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sdcard

USB read-only access to SD card on Android system

sdcard is a Python script that uses adb_shell, fuse-python (eg. BSD/Linux/OS-X only) and libusb to give fast USB read-only access to the /sdcard/ (pseudo-)folder (eg. downloads, photos, etc...) of an Android system.

the Android system accessed must have Developer Options enabled, as well as USB Debugging. the key present in the script must be authorized on the Android side.

another key pair can be generated if required.

installation

these are installation examples, other ways of doing things are possible.

Android tools (eg. adb) are not necessary, adb_shell is totally independent of them.

system side

• Archlinux (2024.09.01)

# as root, install system dependencies if not already installed
pacman -Sy
pacman -S fuse3 python3
ln -s fusermount3 /usr/bin/fusermount

• Debian (12/bookworm)

# as root, install system dependencies if not already installed
apt update
apt install fuse3 libusb-1.0-0 python3 python3-venv

• and then, still on the system being configured...

# as root, install Python virtual environment
python3 -m venv /opt/android
/opt/android/bin/python3 -m pip install https://github.com/patatetom/sdcard/archive/main.zip

user side

system dependencies (fuse, libusb and python) are still required

• manually

python3 -m venv ~/venv/android
~/venv/android/bin/python3 -m pip install https://github.com/patatetom/sdcard/archive/main.zip

• pipx

pipx install https://github.com/patatetom/sdcard/archive/main.zip

usage

it's important to note that, by default, sdcard remembers the contents (metadata) of visited folders : in other words, modifications on the Android system side of a previously visited location will not be reflected by sdcard, unless you use the -n option.

the examples below are taken from the user side installation above.

~/venv/android/bin/sdcard --help
Usage: sdcard [mountpoint] [options]
Options:
    -h, --help             show this help message and exit
    -o opt,[opt...]        mount options
    -r, --root             access from / (default from /sdcard)
    -n, --nocache          do not cache data (default cache data)
FUSE options:
…

mkdir -p /tmp/mountpoint
~/venv/android/bin/sdcard /tmp/mountpoint
ls /tmp/mountpoint/ #1
# Alarms   Android   Audiobooks	 DCIM   Documents   Download   Movies   Music   Notifications   Pictures   Podcasts   Recordings   Ringtones   storage
ls -l /tmp/mountpoint/ #2
total 0
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Alarms
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Android
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Audiobooks
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jun 11 09:31  DCIM
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Aug 28 16:18  Documents
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Sep 18 05:39  Download
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 May 19 19:14  Movies
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 May 20 06:53  Music
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Notifications
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Aug 10 22:38  Pictures
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Podcasts
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 28 16:52  Recordings
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Ringtones
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Sep  6 23:02  storage
tar -C /tmp/mountpoint/ -cz . > /tmp/backup.tar.gz
umount /tmp/mountpoint

the second command ls … #2 above does not reread the contents of the root folder, but uses the data cached by the first call to the command ls … #1 : if changes have occurred on the Android system side in the meantime, these are not reflected. use the option --nocache to force rereading of informations.

mkdir -p /tmp/mountpoint
~/venv/android/bin/sdcard --root /tmp/mountpoint
ls /tmp/mountpoint/
# acct  apex  config  data  debug_ramdisk  dev  lost+found  mnt  odm  odm_dlkm  oem  proc  product  second_stage_resources  storage  sys	system	system_ext  vendor  vendor_dlkm
ls -l /tmp/mountpoint/
total 0
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 acct
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jun 18  1973 apex
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  1970 config
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Sep  8 15:34 data
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 debug_ramdisk
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Sep 10 15:00 dev
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 lost+found
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jun 18  1973 mnt
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 odm
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 odm_dlkm
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 oem
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  1970 proc
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 product
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 second_stage_resources
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jun 18  1973 storage
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  1970 sys
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 system
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 system_ext
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 vendor
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jan  1  2009 vendor_dlkm
ls -l /tmp/mountpoint/storage/emulated/0/
total 0
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Alarms
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Android
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 22 03:00  Audiobooks
# dr-xr-x--- 2 nobody nogroup 0 Jun 11 09:31  DCIM
…
umount /tmp/mountpoint

-r/--root option gives access to the root of the Android system.

links

• adb_shell
• fuse-python
• libusb
• pipx