# facebookarchive/fb-adb

A better shell for Android devices

Repository: https://github.com/facebookarchive/fb-adb
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/fb-adb
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Archived: true
Last push: 2019-06-03T19:14:37+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4493, "days_push": 2648, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1146, forks 115 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:45.853644+00:00)

## What it is
fb-adb is a command-line tool for interacting with Android devices that acts as an improved replacement for adb, with a binary-clean remote shell, proper stream multiplexing, exit-status propagation, and root elevation support. It is written in C and forwards unknown commands to adb for compatibility.

## Use cases
- run a remote shell on an Android device with proper stdout/stderr separation
- capture a screenshot from an Android device to a local file
- run commands as an app user with root elevation without re-escaping
- dump an app's sqlite database from a device
- get correct exit codes from commands run on Android devices
- keep binary data intact when piping over adb shell

## When to choose
- you use adb shell daily and are frustrated by CRLF mangling, lost exit codes, or merged stdout/stderr
- you need pty allocation control and window-size propagation in an Android remote shell
- you need to run commands as a specific app user or elevate to root cleanly

## When to avoid
- you only need basic adb functionality like install, logcat, or fastboot
- you need actively maintained tooling - the repo is archived with no recent releases
- you are on Windows without a build path or Homebrew

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: cli, developer-tools, terminal-ui
- domain: android-tools, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: adb-replacement, android-debugging, remote-shell, pty, root-elevation, command-line, macos, linux, android

## Member repositories
- facebookarchive/fb-adb (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:45.853644+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:34:10.257557+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/facebookarchive/fb-adb (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:45.853644+00:00, sha f8be72cb74d7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.