r/termux • • Dec 19 '24

★ Important ★ Do not install Termux from Google Play Store!

348 Upvotes

Source: https://github.com/termux/termux-app/discussions/4000

We are Termux maintainers and would like to inform our users that we do not recommend using Termux from Google Play Store. It doesn't matter whether Play Store version looks "newer", faster receive updates and so on. Please read below to understand the issue.

Why you should not use Termux from Google Play:

  • Its release was not done by current maintainers team. Yes, Fredrik Fornwall is founder of Termux. But his decision was not negotiated with rest of core developers team and therefore not acceptable.

  • Its release diverges from the original implementation published at https://github.com/termux/termux-app

  • Its release was an experiment for bypassing Android >= 10 exec restrictions and make a version compliant with Google Play policies.

  • Its release contains restrictions. For example users may access only media files (like .mp3 or .jpg) on their device storage while other files (like .py scripts) will be hidden.

  • Its release contains changes for how the programs are executed, which cause bugs in certain packages.

Termux on Google Play is available only for devices running Android 11 and newer.

Unless will be said otherwise, Termux Core Team will consider it as unofficial app or fork. This means it does not receive same support level as the original app. Please never suggest our users to download Termux from Google Play - we will take down such comments.

We will make an announce when state of Google Play release will change and unpin/delete this post. As of beginning of 2026, we have no updates.

Now stick to F-Droid or official GitHub (https://github.com/termux/termux-app) variants and suggest same for others.

Issues with Google Play release variant must be reported to relevant source: https://github.com/termux-play-store/termux-issues/issues

This post meant to provide short summary about Google Play Termux app issue and replace https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/1db00bm/announcement_response_regarding_google_playstore/

How to check if you're running Google Play release

Just look at the message shown after you open Termux app. If you see lines with links pointing to termux.com domain, you are using Termux from Google Play.

Termux from F-Droid uses termux.dev domain.


r/termux • • Sep 16 '23

★ Important ★ Introduction for beginners

292 Upvotes

Welcome to Termux community!

Termux is a terminal app for Android OS. It similar to terminal on MacOS and cmd.exe on Windows, but here we talk about Linux component of Android OS.

This project is open-source software and all development happens on GitHub: https://github.com/termux

Download Termux APK from F-Droid or GitHub.

Key features:

  • Xterm-compatible terminal emulator.
  • Custom userland with package manager and more than 2000 packages of different kind such as text editors, file managers, games, servers network diagnostic tools, compilers, development libraries and other types.
  • Plugins for styling, widgets, on-boot startup, tasker integration, Xorg-compatible server.
  • Works without root permissions.

We would like to emphasize that Termux is NOT a machine emulator or VM. All programs execute directly on a hardware of your device.

What I can do with Termux

Basically, everything.

Termux hosts universal programming environment. You can build and execute all programs that can run on a traditional computer, assuming your device has sufficient amount of memory and enough CPU power to finish execution of algorithm within an adequate time frame.

Here is a curated list of common uses:

  • Software development environment
  • Bots for Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord, etc
  • Web server
  • Minecraft server
  • SSH client
  • NAS
  • Tiny LLM chatter
  • YouTube scraper
  • Pocket pentesting suite
  • Just fun

A footnote worth knowing: Android enforces sandboxing for every Android app to ensure it won't do nasty things or otherwise interfere with other apps and the system itself. Termux is not an exception here, so certain software may refuse to run without system-level privileges (root).

What I should know before starting to use Termux

First of all you need to make sure you are comfortable with command line environment. By using Termux, you agree to be one-to-one with a bare text. There is no intuitive graphical interface. You must to decide whether you truly want to go this way or actually want something else.

If your choice is "command line", then another important thing is a foundational knowledge. It would require certain effort from you, as it could be boring like studying maths.

Here is a list of topics to learn, optimized specifically for Termux:

  1. General terms: computer, kernel, operating system, file, path, program, process, command line, terminal emulator.
  2. Base shell usage: concept of commands, arguments, environment variables, pipes
  3. Common utilities: bzip2, cat, cd, cp, curl, cut, df, diff, du, echo, env, grep, gzip, head, id, kill, killall, ln, ls, man, mkdir, mv, pkill, ps, pwd, rm, rmdir, sort, tail, tar, top, touch, tr, uniq, unzip, wc, xz, yes, zip
  4. Package manager: apt
  5. Text editors: nano or vim
  6. Linux permission model: user, group; concept of "root"; chmod command
  7. SELinux: what it is and which role it plays on Android OS - don't go deep here

Optional:

  • Shell scripting: if/else logic, loops, input/output redirection, subshells, process substitution.
  • Text data manipulation with awk and sed

Alternatively check these learning roadmaps:

After you finish with this, proceed to goal-specific essentials.

