Local Unix terminal for iOS. Run Python, JavaScript, sh & all Unix commands locally on your phone, no network connection required.
Powerful when combined with Shortcuts.
a-Shell mini is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on you iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. Work with git repositories using lg2.
Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with iOS underlying BSD Unix.
a-Shell mini includes Python, Lua, JavaScript and webAssembly for programming and scripting. It also includes native ffmpeg and convert for fast image and video conversion.
There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands.
a-Shell mini can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps...
a-Shell mini uses iPadOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python.
a-Shell mini is a minimalist terminal, designed to have a very small footprint (less than 250 MB). If you need more commands, please consider a-Shell, which has more Python packages, more JavaScript modules, Perl, make, a C and C++ compiler and TeX.
I find this app very useful for core operations like SSH to servers for management, pinging devices on the network, plus finding uptime on my iPhone, ifconfig info, etc.There’s a lot of functionality built into this pared down version of its sister app, a-Shell (the full featured app). a-Shell Mini omits all the Python and other scripting libraries in favor of a smaller footprint, which is fine by for my needs. Again, if you want to do development, go for the full version.Otherwise, I find a very useful tool in my IT toolbox.
Bad update (temporarily, it's fixed!)
brucebruce10
Edit: Great developer, it's fixed! 5 stars 🤩This app and the full a-shell are amazing. The recent update to version 2 makes the keyboard icons comically large on the left side and unusable on the right side. Of course apple doesn't allow us consumers to install a previous version of the app so I'm stuck with this unwanted change. Please add option to use old keyboard buttons, the new ones are such a disaster.
Developer Response
I don’t understand the issue that you describe (and it doesn’t happen on my test devices). If you could send a more detailed description with screenshots to another_shell@icloud.com? (Or using any of the bug reporting methods detailed in “help”)
Best shell for me
pemayes
Tried many other shell apps. This and the full a-shell are now the only ones I use. No fuss, multiple window support… no need to look at any similar apps, this is the shell you need.
Useful
Whozae
This is about the only app in thousands of things that actually works I use this with a ios Shortcut and works perfectly.
Multiple improvements over versions 2.0.0 and 2.0.1:
- single-arrow buttons by default for iPhones that don't have LiquidGlass (iOS 18 and below)
- brought back the ability to have the old toolbar on iPads (a fix for iPads where the standard toolbar does not appear)
- fix for pickFolder inside other commands
- fix for ffmpeg and control-C
- fix for escape sequences (\033) in prompt definitions
- several fixes for ssh and ssh-agent inside dash
- openurl does not percent-encode urls that are already percent-encoded
- openurl checks that is has a valid URL
Version 2.0.2
The developer, Nicolas Holzschuch, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
Supported Features
VoiceOver
Larger Text
Dark Interface
Sufficient Contrast
Information
Seller
Nicolas Holzschuch
Size
380.9 MB
Category
Developer Tools
Compatibility
Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 14.0 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
