0.1.0-alpha02

The second published build. One change since alpha01, and it is one that shows up every time you start something.

Changes in this release

• The keyboard leaves with Home (#85). Starting an application left the prompt focused, so Android handed the keyboard straight back when the launcher returned, over a line that had already been cleared. Home now releases the prompt wherever it hands the screen over, a tapped row or a submitted line, and wherever something else takes the screen, the recents switcher, the lock, or an application started from somewhere else. A command that only prints its answer leaves the keyboard where it is, since the terminal has not gone anywhere.

Install

Download the APK below, allow your browser to install unknown applications when Android asks, then open it. To make it your home screen: Settings → Apps → Default apps → Home app → Terminal Launcher, or press Home once and pick it from the chooser.

This one updates alpha01 in place. Both are signed with the same debug key, verified certificate against certificate, so Android accepts the update and your settings and pins survive it.

Still a debug build, with the same consequences

It is what CI builds and verifies on every commit, signed with the Android debug key and debuggable, so:

• on a device with USB debugging on, any connected host can attach to the launcher and read what it stored, which is your settings and what you pinned, nothing else;
• a properly signed release will still not be able to update this build. Android refuses an update whose signature does not match, so moving to the signed build will mean uninstalling this one first, which takes your settings and pins with it.

It is also unoptimised, which is why it weighs around 25 MB.

What it does

Two shells, Unix and DOS, chosen in the settings, with the prompt, the command names, the application names, and every message written in that style. Search while you type. Only registered commands run: there is no shell behind the prompt, no Runtime.exec, no arbitrary intent. Pinned applications and shortcuts survive restarts, settings persist, and a double tap on Home locks the screen through an accessibility service that does nothing else.

help lists the commands.