path: root/docs/CommandList

The following document includes a continuous description of the current
commands, functions and utilities included in the busybox.

John Cooper       
johnc@lineo.com

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                    BusyBox 0.38, Functions and the Arguments they Support 


New Apps that have been added to BusyBox since this document was written:
    ping, hostname, mkfifo, free, tail, du, tee, head, sort, uniq, lsmod, rmmod, fbset, and loadacm.



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cat [file]        
              	Display file contents to standard output.




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chmod [-R] Mode,[Mode] file

              	Change file access permissions (mode) of one or more files.

	-R    	Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,

		applying changes.

              	Mode =  u  User

                        g  Group

                        o  Other

                        a  All

	      	Permission =  	r  Read

                            	w  Write

                            	s  Set user (or group) ID

                            	t  Sticky bit file cannot be removed by other

                               	   than the owner.




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chown [option] owner[group]file

 		Change owner and (or) group of file to owner and (or) group.	

                Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change an owner.

	-R 	Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories, applying

		changes.





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chgrp [option] newgroup file

 		Change group of file or files  to new group name or ID number located in /etc/group.

                Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change the group name or ID 

	-R  	Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,

		applying changes.






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chroot NEWROOT [Command...]                  (System Admin Command)

		Run command with root directory set to NEWROOT.  Only the current owner or a priveleged	

                user may use this command.





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clear

		Clear screen.






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cp [option] fileA fileB

	Copy fileA to fileB or fileA to directory maintaining fileA name.

		-a	archive		Maintain file attributes whenever possible. Same as -dpR

		-d	no dereference	Maintain hard link relationships between fileA and fileB.

 					No dereference of symbolic links.

		-p	maintain file	Maintain all file attributes and information including owner 

                        attributes      group permissions and time information.

		-R      recursive	Copies directories recursively





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date [option [+format] [date]

date [option] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.SS]]

	Display the current system date and time.

		-R	RFC-822 string	Output an RFC-822 compliant date string.

		-s	set DATE	Set date where date is entered in MMDDhhmm etc. format.

		-u	universal	Print or set Coordinated Universal Time.





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dd [if=name] [of=name] [bs=n] [count=n]


	Copy a file, converting and formatting according to options.  Most useful when copying from

	physical input and output devices.

		if=fileA  (instead of standard input)

		of=fileB  (instead of standard output)

		bs=n      Read and write N Bytes at a time.

		count=n   Copy only n input blocks.

	Bytes may be suffixed by k for x1024, b for x512 and w for x2.





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df


	Display filesystem, number of blocks used, number of blocks available, number of blocks in use,

        and mount point.
        





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dmesg [-c] [-n level] [-s bufsize]            (System Admin Command)


	Display system control messages.  Stored in the kernel ring buffer are all messages since the

        last system boot, or the most recent if the buffer had been full.


		-c		Clear buffer after printing messages.
		
		-n level 	Set the level of system message to be displayed on the console.

		-s bufsize      Display the size of the kernel ring buffer.
        




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find [PATH] [EXPRESSION]

	Search for files in the current directory, and all subdirectories for patterns that match

	expression.  Expressions may consist of the following.

		-follow		Dereference symbolic links.

		-name PATTERN	Find files that match PATTERN. Metacharacters should be escaped or  

				quoted.

		-print		Print full file name, followed by a newline, to standard out.






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chvt N

	Change foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN.





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deallocvt N

	Deallocate unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN.





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fsck.minix [-larvsmf] /dev/name

	Perform a consistency check for minix filesystems.

		-l	List filenames.

		-r	Perform interactive repairs. 

		-a	Perform automatic repairs

		-v	Verbose

		-s	Output superblock information

		-m	Activates minix-like "mode not cleared" warnings.

		-f 	Force file system check.




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mkfs.minix [-c | -l filename ] [-nXX] [-iXX] /dev/name [blocks]

	Make a minix file system.

		-c	Check device for bad blocks.

		-n	[ 14|30 ] Specify max length of filenames.

		-i	Specify number of inodes for filesystem.

		-l filename

			Read the bad blocks list from filename.

		-v	Make a minix version 2 filesystem.





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grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE]

	Search for PATTERN in each FILE or from standard input.

		-h	Suppress prefixing filename on output.

		-i	Ignore case distinctions.

		-n	Print line number with output lines.





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init

	The parent of all processes.  Only to be run by the kernel.