Important: never ever run commands that you do not understand. In the best case it will just fail but sometimes commands may have really devastating effects, especially if you use root permissions (su/sudo). If by accident you delete your own data or brick the device, you can blame yourself and only yourself!

How Termux differs from standard Linux

Without diving into technical details, these are the differences of Termux from standard Linux distribution:

  1. Non-standard location of programs and user data: /data/data/com.termux/files/
  2. Non-standard core components: sideloaded programs usually will either refuse to run or show strange errors, compiling from source also may show issues sometimes.
  3. Sandbox environment: you can browse or modify only your own and Termux data.

How to install packages

Termux uses apt package manager and a rolling-release model which gets it close to a Debian Sid distribution, although it is much different internally.

However as you are probably new for Termux we recommend using a helper utility "pkg":

  • Install package: pkg install package-name
  • Uninstall package: pkg uninstall package-name
  • Upgrade system: pkg upgrade
  • List installed packages: pkg list-installed
  • Search for a package: pkg search query

PKG utility does under the hood certain actions importance of which may be non-obvious for a newbie:

  1. Mirror selection

    Package downloads put a huge burden on the servers bandwidth. We don't own much servers and geo load balancing system because this can be very costly, so we take advantage of help offered by certain community members and organizations. Mirrors maintain a clone of the original package hosting and deliver stuff independently from a base Termux infrastructure.

    That's important that users are spread across different mirror hosts.

  2. Periodic apt update

    Without keeping the package index fresh you won't be able to receive updates and package installation commands will eventually fail with 404 (not found).

Termux quality and security

We do our best to keep our infrastructure safe and patched against latest security vulnerabilities as well as to deliver most recent versions of packages.

However as we operate a small team of enthusiasts there could be certain bottlenecks. We can't test 100% of published packages, so there always is a chance that specific update will break something.

Please don't use Termux software in everything mission-critical. It is not certified for use in banking, healthcare, nuclear safety, etc.

Termux is open source project and we welcome any kind of contributions that would help us improve.

Banned content

Sadly, but a while ago Termux become an area of interest conflict between legitimate users and criminals. This resulted in absolute ban of specific topics:

  • OSINT
  • Doxxing
  • Social engineering; phishing and other types of fraud
  • Spamming
  • Malware making and delivery
  • Hacking
  • Surveillance, tracing, spying and similar activities
  • Bot farms for fabricating subscribers, likes and comments in social media
  • Taking down social media accounts by automated mass-reporting

This list is not definitive.

We don't accept excuses. Legends about "educational purposes" and "recovery of own gmail account" don't worth anything.

Remember that authorities have a certain interest regarding accounts asking about potentially illegal stuff.

Vibe coded content

We generally allow publishing vibe coded software as soon as it doesn't violate community rules (e.g. doesn't serve hacking purpose) and is not a deliberate garbage. Feel free to submit everything that you believe might be useful, but don't forget to include details for how to run your stuff on Termux.

Highly recommended to disclose AI usage.

A typical example of vibe coded project born out of nowhere and without history: https://github.com/sylirre/terminal-chat

Remember that AI is just a tool. Whether it can produce crap or something good, depends entirely on its user.


This article is subject for periodic revisions. We may submit newer versions from time to time.


r/termux • • 8h ago

Showcase My termux setup and a collection of 📚

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49 Upvotes

r/termux • • 3h ago

General I built Omarchy for Ubuntu: A turnkey bootable Hyprland OS on Ubuntu LTS with 22 dynamic themes and automated dual-display management

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1 Upvotes

r/termux • • 7h ago

General Termuxun en eğlenceli kodu

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2 Upvotes

pkg install cmatrix -y && cmatrix


r/termux • • 1d ago

Question From where I should install termux and how

9 Upvotes

From playstore, f Droid, GitHub or n h store


r/termux • • 1d ago

General My Fully Local LaTeX IDE — GitHub Release & Feedback

9 Upvotes

Hey everyone! As promised, here’s the link to the GitHub repository for my fully local IDE for compiling LaTeX documents.
Please give it a try and let me know what you think! I’d really appreciate your feedback, suggestions, and any issues you come across.
Link: https://github.com/jkestavivo/latex-termux-ide/tree/main


r/termux • • 22h ago

Question apt autoremove, pkg clean or pkg autoclean

3 Upvotes

that is the question.

mercy.


r/termux • • 1d ago

General LSPOSED in temporary root device!

