Awesome
Termux application
Termux is an Android terminal application and Linux environment.
Note that this repository is for the app itself (the user interface and the terminal emulation). For the packages installable inside the app, see termux/termux-packages.
Quick how-to about Termux package management is available at Package Management. It also has info on how to fix repository is under maintenance or down
errors when running apt
or pkg
commands.
We are looking for Termux Android application maintainers.
NOTICE: Termux may be unstable on Android 12+. Android OS will kill any (phantom) processes greater than 32 (limit is for all apps combined) and also kill any processes using excessive CPU. You may get [Process completed (signal 9) - press Enter]
message in the terminal without actually exiting the shell process yourself. Check the related issue #2366, issue tracker, phantom cached and empty processes docs and this TLDR comment on how to disable trimming of phantom and excessive cpu usage processes. A proper docs page will be added later. An option to disable the killing should be available in Android 12L or 13, so upgrade at your own risk if you are on Android 11, specially if you are not rooted.
Contents
- Termux App and Plugins
- Installation
- Uninstallation
- Important Links
- Debugging
- For Maintainers and Contributors
- Forking
Termux App and Plugins
The core Termux app comes with the following optional plugin apps.
Installation
Latest version is v0.118.0
.
NOTICE: It is highly recommended that you update to v0.118.0
or higher ASAP for various bug fixes, including a critical world-readable vulnerability reported here. See below for information regarding Termux on Google Play.
Termux can be obtained through various sources listed below for only Android >= 7
with full support for apps and packages.
Support for both app and packages was dropped for Android 5
and 6
on 2020-01-01 at v0.83
, however it was re-added just for the app without any support for package updates on 2022-05-24 via the GitHub sources. Check here for the details.
The APK files of different sources are signed with different signature keys. The Termux
app and all its plugins use the same sharedUserId
com.termux
and so all their APKs installed on a device must have been signed with the same signature key to work together and so they must all be installed from the same source. Do not attempt to mix them together, i.e do not try to install an app or plugin from F-Droid
and another one from a different source like GitHub
. Android Package Manager will also normally not allow installation of APKs with different signatures and you will get errors on installation like App not installed
, Failed to install due to an unknown error
, INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE
, INSTALL_FAILED_SHARED_USER_INCOMPATIBLE
, signatures do not match previously installed version
, etc. This restriction can be bypassed with root or with custom roms.
If you wish to install from a different source, then you must uninstall any and all existing Termux or its plugin app APKs from your device first, then install all new APKs from the same new source. Check Uninstallation section for details. You may also want to consider Backing up Termux before the uninstallation so that you can restore it after re-installing from Termux different source.
In the following paragraphs, "bootstrap" refers to the minimal packages that are shipped with the termux-app
itself to start a working shell environment. Its zips are built and released here.
F-Droid
Termux application can be obtained from F-Droid
from here.
You do not need to download the F-Droid
app (via the Download F-Droid
link) to install Termux. You can download the Termux APK directly from the site by clicking the Download APK
link at the bottom of each version section.
It usually takes a few days (or even a week or more) for updates to be available on F-Droid
once an update has been released on GitHub
. The F-Droid
releases are built and published by F-Droid
once they detect a new GitHub
release. The Termux maintainers do not have any control over the building and publishing of the Termux apps on F-Droid
. Moreover, the Termux maintainers also do not have access to the APK signing keys of F-Droid
releases, so we cannot release an APK ourselves on GitHub
that would be compatible with F-Droid
releases.
The F-Droid
app often may not notify you of updates and you will manually have to do a pull down swipe action in the Updates
tab of the app for it to check updates. Make sure battery optimizations are disabled for the app, check https://dontkillmyapp.com/ for details on how to do that.
Only a universal APK is released, which will work on all supported architectures. The APK and bootstrap installation size will be ~180MB
. F-Droid
does not support architecture specific APKs.
GitHub
Termux application can be obtained on GitHub
either from GitHub Releases
for version >= 0.118.0
or from GitHub Build Action
workflows. For android >= 7
, only install apt-android-7
variants. For android 5
and 6
, only install apt-android-5
variants.
The APKs for GitHub Releases
will be listed under Assets
drop-down of a release. These are automatically attached when a new version is released.
The APKs for GitHub Build
action workflows will be listed under Artifacts
section of a workflow run. These are created for each commit/push done to the repository and can be used by users who don't want to wait for releases and want to try out the latest features immediately or want to test their pull requests. Note that for action workflows, you need to be logged into a GitHub
account for the Artifacts
links to be enabled/clickable. If you are using the GitHub
app, then make sure to open workflow link in a browser like Chrome or Firefox that has your GitHub account logged in since the in-app browser may not be logged in.
