Unix commands on Android using BusyBox

BusyBox is an utility application which executes on an embedded Linux system to provide you with a bunch of handy Unix / Linux tools. It is designed to be a small executable which makes it ideal for use with embedded devices. The application is also known as “The Swiss Army Knife” of embedded Linux. If you have a rooted Android device, this application is a must-have one. It offers some of the popular Unix tools like grep, awk, sed, etc on your Android device.

Pre-requisites

• Your device should be rooted. Check out these instructions to root your device with a single-click. Complete guide for rooting.
• Download and install the latest Android SDK from here. This comes up with all the tools needed for development and testing of your application. Make sure the driver ‘ADB interface’ is installed on your machine. In most of the cases, the driver will be installed directly once you plug-in the device.

Installation Method-1

• Connect your Android device to your PC on debug mode. Enable USB debugging on your phone. Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging.
• Download the latest version of BusyBox binaries for ARMV6l from here. Rename it to just busybox and copy to the root folder of your SD Card.
• Download the BusyBox installation script from here. Copy the same to the root folder of your SD Card. Now, you are all set to start the installation.
• On your laptop, open a command prompt and enter “adb shell”. Get into super user mode by typing su.
• Move  to the SD card where the binary and the installation script are placed. cd /sdcard.
• Execute the installation script sh ./installbusybox.sh.
• Check if the installation is complete by issuing a grep command. “getprop | grep dns”.

Installation Method-2

• If you don’t want to take the pain of downloading the binary and then the installation script, try out this method-2. This method eliminates most of the manual steps done above.
• Download and install the application “BusyBox” from Android market. This is not the actual application rather it is an installer for the BusyBox utility.
• Open the application. It will list down some of the recent versions of BusyBox utility. Select the latest one and click on install. Allow the Super user permission when asked by the installer. That is it. You are done.
• This method is quite simpler when compared to the other one. But, the installer is problematic with some of the custom ROMs.

Check out the complete list of commands supported by BusyBox here.

-- Varun