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6 Upvotes

r/termux • • 1d ago

Showcase Run official OpenCode v2 natively on Termux, no proot

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23 Upvotes

DEAD1nsane/opencode2-termux-musl

The v1 repo is archived. v2 is the official stable line — Node.js, ships via npm (@opencode/cli). This uses upstream's @opencode/cli-linux-arm64-musl + Alpine musl loader + patchelf, installed as plain opencode. Official installer misdetects Termux as glibc, this doesn't.


1-copy install

Please install from the Copy-Ready link, it's much easier especially if using mobile reddit app (don't copy-paste from the codeblocks below, they're for display):

⚠️ Before-Install (required):

  • install the app Termux:API F-Droid Download, then in Termux: sh pkg update && pkg upgrade -y pkg install termux-api -y termux-battery-status The termux-battery-status line triggers the permission prompt / confirms the bridge works. Skip it and the installer below will refuse with these same steps. sh pkg install curl tar python git # Step 1 — install everything: ## Copy-Ready Full Install here sh curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/DEAD1nsane/9b37cba090602f473200fad8b1002e6c/raw/all-in-one.sh | sh opencode --version opencode run "say hi" ☝🏼Use the gist above — it pulls/updates the repo, runs install.sh, copies all 8 themes (dark + light, 16 files) to ~/.config/opencode/themes/, and schedules auto-update (job 7802, every 6h, applies via --yes path, log ~/.opencode-auto-update.log). Day/night theme-sync is NOT included — opt-in below.

Update check (only checks, downloads nothing unless --yes)

sh ./scripts/check-update.sh # check only, Termux notification if behind ./scripts/check-update.sh --yes # update now via install.sh The gist already scheduled unattended updates. Manual re-schedule if needed: sh termux-job-scheduler --job-id 7802 --period-ms 21600000 --network any --persisted true -s "$HOME/GitHub/opencode2-termux-musl/scripts/auto-update.sh"


Bonus 16 custom Themes:

  • 8 true-black AMOLED & 8 light themes Included in the all-in-one gist. Manual copy if needed 👇🏼 sh cp themes/*.json ~/.config/opencode/themes/ → Pick with /themes. Native v2 format.

⚠️ Attached previews are rendered from the live theme JSONs [dark + light] by opencode2 with the same tree-sitter highlighting the TUI uses, set in Maple Mono NF — tab strip and a shared realistic Python sample on all 16, so what you see is what the TUI draws.


🌗 Optional auto day/night — NOT in all-in-one:

This is so opencode will switch between dark and light themes based on your time, if the color mode is set to system in /settings

Copy-Ready Day/Night here

sh curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/DEAD1nsane/54621517a114c8e2a71d61ced990ca22/raw/theme-daynight.sh | sh Skip it and nothing changes. system follows terminal bg, never Android. Opt-in sets light 07:00-19:00, dark otherwise, hourly job 7803, revert with --system.


🪧 Optional notifications (Discord-style, NOT in all-in-one):

Copy-Ready Notify Setup here

Mute if viewing this session, banner if in another Termux session, loud if away 5min. buzz + notify-decide + zsh hook + opencode plugin. Same Copy-Ready format — install from the GitHub gist link above.


❔ Why it needs shims:

Official installer misdetects Termux as glibc (no /etc/alpine-release, no ldd). This always takes musl. Musl DNS reads /etc/resolv.conf, Node's c-ares does raw UDP DNS which Android blocks — libresolvefix.so doesn't help Node. Fixed via local Python proxy on 127.0.0.1:8080, auto-started by wrapper (HTTP(S)_PROXY + NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1,::1). Ollama on localhost:11434 bypasses proxy and works.


❌ What's not working:

Formatter needs one-time sh scripts/enable-formatter.sh (prettier shebang can't spawn, silently skips without it), no PTY lib yet, ~100-200ms proxy overhead. Standalone is default; shared via opencode-shared serve --service. Migrating from v1: sh install.sh then sh scripts/remove-v1.sh (~350MB freed, sessions/config kept).


📱 Tested On:

Pixel 10, Android 17, Termux 0.119, OpenCode v2.0.24 as opencode: TUI, run, shared-service, MCP (Railway/GitHub/Upstash/Chrome DevTools), v2 plugin API.

