How to use Bash in adb (android ) instead of Shell?

Question

I'm currently using adb terminal to access my database files. However, I can only access the terminal using this:

./adb shell

I would like to switch from sh to bash as it is much more convenient for some shortcuts. How do I do that?

Do you have bash binary on your Android device?

Arkadiusz Drabczyk
– Arkadiusz Drabczyk

2017-12-29 08:28:24 +00:00
Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 8:28 — Arkadiusz Drabczyk
– Arkadiusz Drabczyk, Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 8:28

pankaj mishra · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-29 08:31:37Z

1

i dont think adb have bash options , if you type adb help , you will see options for shell and not for bash

shell:
 shell [-e ESCAPE] [-n] [-Tt] [-x] [COMMAND...]
     run remote shell command (interactive shell if no command given)
     -e: choose escape character, or "none"; default '~'
     -n: don't read from stdin
     -T: disable PTY allocation
     -t: force PTY allocation
     -x: disable remote exit codes and stdout/stderr separation
 emu COMMAND              run emulator console command

May be if you can share, what specific difficulties you are facing in running the shortcut or command

However if you still wanted to use adb with bash , you can have a look on below link

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/19315/how-to-set-bash-as-default-shell

answered Dec 29, 2017 at 8:31

pankaj mishra

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1 Comment

HippoMan Aug 23 at 22:09

That post is extremely outdated and obsolete, and it is totally invalid now for modern Android versions.

Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-03 05:39:09Z

1

Answered here

Found the proper & simple way from a Linux box:

adb shell -t bash -i

You logon directly via bash in interactive way.

To not having to remember this command all the times, I personally use an alias, simply add this to your ~/.bashrc on Linux box:

alias adb_shell='adb shell -t bash -i'
source ~/.bashrc

Then all is configured, simply run

adb_shell

and enjoy all bash features like tab completion and anything. \o/

answered Jan 3, 2021 at 5:39

Gilles Quénot

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2 Comments

HippoMan Aug 23 at 22:07

This only works if the bash executable on the Android device is installed somewhere outside of Termux. On my Android 14 and Android 15 devices, the only bash executable is installed under Termux and is inaccessible via "adb shell" unless "su -" is run first. Needing to run as root simply to invoke bash under "adb shell" is totally undesirable for me and lots of other Android users.

1NC4NDESCENCE Nov 14 at 15:36

You can simply get a statically linked bash and push it to /data/local/tmp and use that without root.

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