what is the standard editor in Android?

Question

I'm connecting to this Google phone via adb, I need to change a character inside of a text file, and I would use vi, or maybe sed -i, or even pico if nothing else helps, but I don't find any well known CLI editor.

How do you Android Enthusiasts do this? I mean, short of copying the file back and forth?

/system/bin/sh: vi: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # pico
/system/bin/sh: pico: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # nano
/system/bin/sh: nano: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # vim
/system/bin/sh: vim: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # sed
/system/bin/sh: sed: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # emacs
/system/bin/sh: emacs: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ # apropos editor
/system/bin/sh: apropos: not found
127|root@generic_x86:/ #

There isn't any standard editor - you use what works for you. You can search for one Izzy's list [Notes] (https://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/office_notes) or better text editors for developers — beeshyams, Sep 16 '18 at 13:42
hi, thanks, I feared so much. But these lists only have graphic editors, to be used from the android screen itself, isn't it? I had hoped for some CLI tools. (I'll have a look at the Vim port, I guess. thank you again.) — mariotomo, Sep 16 '18 at 13:53
Have a look at this https://android.stackexchange.com/q/44049/131553 — beeshyams, Sep 16 '18 at 13:58
@mariotomo Did you try to launch vim or nano? I run LineageOS and can start them. — Grimoire, Sep 16 '18 at 15:31
I am inside of a virtual android machine, I do not know what is LineageOS, and I've not mentioned all that I tried, which indeed included vim and nano. https://github.com/shiftrot/droidvim/issues/19 — mariotomo, Sep 16 '18 at 15:46
thank you for the hint on Termux, I will definitely try it on my physical phone. but I'm currently on a virtual machine. — mariotomo, Sep 19 '18 at 16:21

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 27 '18 at 13:52

As mentioned, I would be happy with sed. Still as later mentioned in a comment, I am in a virtual environment, so no trouble dropping one OS and start using the newer one.

Apparently, my problem was staying in Android 5.1. Starting version 6 Android includes ToyBox, a rather limited alternative to BusyBox, legally compatible with the non-free license of Android.

The ToyBox hint comes from the author of droidvim.

what is the standard editor in Android?

1 Answers1