TE commands

[drpaul07]

I have used Terminal Emulator to mess with compcache (start, stop, check if its running), and I have read about using it to clear dalvik cache.

I'm just wondering if someone can list the common commands and what they mean? Also, what are other common things you guys use Terminal Emulator for?

[drpaul07]

How come when people ask a simple question that has been answered a million times and can easily be found by searching the forum, everyone answers them, but when i ask something a little more challenging, no one answers?

Is it something that is difficult to explain? Or would the answer be too challenging for me to understand? Is it just something I should just figure out on my own? Don't mean to sound rude or anything, I was just curious.

[cupfulloflol]

Linux Commands on Android <-- is a good place to start I guess.

[Se7enLC]

How come when people ask a simple question that has been answered a million times and can easily be found by searching the forum, everyone answers them, but when i ask something a little more challenging, no one answers?

Is it something that is difficult to explain? Or would the answer be too challenging for me to understand? Is it just something I should just figure out on my own? Don't mean to sound rude or anything, I was just curious.

It's not that it's a little more challenging a question - it's just too open-ended :-P And the subject is kind of vague, too. If you said "what's the command that does XYZ?" it probably would have been answered right away (and more people would click on it).

So to answer the question - there are a TON of commands, most are the same as their linux counterparts. A good place to start is a general how-to on linux, and then you'll be surprised to see that a fair number of standard linux commands are already in android (or come with busybox). And if there are particular things you're looking for, those are much easier questions to answer.

[takeshi]

How come when people ask a simple question that has been answered a million times and can easily be found by searching the forum, everyone answers them, but when i ask something a little more challenging, no one answers?

Give your threads time for responses (i.e. at least a day) on any forum site. Many people have threads that go either unanswered or take some time for answers so don't assume that it's just you. Additionally, it only makes sense that more challenging questions are likely to take longer to answer. Think about it -- there are far fewer people that can answer them.

Your questions are extremely vague. TE is pretty much like any other command line interface on any OS. There are many, many uses and commands.

[Se7enLC]

Additionally, it only makes sense that more challenging questions are likely to take longer to answer. Think about it -- there are far fewer people that can answer them.

And actually, I would consider myself to be one of those people well-versed in linux commandline and able to answer things about it - but the only reason I read the thread was because I thought "Huh. What on earth is TE?" and was curious. :-)

[Dave12308]

So to answer the question - there are a TON of commands, most are the same as their linux counterparts. A good place to start is a general how-to on linux, and then you'll be surprised to see that a fair number of standard linux commands are already in android (or come with busybox). And if there are particular things you're looking for, those are much easier questions to answer.

This.

To expand a little, the commands available to you will depend on a couple of things - which ROM you are running, and whether or not Busybox is installed. Some ROM devs put custom scripts into their work, these can be executed from the terminal on these ROMs but not others. And without Busybox, alot of common Linux commands are not even present (cp is one that comes to mind, without Busybox there is no cp command native in Android)

You'd be surprised just how many common Linux commands are absent from stock Android. I was quite surprised myself when I first used the stock Android terminal via ADB. Most things I tried to do, I could not.

[drpaul07]

Fair enough. Well thanks for the replies. You're probably right, I should've given the thread a little more time, and yes it is pretty open ended. i'll read up on this, learn more about it, and then i'm sure if i have more questions in the future, they'll be a little more specific. Thanks again.