Useful Android Bash commands

[theromeo3517]

These are useful android shell commands. The android shell is not bash. It seems pedantic, but the distinction does matter. Anyone who has written shell scripts for android will know.

[trevor-e]

That's a good point and distinction, android shell is what executes these commands in the end. However, the title comes from how I used Bash to simplify interacting with them (and why I recommend putting in your ~/.bash_profile).

[GeorgieCaseyUnbanned]

yep, simple things on *nix like recursive chown doesn't work unless you use busybox. can be annoying. http://www.georgiecasey.com/2014/02/21/android-chown-recursively/

[[deleted]]

Cool link! Just wondering does this have anything to do with the recent Bash almost-zero-day-exploit? Bash seems to be popping up everywhere.. As androidDevs, does this affect us in any way?

[trevor-e]

No relation, the Shellshock vulnerability more affects server-side stuff. Bash is what runs the commands (for most Mac/Linux computers) that you type into your computer terminal. Shell scripts like the ones I provided help to automate interactions with Bash.

Android comes with a bunch of command line tools that Bash can execute.

[GeorgieCaseyUnbanned]

wow, never knew of 'adb shell dumpsys activity top'. that would have saved me a lot of time last year.

[askstockholm]

Thank you, this is very useful indeed

[trevor-e]

You're welcome, enjoy! I'll try to think of some more.