In this post, I will show you how to create and manage services in Termux.
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Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app
that works directly with no rooting or setup required.
Termux uses runit as its init system.
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“runit is a cross-platform Unix init scheme with service supervision,
a replacement for sysvinit, and other init schemes.”
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pkg install termux-services
Then restart Termux so that the service-daemon is started.
Now let’s create a service,
I am going create a service for gogs (a git service).
All termux services are located at $PREFIX/var/service ($PREFIX=$HOME/../usr).
Create a folder for the service and name it as the application name. In my case that is gogs.
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mkdir $PREFIX/var/service/gogs
Then create a symbolic link with termux-logger.
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mkdir $PREFIX/var/service/gogs/log
ln -sf $PREFIX/share/termux-services/svlogger $PREFIX/service/gogs/log/run
Now write the service file for the application with the below content,
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touch $PREFIX/var/service/gogs/run
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# Gogs service for termux
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
exec gogs web 2>&1
You can get help to write runit service here.
make it executable,
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chmod +x $PREFIX/var/service/gogs/run
Now restart Termux and run,
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sv up gogs
It will work smoothly.
Here are some useful commands about termux services,
To enable service to start at boot,
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sv-enable <service>
To disable from starting at boot,
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sv-disable <service>
To start a service,
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sv up <service>
To stop a service,
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sv down <service>
Bonus Topic: Manage proot(s) in Termux
You can install multiple Linux based distributions using proot-distro ,
Lists supported distributions and their installation status,
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proot-distro list
To install a distribution,
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proot-distro install <distro name>
To login into a distribution,
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proot-distro login <distro name>
Delete a distribution from Termux,
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proot-distro remove <distro name>
To reinstall a specified distribution,
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proot-distro reset <distro name>
To backup a distribution,
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proot-distro backup <distro name>
To restore a distribution from backup,
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proot-distro restore <distro name>
This post also published on Medium.