Improve the shell in Android

One thing sorely lacking from the default Android shell is command history.  Here is a trick to enhance the Android shell:

1. Remount /system in read/write mode to allow changes:
mount -o remount,rw /system

2. Edit /etc/profile. Mine contains:

export PATH=/data/bin:$PATH
HOME=/sdcard
HISTFILE=~/.bash_history
use_color=true
alias ls='busybox ls --color=auto'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'

alias mv='mv -i'
# Set up a ton of aliases to cover toolbox with the nice busybox

# equivalents of its commands

for i in cat chmod chown df insmod ln lsmod mkdir mount mv rm rmdir rmmod umount; do

eval alias ${i}=\"busybox ${i}\"

done

unset i

alias ls='busybox ls --color=auto'

alias sysro='mount -o remount,ro /system'

alias sysrw='mount -o remount,rw /system'

Most of this was already in Cyanogenmod’s /etc/profile

3. Switch /system back to read-only:
mount -o remount,ro /system

This page had some interesting info. I was thinking of trying to get BASH as the default shell but it is not easy to do and anyhow because of its greater resource consumption may not really be advisable.

Adding /data/bin to $PATH as above is nice because you can conveniently put your own shell scripts there and it is read/write by default. Having the command history is extremely nice if you are working with the shell in Android often. The aliases sysro and sysrw are very useful also if you need to go in and hack /etc/profile again.