Help Decent Terminal Emulator

[SiHa]

Like the title says, I'm after a good a Terminal Emulator. I currently use ' Android Terminal Emulator' by Jack Palevich, but it's not without issues.
The two features I missed most from the Linux command line are: Cursor Up/Down to scroll through previously used commands and Tab to auto-complete paths/filenames etc.
Currently, cursor up/down just gives the usual [[A etc, and there is no Tab.

Any suggestions?

Free is preferable, as I wouldn't use it enough to justify paying, unless it's really cheap. I've noticed that a lot of the apps aimed at the rooting fraternity seem to be paid ones...

TIA,
Simon

 

[Hadron]

Press the menu key and look at "special keys". No tab, unfortunately, but cursor up/down are there.

 

[SiHa]

Press the menu key and look at "special keys". No tab, unfortunately, but cursor up/down are there.

Thanks, I can do that with the trackpad as well, but I still get the escape sequences; [[A, [[D etc. in the terminal.

Do I take this to mean the problem actually lies with the Android kernel and the way it interprets these keypresses? I mean - every Linux kernel, sorry, every other Linux kernel I've used supports this functionality.

Christ even DOS 5.0 did it!

Even Windows does it!!!

 

[SUroot]

I use terminal emulator. What I would really like is the ability to save specific commands that I use regularly, like bookmarks in a browser. I have to navigate to a text file and copy / paste.

Text files, now thats another thing that annoys me. I would like the ability to jump to the bottom of a long log, rather than have to scroll there.

Grrr and Grrrr

 

[SiHa]

I use terminal emulator. What I would really like is the ability to save specific commands that I use regularly, like bookmarks in a browser. I have to navigate to a text file and copy / paste.

Text files, now thats another thing that annoys me. I would like the ability to jump to the bottom of a long log, rather than have to scroll there.

Grrr and Grrrr

Yeah, I'll see your Grrr's and raise you a Harumph!

 

[SUroot]

Fold

 

[SiHa]

Gotcha. I was bluffing, the best I had was an "Oh FFS!"

 

[SUroot]

I had 2 "Meh" and the "jack of ambivalence". I could have won then

 

[shauny13]

See, that's why i love these forums, it's always a laugh with you guys....and we even help people out occasionally!

 

[Hadron]

Text files, now thats another thing that annoys me. I would like the ability to jump to the bottom of a long log, rather than have to scroll there.

You can print the bottom few lines of a file using the tail command, e.g.

tail -n 10 log.txt

would print the last 10 lines of the file.

I find that trackpad then 8 works fine for recalling previous commands. But I seriously miss tab completion, especially when working with a phone keypad. That's why I use adb shell if I want to seriously poke around.

 

[Hadron]

Just had a play with smart keyboard pro settings & found how to get arrow and tab keys. Unfortunately while arrows work as expected, tab doesn't complete filenames

 

[SiHa]

I find that trackpad then 8 works fine for recalling previous commands.

Well, it bloody doesn't work for me. Tried using Swype and the stock HTC keyboard, just get bloody escape codes school the time.
Tried another emulator, but that just FC'ed every time.

Gaaah!

Even more pissed off now to know it should work.

@Dan, you were talking about wanting to 'bookmark' certain commands. In the Swype or SlideIt thread it was mentioned that with SlideIt you can save phrases with short (2-3) char codes. Would this work for what you want?

 

[SUroot]

Thanks SiHa, yes probably would work but I cant bear to part with my htc mod keyboard stuck in my ways.

Like they say, hard to teach an old dog, new keyboards.

 

[SiHa]

 

[SUroot]

I know, I know. I've tried other keyboards but just didn't like them. I still miss my blackberry physical keyboard, truth be told.

 

[SiHa]

Don't think I could get on with a Blackberry with my fingers, but I know what you mean about keyboards. I've grown quite attached to Swype. I'll cry if they ever close the Beta and it stops working...

 

[SUroot]

Some blackberries arent great but the bold 9000 was ergonomically designed with odd raised parts of the keyboard. Even me, with sausage fingers could use it.

 

[Hadron]

OK, I know how to get tab completion - found it in a CM forum, though it should have been obvious!

In android terminal emulator -> preferences -> command line, change it from "/system/bin/sh -" to "/system/bin/bash -".

This changes your default shell to bash, which supports tab completion. Works for me using the standard android terminal (numeric, alt gives you a tab key).

You can test temporarily by just typing "bash" to start a bash shell and see if it works for you.

 

[SiHa]

Nope, not got bash. Guess it comes with a different kernel that comes with the custom ROMs you guys use.

Never mind, it's not that important.

 

[StevenSeed]

I use Connect Bot. Never had any issues

 

[SiHa]

I use Connect Bot. Never had any issues

I use it too as an SSH client, never occurred to me to use it as a terminal emulator on the phone itself. Didn't know you could to be honest. Will try later.

 

[StevenSeed]

I use it too as an SSH client, never occurred to me to use it as a terminal emulator on the phone itself. Didn't know you could to be honest. Will try later.

There's a drop down box at the bottom left. Just click 'local'.

 

[SiHa]

There's a drop down box at the bottom left. Just click 'local'.

Nice, thanks! Funny, I never even thought of looking to see what other options were there other than ssh...
That's another app I can get rid of.

Thing is though, on an ssh connection to my NAS I can use the trackpad for cursor up, and I get the last command, but when using a local connection, I still get the bloody escape codes!

I've come to the conclusion that it's my phone, T-Mobile, 2.2, branded as T-M intended:

Maybe a factory reset is the only way to restore proper functioning of the uo-arrow in the terminal.
Don't really care that much though - maybe later.