let you use an external IP without having to run 3 floors away on the other side of the building. Solution 1: Open termux, and running telnet aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd $PORT and test Quicker then waiting for a co-worker to get back to you on Slack. Scenario 2: You are setting up a new VPN server and want to confirm that your outgoing connections are being routed through the correct IPs/Gateways. Solution 2: Open termux and run tracert and see where you are being routed. and many more....... I used to own a Nokia N900. Having a Linux CLI that works in portable device (wifi + cellular) is so damn handy. I use it atleast 2 times a week. It's a perfect diagnosing tool for OOB troubleshooting.
jaggirs 6y ago
Routing a development server to the phone's localhost so I can use https-only features like service workers and camera access without setting up https. ssh -L 8080:172.383.20.18:8080
mcshicks 6y ago
I use it for emacs, mostly org mode on my phone. It works reasonably well with a small bluetooth keyboard.
- npsimons 6y ago
  > I use it for emacs, mostly org mode on my phone. I'm not the only weirdo who does this! Although I manage to get by with Hacker's Keyboard.
- nanomonkey 6y ago
  This was my use case, unfortunately I never figured out how to get my keyboard to accept CapsLock as a Ctrl key. Any suggestions??!
  - mcshicks 6y ago
    That's actually the "reasonably" part. The BT keyboard mapping is not completely perfect for a few corner cases (I think alt-space was one?). Hackers keyboard is OK for small tasks. You might try a small USB keyboard and USB OTG cable if your phone supports USB peripherals. I used the setup more when I was going someplace and didn't want to drag a laptop. Since I'm not going much of anywhere these days it's of much less use, in fact last time my check termux busted on some update but I haven't needed it so I haven't fixed it.
rehemiau 6y ago
ssh into a secured machine with port forwarding, then being able to access services exposed from that machine e.g. for web testing on Android, or using VNC / NoMachine to remote into it.
npsimons 6y ago
> what do people use this for? Emacs, org-mode, git and ssh. That's pretty much it, but allows me to have access to my org-mode files anywhere, just like on desktop. But I'm also one of those weirdos who runs his own email server and sshes in to read mail in mutt.
michrassena 6y ago
I've found it useful to occasionally ssh into my raspberry pi. But I don't think I could use it as a serious work tool unless I had a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my phone.
donio 6y ago
- ssh (with a proper openssh config and various convenience wrappers around it) - a local bookmark manager and search redirector that i wrote in Go (much easier to just run in termux than turning it into an Android app) - sshd to allow adhoc file transfer and command execution over ssh, getting various information from the phone using the termux cli APIs - random shell stuff although i tend to do most of that over the ssh connection.
Spica 6y ago
I learnt python and did coding on phone(too broke to buy pc) so I used it for running python projects, using git and deploying the projects on heroku with the CLI.
trynumber9 6y ago
I rarely use it for more than ssh into work servers on the weekend, downloading videos, or testing code snippets. But it's really nice to be able to use normal iperf rather than looking for some Android application that wraps it and may or may not contain ads.
- onedr0p 6y ago
  This. Termux is a great AIO app for a lot of apps available on the Play Store. I use it for running kubectl, ssh, scp, rclone, rsync, etc.. if there is a ARM binary it will most likely run in Termux.
briangray 6y ago
A combination of general use and learning. General: Using T-UI because I'm not a fan of modern touch UIs, but it is limited to Android functions like messages and launching apps. Anything beyond that (SSH, text editing, web calls, etc) I do through Termux. I wish I could combine the two more seamlessly, but it's effortless to switch between the two. Learning: Wanted to learn to use vim. Termux provided simple vim access and vimtutor. I've also used Termux to freshen up on languages and write a few scripts. Namely, differences between Python2.7 to Python3 which I didn't look into until this year. Starting on C and/or Rust soon.
trynewideas 6y ago
I don't use it often, but I did use it twice to get a misbehaving apache service restarted while on the bus/train to work, saving me about 20 minutes of downtime before I could get in front of a better keyboard. There's a widget addon that makes doing those sorts of things one-tap: https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Widget https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Widget Though naturally once I created a widget to kick apache, it never failed again.
