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Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +00008<body text="#000000" alink="#660000" link="#660000" bgcolor="#dee2de" vlink="#660000">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +00009
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18 <B>B&nbsp;u&nbsp;s&nbsp;y&nbsp;B&nbsp;o&nbsp;x</B>
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Matt Kraai9ba0daf2001-01-31 01:59:46 +000023 <a href="/"><IMG SRC="images/busybox2.jpg" alt="BusyBox" border="0" width="360" height="230"></a><BR>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000024
25
26<!-- Begin Introduction section -->
27
28
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000029<TABLE WIDTH="95%" CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 BORDER=1>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000030<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
31 <A NAME="intro"> <BIG><B>
32 The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000033 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000034</TD></TR>
35<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
36
37BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single
38small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities
39you usually find in fileutils, shellutils, findutils, textutils, grep, gzip,
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000040tar, etc. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or
41embedded system. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than
42their full featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000043the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.
44<p>
45BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind.
46It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000047features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +000048systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a kernel.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000049<p>
50
Eric Andersen886b8422001-09-08 20:47:19 +000051BusyBox is maintained by
Eric Andersen537d1652001-01-25 22:00:37 +000052<a href="http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">
Eric Andersen886b8422001-09-08 20:47:19 +000053Erik Andersen</a>, and licensed under the
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000054<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE</a>.
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000055<p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000056
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000057
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000058<h3> Screenshot </h3>
59
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +000060<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000061is now available <a href="screenshot.html">right here</a>.
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000062
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000063
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000064<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +000065BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000066To subscribe, go and visit <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000067
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000068<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
69
70<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
71 <A NAME="news">
72 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000073 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000074 </B></BIG>
75 </A>
76</TD></TR>
77<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
78
79<ul>
80
Eric Andersen31b35a12001-08-23 22:05:55 +000081 <li> <b>23 August 2001 -- BusyBox 0.60.1 released</b>
82 <br>
83
84 This is a relatively minor bug fixing release that fixes
85 up the bugs that have shown up in the stable release in
86 the last few weeks. Fortunately, nothing <em>too</em>
87 serious has shown up. This release only fixes bugs -- no
88 new features, no new applets. So without further ado,
89 here it is. Come and get it.
90 <p>
91 The
92 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> has all
93 the details. As usual BusyBox 0.60.1 can be downloaded from
94 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
95 <p>Have Fun!
96 <p>
97
98
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +000099 <li> <b>2 August 2001 -- BusyBox 0.60.0 released</b>
100 <br>
101 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
102 BusyBox 0.60.0. I have personally tested this release with libc5, glibc,
103 and <a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a> on
104 x86, ARM, and powerpc using linux 2.2 and 2.4, and I know a number
105 of people using it on everything from ia64 to m68k with great success.
106 Everything seems to be working very nicely now, so getting a nice
107 stable bug-free(tm) release out seems to be in order. This releases fixes
108 a memory leak in syslogd, a number of bugs in the ash and msh shells, and
109 cleans up a number of things.
110
111 <p>
112
113 Those wanting an easy way to test the 0.60.0 release with uClibc can
114 use <a href="http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/">User-Mode Linux</a>
115 to give it a try by downloading and compiling
116 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/buildroot.tar.gz">buildroot.tar.gz</a>.
117 You don't have to be root or reboot your machine to run test this way.
118 Preconfigured User-Mode Linux kernel source is also on oss.lineo.com.
119 <p>
120 Another cool thing is the nifty <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/tutorial/index.html">
121 BusyBox Tutorial</a> contributed by K Computing. This requires
122 a ShockWave plugin (or standalone viewer), so you may want to grab the
123 the GPLed shockwave viewer from <a href="http://www.swift-tools.com/Flash/flash-0.4.10.tgz">here</a>
124 to view the tutorial.
125 <p>
126
127 Finally, In case you didn't notice anything odd about the
128 version number of this release, let me point out that this release
129 is <em>not</em> 0.53, because I bumped the version number up a
130 bit. This reflects the fact that this release is intended to form
131 a new stable BusyBox release series. If you need to rely on a
132 stable version of BusyBox, you should plan on using the stable
133 0.60.x series. If bugs show up then I will release 0.60.1, then
134 0.60.2, etc... This is also intended to deal with the fact that
135 the BusyBox build system will be getting a major overhaul for the
136 next release and I don't want that to break products that people
137 are shipping. To avoid that, the new build system will be
138 released as part of a new BusyBox development series that will
139 have some not-yet-decided-on odd version number. Once things
Matt Kraai8aa0b622001-08-02 20:34:24 +0000140 stabilize and the new build system is working for everyone, then
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +0000141 I will release that as a new stable release series.
