psutil-android

psutil, repackaged so it installs and imports as psutil inside Termux on Android — no compiler, no NDK, no source build needed on-device.

⚠️ Termux only. This does not run on stock Android, Pydroid, QPython, Chaquopy, or any other embedded-Python runtime. See Why this is Termux-specific below for exactly why, verified via readelf.

Structure

psutil/
  _native/
    aarch64/_psutil_linux.abi3.so, meta.json
    arm/_psutil_linux.abi3.so, meta.json
    i686/_psutil_linux.abi3.so, meta.json
    x86_64/_psutil_linux.abi3.so, meta.json
  _native_loader.py   <- picks the right .so for platform.machine() at import time
  _android_compat.py  <- if loading fails, gives an exact reason instead of
                          a bare "cannot open shared object file"
  __init__.py, _common.py, _pslinux.py, ...   <- upstream psutil, unmodified

Each .so is extracted from Termux's own python-psutil package build (ghcr.io/termux/package-builder + termux/termux-packages' actual recipe), so it's linked correctly against that arch's Termux libc/ libpython — not a generic NDK cross-compile guess. meta.json next to each .so is generated from the binary's real NEEDED entries (.github/scripts/gen_meta.py, via readelf), not hand-typed, so it can't drift from what the binary actually requires.

As of the current release, all four arches (aarch64, arm, i686, x86_64) are built by CI and bundled in every published wheel — one wheel works across every Termux-supported CPU. _native_loader.py auto-selects the right one at import time.

Why this is Termux-specific, not "any Android device"

Every bundled .so is hard-linked (RUNPATH) against Termux's own runtime, confirmed via readelf -d on all four arches:

RUNPATH: /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib
NEEDED:  libandroid-support.so, libpython3.14.so, libc.so

So even with every arch bundled, this only runs where all of the following hold:

• Termux is installed (not stock Android, not Pydroid/QPython/ Chaquopy — none of those have libandroid-support.so or Termux's libc.so shim)
• CPU arch matches one of the bundled binaries (aarch64/arm/i686/x86_64 covers every arch Termux itself ships for)
• Termux's Python minor version matches what that arch's binary was linked against (currently 3.14.x for all four, recorded per-arch in meta.json; each Termux Python update can require a rebuild — just re-run the release workflow)

When any of that doesn't hold, import fails with a specific diagnosis (_android_compat.py), not a cryptic OS error — and suggests the fallback: pkg install clang make && pip install psutil, which compiles real upstream psutil from source on-device and isn't tied to any of the above at all. That's the actually version-proof path; the bundled binaries exist to skip needing a compiler on-device.

Tested on:

Linux localhost 5.10.136-android12-9-00005-gf9a66cbe7091-ab9177899 #1 SMP PREEMPT
Fri Oct 14 05:14:18 UTC 2022 aarch64 Android

Install

From PyPI:

pip install psutil-android

From a downloaded wheel or the release assets:

pip install psutil_android-7.2.4-py3-none-any.whl

Either way it installs as the psutil package name — don't install alongside real psutil in the same environment.

Usage

import psutil
psutil.cpu_percent(interval=1)
psutil.virtual_memory()
psutil.disk_partitions()

Provenance

This is Giampaolo Rodola's psutil (BSD-3-Clause, see LICENSE), unmodified at the Python level. There is no dedicated upstream "psutil for Android" project — Android support has been an open, unresolved request on giampaolo/psutil for years (issues #913, #2611, #2743). This package fills that gap for Termux users.

License

BSD 3-Clause, inherited from upstream psutil. See LICENSE.

👤 Maintainer

Hadi Cahyadi

Support me on Patreon