termux-postgis-script

Help script to install and manage a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database in Termux.

Installation

You can install the script by manually downloading the liz.sh file and put it in your home folder, or use wget inside your Termux session.

With wget

Be sure your Android device has a working internet connection. Then start Termux, and follow this guidelines:

# Update the packages
# BEWARE: you will need to answer with Y the questions asked during the upgrade job
pkg update -y
pkg upgrade -y
# If you have some errors, try to use instead
apt update
apt upgrade -y

# Install wget
pkg install -y wget

# Get the script from internet (this Github repository)
cd
wget https://s.42l.fr/liz -O liz.sh

# Add execute permission
chmod +x liz.sh

# Test it
./liz.sh
# should return the help like
# Available commands: pe (permission), up (upgrade), in (install), pg (service postgresql), ip (get ip), bk (backup PostgreSQL), re (restore PostgreSQL), st (Startup script), ve (version), zz (reset al)

Manually

• Go to the file URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdouchin/termux-postgis-script/main/liz.sh
• Save this file liz.sh in your computer
• Transfer it to the Android device root folder with USB file transfer: connect your Android device and your computer with a USB wire, and activate the USB file sharing service (see: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9064445?hl=en )
• The file must be in the root folder, beside Android, DCIM and Videos folders
• Open Termux session, and follow this guidelines:

# Copy liz.sh in your home folder
cp /sdcard/liz.sh ~/liz.sh

# Add execute permission
chmod +x liz.sh

# Test
./liz.sh
# should return the help like
Available commands: pe (permission), up (upgrade), in (install), pg (service postgresql), ip (get ip), bk (backup PostgreSQL), re (restore PostgreSQL), ve (version), zz (reset all)

Usage

You can use the ./liz.sh command to run some preconfigured functions:

• ./liz/sh pe: run termux-setup-storage to allow access to your documents (Download, DCIM, etc.)
• ./liz/sh up: update termux packages
• ./liz/sh in: install PostgreSQL/PostGIS & create gis database and gis user && install sshd and other tools (lftp, crontab, etc.)
• ./liz/sh pg: start/stop/restart/status PostgreSQL service
• ./liz/sh ip: get Android device IP address
• ./liz/sh bk: backup the gis database
• ./liz/sh re: restore the gis database
• ./liz/sh st: restart PostgreSQL and the sshd services, to be used at device or session startup. It also shows the SSH username and the devices IP addresses
• ./liz.sh ve: display the version of the script liz.sh
• ./liz.sh zz: reset all ! This will completely erase your termux installation, and delete configuration files and PostgreSQL database data. Your Android storage will NOT be deleted.

Installation

For your first use, we recommend to:

• run the command pe to grant access to your Android folders DCIM, Download, etc.
• run the command then up to update the packages
• run the command in to install PostgreSQL, sshd and other tools such as lftp and crontab. This can take a couple of minutes, and need you to follow the progress, since it asks for some confirmations: confirm with Y You can pass an optional argument with the desired password for the SSH and PostgreSQL user.

Of course, the installation process must be done only once.

During the installation, you will be asked for:

• the SSH user password, to connect with SSH from a computer
• the PostgreSQL gis user password to be able to connect to the gis database

only if you have not given the password at the end of the command. See example below.

Example commands:

# Add symbolic links to access your Android files
# by running termux-setup-storage command line
# This is only required once
# See https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux-setup-storage
./liz.sh pe

# Update packages
# Run it frequently to keep your termux up-to-date
# No need to run it if you just ran "pkg update" before
./liz.sh up

# Install PostgreSQL and PostGIS, and create a gis database and a gis user with gis password
# Nothing will be done if PostgreSQL is already installed
# Install also sshd, shows the user name and asks for a password
# Nothing will be done if sshd is already installed
# Note: if you pass a password as argument, it will be used for the PostgreSQL and SSH user
# ./liz.sh in
# OR you can use the command
# with a password given as parameter, gis in this example (you could use an environment variable or read from a file, etc
./liz.sh in gis

# Start, stop, restart, get status for PostgreSQL server
./liz.sh pg start
./liz.sh pg stop
./liz.sh pg restart
./liz.sh pg status

# Get IP addresses
# for WLAN (if WIFI is used)
# and USB (if your share your Android 3/4/5G connection with your computer)
./liz.sh ip

# Backup gis PostgreSQL database into the root folder /sdcard/
./liz.sh bk

# Restore gis PostgreSQL database
# BEWARE: this will erase your Android PostgresSQL gis database
# and overwrite it with the previosly backuped data !!!
./liz.sh re

# Restart PostgreSQL
# And display the SSH user and the IP addresses
# This must not be necessary since this command is automatically run at startup
# But you can call it anytime needed
./liz/sh st

Startup

The installation has added a script ~/.bash_profile which will be run automatically at startup. This wil let you have a working PostgreSQL and sshd server after starting a new Termux session. No need to manually run the command ./liz.sh st

Use PostgreSQL

After installing PostgreSQL/PostGIS with the ./liz.sh in command, you have a full PostgreSQL server with:

• a gis database with PostGIS extension
• a gis user with password gis who can connect to the database.

