How do I run an adb shell command?

Switch on developer options and USB debugging on the phone, plug it in, then run adb shell from a machine with platform-tools installed — or run adb shell on its own to get an interactive prompt and type the command without the prefix. If the command produces binary output, such as a screenshot, use adb exec-out instead of adb shell: the plain shell service attaches a terminal, which rewrites newline bytes and corrupts the data.

Do adb shell commands need root?

Not the ones on this reference. They run as the shell user, which can manage packages for its own Android user, read most dumpsys services, write the settings provider, inject input and read shared storage. Root is only needed for things this reference deliberately avoids — reading another app's private data (except through run-as on a debuggable build), writing system partitions, or reading /data/anr directly.

Why does the output look different on my phone?

Either the Android version or the manufacturer. Some flags and fields arrived in a specific release, and those are noted per command. The rest is OEM patching, which hits dumpsys hardest: a dump is debug output whose text is whatever the service author last printed, and manufacturers change it and backport their changes. Read fields by name rather than by position, and treat an unfamiliar shape as a difference rather than as a failure.

Can I run this from a browser instead of a terminal?

For many commands, yes — the Web ADB tools on this site talk to a phone over WebUSB from a Chromium-based desktop browser, with no SDK installed and nothing uploaded. Each page links to the tool that runs its command, when one exists. Two limits are worth knowing: only one program can hold the ADB interface at a time, so a desktop adb server has to be stopped first, and adb forward and adb reverse cannot work in a browser at all.

pm install-create

changes the device

Opens an install session so several APKs — a base plus its splits — are installed as one atomic unit.

Command: adb shell pm install-create
Commands: Packages (pm)
Risk: changes the device

Syntax

pm install-create [-r] [-g] [-d] [-t] [-S <total bytes>]
pm install-write [-S <bytes>] <session> <name> <path or ->
pm install-commit <session>
pm install-abandon <session>

Flags and arguments

Token	Meaning
-S <bytes>	On `install-create`, the total size of the whole set, so the installer can reserve space and fail early. On `install-write`, the exact size of this file — and it is mandatory when the bytes come from stdin, because the reader has no other way to know where they end.
-	As the path argument of `install-write`, read the APK bytes from stdin.
-r -g -d -t	The install options, and they belong on `install-create`. `install-commit` takes no install parameters at all, so a flag appended there is silently dropped.

Examples

```
pm install-create -r -S 82345678
```
Open a session for an 82 MB set. The reply carries the session id.

pm install-write -S 41000000 1234567 base.apk /data/local/tmp/base.apk

Add one already-pushed file to the session.

```
pm install-commit 1234567
```
Install everything in the session as one operation.
```
pm install-abandon 1234567
```
Throw the session away and release the staged bytes.

Reading the output

Sample output

Success: created install session [1234567]

`install-create` replies with the session id in square brackets, and that number is the argument for every later step. Each `install-write` answers `Success` or a `Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_…]`, and `install-commit` is the one whose failure matters most — that is where signature, split-set and verification problems surface, because until then nothing has been checked against the installed app.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
Success: created install session [<id>]	The session id for install-write and install-commit.
Success	That write, or the commit, was accepted.
Error: must specify a APK size	An `install-write` reading from stdin without -S.
INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_APK	The set does not hold together — a duplicate split, a mismatched base.
INSTALL_FAILED_ABORTED	The session was abandoned, or an on-device prompt was not answered.

What access it needs

The same authorised `adb` connection `pm install` needs, with the same requirement that staged files be readable by the phone. What a session adds is a resource you now own and must hand back. A created session keeps its partial bytes in `/data/app/vmdl<id>.tmp` until it is committed, abandoned, or expired by `PackageInstallerService`, so every attempt without a matching `install-abandon` leaves one more behind — a slow storage leak no permission error announces and no dialog mentions. Streaming through `install-write ... -` needs no extra access either, only the mandatory `-S <bytes>`, because the transport cannot signal end-of-file without also tearing down the reply carrying the result. The on-device prompt `pm install` can raise applies here too, and it is raised at commit time rather than at create time, which is why an unattended run tends to die at the last step rather than the first.

Failure messages, decoded

Message	Meaning
Error: must specify a APK size	An `install-write` reading from stdin without `-S`. The wording is the platform's, typo included. Note that the session is still open when this arrives, so it is a failure you have to clean up after with `install-abandon` rather than one that unwinds itself.
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_APK: Split lib_a was defined multiple times]	The set does not hold together — here two files claimed the same split name. It is a commit-time verdict, which is the shape of the session model itself: nothing is checked against the installed app until every part has been written, so a mistake made at write time surfaces only at the end.
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ABORTED: Failed to commit install session 731045162 with command cmd package install-commit 731045162. Error: INSTALL_FAILED_ABORTED: Session was abandoned]	The nested form. Both tokens in this line are ones the table can explain, so the recogniser reports the first — the code the framework itself chose. Read to the end of the bracket regardless: `Session was abandoned` is the part telling you an abandon already ran against that id, and re-committing it will never work.

What it changes, and the way back

The install itself replaces the app that is there, exactly as `pm install` does. The session-specific hazard is leaving one open: a created session holds staged bytes on the device until it is committed or abandoned, so `pm install-abandon <session>` is the cleanup step, not an optional one.

Version and vendor notes

The split name in `install-write` is a label inside the session, not a path — desktop adb simply passes the file's basename.
`cmd package install-create` is the same command by a shorter route on Android 7 and later; `pm` is a wrapper script around it.
Streaming from stdin needs `-S` because the transport cannot signal end-of-file without also tearing down the reply. That is why the size, not an EOF, is what terminates the read.

We have a UI for this

APK Installer runs this command over USB and parses what comes back — a Chromium browser, no SDK, nothing uploaded.

Open APK Installer

Related commands

Commands that turn up in the same session as pm install-create.

Command	What it does
pm install	Installs one APK that is already on the device, which is what `adb install` does under the hood.
pm path	Prints the absolute paths of the APK files that make up an installed package.
pm uninstall	Removes a package, or removes it for one Android user only — which is how a preinstalled app is disposed of without root.

More Packages (pm) commands

Command	What it does
pm list packages	Lists installed packages, optionally with the APK path, uid, version code and installer.
pm disable-user	Switches a package off for one Android user without removing it — the reversible alternative to uninstalling.
pm clear	Wipes an app's data — or, on Android 13 and later, only its cache.
pm trim-caches	Asks the system to drop cached files until the given amount of free space exists.

Checked against AOSP, toybox and kernel sources while writing the parsers behind our Web ADB tools. Where a behaviour genuinely varies by Android version or manufacturer, this page says so instead of giving a number that would be wrong on half the phones out there.