The APKs for both of these are debuggable
and are compatible with each other but they are not compatible with other sources.
Both universal and architecture specific APKs are released. The APK and bootstrap installation size will be ~180MB
if using universal and ~120MB
if using architecture specific. Check here for details.
Security warning: APK files on GitHub are signed with a test key that has been shared with community. This IS NOT an official developer key and everyone can use it to generate releases for own testing. Be very careful when using Termux GitHub builds obtained elsewhere except https://github.com/termux/termux-app. Everyone is able to use it to forge a malicious Termux update installable over the GitHub build. Think twice about installing Termux builds distributed via Telegram or other social media. If your device get caught by malware, we will not be able to help you.
The test key shall not be used to impersonate @termux and can't be used for this anyway. This key is not trusted by us and it is quite easy to detect its use in user generated content.
<details> <summary>Keystore information</summary>Alias name: alias
Creation date: Oct 4, 2019
Entry type: PrivateKeyEntry
Certificate chain length: 1
Certificate[1]:
Owner: CN=APK Signer, OU=Earth, O=Earth
Issuer: CN=APK Signer, OU=Earth, O=Earth
Serial number: 29be297b
Valid from: Wed Sep 04 02:03:24 EEST 2019 until: Tue Oct 26 02:03:24 EEST 2049
Certificate fingerprints:
SHA1: 51:79:55:EA:BF:69:FC:05:7C:41:C7:D3:79:DB:BC:EF:20:AD:85:F2
SHA256: B6:DA:01:48:0E:EF:D5:FB:F2:CD:37:71:B8:D1:02:1E:C7:91:30:4B:DD:6C:4B:F4:1D:3F:AA:BA:D4:8E:E5:E1
Signature algorithm name: SHA1withRSA (disabled)
Subject Public Key Algorithm: 2048-bit RSA key
Version: 3
</details>
Google Play Store (Experimental branch)
There is currently a build of Termux available on Google Play for Android 11+ devices, with extensive adjustments in order to pass policy requirements there. This is under development and has missing functionality and bugs (see here for status updates) compared to the stable F-Droid build, which is why most users who can should still use F-Droid or GitHub build as mentioned above.
Currently, Google Play will try to update installations away from F-Droid ones. Updating will still fail as sharedUserId has been removed. A planned 0.118.1 F-Droid release will fix this by setting a higher version code than used for the PlayStore app. Meanwhile, to prevent Google Play from attempting to download and then fail to install the Google Play releases over existing installations, you can open the Termux apps pages on Google Play and then click on the 3 dots options button in the top right and then disable the Enable auto update toggle. However, the Termux apps updates will still show in the PlayStore app updates list.
If you want to help out with testing the Google Play build (or cannot install Termux from other sources), be aware that it's built from a separate repository (https://github.com/termux-play-store/) - be sure to report issues there, as any issues encountered might very well be specific to that repository.
Uninstallation
Uninstallation may be required if a user doesn't want Termux installed in their device anymore or is switching to a different install source. You may also want to consider Backing up Termux before the uninstallation.
To uninstall Termux completely, you must uninstall any and all existing Termux or its plugin app APKs listed in Termux App and Plugins.
Go to Android Settings
-> Applications
and then look for those apps. You can also use the search feature if it’s available on your device and search termux
in the applications list.
Even if you think you have not installed any of the plugins, it's strongly suggested to go through the application list in Android settings and double-check.
Important Links
Community
All community links are available here.
The main ones are the following.
- Termux Reddit community
- Termux User Matrix Channel (Gitter)
- Termux Dev Matrix Channel (Gitter)
- Termux X (Twitter)
- Termux Support Email
Wikis
Miscellaneous
- FAQ
- Termux File System Layout
- Differences From Linux
- Package Management
- Remote Access
- Backing up Termux
- Terminal Settings
- Touch Keyboard
- Android Storage and Sharing Data with Other Apps
- Android APIs
- Moved Termux Packages Hosting From Bintray to IPFS
- Running Commands in Termux From Other Apps via
RUN_COMMAND
intent - Termux and Android 10
Terminal
<details> <summary></summary>Terminal resources
Terminal emulators
-
VTE (libvte): Terminal emulator widget for GTK+, mainly used in gnome-terminal. Source, Open Issues, and All (including closed) issues.
-
iTerm 2: OS X terminal application. Source, Issues and Documentation (which includes iTerm2 proprietary escape codes).
-
Konsole: KDE terminal application. Source, in particular tests, Bugs and Wishes.
-
hterm: JavaScript terminal implementation from Chromium. Source, including tests, and Google group.
-
xterm: The grandfather of terminal emulators. Source.