tomcooks 6y ago
tmux + Termux + brow.sh allows me to do browsing, email, maps, even shopping online in the middle of nowhere with a few bars of 2g connectivity.
miguelmota 6y ago
You can run it on a FireTV stick by downloading termux via the F-Droid repository. Connect a bluetooth keyboard and you have a nice little linux environment to play around with. I installed archlinux on it and use it to test packages for ARM.
gkfasdfasdf 6y ago
A colleague used it to run iperf3 to test his home wifi.
vharuck 6y ago
For me, it's either to youtube-dl music onto my phone (mostly stuff from CDs I had bought but were stolen or lost), or run a small Python script to cheat at word games (finds all combinations of letters in a dictionary file). Things that don't rise to the level of deserving an app, but are nice to have.
opan 6y ago
- routine backups with rsync (one time setup in my shell config with a `bkup` alias and then I just run that when I think of it) - grabbing albums off my PC with sftp - easy way to unzip files - play audio via mpv - run `xdg-open` on a file and get a native popup to select an app to open it with - ssh into your other machines, works well to pick up your irc chat away from your pc if you use irssi + tmux (or weechat, or screen, etc.) - use a "real" editor like vim or emacs locally on your phone - api stuff, you can control the torch, notifications, etc. you can make scripts around that (imagine a simple `sleep 30m && ...` sort of one liner that turns on your light and plays some audio to wake you from a nap (I haven't done much with this part of termux)
a_e_k 6y ago
- Stand up an ad-hoc web server with `python -m http.server 8000` and use it fetch some photos onto the desktop over local wifi. - Having a backup of my private repos and dot files that's always with me. Easily keep them up to date with a pull every now and then. - Occasionally do some lightweight symbolic math or high precision arithmetic with Emacs' calc. - Test the portability of a library I've been writing by building and running its test suite on a lower-powered ARM environment.
onedr0p 6y ago
If there is a ARM64 binary, it will most likely run in Termux. I use it with helm, kubectl, rclone, ssh just to name a few. ssh is the most used for me because I don't want to use Termius (paid) or some other SSH wrapper app. Termux is free, allows you to easily create ssh keys and use ssh-copy-id.
- BenjiWiebe 6y ago
  See if JuiceSSH fits the bill for you. I use it and love it.
  - onedr0p 6y ago
    I have... JuiceSSH is ssh wrapper, riddled with bugs, isn’t free and it’s abandoned. Termux is honestly the best ssh client because it’s so much more. The only place it falls short is syncing between devices.
a3n 6y ago
I run sshd on termux, and mount it wirelessly on my laptop via the phone's hotspot with sshfs on the laptop. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20660301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20660301 So I can copy photos from phone to laptop and post process with a script.
dspillett 6y ago
rsync over SSH for backups. Google photos want including the highest quality images, and I had tremendous terrible with both this and my last phone copying off large files (long recorded videos at high res) locally via normal USB methods. A script running rsync over SSH over wi-fi works every time. And as I use rsync for backups generally (have done for many years) this integrates nicely with my general way of doing things. I've not tried running SSHd to allow things to be pulled off or pushed to devices, but others report that working well too.
Valkhyr 6y ago
Primary: File management. I tend to prefer the command line for that kind of thing. Includes occasionally rsync-ing or scp-ing stuff to and from servers, and modding a few games I have on Android (Beamdog's Enhanced Edition mobile ports of old CRPGs). Secondary: Study programming - I am a self-taught programmer, and before the pandemic I would study a lot on public transit, in coffee shops, while waiting for people etc. This actually used to be the primary use case before I started working as a professional programmer and was also using breaks to study. Android/Termux is not really suitable for actual dev work (e.g. you'll probably need Docker at some point if you're doing backend, and you'll want a browser with dev tools for frontend), but for limited study projects (especially backend dev) it's absolutely awesome. It's also my SSH client to access a few servers I keep privately, but this is a feature that certain dedicated apps (e.g. JuiceSSH) could do equally well or better, and I'm just using Termux because I already have it.

