As a Linux user I was searching for better linux emulator for Android. As we know android runs on linux kernel, I always wondered that can I run linux commands and binaries on an Android phone. I started searching for different emulators. Finally I got a proper linux terminal emulator for Android phone. It is called "Termux".
Pic: Screen shot of "Termux" on playstore
This is an app available on Play Store and can be installed on any Android phone. The app has a feature to install packages from repository. This gives it the more potential to execute all types of linux commands and applications on it. The package support is very important for any linux distribution. I've seen lot of emulators on Android but their functionalities were limited to some very basics commands like ls, cat, cd ..etc. This made them useless as there was no proper package support. The "Termux" over comes this hurdle with best package support.
Uses and advantages of the Termux application
This application is very useful when you don't have your PC or laptop with you at the moment.
1. No ROOT required
This app doesn't need device to be rooted. So you can even run it in your current phone without rooting it.
2. You can use unzip, tar and vi and many more commands
The main utilities used in linux are available in the package. These will help you to do all functionalities like linux. Consider a situation where you have got a mail which contains "tar"ed file as an attachment. You don't have laptop with you at the moment, but it's very urgent to extract that file see the content now. At this moment the tar package comes to the rescue. You can just do "cd /mnt/sdcard", this will takes you to the phone's Internal Memory, and you can go to the path of tarred file and extarct it using "tar -xvf file.tar". This emulator is that simple. You can also edit files, write programs using vi and nano editors.
Pic: Main screen of Termux app
3. Learn Linux commands without PC and where ever you go.
For learners it's a best application. While you are travelling you can learn about linux commands and experiment using this application without literally having a linux PC. This makes this a great leaning and experimenting app.
4. Best for learning basic programming, compilation and execution on Andoid phone
The application supports packages like python, nodejs, gcc, gdb, Ruby, Perl, shell script etc. This makes it a powerful experimental programming application. You can create server and run using these things for your IOT projects also. The sqlite and mysql database will also help in this matter. You can also use git command line to commit, pull and for other operations.
Tips:
If you want to create and execute binary in the terminal, use apps path only. If you try to execute in some different path the app may not have permission to execute there. To know the app path, open app and give command "pwd" this will give the current working directory. You can compile and execute your applications here.
Pic: Creating and executing C application
5. Support for keyboard and mouse.
This app supports input from inbuilt android keyboard and also external physical keyboard and mouse. this makes typing easier and reasonable.
6. You can do SSH to other computer.
This supports you to operate the PC remotely using Secure Shell Host. The "openssh-server" package of openSSH is very helpful in this regard and Termux supports this.
The additional repositories like root, unstable and X11 also can be used. These will help you with more functionalities. There are other apps like Termux:API, Widget, Styling, Tasker. etc. The Turmux:API will expose you api to display notification and other things.
The Termux has also the community support on Reddit. If you have any question or doubt you can post it there. Working on Termux is very easier if you already familiar with linux. Also if yo are linux learner i's a great app to learn.
Important links to Consider:
App on Playstore: Click Here
Reddit Community: Click Here
Other Apps: Click Here
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Nice ganesh, it is working. Thanks fir suggesting best emulator
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it helped.
ReplyDeleteThanks for checking out this article.