Run in Any Terminal (axsh)

axsh brings AxManager's shell or root access to any terminal app, such as Termux, with nothing to install in that app. It takes the same arguments as sh, and in a real terminal you get a full interactive session: prompt, line editing, colors, vi, top.

• Set it up
  • The launcher
• Terminal mode
• How it connects
• Permission
• Messages
• For app developers

Set it up

Open QuickShell → Shell settings → Run in any terminal. The card has two commands; tap one to copy it.

Command	Use
sh /sdcard/axeron/axsh	Run it from any terminal that can read your storage
install -m 700 /sdcard/axeron/axsh $PREFIX/bin/axsh	Install it into Termux once; after that just type axsh

Then, for example:

axsh                # interactive shell
axsh -c 'id'        # one command
axsh script.sh      # a script file

The terminal app needs storage access to read /sdcard (in Termux: termux-setup-storage). It also needs permission in AxManager.

Why sh /sdcard/axeron/axsh

/sdcard doesn't allow running programs from it, so the launcher there is run through sh, or copied once into the terminal's own folder as the Termux command does.

The launcher

/sdcard/axeron/axsh is a small script that runs AxManager's own libaxsh.so. That file lives in AxManager's install folder, whose path changes with every update of AxManager, so:

• AxManager writes the launcher through the server and rewrites it whenever it is out of date: each time it connects to the server, and before you copy a command from the card.
• If the launcher still has an old path (for example a copy you installed into Termux before an update), it finds the current one by itself. That takes a moment the first time; nothing breaks.

The card also shows the path of libaxsh.so itself, for anyone who wants to run it directly.

Terminal mode

When both the input and the output of axsh are a terminal, the shell runs on a terminal (a PTY) on AxManager's side:

• You get a prompt, line editing, history and colors, and full-screen programs like vi, nano, top or htop work.
• Every key goes to the shell as it is: Ctrl+C stops the running command, Ctrl+D ends the session.
• Resizing the window (rotating the screen, the keyboard showing or hiding) is passed on, so programs redraw at the right size.
• Your terminal's TERM, COLORTERM, LANG and LC_* are passed on, so colors and characters display correctly. The rest of the terminal's environment is not: the shell gets AxManager's environment (Termux's PATH and LD_PRELOAD point to places the server can't use).

When axsh is used from a script, a pipe or an app (input or output is not a terminal), it runs without a terminal: what you write goes to the shell's input, its output and errors come back separately, and the exit code is axsh's exit code. Nothing passes through AxManager in between, so large outputs are as fast as running the command locally.

How it connects

axsh needs to reach AxManager's server. How depends on how the server was started:

Server	Path
Root	Directly to the server.
Shell (wireless debugging, computer, …)	Android doesn't let apps talk to a shell process directly, so axsh starts a small helper from AxManager's app inside your terminal app. The helper gets the server from AxManager and hands the session over. This adds a short delay at start.

Apps that build axsh in (see For app developers) skip the helper.

MIUI / HyperOS

In shell mode the helper asks AxManager for the server. MIUI kills apps swiped away from recents and by default blocks other apps from starting them again, so AxManager could not answer. AxManager therefore allows its own Autostart (and its home screen shortcut and background window permissions) whenever it connects to the server. If axsh still says the server is not running after you swipe AxManager away, check Autostart for AxManager in the system settings.

Permission

The terminal app (for example Termux) needs AxManager's permission, like any other app. Set it in Privilege:

Setting	What axsh does
Allowed	Starts right away.
Ask (default)	AxManager shows its permission dialog and axsh waits for your answer (up to 15 seconds). If you allow it, the session starts without running the command again. If you deny it, close the dialog or let it time out, axsh stops with a message right away.
Denied	Refused right away, without a dialog.

Changing an app from Allowed to Ask or Denied stops that app, so changing it for Termux closes Termux.

Messages

Message	Meaning
AxManager permission required: allow this app in AxManager	The terminal app is not allowed: it is set to Denied, or the dialog was denied or not answered.
AxManager server is not running	AxManager didn't hand over the server: it isn't running, or AxManager couldn't be started in the background (see the MIUI note above).
AxManager server is not reachable (…), and there is no broker to fall back on (…)	axsh found no way to the server. This happens when libaxsh.so was copied out of AxManager's folder; use the launcher instead.
axsh: can't exec app_process (…)	The shell-mode helper could not start.

For app developers

An app can use axsh the same way a terminal does:

• Run AxManager's libaxsh.so. Get its folder from PackageManager.getApplicationInfo("frb.axeron.manager", 0).nativeLibraryDir (declare frb.axeron.manager in <queries> on Android 11+) and run libaxsh.so from there, for example as a libsu shell. It is always the version that matches the installed AxManager.
• Build the axsh module in and start its broker from your Application. Then shell-mode sessions skip the helper and start faster.

Either way the app needs AxManager's permission, as above.