Terminal Emulator Commands !

[REF]Terminal Emulator Commands ! (Android shell command reference)

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Android Shell Command Reference Page History
A "shell" is a program that listens to keyboard input from a user and performs actions as directed by the user. Android devices come with a simple shell program. This shell program is mostly undocumented. Since many people are curious about it I thought I'd write up some documentation for it.


Common problems
The built-in shell has very limited error handling. When you type a command name incorrectly it will say "permission denied", even though the real problem is that it couldn't find the command:

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$ dir

dir: permission denied <---- this is a misleading error message, should say 'dir: not found'

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$ ls

... listing of current directory
The PATH variable
The Android shell will run any program it finds in its PATH. The PATH is a list of directories. You can find out what your shell's PATH is set to by using the built-in echo command:

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$ echo $PATH /data/local/bin:/sbin:/vendor/bin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin

Depending upon your shell, you may see a different result.

Built in Commands
Every shell has a few built-in commands. Some common built-in commands are:

echo -- prints text to stdout.
set -- sets shell variables
export -- makes shell variables available to command-line programs
cd -- change the current directory.
pwd -- print name of the current directory.

Commands
To find out what commands you have available to you, use the "ls" command on each of the directories in the PATH variable.

Finding documentation for the Android commands.
Many of the Android commands are based on standard Linux (or bsd) commands. If you're curious about a command, you can sometimes learn how it works by using the "man" command on a desktop Linux or OSX (Apple Macintosh) computer. The Linux or OSX version of the command may be different in details, but much of the documentation will still apply to the Android version of the command.

Another source of documentation for people without a Linux or OSX machine handy is to use a web browser and use a web search engine to search for the text: "man Linux command-name".

List of commands
The following is a list of the commands that are present on a Nexus S phone running an Android 2.3.3 "user-debug" build. Many of these commands are not present on a "user" phone. (They are missing from a "user" phone because they are specific to developing or debugging the Android operating system.)

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$ ls /data/local/bin /data/local/bin: No such file or directory

Notice that by default there is no /data/local/bin directory. You can create this directory using the "mkdir" command if you like.

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$ ls /sbin

opendir failed, Permission denied
The /sbin directory exists, but you don't have permission to access it. You need root access. If you have a developer phone, or otherwise have root access to your phone you can see what's in this directory.

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$ su # ls /sbin ueventd adbd # exit $

Notice that the shell prompt changes from a '$' to a '#' to indicate that you have root access.

Notice also that neither of the /sbin commands are useful to the shell -- the adb and ueventd files are 'daemon' programs used to implement the Android Debugger "adb" program that is used by developers.

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$ ls /vendor/bin gpsd pvrsrvinit

Vendor/bin is where device vendors can put device-specific executables. These files are from a Nexus S.

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$ ls /system/sbin /system/sbin: No such file or directory

This directory does not exist on a Nexus S.

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$ ls /system/bin am

am is the Android Activity Manager. It's used to start and stop Android activities (e.g. applications) from the command line. Type am by itself to get a list of options.

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amix aplay

Command line audio file player.

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app_process applypatch

Used to apply patches to android files.

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arec

Command line audio recorder.

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audioloop bluetoothd

BlueTooth daemon

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bmgr

Backup manager - type command by itself to get documentation.

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bootanimation

Draws the boot animation. You may have to reset your phone to get out of this.

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brcm_patchram_plus bugreport cat

Copy the contents of a file to standard output.

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chmod

Change the mode of a file (e.g. whether it can be read or written.)

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chown

Change the owner of a file.

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cmp

Compare two files byte-by-byte

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dalvikvm

The dalvik virtual machine. (Used to run Android applications.)

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date

Prints the current date and time

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dbus-daemon dd

Convert and copy a file. By default copies standard in to standard out.

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debuggerd dexopt df

Shows how much space is free on different file systems on your device.

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dhcpcd dmesg dnsmasq dumpstate dumpsys dvz fsck_msdos gdbserver getevent getprop gzip hciattach hd id ifconfig

Shows the current configuration of network interfaces (IP, MAC address etc)

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iftop

Shows the current processes using the network interfaces (top, but for networks)

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ime input insmod installd ioctl ionice iptables

Manage the firewall

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keystore keystore_cli kill

Send signals to processes.

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linker ln

Used to set up a file system link.

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log logcat

Prints the Android runtime log.

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logwrapper ls

Lists files.

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lsmod lsof make_ext4fs mediaserver mkdir

Make a directory.

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monkey

A program that sends random events, used to test applications. (Like having a monkey playing with the device.)

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mount mtpd mv

Move a file from one directory to another. (Only on the same file system. Use "cat a > b" to copy a file between file systems.

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nandread ndc netcfg netd netstat newfs_msdos notify omx_tests pand ping pm pppd printenv ps

List active processes.

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qemu-props qemud racoon radiooptions reboot

Reboot the device.

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record renice rild rm

Remove a file.

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rmdir

Remove a directory.

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rmmod route rtp_test run-as schedtest schedtop sdcard sdptool sendevent service servicemanager setconsole setprop setup_fs sh showlease sleep smd stagefright start

Starts the Android runtime.

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stop

Stops the Android runtime.

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surfaceflinger svc sync system_server tc testid3 toolbox top

Shows which processes are currently using the most CPU time.

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umount uptime

Prints how long your device has been running since it was last booted.

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vdc vmstat vold watchprops wipe wpa_cli wpa_supplicant $ ls /system/xbin add-property-tag btool check-lost+found dexdump dhdutil hcidump latencytop librank opcontrol oprofiled procmem procrank rawbu scp

Secure copy program. (Used to copy files over the network.)

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showmap showslab sqlite3

Used to administer SQLite databases.

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strace

System trace command - use to see what system calls a program makes.

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su

Start a shell with root privileges.