142
143 <p>
144 The
145 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> has all
146 the details. As usual BusyBox 0.60.0 can be downloaded from
147 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
148 <p>Have Fun!
149 <p>
150
151
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000152 <li> <b>7 July 2001 -- BusyBox 0.52 released</b>
153 <br>
154
155 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
156 BusyBox 0.52 (the "new-and-improved rock-solid release"). This
157 release is the result of <em>many</em> hours of work and has tons
158 of bugfixes, optimizations, and cleanups. This release adds
Eric Andersend0b4d3d2001-07-07 08:47:21 +0000159 several new applets, including several new shells (such as hush, msh,
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000160 and ash).
161
162 <p>
163 The
164 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> covers
165 some of the more obvious details, but there are many many things that
166 are not mentioned, but have been improved in subtle ways. As usual,
167 BusyBox 0.52 can be downloaded from
168 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
169 <p>Have Fun!
170 <p>
171
172
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000173 <li> <b>10 April 2001 - Graph of Busybox Growth </b>
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000174 <br>
175 The illustrious Larry Doolittle has made a PostScript chart of the growth
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000176 of the Busybox tarball size over time. It is available for downloading /
177 viewing <a href= "busybox-growth.ps"> right here</a>.
178
179 <p> (Note that while the number of applets in Busybox has increased, you
180 can still configure Busybox to be as small as you want by selectively
181 turning off whichever applets you don't need.)
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000182 <p>
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000183
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000184
185
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000186 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000187 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000188 For the old news, visit <a href="http://busybox.lineo.com/oldnews.html">the old news page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000189</ul>
190
191
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000192<!-- Begin Download section -->
193
194<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
195 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
196 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000197 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000198</TD></TR>
199<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
200<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000201
202 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000203 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000204
205 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
206 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
207
208 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000209 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
210 anonymous
211 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
212 for those that are actively contributing there is even
213 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000214
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000215</ul>
216
217
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000218<!-- Begin Docs section -->
219
220<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
221 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
222 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000223 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000224</TD></TR>
225<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
226Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
227<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000228 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
229 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
230 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
231 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
232 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
233 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000234 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
235 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000236 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000237 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000238 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
239 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
240 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000241</ul>
242
243
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000244<!-- Begin Links section -->
245
246<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
247 <A NAME="links">
248 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000249 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000250 </B></BIG>
251 </A>
252</TD></TR>
253<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
254
255<ul>
256
257 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
258 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
259 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
260 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
261 <p>
262
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000263 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000264 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
265 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000266 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
267 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
268 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
269 <p>
270
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000271 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000272 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
273 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
274 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000275 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000276 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000277
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000278 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
279 <p>
280
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000281</ul>
282
283
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000284<!-- Begin Projects section -->
285
286<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
287 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
288 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000289 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000290</TD></TR>
291<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
292
293<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
294listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
295
296<ul>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000297 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
298 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
299 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
300 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
301 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
302 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
303 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
304 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
305 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
306 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
307 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
308 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
309 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
310 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000311 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000312 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
313 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000314
315 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
316 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
317 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
318 Erik at the top of <a href=
319 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
320 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000321
Eric Andersen583e3ca2001-06-12 22:04:40 +0000322 <li> <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">Linux Terminal Server Project</a>
323 <li> <a href="http://www.devil-linux.org/">Devil-Linux</a>
Eric Andersen28d0ac12001-08-27 19:22:44 +0000324 <li> <a href="http://dutnux.sourceforge.net/">DutNux</a>
Matt Kraaib67adb02001-09-24 22:44:52 +0000325 <li> <a href="http://www.cachier.com/">Cachier</a>
Eric Andersen9c937212001-10-19 00:46:06 +0000326 <li> <a href="http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/mindi/">Mindi</a>
Eric Andersenbdfd0d72001-10-24 05:00:29 +0000327
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000328</ul>
329
330<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
331you.
332
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000333
334
335<!-- End of Table -->
336
337</TD></TR>
338</TABLE>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000339
340
341
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347 <font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
348 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
Eric Andersenf6ecacc2001-09-08 20:52:33 +0000349 <a href="mailto:andersen@codepoet.org">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000350 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000351 </font>
352 </TD>
353
354 <TD>
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000355 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
356 src="images/written.in.vi.png"
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000357 alt="This site created with the vi editor"></a>
358 </TD>
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Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000361 <a href="http://www.gimp.org/"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
362 src="images/gfx_by_gimp.png" alt="Graphics by GIMP"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000363 </TD>
364
365 <TD>
366 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000367 src="images/ltbutton2.png" alt="Linux Today"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000368 </TD>
369
370 <TD>
371 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000372 src="images/sdsmall.png" alt="Slashdot"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000373 </TD>
374
375 <TD>
376 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000377 src="images/fm.mini.png" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000378 </TD>
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