rmorey 6y ago

see also: iSH for iOS (https://ish.app/ https://ish.app/)

giancarlostoro 6y ago
The key caveat being that iSH does x86 emulation to achieve this, but otherwise it seems to looks pretty darn nice. I have yet to try it but now that I've switched over to iOS I may just download it to compare usage vs Termux.
- jeromenerf 6y ago
  It is great but slow and 32bit.
  - brirec 6y ago
    It’s not that slow...
    - jeromenerf 6y ago
      It is. The design, somehow dictated by Apple constraints, makes it so. I find it usable as a text editor, git client and ssh client, which is great really. Any lightweight CLI usage should feel great. I was hoping to run go and python code locally, but even installing deps, not to mention running tests is unreliably slow.
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        No dynamic code generation for apps on the App Store :(
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      It’s pretty slow; usually somewhere between 10 and 100 times slower for most language runtimes. On newer devices this is less of a big deal, but only because they are ridiculously fast.

fsflover 6y ago

It's much more convenient to use a native terminal on a GNU/Linux phone. Everything you would do on a desktop, you can do with it.

thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
Out of curiosity, what GNU/Linux phone would you recommend? Most of the ones I have read about are still fairly alpha-level products, particularly for the phone software and app ecosystem. I would love to have a fully-functional phone running GNU/Linux that I can use as a phone and carry around in my pocket and then plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and have a "good enough" computer for basic office and programming capabilities.
- fsflover 6y ago
  I recommend Librem 5: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5. The company develops both hardware and software respecting the users. Upd: Video showing Librem 5 used as desktop: https://puri.sm/posts/a-librem-5-video-made-on-a-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/a-librem-5-video-made-on-a-librem-5/
  - sneak 6y ago
    I want one, but it says it doesn't ship for 6 months. I think it's important to stick to things that exist today. The Librem 5 is cool, but it's still vaporware. Hopefully that changes.
    - fsflover 6y ago
      It technically should start shipping in November, but the preorder queue is so long that new orders have to wait for about 6 months.
  - thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
    Thank you for the recommendation. I will definitely put it on my list of possible candidates for my next phone.

j-james 6y ago

Termux has recently run into issues with Android 10 and the more recent APIs, which break its form of package management. Their workaround is fairly clever (although not yet implemented) but means that updates to the Play Store version have been temporarily put on hold. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-Android-10 https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

rektide 6y ago
Comments like this one[1] that mention having difficulty using Termux to access SD cards keep making me feel like we are radically over-securing devices. More and more it feels like the OS, the browser, are guarding the user not against bad apps, but also against the user. Firefox Mobile only allowing less than a dozen extensions. Chrome mobile supporting no extensions. These are different than the OS, but the same kind of decisions done "for the user" by removing capabilities from the environment. Even the people not fighting against people in the War on General Purpose Computing keep seceding our sovereign systems away from us. The need for security is real, but I don't see that we are approaching it with balance. We seem to be growing ever more heavyhanded, permitting users less & less, and I don't see a reciprocal respect & empowerment being considered, furthered or advanced. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24982862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24982862
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  > More and more it feels like the OS, the browser, are guarding the user not against bad apps, but also against the user. This is something Stallman and others have been talking about[1] for more than a decade now. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881893 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24881893
- quicklime 6y ago
  What worries me most is that our devices are being radically over-secured according to a threat model that doesn't include companies that share my data without my permission, but does include open source developers building general-purpose tools. The former are actively encouraged, and the latter are considered collateral damage.

squarefoot 6y ago

"This version requires Android 7.0 or newer." Termux is a great piece of software; I'd love if they would keep supporting older OS versions as well, since it's the kind of software one would keep on that old tablet to be used as a terminal or generally as a Swiss army knife.

