linux - How to copy and edit files in Android shell?

Question

The Android shell does not have the cp command. Android shell also has no sed or grep or vi. I have no adb daemon available. There is mv command but it rejects to work if source is on a read-only device.

1. What to do if I have to copy some directories from read-only device recursively?
2. How to change a line in a text file (e.g. "PATH=/cache" to be "PATH=/mnt/asec") ?

Answer 1

To copy dirs, it seems you can use adb pull <remote> <local> if you want to copy file/dir from device, and adb push <local> <remote> to copy file/dir to device. Alternatively, just to copy a file, you can use a simple trick: cat source_file > dest_file. Note that this does not work for user-inaccessible paths.

To edit files, I have not found a simple solution, just some possible workarounds. Try this, it seems you can (after the setup) use it to edit files like busybox vi <filename>. Nano seems to be possible to use too.