Android Useful utilities – Deep dive in android internals

The android system comes with some very useful utilities that we can execute programmatically. Although Android provides API wrappers for most of the utilities that somehow solved the purpose. But sometimes we are in need of some functionality whose wrapper is not available.

System/Bin

Well, this is the place where all the executables that the android system uses internally. This directory contains a bunch of executable programs that are very useful. Similarly, you can also use it for your own purpose. But keep in mind some of the utilities are not executable directly and it requires root permission.

Method 1 – Using System Terminal/Command Prompt

Open your terminal if you are using mac or linux os or command prompt if you are using windows based operating system.

1. Connect your device or start the android emulator
2. Type adb devices – This will show your connected device.
3. Type adb shell and press enter
4. You will get access to your device/emulator shell access and now you can execute shell commands directly on your android system.

Type ls on the terminal and press enter.

Now type cd system/bin and hit enter button. And now type ls and press enter. Now you will see all the executables present in the folder.

Useful Utilities

1. clear – This utility clear all the terminal text
2. date – Prints the current date-time
3. whoami – print the current user
4. uptime – shows the device uptime
5. pwd – pwd stands for the present working directory, It prints the location of the current directory
6. ip – prints the IP address. There are various switches available. Ex. IP -4 address – Print the ipv4 address
7. df – shows the disk space
8. reboot – It reboots the device
9. uname – prints the os name.
10. unzip – to unzip a file
11. screenrecord – To record screen. It takes some parameters like –size,–bit-rate, time-limit, etc
12. screencap – To capture the screenshot of the device screen.
13. pm – pm stands for the package manager, You can install any app using pm utility directly ping – To check the internet connectivity
14. am – am stands for activity manager.
15. top – The top utility shows all the processes running in the android system with their PID, user, ram, CPU. It also shows used, free, cached,Total, swap memory
16. logcat – Display all the device logs.
17. hostname – prints the hostname i.e localhost
18. kill – You can kill a process by providing PID.
19. locksettings – You can set/change/clear/verify password/pattern on your device. To set the password type – locksettings set-password test where is “test” password. Similarly to clear the old password type – locksettings clear –old test.
20. cal – Displays the calendar
21. cat – To display contents on the terminal/screen
22. bzip2 – To compress files
23. getprop – It displays all the properties.
24. setprop – You can modify properties using this utility
25. mkdir – To create a new directory
26. cp – To copy files from one to another.
27. mv – To move a file from one place to another.
28. wm – wm stands for Window Manager. You can print window size, density, scaling, rotate the screen, find folded-area, etc
29. printenv – Displays all the environment variables set by the android system.
30. tar – You can also create tar files using tar utility
31. touch – You can update file access, modification time
32. rmdir – To remove directory
33. sm – sm stands for storage manager. You can list disk/volumes, can format, mount, unmount volumes, etc.
34. service – You can list all the running services by issuing the following service list

Method 2 – Programmatically

What we just saw above same thing we can do it in a programmatic way also.

//Setting the screen password to test
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/locksettings set-password test");
BufferedReader mReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
    output = mReader.readLine();
    Log.i("Shell Output: ", "" + output);

//Get IPV4 address
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/ip -4 address");
BufferedReader mReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
    output = mReader.readLine();
    Log.i("Shell Output: ", "" + output);

// Reboot device in recovery mode
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/reboot recovery");
BufferedReader mReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
    output = mReader.readLine();
    Log.i("Shell Output: ", "" + output);

// Ping Ip address
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/ping 8.8.8.8");
BufferedReader mReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
    output = mReader.readLine();
    Log.i("Shell Output: ", "" + output);

// Get Storage Space
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/system/bin/df");
BufferedReader mReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
    output = mReader.readLine();
    Log.i("Shell Output: ", "" + output);

You can also checkout my other android articles from here