=head1 SYNTAX
- BusyBox <function> [arguments...] # or
+ busybox <applet> [arguments...] # or
- <function> [arguments...] # if symlinked
+ <applet> [arguments...] # if symlinked
=head1 DESCRIPTION
you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox
generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the
options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very
-much like their GNU counterparts. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX
-environment for any small or embedded system.
+much like their GNU counterparts.
BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind.
It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or
features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a Linux kernel.
+BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded
+system.
BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the
components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make
-menuconfig' for select the functionality that you wish to enable. The run
+menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run
'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration.
After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install
-BusyBox. This will install the '/bin/busybox' binary, and will also create
-symlinks pointing to the '/bin/busybox' binary for each utility that you
-compile into BusyBox. By default, 'make install' will place these symlinks
-into the './_install' directory, unless you have defined 'PREFIX', thereby
-specifying some alternative location (i.e., 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install').
-If you wish to install using hardlinks, rather than the default of using
-symlinks, you can use 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install-hardlinks' instead.
+BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory
+specified by CONFIG_PREFIX. CONFIG_PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox,
+or you can specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a
+command line like 'make CONFIG_PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled
+any applet installation scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will
+also be installed in the location pointed to by CONFIG_PREFIX.
=head1 USAGE
that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there
is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large
number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in
-utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations.
+utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common
+operations.
-You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing the command as an argument on the
+You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the
command line. For example, entering
/bin/busybox ls
=head1 COMMON OPTIONS
-Most BusyBox commands support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime
+Most BusyBox applets support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime
description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has
been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available.
=head1 COMMANDS
-Currently defined functions include:
-
- addgroup, adduser, adjtimex, ar, arping, ash, awk, basename, bunzip2,
- busybox, bzcat, cal, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, chvt, clear,
- cmp, cp, cpio, crond, crontab, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, delgroup,
- deluser, df, dirname, dmesg, dos2unix, dpkg, dpkg-deb, du, dumpkmap,
- dumpleases, dutmp, echo, egrep, env, expr, false, fbset, fdflush,
- fdformat, fgrep, find, fold, free, freeramdisk, fsck.minix, ftpget,
- ftpput, getopt, getty, grep, gunzip, gzip, halt, hdparm, head, hexdump,
- hostid, hostname, httpd, hush, hwclock, id, ifconfig, ifdown, ifup,
- inetd, init, insmod, ip, ipcalc, iplink, iproute, iptunnel, kill,
- killall, klogd, lash, length, linuxrc, ln, loadfont, loadkmap, logger,
- login, logname, logread, losetup, ls, lsmod, makedevs, md5sum, mesg,
- minit, mkdir, mkfifo, mkfs.minix, mknod, mkswap, mktemp, modprobe,
- more, mount, msh, msvc, mt, mv, nameif, nc, netstat, nslookup, od,
- openvt, passwd, patch, pidfilehack, pidof, ping, ping6, pivot_root,
- poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, rdate, readlink, realpath, reboot, renice,
- reset, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, rpm, rpm2cpio, run-parts, sed,
- setkeycodes, sha1sum, sleep, sort, start-stop-daemon, strings, stty,
- su, sulogin, swapoff, swapon, sync, syslogd, tail, tar, tee, telnet,
- telnetd, test, tftp, time, top, touch, tr, traceroute, true, tty,
- udhcpc, udhcpd, umount, uname, uncompress, uniq, unix2dos, unzip,
- uptime, usleep, uudecode, uuencode, vconfig, vi, vlock, watch,
- watchdog, wc, wget, which, who, whoami, xargs, yes, zcat, [
-
-=over 4
-
-=head1 LIBC NSS
-
-GNU Libc (glibc) uses the Name Service Switch (NSS) to configure the behavior
-of the C library for the local environment, and to configure how it reads
-system data, such as passwords and group information. This is implemented
-using an /etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file, and using one or more of the
-/lib/libnss_* libraries. BusyBox tries to avoid using any libc calls that make
-use of NSS. Some applets, such as login and su, will use libc functions that
-usually require NSS.
-
-If you enable CONFIG_USE_BB_PWD_GRP, BusyBox will use internal functions to
-directly access the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files without
-using NSS. This may allow you to run your system without the need for
-installing any of the NSS configuration files and libraries.
-
-When used with glibc, the BusyBox 'networking' applets will similarly require
-that you install at least some of the glibc NSS stuff (in particular,
-/etc/nsswitch.conf, /lib/libnss_dns*, /lib/libnss_files*, and /lib/libresolv*).
-
-Shameless Plug: As an alternative one could use a C library such as uClibc. In
-addition to making your system significantly smaller, uClibc does not need or
-use any NSS support files or libraries.
-
+Currently available applets include:
projects / platform / upstream / busybox.git / blobdiff