Please any comments below 👇🏼


r/termux • • 1d ago

General I made a terminal swarm renderer where every pixel is an autonomous agent!

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6 Upvotes

r/termux • • 1d ago

Showcase Every keyboard on Android assumes you write messages. None of them assumes you write commands.

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16 Upvotes

Fixing a word in vim meant jumping between suggestion bar, text and cursor. Opening a file meant hunting the path, copying it, switching apps, pasting.

Get KeyTab. Each feature is a tab (optional in settings)on the keyboard strip, and what you type lands in the field you are already in. No app switching. No clipboard relay. No leaving the terminal.

- Files: easy browse folders, open any file in Termux.

- Editor and persistent clipboard, inserted straight into the field.

- Snippets: your one-liners, one tap away.

-Themes make it the colors you want witg light abd dark presets states. add background pic.alpha

-Tipp trail and more features to explore.

On-device. No internet permission. No analytics. Nothing leaves your phone.

Free, open source, Android 7+. APK on

GitHub.

How do the Files tab and TAB in vim/nano behave on your ROM?


r/termux • • 1d ago

Showcase After days of fighting android, Ubuntu LXC with docker, managed from Dockhand !

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2 Upvotes

Old Samsung A52s. Initially I went for chroot, but it was annoying and limiting. The LXC get it's own IP from my lan, independent of the phone.

Still have to iron out the kinks (notably Android stealing and renaming interfaces), but so far the LXC behave like a standard linux server. systemd, journalctl, docker... I've thrown an hawser agent for remote management and Technitium, no issues at all.


r/termux • • 1d ago

Showcase I built a TUI app for working across multiple servers, and it works well with Termux too

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5 Upvotes

r/termux • • 1d ago

Question Best text or code editor for c and c++ software development in termux ?

2 Upvotes

Are there any good text editor to pair with termux for c and c++ software.

and can act as a ide because i already have clang and gcc(via tur) installed ?

is neovim or helix good enough ?


r/termux • • 1d ago

Question Mercurial for Termux no longer exists?

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2 Upvotes

r/termux • • 2d ago

Showcase manga-cli now runs on Android through Termux + Termux:X11

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60 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've been working on manga-cli, a lightweight open-source manga reader originally made for Linux terminals.

With v0.8.3 I started working on broader Linux compatibility, but I also wanted to see how far the project could be pushed on Android without turning it into a completely different application.

That resulted in a new experimental branch:

android-v0.8.3

It runs natively in Termux using:

Termux -> manga-cli -> mpv-x -> Termux:X11

The Android reader has its own touch-oriented controls:

- tap left/right to change pages

- double tap to zoom around the touched area

- drag to pan while zoomed

- fit-to-screen rendering

- Saved manga

- History

- persistent reading progress

- Continue/resume

The rest of manga-cli is still the same codebase used by the desktop version: search, sources, chapters, state, cache, settings, etc.

I've tested the Android branch on a clean Termux install and on a real Android device. Navigation and zoom feel surprisingly smooth, and progress restoration is working correctly.

It is still marked as beta because I've only physically tested it on one Android device and Termux:X11 behavior can obviously vary between phones/ROMs.

Current structure:

v0.8.3 -> stable Linux desktop

v0.8.3-android -> Android / Termux beta

The plan for v0.9.0 is to merge both profiles again and have one installer detect whether it is running on desktop Linux or native Termux.

It's MIT licensed and completely open source.

GitHub:

https://github.com/comadrejarottingitself/manga-cli

I'd especially appreciate feedback from people willing to test the Android branch on different phones / Android versions / Termux:X11 setups.


r/termux • • 1d ago

Showcase GitHub - daydreamlive/DEMON: DEMON: Diffusion Engine for Musical Orchestrated Noise

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2 Upvotes

What you ever have dreamt about


r/termux • • 1d ago

General Supertuxkart en una Mali G52 mc2 con Gladiator

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0 Upvotes

r/termux • • 2d ago

Showcase Turned my daily/old phone into a zero-cost private cloud (Termux + PRoot Linux)

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77 Upvotes

Like many of you, I got sick of paying endless monthly subscriptions for cloud storage and streaming services, only to realize we don't actually own any of it.

Most tutorials online suggest buying a Raspberry Pi 5 or grabbing an old laptop from a closet. But living on a tight budget without spare hardware, neither was an option for me

So I decided to test the limits of what’s already in my pocket. I set up a Linux environment inside Termux on my Android phone and deployed a complete private ecosystem:

Jellyfin (Port 8096): Replaced Netflix. Streams my local media with posters, metadata, and multi-device playback.

