Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android • Hacker News Board

Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#1

Post by fredrikfornwall » Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android
play.google.com

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#2

Post by michaelmior » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 3:14 AM UTC

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.

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#3

Post by e12e » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 3:40 AM UTC

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

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#4

Post by e12e » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 3:44 AM UTC

michaelmior wrote: post #2

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.

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

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#5

Post by fredrikfornwall » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 4:02 AM UTC

e12e wrote: post #4

michaelmior wrote: post #2

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.

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

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!

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#6

Post by fredrikfornwall » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 4:08 AM UTC

e12e wrote: post #3

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

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

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#7

Post by brillenfux » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 4:42 AM UTC

I'll leave this here http://kevinboone.net/kbox3.html. I'm using it for years now, together with Android Terminal Emulator.

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#8

Post by fredrikfornwall » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 5:08 AM UTC

brillenfux wrote: post #7

I'll leave this here http://kevinboone.net/kbox3.html . I'm using it for years now, together with Android Terminal Emulator.

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 :).

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#9

Post by eggy » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 6:35 AM UTC

fredrikfornwall wrote: post #8

brillenfux wrote: post #7

I'll leave this here http://kevinboone.net/kbox3.html . I'm using it for years now, together with Android Terminal Emulator.

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…

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

Re: Show HN: Termux – Terminal emulator and Unix environment for Android

#10

Post by fredrikfornwall » Sat, Jul 18, 2015, 7:28 AM UTC

eggy wrote: post #9

fredrikfornwall wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

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!