psh — Privileged Shell Wrapper for Termux

psh is a lightweight C++ utility designed to provide a controlled root-like shell environment on Termux for Android. It wraps around existing su binaries to launch commands or shells with privilege escalation, while managing environment variables, user switching, and system paths carefully.

Overview

psh acts as a smart front-end for su (superuser) commands in Termux. It provides:

• Switching to root or another user with environment isolation.
• Customizable PATH manipulation (prepend or append system paths).
• Support for specifying the shell executable to use.
• Debug logging for troubleshooting.
• Compatibility with various Android setups including Magisk and classic su.
• Handling of environment variables to maintain Termux user context inside root shells.
• Prevention of direct root execution of Termux itself (done externally by install scripts).

Usage

psh [options] [user]

Options

• -p, --syspre Prepend Android system paths (/system/bin, etc.) to the PATH.

• -a, --sysadd Append Android system paths to the PATH.

• -s, --shell <shell> Specify an alternate shell executable to use instead of the default.

• --version Show psh version.

• -h, --help Show usage help.

Examples

• Run root shell with default environment:

  psh

• Switch to a different user:

  psh someuser

• Run a command as root preserving environment:

  psh -E ls /root

• Specify shell explicitly:

  psh -s /system/bin/sh

Debugging

Run with the --dbg option to enable debug logging to a file psh_debug_<YYYYMMDD> in the current directory:

psh --dbg ...

Debug logs include environment variables, architecture, Android version, device info, kernel, and command execution details.

Installation on Termux

You can install psh easily on Termux using the provided install script, which downloads the appropriate binary for your device architecture, sets permissions, and configures ownership:

Run this command directly in Termux (curl or wget):

curl -fsSL https://psh.dergoogler.com/install.sh | bash

Or with wget:

wget -qO- https://psh.dergoogler.com/install.sh | bash

By default, it installs the latest stable release. You can specify a version like so:

VERSION=1.0.0 curl -fsSL https://psh.dergoogler.com/install.sh | bash

Note: The installer aborts if run as root inside Termux, ensuring safe installation.