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gerrit-public.fairphone.software / fp2-dev / platform / external / busybox / c36c2ba598a68b96e2c917b1752d45c6dd45c135 / . / docs / busybox.net / index.html
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Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]8<body text="#000000" alink="#660000" link="#660000" bgcolor="#dee2de" vlink="#660000">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]9
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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 +0000[diff] [blame]23 <a href="/"><IMG SRC="images/busybox2.jpg" alt="BusyBox" border="0" width="360" height="230"></a><BR>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]24
25
26<!-- Begin Introduction section -->
27
28
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]29<TABLE WIDTH="95%" CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 BORDER=1>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]30<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 +0000[diff] [blame]33 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]34</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 +0000[diff] [blame]40tar, 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 +0000[diff] [blame]43the 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 +0000[diff] [blame]47features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
48systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, a kernel, and an editor,
49such as nano, e3, or elvis-tiny. For a really minimal system, you can even use
50the busybox shell (not Bourne compatible, but very small and quite usable).
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]51<p>
52
53BusyBox is now maintained by
Eric Andersen537d1652001-01-25 22:00:37 +0000[diff] [blame]54<a href="http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]55Erik Andersen</a>, and its ongoing development is being sponsored by
56<a href="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</a>.
57<p>
58BusyBox is licensed under the
59<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE</a>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]60<p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]61
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]62<h3> Screenshot </h3>
63
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame^]64<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
65is now available <a href="screenshot.html"> right here</a>
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]66
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]67<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +0000[diff] [blame]68BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]69To subscribe, go and visit <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]70
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]71<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
72
73<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
74 <A NAME="news">
75 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]76 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]77 </B></BIG>
78 </A>
79</TD></TR>
80<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
81
82<ul>
83
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame^]84 <li> <b>15 March 2001 -- BusyBox 0.50 released</b>
85 <br>
86
87 This release adds several new applets including ifconfig, route, pivot_root, stty,
88 and tftp, and also fixes tons of bugs. Tab completion in the
89 shell is now working very well, and the shell's environment variable
90 expansion was fixed. Tons of other things were fixed or made
91 smaller. For a fairly complete overview, see the
92 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
93 <p>
94 lash (the busybox shell) is still with us, fixed up a bit so it
95 now behaves itself quite nicely. It really is quite usable as
96 long as you don't expect it to provide Bourne shell grammer.
97 Standard things like pipes, redirects, command line editing, and
98 environment variable expansion work great. But we have found that
99 this shell, while very usable, does not provide an extensible
100 framework for adding in full Bourne shell behavior. So the first order of
101 business as we begin working on the next BusyBox release will be to merge in the new shell
102 currently in progress at
103 <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry Doolittle's website</a>.
104
105
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]106 <li> <b>27 January 2001 -- BusyBox 0.49 released</b>
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]107 <br>
108
109 Several new applets, lots of bug fixes, cleanups, and many smaller
110 things made nicer. Several cleanups and improvements to the shell.
111 For a list of the most interesting changes
112 you might want to look at the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
113 <p>
114 Special thanks go out to Matt Kraai and Larry Doolittle for all their
115 work on this release, and for keeping on top of things while I've been
116 out of town.
117 <p>
118 <em>Special Note</em><br>
119
120 BusyBox 0.49 was supposed to have replaced lash, the BusyBox
121 shell, with a new shell that understands full Bourne shell/Posix shell grammer.
122 Well, that simply didn't happen in time for this release. A new
123 shell that will eventually replace lash is already under
124 construction. This new shell is being developed by Larry
125 Doolittle, and could use all of our help. Please see the work in
126 progress on <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry's website</a>
127 and help out if you can. This shell will be included in the next
128 release of BusyBox.
129
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]130 <li> <b>13 December 2000 -- BusyBox 0.48 released</b>
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]131 <br>
132
133 This release fixes lots and lots of bugs. This has had some very
134 rigorous testing, and looks very, very clean. The usual tar
135 update of course: tar no longer breaks hardlinks, tar -xzf is
136 optionally supported, and the LRP folks will be pleased to know
137 that 'tar -X' and 'tar --exclude' are both now in. Applets are
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]138 now looked up using a binary search making lash (the busybox
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]139 shell) much faster. For the new debian-installer (for Debian
140 woody) a .udeb can now be generated.
141 <p>
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]142 The curious can get a list of some of the more interesting changes by reading
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]143 the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
144 <p>
145 Many thanks go out to the many many people that have contributed to
146 this release, especially Matt Kraai, Larry Doolittle, and Kent Robotti.
147
148
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]149 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]150 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]151 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 +0000[diff] [blame]152</ul>
153
154
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]155<!-- Begin Download section -->
156
157<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
158 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
159 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]160 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]161</TD></TR>
162<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
163<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]164
165 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]166 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]167
168 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
169 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
170
171 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]172 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
173 anonymous
174 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
175 for those that are actively contributing there is even
176 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]177
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]178</ul>
179
180
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]181<!-- Begin Docs section -->
182
183<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
184 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
185 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]186 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]187</TD></TR>
188<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
189Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
190<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]191 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
192 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
193 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
194 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
195 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
196 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]197 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
198 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame^]199 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]200 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000[diff] [blame]201 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
202 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
203 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]204</ul>
205
206
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]207<!-- Begin Links section -->
208
209<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
210 <A NAME="links">
211 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]212 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]213 </B></BIG>
214 </A>
215</TD></TR>
216<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
217
218<ul>
219
220 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
221 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
222 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
223 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
224 <p>
225
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000[diff] [blame]226 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]227 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
228 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame^]229 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
230 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
231 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
232 <p>
233
234 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uCLibc</a>
235 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
236 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
237 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
238 BusyBox. to create very small embedded systems.
239 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]240
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]241 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
242 <p>
243
244 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
245 <p>
246
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]247 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
248 <p>
249
250</ul>
251
252
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]253<!-- Begin Projects section -->
254
255<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
256 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
257 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]258 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]259</TD></TR>
260<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
261
262<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
263listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
264
265<ul>
266 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
267 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
268 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
269 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
270 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
271 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
272 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
273 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
274 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
275 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
276 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
277 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
278 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
279 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
280 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]281 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame^]282 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
283 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
284 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000[diff] [blame]285
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]286</ul>
287
288<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
289you.
290
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]291
292
293<!-- End of Table -->
294
295</TD></TR>
296</TABLE>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]297
298
299
300<!-- Footer -->
301<HR>
302<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
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304 <TD>
305 <font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
306 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
307 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
308 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000, Erik Andersen.
309 </font>
310 </TD>
311
312 <TD>
313 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=88 height=32
314 src="images/anim.written.in.vi.gif"
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324 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
325 src="images/ltbutton2.jpg" alt="Linux Today"></a>
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327
328 <TD>
329 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
330 src="images/sdsmall.gif" alt="Slashdot"></a>
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332
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334 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
335 src="images/fm.mini.jpg" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
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337
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339</TABLE>
340
341
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]342</CENTER>
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