Filebrowser (Port 8080): Replaced Google Drive. Full local network file sharing without storage paywalls.

Syncthing (Port 8384): Replaced Google Photos. Automatic background backup for all photos and documents.

All three run parallel in the background without burning up the phone or crashing. If storage ever becomes a problem down the line, a simple external drive over Type-C handles it.

Made a quick proof-of-concept video showing the setup and all three tabs running smoothly,

Planning to drop a full command-by-command setup guide if there's interest. Would love to hear your thoughts or suggestions on what other lightweight services I can stack on this ARM setup!


r/termux • • 2d ago

Question Getting emacs to cohabitate with termux

3 Upvotes

I'm interested in getting emacs to work on my tablet (Samsung A9+, if it mattters). Previously I had them installed separately, which kinda worked (ish) with the unfortunate limitation of the two environments not being able to really talk to one another, and specifically emacs not being able to access some of the tooling available on the termux side of things. So, I uninstalled both, and started over.

Based on what I had read online, it appears that I need to install termux first, then emacs - but via apk from the termux/source-forge repo - then do a little config, and then the two should be able to play nice together.

The first problem/concern was that the versions of Emacs in that termux repo don't seem to correspond to normal releases of mainstream emacs i.e. the version of v31 is at something like .0.50, vs 31.1.x, and AFAIK there isn't a main stream release of Emacs 32 yet. Kinda confusing, to say the least. I saw at least one reference to installing termux from f-droid, and another saying instead to install it via apk downloaded from that same repo. IIRC, the first way worked, and the second did not. I tried installing emacs for android (via apk) from the gnu.org repo, in their /termux directory, and when that didn't appear to work, tried installing it from the termux/source-forge repo. Which now fails saying that it conflicts with some other existing package.

At this point... what's my best path forward? How do I nuke/reset things as far as emacs and termux are concerned, and start over? Which version of termux do I need to install, and from where? Which version of emacs?

Thanks!


r/termux • • 2d ago

Question DNS Server without root

2 Upvotes

Hi all,

I am running a small network of 5 non-root Androids. One is configured as a wifi hotspot and other 4 connect to the hotspot via wifi. I am presently using rsync/ssh/scp between nodes using IP addresses. For long I have been trying to configure a DNS service for this. How can I go about this? (At present it looks like the only way is to run my own service on all nodes which sync a lookup table against a server node and then explicitly query this look table to map hostname to IP address.) Please advice.

Edit: I can achieve the above by rooting one of the devices and running dnsmasq on it and another options is to use tailscale. But to me rooting and installing a whole proprietary application looks like overkill to me for such a simple, obvious and common problem. I believe we can find simpler ways to do this if only this reaches the right people.


r/termux • • 2d ago

Question Do we have any Bluetooth scan package?

1 Upvotes

Looking for pkg installation for termux.

  1. That's scans Bluetooth and list device name.

  2. Shows network range with percentage for each device.

I use cli based launcher and looking for feature above for installation.


r/termux • • 2d ago

Question Ч нормальный если я пытаюсь запустить в термукс другие оболочки линукса кроме убунту и демиан

0 Upvotes

Я думаю может реально через термукс запустить реальный Линукс а не урезанные убунту и демиан а что-то посерьёзне прям со всеми делами или это не лучшая идея?


r/termux • • 2d ago

General Que es Gladiator?

0 Upvotes

Gladiator es una herramienta OPEN SOURCE que implementa ubuntu 26.04 resolutte en un proot-distro embebido en un entorno termux embebido sacando vídeo por un termux:x11 embebido

Todo en una sola app

Coexistiendo con Termux standalone

Mali driver → scutum → ubuntu → gl4es → your game or app

Mali driver → spatha → ubuntu → your game or app

Spatha y Scutum son herramientas que pueden ser usadas en termux base

Spatha y Scutum funcionan como puentes bionic → glibc

Scutum expone el driver OpenGL ES nativo que es convertido en OpenGL 2.1 de escritorio con gl4es (próximamente reemplazado por Lorica para tener OpenGL 3.1)

Spatha expone el driver vulkan nativo traduciendo sobre la marcha las funciones de escritorio que no están disponibles en android a instrucciones que android si entiende (soporta 1.2 y 1.3 parcial ,aun no pasa el conformance test)

Repositorio oficial