The iSH app brings a Linux shell to the iPad. I mainly use it for git push and some python3 scripts.

iSH is now available on App Store

Just in case you are still using iSH through TestFight, it is to inform you that it is now available on App Store.

Initial set up

apk update
apk add python3 py3-pip wget curl ripgrep git openssh sqlite nano

pip3 install wheel eng-to-ipa
nano /etc/profile.d/profile.sh

mkdir  ~/.ssh
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
cp id_ed25519  ~/.ssh/
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

git config --global user.email
git config --global user.email emailhere @gmail.com
git config --global user.name ISHShellIPad

apk add zsh
# fix resolving deltas 
git config --global pack.threads "1"

# Install ohmyzsh
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

# can not use chsh to set zsh as default shell with chsh -s $(which zsh)
# but edit /etc/passwd

nano /etc/passwd

# change ash to zsh
# root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/ash
# root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/zsh

echo $SHELL

Mount other app dir on iPad dir to iSH

mount -t ios . /mnt

Then choose a folder through the Files app. Then we can cd /mnt and use it as a pwd

Alias commands or run commands on startup

Create a new profile file at:

nano /etc/profile.d/profile.sh

Then add your commands For example:

alias ll="ls -alh"
alias gitt="git add .;git commit -m 'auto git push';git push"
cd /mnt/
echo "You are now in /mnt/, be mindful! Change mount dir with:"
echo "mount -t ios . /mnt"

Python3 server with upload function

Simple Python HTTP Server with Upload: SimpleHTTPServerWithUpload.py

python3 SimpleHTTPServerWithUpload.py

Trick to run iSH background

If you need to run iSH in the background, for example with python module http.server, try this:

• Create and chmod executable file runBackground.sh
• Add these lines:

  cat /dev/location > /dev/null &
  python3 -m http.server ~/www/
  

  ~/www/ is the path of your website.

• Now turn on your device Location service in the device setting, and allow iSH to use your location while running.
• Run sh runBackground.sh
• Now open Safari and access: http://localhost:8000/ Change the port 8080 accordingly to your case. You can now browse with Safari while iSH is still running in the background.

Note:

• Using cat /dev/location and turning on location service will consume more battery.
• Simply Split View iSH over Safari to achieve the same effect.
• You can also use phpwin app on iPad to view offline websites.

Install PHP and composer on iSH

To install php

apk add php7 php7-phar php7-mbstring php7-json php7-openssl

To install composer on iSH

Create and chmod 777 installComposer.sh with the below bash script:

# This snippet is from: https://getcomposer.org/doc/faqs/how-to-install-composer-programmatically.md
#!/bin/sh
EXPECTED_CHECKSUM="$(wget -q -O - https://composer.github.io/installer.sig)"
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
ACTUAL_CHECKSUM="$(php -r "echo hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php');")"
if [ "$EXPECTED_CHECKSUM" != "$ACTUAL_CHECKSUM" ]
then
    >&2 echo 'ERROR: Invalid installer checksum'
    rm composer-setup.php
    exit 1
fi
php composer-setup.php --quiet
RESULT=$?
rm composer-setup.php
exit $RESULT

Run sh installComposer.sh to download and install composer.

To have the command composer available globally, we can use this command:

mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Web server php with apache

php & apache

An easy way to install a web server with php & apache is using this install script:

git clone https://github.com/timtim8461/ish-webserver-setup.git
cd ish-webserver-setup/
chmod 777 *.sh
chmod +x setup.sh
chmod +x start.sh 
./setup.sh

Find php.ini and install SQLite3 extension

Enable SQLite3 extension. SQLite3 is shipped with php, so we mostly just only need to enable it in the php.ini. However, on iSH we may need to install it manually:

p:~# apk search sqlite3
p:~# apk add php7-sqlite3

We can find php.ini location with these commands:

• The better way (faster) is:

  php -i | grep php.ini
  

• Or slower one:

  p:~# cd /
  p:/# find . -name 'php.ini'
  ./etc/php7/php.ini
  

  And now we can edit it with nano:

  p:/# nano /etc/php7/php.ini
  

  In nano, press Ctrl + w and find sqlite3 and remove ; just before it to enable it. We will get something:

  ;extension=sockets
  extension=sqlite3
  ;extension=tidy
  

  You may need to restart the server to get the SQLite3 extension working. Check again, you will see it was already loaded.

p:~# php -i | grep php.ini
PHP Warning:  Module 'sqlite3' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc/php7
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php7/php.ini

Install Java openjdk

Install

apk search openjdk
apk add openjdk8

If running java -version yields an error, try this command:

java -mx512m -version

You can now try running a jar file:

java -mx512m -jar test.jar

If running ` javac -version` yields an error

javac -version
ash: javac: not found

Try to set these paths:

##### 
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8-openjdk
export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:${PATH}"

You can put these commands to: /etc/profile.d/profile.sh to set these vars automatically every time you start up the terminal.

• If you have a newer version, try updating the version in the above command, like /usr/lib/jvm/current??version If things go smooth, you will get a response something like:

  javac -version
  javac 1.8.0_252
  

  To remove the above path

List env with export or env

env
export

export
unset JAVA_HOME
unset PATH

pynvim

On iSH (iPad), if pip3 install pynvim yields errors (greenlet)

include/python3.8/Python.h:11:10: fatal  error: limits.h: No such file or directory
#include <limits.h> 
                  ^
      compilation terminated.

We can try fixing it with this command:

apk add --no-cache gcc linux-headers musl-dev

That’s it for now.