Some Android shell commands

ADB Shell Commands

List installed packages:

pm list packages

By default the command list enabled applications (-e).

List Third party Apps

pm list packages -3 

List System Apps

pm list packages -s 

Disabled Apps

pm list packages -d 

Sometimes the command pm list packages does not return all installed applications. dumpsys package list also all installed applications:

dumpsys package | grep "Package \[" | cut -d "\[" -f2 | cut -d "\]" -f1

Disable/Uninstall Apps

Adding --user 0 can help to uninstall/disable some system Apps Uninstall

pm uninstall PACKAGE_NAME

Disable

pm disable PACKAGE_NAME

Manage System Users

List users

pm list users

Remove user

pm remove-user USER_ID 

USER_ID: from previous command

Manage accounts (Root access)

sqlite3 /data/system_ce/0/accounts_ce.db
sqlite> select * from accounts;

Manage Settings

SECTION can be: secure, global or system

List all SECTION

settings list SECTION

Get value of KEY in SECTION

settings get SECTION KEY

Content query can also be used. For example to get global settings key "adb_enabled" that verify if ADB is enabled:

content query --uri content://settings/global --projection name:value --where 'name=adb_enabled" 

Add/Edit Key Edit or add KEY with the value VALUE:

settings put SECTION KEY VALUE

Or

content insert --uri content://settings/SECTION --bind name:s:KEY --bind value:VALUE_TYPE:VALUE

Where VALUE_TYPE is : 'i' for integer, 's' for string an 'b' for boolean.

The example bellow disable ADB :

content insert --uri content://settings/global --bind name:s:adb_enabled --bind value:i:0

Some usefull settings can be founded in AMDH project.

Managing Apps

List current running Apps (include Background Apps)

ps -A | grep -E "u0_a[0-9]*" | awk {'print $9'} 

Stop an App

am force-stop PACKAGE_NAME

Start an App

am start -n PACKAGE_NAME

Revoke permission

pm revoke PACKAGE_NAME PERMISSION

Grant permission

pm grant PACKAGE_NAME PERMISSION

Content query

content query --uri content://PACKAGE_NAME

Example, get list of contacts:

content query --uri content://com.android.contacts/data --projection display_name:data1:data4:contact_id

Dumpsys

Pending System update

dumpsys device_policy  | grep "Pending System Update"

Information about package

dumpsys package PACKAGE_NAME

Information can be:

• Installation date grep firstInstallTime
• Last update date grep lastUpdateTime
• Granted permissions grep permission | grep "granted=true"
• etc...

Dump current UI

uiautomator dump 

Automation

Revoke permissions to App

In this example, it revoke bluetooth permissions to all third party Apps:

adb shell 
for package in $(pm list packages -3 | cut -f2 -d":"); do
  pm revoke $package android.permission.BLUETOOTH
  pm revoke $package android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN 
done

Backup each App individually

Only third party Apps that has backup enabled will be backuped:

packages=$(adb -s emulator-5554 shell pm list packages -3 | cut -f2 -d':')
for package in $packages; do
adb backup -apk -f $package.ab $package
adb shell input keyevent 61 # password field
# if you need to encrypt your backup uncomment the line bellow and edit change the PASSWORD
# adb shell input text PASSWORD
adb shell input keyevent 61 # Do not Backup option
adb shell input keyevent 61 # Backup
adb shell input keyevent 66 # confirm
done

Dump all SMS

adb shell content query --uri content://sms/
adb shell content query --uri content://sms --projection _id:date:date_sent:deleted:body 

Dump all contacts

adb shell content query --uri content://com.android.contacts/data

List Apps with Internet permission

for package in $(pm list packages -3 | cut -f2 -d":"); do
dumpsys package $package | grep "android.permission.INTERNET: granted=true" > /dev/null && echo $package
done;

list Apps and their data usage

for package in $(pm list packages | cut -f2 -d":"); do echo $package; pm dump $package | grep  "Mobile network"; done;