Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Building: |
| 2 | ========= |
| 3 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 4 | The BusyBox build process is similar to the Linux kernel build: |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 5 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 6 | make menuconfig # This creates a file called ".config" |
| 7 | make # This creates the "busybox" executable |
| 8 | make install # or make PREFIX=/path/from/root install |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 10 | The full list of configuration and install options is available by typing: |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 12 | make help |
Matt Kraai | 6e91f69 | 2001-05-10 14:12:20 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 13 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 14 | Quick Start: |
| 15 | ============ |
Matt Kraai | 6e91f69 | 2001-05-10 14:12:20 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 16 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | The easy way to try out BusyBox for the first time, without having to install |
| 18 | it, is to enable all features and then use "standalone shell" mode with a |
| 19 | blank command $PATH: |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 21 | make allyesconfig |
| 22 | make |
| 23 | PATH= ./busybox ash |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 24 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 25 | Standalone shell mode causes busybox's built-in command shell to run |
| 26 | any built-in busybox applets directly, without looking for external |
| 27 | programs by that name. Supplying an empty command path (as above) means |
| 28 | the only commands busybox can find are the built-in ones. |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | b8faa7e | 2005-10-07 17:44:14 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 29 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 30 | (Note that the standalone shell requires the /proc directory to function.) |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 31 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 32 | Configuring Busybox: |
| 33 | ==================== |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 34 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 35 | Busybox is optimized for size, but enabling the full set of functionality |
| 36 | still results in a fairly large executable (more than 1 megabyte when |
| 37 | statically linked). To save space, busybox can be configured with only the |
| 38 | set of applets needed for each environment. The minimal configuration, with |
| 39 | all applets disabled, produces a 4k executable. (It's useless, but very small.) |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 40 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | The manual configurators "make config" and "make menuconfig" modify the |
| 42 | existing configuration. Quick ways to get starting configurations include |
| 43 | "make allyesconfig" (enables almost all options), "make allnoconfig" (disables |
| 44 | all options), "make allbaseconfig" (enables all applets but disables all |
| 45 | optional features), and "make defconfig" (reset to defaults). |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 46 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 47 | Configuring BusyBox produces a file ".config", which can be saved for future |
| 48 | use. |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 49 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 50 | Installing Busybox: |
| 51 | =================== |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 52 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 53 | Busybox is a single executable that can behave like many different commands, |
| 54 | and BusyBox uses the name it was invoked under to determine the desired |
| 55 | behavior. (Try "mv busybox ls" and then "./ls -l".) |
Bernhard Reutner-Fischer | 5c071bc | 2005-10-05 07:40:46 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 56 | |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 57 | Installing busybox consists of creating symlinks (or hardlinks) to the busybox |
| 58 | binary for each applet enabled in busybox, and making sure these symlinks are |
| 59 | in the shell's command $PATH. Running "make install" creates these symlinks, |
| 60 | or "make install-hardlinks" creates hardlinks instead (useful on systems with |
Rob Landley | d4f15e9 | 2005-12-02 18:27:39 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 61 | a limited number of inodes). This install process uses the file |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 62 | "busybox.links" (created by make), which contains the list of enabled applets |
| 63 | and the path at which to install them. |
| 64 | |
Rob Landley | d4f15e9 | 2005-12-02 18:27:39 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 65 | Installing links to busybox is not always necessary. The special applet name |
| 66 | "busybox" (or with any optional suffix, such as "busybox-static") uses the |
| 67 | first argument to determine which applet to behave as, for example |
| 68 | "./busybox cat LICENSE". (Running the busybox applet with no arguments gives |
| 69 | a list of all enabled applets.) The standalone shell can also call busybox |
| 70 | applets without links to busybox under other names in the filesystem. You can |
| 71 | also configure a standaone install capability into the busybox base applet, |
| 72 | and then install such links at runtime with one of "busybox --install" (for |
| 73 | hardlinks) or "busybox --install -s" (for symlinks). |
Rob Landley | ff9f2f6 | 2005-10-09 20:18:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 74 | |
| 75 | Building out-of-tree: |
| 76 | ===================== |
| 77 | |
| 78 | By default, the BusyBox build puts its temporary files in the source tree. |
| 79 | Building from a read-only source tree, or to building multiple |
| 80 | configurations from the same source directory, requires the ability to |
| 81 | put the temporary files somewhere else. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | To build out of tree, use the O=$BUILDPATH option during the configuration |
| 84 | step, as in: |
| 85 | |
| 86 | make O=/some/empty/directory allyesconfig |
| 87 | cd /some/empty/directory |
| 88 | make |
| 89 | make PREFIX=. install |
| 90 | |
| 91 | (Note, O= requires an absolute path.) |
| 92 | |
| 93 | Alternately, cd to the empty directory and do this instead: |
| 94 | |
| 95 | make top_srcdir=/path/to/source -f /path/to/source/Makefile allyesconfig |
| 96 | make |
| 97 | make install |
| 98 | |
| 99 | More Information: |
| 100 | ================= |
| 101 | |
| 102 | Se also the busybox FAQ, under the questions "How can I get started using |
| 103 | BusyBox" and "How do I build a BusyBox-based system?" The BusyBox FAQ is |
| 104 | available from http://www.busybox.net/FAQ.html or as the file |
| 105 | docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html in this tarball. |