Android storage is not an ordinary Linux home directory

Two distinct namespaces

Termux's private $HOME and $PREFIX support executable scripts, permissions and Unix-style tools. Android shared storage, often reached through $HOME/storage/shared, is mediated by platform permissions and filesystem layers. Running source code or placing Unix sockets in shared storage can fail even when reading a photograph works. Keep active project repositories under $HOME and export finished media to shared storage when required.

printf 'HOME=%s\nPREFIX=%s\n' "$HOME" "$PREFIX"
pwd
ls -ld "$HOME" "$HOME/storage" "$HOME/storage/shared" 2>&1
stat "$HOME" 2>&1

Establish access safely

termux-setup-storage requests the Android storage permission and sets up convenience paths where supported. A denied prompt must be fixed through Android's application permissions, not by giving every file mode 777. ls -l and readlink can identify symbolic links; a dangling path is different from a refused access operation. Shared folders may differ across Android versions, so treat their availability as an observation to confirm, not a guarantee.

A small separation test

Create a harmless file inside a temporary project directory under $HOME, write one word and read it back. Then try copying that file into a user-approved shared folder. A failure only on the second operation points to storage access or filesystem behavior, not a broken Python installation. Record both paths, Android version and whether the permission prompt was accepted.

Preservation rule

Never run recursive permission changes or deletion commands on all of /storage or $HOME to “fix access.” If an app must consume a file from Downloads, validate that path and copy only that file into its project-owned working directory. Avoid treating Android's scoped-storage boundaries as root access problems.