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@@ -1,119 +1,201 @@ Please see the LICENSE file for details on copying and usage. -Please refer to the INSTALL file for instructions on how to build. - -BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single -small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities -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 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. See the file INSTALL -for details. ----------------- - -Supported architectures: +What is busybox: + + BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single + small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the + utilities you usually find in bzip2, coreutils, file, findutils, gawk, grep, + inetutils, modutils, net-tools, procps, sed, shadow, sysklogd, sysvinit, tar, + util-linux, and vim. The utilities in BusyBox often have fewer options than + their full-featured cousins; however, the options that are included provide + the expected functionality and behave very much like their larger + counterparts. + + BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in + mind, both to produce small binaries and to reduce run-time memory usage. + Busybox is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude + commands (or features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize + embedded systems; to create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a + Linux kernel. Busybox (usually together with uClibc) has also been used as + a component of "thin client" desktop systems, live-CD distributions, rescue + disks, installers, and so on. + + BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small system, + both embedded environments and more full featured systems concerned about + space. Busybox is slowly working towards implementing the full Single Unix + Specification V3 (http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/), but isn't + there yet (and for size reasons will probably support at most UTF-8 for + internationalization). We are also interested in passing the Linux Test + Project (http://ltp.sourceforge.net). - BusyBox in general will build on any architecture supported by gcc. - Kernel module loading for 2.2 and 2.4 Linux kernels is currently - limited to ARM, CRIS, H8/300, x86, ia64, x86_64, m68k, MIPS, PowerPC, - S390, SH3/4/5, Sparc, v850e, and x86_64 for 2.4.x kernels. For 2.6.x - kernels, kernel module loading support should work on all architectures. +---------------- +Using busybox: -Supported C Libraries: + BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the + components and options you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make + config' or 'make menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to + enable. (See 'make help' for more commands.) - uClibc and glibc are supported. People have been looking at newlib and - dietlibc, but they are currently considered unsupported, untested, or - worse. Linux-libc5 is no longer supported -- you should probably use uClibc - instead if you want a small C library. + The behavior of busybox is determined by the name it's called under: as + "cp" it behaves like cp, as "sed" it behaves like sed, and so on. Called + as "busybox" it takes the second argument as the name of the applet to + run (I.E. "./busybox ls -l /proc"). -Supported kernels: + The "standalone shell" mode is an easy way to try out busybox; this is a + command shell that calls the builtin applets without needing them to be + installed in the path. (Note that this requires /proc to be mounted, if + testing from a boot floppy or in a chroot environment.) - Full functionality requires Linux 2.2.x or better. A large fraction of the - code should run on just about anything. While the current code is fairly - Linux specific, it should be fairly easy to port the majority of the code - to support, say, FreeBSD or Solaris, or Mac OS X, or even Windows (if you - are into that sort of thing). + The build automatically generates a file "busybox.links", which is used by + 'make install' to create symlinks to the BusyBox binary for all compiled in + commands. Use the PREFIX environment variable to specify where to install + the busybox binary and symlink forest. (i.e., 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install', + or 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install-hardlinks' if you prefer hard links.) ---------------- -Getting help: +Downloading the current source code: -When you find you need help, you can check out the BusyBox mailing list -archives at http://busybox.net/lists/busybox/ or even join -the mailing list if you are interested. + Source for the latest released version, as well as daily snapshots, can always + be downloaded from ----------------- + http://busybox.net/downloads/ -Bugs: + You can browse the up to the minute source code and change history online. + The "stable" series is at: -If you find bugs, please submit a detailed bug report to the BusyBox mailing -list at busybox@mail.busybox.net. A well-written bug report should include a -transcript of a shell session that demonstrates the bad behavior and enables -anyone else to duplicate the bug on their own machine. The following is such -an example: + http://www.busybox.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/branches/busybox_1_00_stable/busybox/ - To: busybox@mail.busybox.net - From: diligent@testing.linux.org - Subject: /bin/date doesn't work + And the development series is at: - Package: BusyBox - Version: 1.00 + http://www.busybox.