You now access to your PostgreSQL database

• locally in your Termux session

# With the superuser
psql -d gis

# with the gis user, connect to the database gis
# this is recommended
psql -h localhost -d gis -U gis
# password is gis

# you can use the geopoppy service
# to connect with the same credentials
psql service=geopoppy

• remotely from your computer

  • get your Termux IP address in the local network

  # Get your WIFI or USB IP address from the Termux session
  ./liz.sh ip

  • Connect from your computer (which must be connected to the same network, for example by WIFI (or USB network sharing). For example, if your Termux IP is 192.168.1.130:

  psql -h 192.168.1.130 -d gis -U gis

BEWARE:

• The $PREFIX/var/lib/postgresql/pg_hba.conf is configured to allow all connections from all user from anywhere. Remove the last line if you want to change this default behaviour.
• The $PREFIX/var/lib/postgresql/postgresql.conf is configured to give access to all IPs. Remove the last line listen_addresses = '*' from this file to restrict access if needed.
• You can change the password of the user gis by connecting as the superuser within termux and run:

psql -d gis -c "ALTER ROLE gis WITH PASSWORD 'new_password'"

and do not forget to also change the password in the service file in ~/.pg_service.conf

Use the SSH remote access

You need to know you SSH user name, and the Termux IP address. To do so, run the commands ./liz.sh ip from the Termux console, which will show your Wi-Fi or USB IP address and your SSH user name

Now you can connect from your computer, if it is connected in the same network, for example by WIFI. Let say that the SSH user name is u0_a171 and your Termux IP address is 192.168.1.29, you can connect from your computer with:

ssh u0_a171@192.168.1.29 -p 8022

and the password you set up during the first installation with ./liz.sh in

Crontab: run actions periodically

The installation process has installed and configured crontab. This tool is in charge of running some actions at regular intervals.

To check which actions are configured, you can execute

crontab -l

The result of this command will be like:

~ $ crontab -l
* * * * * echo "$(date)" > /data/data/com.termux/files/home/test_cron
* * * * * /data/data/com.termux/files/home/cron_postgresql.sh start
* * * * * /data/data/com.termux/files/home/cron_lftp.sh start

The first line is a test action executed every minute which writes the current date into the file ~/test_cron. You can check if it works by running:

ls -lh ~/test_cron

This will show you a line with the creation date of the file test_cron generated every minute. It should be the last minute.

Two other scripts will be run every 5 minutes. They can be used to run some FTP and PostgreSQL database synchronization processes if the needed INI configuration files are found.

If no file ~/test_cron exists, you can test to reactivate the cron service with

sv-enable crond

NB: This command is automatically done on every start of Termux, since it is now included in the startup script.

FTP synchronization with lftp

The script /data/data/com.termux/files/home/cron_lftp.sh is in charge of running the synchronization of files between a file directory of your Android device and a FTP server directory. The library lftp is used in mirror mode for this purpose. The cron checks every minute if the content of a chosen folder has changed and if the synchronization must be done for this minute. If so, it launches the synchronization. Only new of modified files are uploaded. No deletion is made on the server side.

To configure it, you need to edit the INI file lftp.ini and change the values of the properties. Open it with the command:

nano lftp.ini

which will show the content in a text editor:

[lftp]
active=true
repeat_minutes=3
protocol=ftp
host=your_ftp_server.com
port=21
user=your_ftp_user
local_dir=storage/shared/Android/data/ch.opengis.qfield/files/QField/qgis/media
remote_dir=qgis/your_directory/media

The following properties can be changed:

• active If set to true (default value), the synchronization is activated. Use false to deactivate file synchronization
• repeat_minutes The value determines the number of minutes to wait between consecutive synchronizations. By default, a synchronization is launched every 3 minutes.
• protocol Use ftp or sftp, depending on your FTP server
• host The domain name or IP address of the FTP server
• port The port. Usually 21 for FTP and 22 for SFTP
• user The FTP user which will logs in
• local_dir The local directory of your Termux setup to synchronize. In the example above, all files and folders under your internal QField Android folder Android/data/ch.opengis.qfield/files/QField/qgis/media will be synchronized. The storage/shared/ folder corresponds to your Android root folder, which contains the system folders. See: https://docs.qfield.org/how-to/projects/
• remote_dir The remote directory in your FTP server. Choose with care, as the synchronization will modify its content

Once you have edited the file, you can save the modification with CTRL+O and close the file with CTRL+X.

The password needed to log in is not stored in this file, but needs to be written in the file .netrc of your Termux home folder. See the netrc file documentation for more information on the syntax.

To edit this file .netrc, run the command

nano ~/.netrc

This will open a text editor and display the file content.

machine your_ftp_server.com login your_ftp_user password your_password

• Change the values to correspond to your FTP server credentials: your_ftp_server.com, your_ftp_user and your_password must be changed !
• Save the file with CTRL+O
• Quit the text editor with CTRL+X.

PostgreSQL synchronization with LizSync

You can open the INI file postgresql.ini to configure the LizSync PostgreSQL synchronization, if you have used your Termux database as a clone database. Open the configuration file with the command:

nano postgresql.ini

which will show the content in a text editor:

[postgresql]
active=true
repeat_minutes=3
connection=service=gis
run_action=SELECT * FROM lizsync.synchronize()

The following properties can be changed:

• active If set to true (default value), the synchronization is activated. Use false to deactivate PostgreSQL synchronization
• repeat_minutes The value determines the number of minutes to wait between consecutive synchronizations. By default, a synchronization is launched every 3 minutes.

Do not change the values for the connection and run_action parameters !

Once you have edited the file, you can save the modification with CTRL+O and close the file with CTRL+X.