A No-Risks Linux Terminal in Your Browser (Debian Edition 🐧)

#webdev #python #opensource #learning

Ever typed rm -rf / into your brain before your terminal? Yeah… same.

But what if there was a zero-risk place to try commands without breaking your system or nuking your $HOME folder?

🧪 Meet: TerminalSandbox

This is a web-based terminal sandbox I built for fun (and learning).

It's backed by a FastAPI-powered backend that safely runs Debian-based shell commands in isolated environments — straight from your browser.

Use it to:

✅ Learn and test Linux CLI basics

✅ Practice without needing a VM or Docker

✅ Demo commands live to others

✅ Build your confidence in Bash, one ls at a time

✅ Feel like a hacker with absolutely no danger 🚨

🔒 But is it safe?

Yes. I’ve sandboxed the environment:

Every user gets their own temporary isolated directory
Dangerous patterns like rm -rf, shutdown, reboot, etc. are blocked
Only safe, whitelisted commands are allowed (with descriptions)
No persistent file system access
Sessions expire and self-clean

Think of it like a toddler-safe terminal: you can poke around, break things (sort of), and nothing really explodes.

⚙️ Tech Stack

Here’s the nerdy part:

FastAPI backend (Python 3.11)
Async command execution with stdout/stderr capture
uvicorn + slowapi for rate limiting
Hosted sessions with UUIDs and safety checks
Frontend is served via Cloudflare Pages
Currently supports Debian-based commands only — but Arch might sneak in soon 👀

🎮 Live Demo

👉 Try it here: https://terminalsandbox.pages.dev

🛠 Source code: [https://github.com/AbhishekDvs/linux-terminal-sandbox]

📢 Why I built this

I love Linux. I love web stuff. And I really love giving folks a way to learn without fear.

This started as a sandbox experiment — now it’s a tool I genuinely use to teach, debug, and play.

If you’ve ever wanted to:

Share shell snippets without spinning up an instance
Help a friend learn terminal basics
Or just flex your htop in peace

Then TerminalSandbox might be your jam. 🖥️

🙌 Try it, Fork it, Break it (Safely)

Give it a spin. Share feedback. Fork it and build your own flavor.

If this project made you smile, star the repo or drop a comment.

Let’s make the terminal a little more welcoming — one echo at a time.

🌐 Built by Abhishek Dvs

If you liked this, check out more of my work and interests on my personal site:

👉 https://abhisdistro.pages.dev

I'd love to hear what you think!

DEV Community