Managing packages

Termux does not ship every tool you will want. It gives you a package manager called pkg. Through it you install the compilers, network tools and editors you need. This lesson shows how to refresh the package list and search for software. It also shows how to install and remove it, and where all of it lands on the disk.

What you'll be able to do

Refresh and upgrade your installed packages with pkg update and pkg upgrade.
Search for a package and install one or several at once.
Remove a package you no longer need.
Find where Termux keeps its binaries and configuration under $PREFIX.
Share your phone's storage with Termux using termux-setup-storage.

Step 1: Refresh the package list

Before you install anything, ask pkg to fetch the latest list of available packages. This updates the index, not the packages themselves.

pkg update

Hit:1 https://packages.termux.dev/apt/termux-main stable InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

Run this first whenever you are about to install something. An out-of-date index can point at versions that no longer exist.

Step 2: Upgrade installed packages

pkg upgrade compares the versions you have against the index and installs newer ones. Answer y when it asks to confirm.

pkg upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

If packages were out of date, the last line would instead list how many are being upgraded. On a fresh install it often reports that nothing needs changing.

Update, then upgrade

Run pkg update before pkg upgrade. The update refreshes the list and the upgrade uses that list to decide what to install.

Step 3: Search for a package

If you are not sure of a package's exact name, search for it. pkg search matches your text against package names and their descriptions.

pkg search python

Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
python/stable 3.12.7 aarch64
  Python 3 programming language

python-pip/stable 24.2 all
  Python package manager

Each hit shows the package name, its version and architecture, then a short description on the next line.

Step 4: Install a package

Give pkg install the name you found. It downloads the package and its dependencies, then unpacks them.

pkg install git

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  git
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 5.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 21.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://packages.termux.dev/apt/termux-main stable/main aarch64 git aarch64 1:2.45.2 [5,204 kB]
Fetched 5.2 MB in 3s (1734 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package git.
Unpacking git (1:2.45.2) ...
Setting up git (1:2.45.2) ...

The last line, Setting up, means the install finished. You can confirm the tool is on your path by asking for its version.

git --version

git version 2.45.2

Step 5: Install several packages at once

You can pass more than one name to a single pkg install call. This is faster than running the command over and over, because the list is read once.

pkg install curl wget tree

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  curl tree wget
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Setting up curl (8.8.0) ...
Setting up wget (1.24.5) ...
Setting up tree (2.1.1) ...

Dependencies are pulled in automatically, so you only name the tools you actually want.

Step 6: List what is installed

pkg list-installed prints every package on the system. Pipe it through grep to check for one name.

pkg list-installed | grep git

git/stable,now 1:2.45.2 aarch64 [installed]

Each line names the package, the version, the architecture, and the word installed.

Listing packages is a security habit

Every so often, list your installed packages and read the names. A tool you did not install is a reason to investigate. Attackers who gain a foothold on a machine often add a small package or replace an existing one, and the package list is one of the quickest places to spot it.

Step 7: Remove a package

When you are done with a tool, remove it with pkg uninstall. Your own files are left alone. Only the package is removed.

pkg uninstall wget

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  wget
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Removing wget (1.24.5) ...

pkg remove is an accepted alias for pkg uninstall.

Step 8: Find where Termux keeps its files

Termux installs everything into a private prefix rather than the usual system directories. The location is stored in the $PREFIX variable. Print it.

echo $PREFIX

/data/data/com.termux/files/usr

List that directory and you will see the standard layout of a Linux install.

ls $PREFIX

bin  etc  include  lib  libexec  share  tmp  var

bin holds the programs you run, such as git and curl.
etc holds configuration files.
lib holds shared libraries.
var holds variable data such as caches and logs.

ls $PREFIX/bin | head -n 3

apt
bash
cat

Read before you edit

Anything under $PREFIX/etc is a configuration file. Back up a file before you change it, so you can restore the original if the tool stops working.

Termux cannot read your photos and downloads by default. Android keeps app storage separate. The termux-setup-storage command asks Android for permission and creates links to the shared areas.

termux-setup-storage

Android shows a permission dialog. Allow it, and a storage folder appears in your home directory.

ls ~/storage

dcim  downloads  movies  music  pictures  shared

The shared link points at your phone's main storage. Confirm where it leads with readlink.

readlink ~/storage/shared

/storage/emulated/0

So ~/storage/shared is the same place as your phone's internal storage. ~/storage/downloads is your Downloads folder.

Quick reference

Command	What it does
`pkg update`	Refresh the list of available packages
`pkg upgrade`	Install newer versions of installed packages
`pkg search TERM`	Search package names and descriptions
`pkg install NAME`	Install a package and its dependencies
`pkg install A B C`	Install several packages in one call
`pkg list-installed`	List every installed package
`pkg uninstall NAME`	Remove a package
`echo $PREFIX`	Print the Termux install prefix
`termux-setup-storage`	Grant access to shared phone storage
`ls ~/storage`	List the linked storage folders

Next steps

File permissions to see why programs under $PREFIX/bin are marked executable.
Networking basics to put curl, wget and nmap to work after you install them.
Encoding and hashes to verify a file you downloaded before you trust it.

What you'll be able to do

Step 1: Refresh the package list

Step 2: Upgrade installed packages

Step 3: Search for a package

Step 4: Install a package

Step 5: Install several packages at once

Step 6: List what is installed

Step 7: Remove a package

Step 8: Find where Termux keeps its files

Step 9: Share your phone's storage

Quick reference

Next steps

Test yourself on this