How can I run shell (terminal) in Google Colab?

Question

I know that I can call !ls to issue ls command to shell.

But I want features like history or tab-completion.

Is it possible to do so in

Answer 1

Better try this -

1. Install Teleconsole on Colab, its a package to use terminal over internet -

    !curl https://www.teleconsole.com/get.sh | sh
   

2. Run below code on colab notebook to use Teleconsole -

    import subprocess as sp
    process = sp.Popen("teleconsole",shell=True,stdin=sp.PIPE,stdout=sp.PIPE,stderr=sp.PIPE)
    for i in range(6):
      print(process.stdout.readline().decode()) 
   

   You should get output something like -

    Starting local SSH server on localhost...
    Requesting a disposable SSH proxy on eu.teleconsole.com for root...
    Checking status of the SSH tunnel...
   
    Your Teleconsole ID: eu88d75d24084905shgdjhjhfgd1934e55c3786438a3
   
    WebUI for this session: 
    https://eu.teleconsole.com/s/88d75d24084905shgdjhjhfgd1934e55c3786438a3
   

3. Either open the web interface by following the link for accessing the terminal or open a local shell terminal and install Teleconsole using the command -

    curl https://www.teleconsole.com/get.sh | sh
   

   Then use the below code to join the terminal using Teleconsole Id you got in step No. 2-

    teleconsole join <Teleconsole ID>
   

This method can also be tunneled through ssh with some additional steps.

Answer 2

Just type the following. It will spawn a bash session.

!bash

Answer 3

You can use jQuery Terminal Emulator backed with google.colab.kernel.invokeFunction

Here's an example notebook.

The key part is here, where you back it with shell function.

def shell(command):
  return JSON([getoutput(command)])
output.register_callback('shell', shell)

And here's how you use invokeFunction:

try {
    let res = await google.colab.kernel.invokeFunction('shell', [command])
    let out = res.data['application/json'][0]
    this.echo(new String(out))
} catch(e) {
    this.error(new String(e));
}

Here's a screenshot.

Update (7/2020)

I have taken @Anant's answer and add it into my library. Now you can run console easily with just

!pip install kora
from kora import console
console.start()  # and click link

Update (12/2020)

If you subscribe to Colab Pro, terminal is now available. Just click the 'Terminal' icon on the left pane.