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/ - When I execute BusyBox 'date' it produces unexpected results. - With GNU date I get the following output: + Anonymous SVN access is available. For instructions, check out: - $ date - Fri Oct 8 14:19:41 MDT 2004 + http://busybox.net/subversion.html - But when I use BusyBox date I get this instead: + For those that are actively contributing and would like to check files in, + see: - $ date - illegal instruction + http://busybox.net/developer.html - I am using Debian unstable, kernel version 2.4.25-vrs2 on a Netwinder, - and the latest uClibc from CVS. Thanks for the wonderful program! + The developers also have a bug and patch tracking system + (http://bugs.busybox.net) although posting a bug/patch to the mailing list + is generally a faster way of getting it fixed, and the complete archive of + what happened is the subversion changelog. - -Diligent +---------------- -Note the careful description and use of examples showing not only what BusyBox -does, but also a counter example showing what an equivalent GNU app does. Bug -reports lacking such detail may never be fixed... Thanks for understanding. +getting help: + + when you find you need help, you can check out the busybox mailing list + archives at http://busybox.net/lists/busybox/ or even join + the mailing list if you are interested. ---------------- -Downloads: +bugs: -Source for the latest released version, as well as daily snapshots, can always -be downloaded from - http://busybox.net/downloads/ + if you find bugs, please submit a detailed bug report to the busybox mailing + list at busybox@busybox.net. a well-written bug report should include a + transcript of a shell session that demonstrates the bad behavior and enables + anyone else to duplicate the bug on their own machine. the following is such + an example: ----------------- + to: busybox@busybox.net + from: diligent@testing.linux.org + subject: /bin/date doesn't work -CVS: + package: busybox + version: 1.00 -BusyBox now has its own publicly browsable SVN tree at: - http://busybox.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/ + when i execute busybox 'date' it produces unexpected results. + with gnu date i get the following output: -Anonymous SVN access is available. For instructions, check out: - http://busybox.net/subversion.html + $ date + fri oct 8 14:19:41 mdt 2004 -For those that are actively contributing there is even SVN write access: - http://busybox.net/developer.html + but when i use busybox date i get this instead: + + $ date + illegal instruction + + i am using debian unstable, kernel version 2.4.25-vrs2 on a netwinder, + and the latest uclibc from cvs. thanks for the wonderful program! + + -diligent + + note the careful description and use of examples showing not only what + busybox does, but also a counter example showing what an equivalent app + does (or pointing to the text of a relevant standard). Bug reports lacking + such detail may never be fixed... Thanks for understanding. + +---------------- + +Portability: + + Busybox is developed and tested on Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, compiled + with gcc (the unit-at-a-time optimizations in version 3.4 and later are + worth upgrading to get, but older versions should work), and linked against + uClibc (0.9.27 or greater) or glibc (2.2 or greater). In such an + environment, the full set of busybox features should work, and if + anything doesn't we want to know about it so we can fix it. + + There are many other environments out there, in which busybox may build + and run just fine. We just don't test them. Since busybox consists of a + large number of more or less independent applets, portability is a question + of which features work where. Some busybox applets (such as cat and rm) are + highly portable and likely to work just about anywhere, while others (such as + insmod and losetup) require recent Linux kernels with recent C libraries. + + Earlier versions of Linux and glibc may or may not work, for any given + configuration. Linux 2.2 or earlier should mostly work (there's still + some support code in things like mount.c) but this is no longer regularly + tested, and inherently won't support certain features (such as long files + and --bind mounts). The same is true for glibc 2.0 and 2.1: expect a higher + testing and debugging burden using such old infrastructure. (The busybox + developers are not very interested in supporting these older versions, but + will probably accept small self-contained patches to fix simple problems.) + + Some environments are not recommended. Early versions of uClibc were buggy + and missing many features: upgrade. Linking against libc5 or dietlibc is + not supported and not interesting to the busybox developers. (The first is + obsolete and has no known size or feature advantages over uClibc, the second + has known bugs that its developers have actively refused to fix.) Ancient + Linux kernels (2.0.x and earlier) are similarly uninteresting. + + In theory it's possible to use Busybox under other operating systems (such as + MacOS X, Solaris, Cygwin, or the BSD Fork Du Jour). This generally involves + a different kernel and a different C library at the same time. While it + should be possible to port the majority of the code to work in one of + these environments, don't be suprised if it doesn't work out of the box. If + you're into that sort of thing, start small (selecting just a few applets) + and work your way up. + + Shaun Jackman has recently (2005) ported busybox to a combination of newlib + and libgloss, and some of his patches have been integrated. This platform + may join glibc/uclibc and Linux as a supported combination with the 1.1 + release, but is not supported in 1.0. + +Supported hardware: + + BusyBox in general will build on any architecture supported by gcc. We + support both 32 and 64 bit platforms, and both big and little endian + systems. + + Under 2.4 Linux kernels, kernel module loading was implemented in a + platform-specific manner. Busybox's insmod utility has been reported to + work under ARM, CRIS, H8/300, x86, ia64, x86_64, m68k, MIPS, PowerPC, S390, + SH3/4/5, Sparc, v850e, and x86_64. Anything else probably won't work. + + The module loading mechanism for the 2.6 kernel is much more generic, and + we believe 2.6.x kernel module loading support should work on all + architectures supported by the kernel. ---------------- -Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to: +Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to the busybox +maintainer: Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org> - |