How to use Termux to run command lines and install software toolkits in clients such as Android phones

This article introduces a guide on the "Termux" Android application, which allows you to run command line programs and scripts on your Android device.

Termux is an open source terminal emulator application that can run on Android devices. It can also be used as a small Linux operating system, which contains many tools and utilities that you often see in desktop Linux distributions. You can use Termux to install and run many command line applications through its own package manager. No root access is required to install and run Termux on Android. You can even use a lightweight desktop environment GUI without hardware acceleration through Termux (via VNC), but they can be slow and not fully usable on small screen touch devices. Termux is very popular among developers and other users who want to access CLI Linux applications on Android.

Example

You can use Termux to do the following:

• Run Python script
• Run Bash script
• Play command line games
• Access Vi editor
• Establish SSH connection
• Create Python virtualenv
• You can develop applications without GUI access
• Install other packages using pip, npm, cpan, gem, tlmgr and other such package managers
• Basically, the installed package allows you to perform all operations through its command line interface

Install Termux on Android

You can download and install Termux via Google Play or F-Droid. Start Termux through the launcher, and then the following interface will appear:

Enable storage access on Termux

To access files in the Termux terminal or save files from the Termux terminal, you first need to set up Termux storage and provide access to Termux storage when prompted. You can do this by executing the following command:

$ termux-setup-storage

After completing the storage settings, you will be able to find the Termux file in the "shared" folder stored inside the Android device. If the "shared" folder does not exist, you can create one manually. Usually, the full path of this "shared" folder is "/storage/emulated/0/shared".

Install and manage official Termux packages

After installing Termux, run the following commands to update and upgrade the repository:

$ pkg upgrade

Now you can install the required packages using the following command:

$ pkg install <[package_name]>

After installation, you will be able to run commands for installed packages in the Termux terminal (just like on desktop Linux OS). You can get a list of installable Termux packages here. You can also search and find packages in Termux itself. To do this, run the command in the following format:

$ pkg search [search_term]

You can also use the following command to list all packages:

$ pkg list-all

Install Deb package in Termux

You can install certain ".deb" packages from Ubuntu or Debian repositories, as long as they are made for the architecture of your mobile device (nowadays, most mobile devices have arch64 and arch32 architectures). Please note that some software packages may refuse to run on Termux. To install the ".deb" package, run the command in the following format:

$ dpkg -i [deb_package_name]

To remove the manually installed ".deb" package in Termux, run the command in the following format:

$ dpkg的 --remove [deb_package_name]

To list all manually installed ".deb" packages, you will need to run the following command:

$ dpkg -l

As long as the compatibility requirements are met, any ".deb" package from any package source can be installed. As always, extra care should be taken when extracting third-party packages to prevent the installation of suspicious packages.

Enable other repositories in Termux

You can also enable other repositories in Termux to enable the installation of other packages. To find more repositories, visit this page and click on the repository whose name ends with "-packages". You will find commands to enable these repositories in their "README" file. The command to enable the additional repository is as follows:

$ pkg install [repository_name]

Here are some examples that I have tested and found to work on Termux:

$ pkg install x11-repo
$ pkg install game-repo
$ pkg install root-repo
$ pkg install stable-repo
$ pkg install science-repo

You can also enable certain third-party community repositories. You can find a list of these repositories here.

Install Termux add-on

Termux provides some useful add-ons that can be installed on Android devices through the Play Store. Some of these additional attachments are free, while others are paid. You can find a list of these add-ons here.

conclusion

Certain applications in the Play Store allow you to install and run a complete Linux environment on Android. However, some of them require root user access and are not entirely easy to use. In terms of user-friendliness, there is nothing better than Termux in the Play Store.