-
Connectbot: Android SSH client. Source
-
Android Terminal Emulator: Android terminal app which Termux terminal handling is based on. Inactive. Source.
Debugging
You can help debug problems of the Termux
app and its plugins by setting appropriate logcat
Log Level
in Termux
app settings -> <APP_NAME>
-> Debugging
-> Log Level
(Requires Termux
app version >= 0.118.0
). The Log Level
defaults to Normal
and log level Verbose
currently logs additional information. Its best to revert log level to Normal
after you have finished debugging since private data may otherwise be passed to logcat
during normal operation and moreover, additional logging increases execution time.
The plugin apps do not execute the commands themselves but send execution intents to Termux
app, which has its own log level which can be set in Termux
app settings -> Termux
-> Debugging
-> Log Level
. So you must set log level for both Termux
and the respective plugin app settings to get all the info.
Once log levels have been set, you can run the logcat
command in Termux
app terminal to view the logs in realtime (Ctrl+c
to stop) or use logcat -d > logcat.txt
to take a dump of the log. You can also view the logs from a PC over ADB
. For more information, check official android logcat
guide here.
Moreover, users can generate termux files stat
info and logcat
dump automatically too with terminal's long hold options menu More
-> Report Issue
option and selecting YES
in the prompt shown to add debug info. This can be helpful for reporting and debugging other issues. If the report generated is too large, then Save To File
option in context menu (3 dots on top right) of ReportActivity
can be used and the file viewed/shared instead.
Users must post complete report (optionally without sensitive info) when reporting issues. Issues opened with (partial) screenshots of error reports instead of text will likely be automatically closed/deleted.
Log Levels
Off
- Log nothing.Normal
- Start logging error, warn and info messages and stacktraces.Debug
- Start logging debug messages.Verbose
- Start logging verbose messages.
For Maintainers and Contributors
The termux-shared library was added in v0.109
. It defines shared constants and utils of the Termux app and its plugins. It was created to allow for the removal of all hardcoded paths in the Termux app. Some of the termux plugins are using this as well and rest will in future. If you are contributing code that is using a constant or a util that may be shared, then define it in termux-shared
library if it currently doesn't exist and reference it from there. Update the relevant changelogs as well. Pull requests using hardcoded values will/should not be accepted. Termux app and plugin specific classes must be added under com.termux.shared.termux
package and general classes outside it. The termux-shared
LICENSE
must also be checked and updated if necessary when contributing code. The licenses of any external library or code must be honoured.
The main Termux constants are defined by TermuxConstants
class. It also contains information on how to fork Termux or build it with your own package name. Changing the package name will require building the bootstrap zip packages and other packages with the new $PREFIX
, check Building Packages for more info.
Check Termux Libraries for how to import termux libraries in plugin apps and Forking and Local Development for how to update termux libraries for plugins.
The versionName
in build.gradle
files of Termux and its plugin apps must follow the semantic version 2.0.0
spec in the format major.minor.patch(-prerelease)(+buildmetadata)
. When bumping versionName
in build.gradle
files and when creating a tag for new releases on GitHub, make sure to include the patch number as well, like v0.1.0
instead of just v0.1
. The build.gradle
files and attach_debug_apks_to_release
workflow validates the version as well and the build/attachment will fail if versionName
does not follow the spec.
Commit Messages Guidelines
Commit messages must use the Conventional Commits spec so that chagelogs as per the Keep a Changelog spec can automatically be generated by the create-conventional-changelog
script, check its repo for further details on the spec. The first letter for type
and description
must be capital and description should be in the present tense. The space after the colon :
is necessary. For a breaking change, add an exclamation mark !
before the colon :
, so that it is highlighted in the chagelog automatically.
<type>[optional scope]: <description>
[optional body]
[optional footer(s)]
Only the types
listed below must be used exactly as they are used in the changelog headings. For example, Added: Add foo
, Added|Fixed: Add foo and fix bar
, Changed!: Change baz as a breaking change
, etc. You can optionally add a scope as well, like Fixed(terminal): Fix some bug
. Do not use anything else as type, like add
instead of Added
, etc.
- Added for new features.
- Changed for changes in existing functionality.
- Deprecated for soon-to-be removed features.
- Removed for now removed features.
- Fixed for any bug fixes.
- Security in case of vulnerabilities.
Forking
- Check
TermuxConstants
javadocs for instructions on what changes to make in the app to change package name. - You also need to recompile bootstrap zip for the new package name. Check building bootstrap, here and here.
- Currently, not all plugins use
TermuxConstants
fromtermux-shared
library and have hardcodedcom.termux
values and will need to be manually patched. - If forking termux plugins, check Forking and Local Development for info on how to use termux libraries for plugins.