JoshTriplett 6y ago
I find things like termux most useful with network connectivity, and a device you can't update should never be connected to a network.
- encom 6y ago
  Maximum snark: That covers most Android devices, then.
- duckerude 6y ago
  I find Termux most useful when I don't have connectivity. Two thirds of what I do in Termux could also be done over SSH, but I like keeping it local.
- jcynix 6y ago
  I beg to differ. Network connectivity in a managed home environment is fine. I use Termux to transfer backups, images, PDFs between my home server and an "old" Nexus7 tablet. And I sometimes use it as an offline map device while hiking, after downloading OSM maps and gpx files with track infos.
jraph 6y ago
I'm currently using an Android 6 phone. Fortunately, it is still possible to use Termux on it. Some things are not available (extra repositories) but many things are still here.
casept 6y ago
Put LineageOS on it.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

arendtio 6y ago

Does someone know if it is possible to use it on a FireTV Stick (without root)?

midwestemo 6y ago
Seems like yes if you side load f droid https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/d4rqma/termux_on_a_firetv_stick_got_bored_sideloaded/ https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/d4rqma/termux_on_a_...
miguelmota 6y ago
You don't need to root the FireTV stick at all. You can install termux from the F-Droid application by installing F-Droid first by installing the APK from the Downloader app. If you want to root the device for fun, I wrote a little tutorial post a few months ago https://miguelmota.com/blog/rooting-a-fire-tv-stick-4k/ https://miguelmota.com/blog/rooting-a-fire-tv-stick-4k/
ohyeshedid 6y ago
You might want to check out adbLink[1]. It makes managing firesticks pretty simple. 1: http://jocala.com/ http://jocala.com/

dirtnugget 6y ago

A while ago I ran TOR from this while serving a NodeJS chat via HiddenService. Had no issue reaching it from another network. Not sure if it’s still possible, but this app is quite powerful.

maelito 6y ago

If Android had a real browser with devtools (Firefox or Chrom*), with Termux and a command line editor like vim, Web developpement would be completely doable with Samsung Dex or a tablet.

miguelmota 6y ago

One thing to note is that the directory hierarchy in Termux is not the same as a standard Linux. For example, in termux everything is under `/data/data/com.termux/files` and there is no `/tmp`. Use PRoot in termux to install a standard Linux distribution.

grawprog 6y ago

I played with termux a bunch. I found it to be lacking when not rooted though. If i remember right it also lacks a lot of access to most of the android api, making any kind of serious development not really practical. The one i really miss though is SL4A. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_Layer_for_Android https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_Layer_for_Android It's a shame it ended up being killed off. I wrote a bunch of lua scripts with it. Including a small app to fetch bus schedules from a current stop. I could add scripts to my launcher and run them the same as a native app.

antocv 6y ago

Termux, Termux-api, there is a termux job scheduler thing. Also rsync and openssh on it. Then you copy the ssh public key from the phone to your "home-server", and setup a job scheduler to run rsync - now you have better than nextcloud syncing of your phones pictures/what-have-you with your home-server.

LibertyBeta 6y ago
But what's the battery usage? And handling meshing? why not just use Syncthing?
- antocv 6y ago
  Battery usage is basically zero, since I schedule it to run during evenings and night-time when it is charging with the termux-scheduler-thingie. Android wakes the script up, when those conditions are met, no battery waste. The script when waken up - it checks if the file left over from last time is older than 1h, if so continues to sync, otherwise exits. Setup of a ssh connection is similar to https, rsync exchange of rsync is usually "all good" and thats it. Rsync otherwise is a very efficient but not very documented protocol network-bandwidth-usage-wise. Mesh? Syncthing, tried it, sucked for reasons I cant remember now. Nextcloud - had it for years, mind you I was contributed to nextcloud the android app, fixing many bugs, but still it caused me data loss / picture loss. Which I only found out after implementing the rsync solution and seeing OMG rsync found so many pictures Nextcloud was supposed to keep in sync for the past year but it just bugged over.
- jwalton 6y ago
  Twice now I've had, for reasons I can't explain, a folder on my Mac somehow gets renamed from "backgrounds" to "Backgrounds", and then syncthing complains it can't sync the folder for a day or two because the folder is still "backgrounds" on the other clients(which I usually don't notice until I go back digging through the logs), and then somehow syncthing deletes all of the files in this folder on all of the machines, and then spits out a steady stream of errors complaining it can't sync files because no machines currently online have these missing files that it just murdered.

jonny383 6y ago

Termux has saved one of our projects literally tens of thousands of dollars in SMS fees from someone like Twilio. We have a few areas where non urgent SMS reminders need to be sent to users. We literally just use a couple of cheap ($100) Android phones with termux on an unlimited message plan with a local provider (who approved us for commercial usage). The actual process is a glorified bash script that pulls API jobs down with curl and then uses termux-sms to actually send the message.

notsureaboutpg 6y ago
I love this anecdote. Inventive, cost-effective, simple, understandable, and brilliant. What's not to love
dspillett 6y ago
That sounds like it would be very useful for a personal project, but the docs for termux-sms state "Usage of this API is no longer allowed by Google and we had to disable it to prevent delisting of Termux:API application from the Google Play." - are you building your own version, or are there official builds off Play that include the feature?
- jonny383 6y ago
  We're running builds from FDroid.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hiq 6y ago
How many SMS do you send daily? Do you have a regular plan with the local provider, or some specially negotiated one?
- jonny383 6y ago
  Not totally sure but easily > 1,000. We negotiated but not at a high level.

dmead 6y ago

top has been busted for ages

ericol 6y ago

I found Termux a while ago, and thought it was interesting. then I found you can run python, ffmpeg and youtube-dl on it, and now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I'm still to try to run Jupyter on it, but I think it might be able to. As all my computers run Linux these days, it also has replaced all my "from-x-to-android" transfer apps.

pokernaming 6y ago
I am interested in knowing more about your file share set up
- drran 6y ago
  scp?
  - ericol 6y ago
    Yes, exactly. BTW, I never said I was sharing files :) just that I replaced the corresponding apps. Lately I was using Feem, but grew tired of it because it won't allow you to choose the folder when transferring using the free app.

antman 6y ago

I run Jupyter Notebook python etc and create termux simple apps you even with a small web gui visible through my phone's browser. But due to the restrictions that were placed on Android a few years back I lost the capability to make system apps in python. I had a cleanup, backup, and could make custom interfaces enhance other applications using their sqlite data. I guess now I am protected, from me.

Valkhyr 6y ago
Don't you feel much safer now?

scoot_718 6y ago

Yup, use it to run jupyter notebooks.

quintonish 6y ago

termux-url-opener has been an excellent tool to easily make use of Android's share menu. Taking inspiration from "YouTube-DL the easy way on Android" [1], I made a script that adds a URL to my bookmarks server [2]. It'd be even better to write a script that has some rules or a prompt so that different URLs can be handled differently (e.g. video URLs prompt for download, or there could be a prompt to add the page to archive.org). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/baufql/youtubedl_the_easy_way_on_android/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/baufql/youtubedl_th... [2] https://github.com/zvakanaka/termux-bookmark#readme https://github.com/zvakanaka/termux-bookmark#readme

bklaasen 6y ago
Here's my termux-url-opener: $ cat ~/bin/termux-url-opener #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/env bash read -ep "[c]ast or [d]ownload: " -i "c" choice case "${choice}" in c|C) catt cast "${1}" ;; d|D) pip install --upgrade youtube-dl cd ~/storage/movies youtube-dl "${1}" ;; *) echo "Sorry, that's invalid." exit 65 ;; esac