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kill [ -s sigspec | -signum | -sigspec ] [pid | job ]  or

kill -l [ exitstatus ]

	Currently no information help page for this command





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ln [option] TARGET... LINK_NAME|DIRECTORY

	Create a link named LINK_NAME or DIRECTORY to TARGET.

		-s	Make symbolic links instead of hard links.

		-f	Remove existing destination files.





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ls [ -1acdelnpuxACF ] [FILENAMES]

	List contents of directories.

		-1 	Single entry per column of output.

		-a	All files including hidden files beginning with a ..	

		-c	Files are listed by status change time.

		-d	List directories, not there contents.

		-e	(no information on this option)

		-l	List in long format including permissions, owner, size

			modification time etc.	

		-n	Similar to -l, except use group ID and user ID instead

			of owner and group names.

		-p	Directories are marked with a /.

		-u	Display files sorted by file access time.

		-x	Display files across the screen in rows.

		-A	Display hidden and all other files except . and ...

		-C	(Default, display files in columns)

		-F	Tag files by type by appending:

				/ to directories
	
				* to executables

				@ to symbolic links

				| to fifo's

				= to sockets






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mkdir [OPTION] directory

	Create directories if they do not already exist.  You must have write permission to create

	directories. Default mode can be modified by users umask.

		-m	Used to set permission mode. (See chmod description)

		-p	Make parent directories if they don't already exist.  Return error code if

			they already exist.






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mknod NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR

Make block or character special files.

TYPEs include:
        b:      Make a block (buffered) device.
        c or u: Make a character (un-buffered) device.
        p:      Make a named pipe. Major and minor are ignored for named pipes.



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mkswap [-c] [ -v0|-v1 ] device [block-count]

	Prepare a disk partition to be used as a swap partition.

		-c	Check for read-ability.

		-v0	Make version 0 swap [max 128 megs]

		-v1	Make version 1 swap [big |] default for

			kernels > 2.1.117.

		block-count

			Number of blocks to use. (Default is the entire 

			partition).






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more [file]

	Display file one screen page at a time.




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mount [flags]

mount [flags] device directory [-o options, more options ]

	Mount a filesystem for file access.

		-a	Mount all file systems in fstab.

		-o option

			async/sync:  	Writes are asynchronous/synchronous.

			dev/nodev:   	Allow use of special device files

				     	/disallow them.

			exec/noexec:	Allow use of executable files

					/disallow them.

			suid/nosuid:	Allow set-user-id-root programs

					/disallow them.

			remount:	Remount a currently-mounted filesystem

					changing it's flags.

			ro/rw:		Mount for read-only/read-write.

			(There are more flags specific to each filesystem.

			 See the written documentation for those.)

		-r	Mount the filesystem read only.

		-t FILESYSTEM TYPE

			Specify the filesystem type.

		-w	Mount for reading and writing default

		




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mv fileA fileB    or

mv fileA dirA

	Move fileA to fileB.  (Renames fileA to fileB)

	Move fileA to dirA    (Moves fileA into dirA)





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ps

	Report process status.  No options are currently supported.





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pwd

	Print working directory  





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reboot

	Reboot system.  No options are currently supported.





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rm [option] file

	Remove or unlink the files.

		-f	Remove existing destinations.  Never prompt.

		-r or -R  Remove contents of directories recursively.




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rmdir [OPTION] ... directory

	Remove directories if they are empty.




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sed
	Usage: sed [-n] -e script [file...]

	Allowed sed scripts come in the following form:
		'ADDR [!] COMMAND'

		where address ADDR can be:
		  NUMBER    Match specified line number
		  $         Match last line
		  /REGEXP/  Match specified regexp
		  (! inverts the meaning of the match)

		and COMMAND can be:
		  s/regexp/replacement/[igp]
		     which attempt to match regexp against the pattern space
		     and if successful replaces the matched portion with replacement.

		  aTEXT
		     which appends TEXT after the pattern space
	Options:
	-e      add the script to the commands to be executed
	-n      suppress automatic printing of pattern space

	This version of sed matches full regular expresions.



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sleep N

	Pause for N seconds.





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tar -[cxtvOf] [tarFileName] [file]

	Create, extract or list files from a tar file.

		c=create
		
		x=extract

		t=list contents

		v=verbose

		O=extract to stdout

		f=tarfile or "-" for standard input





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swapon device

	Start swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.





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swapoff device

	Stop swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.





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sync

	Write all buffered filesystem blocks to disk.





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touch [-c] file [file...]

	Update the last modified date on given file(s).





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true

	A null command that returns a successful 0 exit status code. (See false)





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false

	A null command that returns an unsuccessful or non-zero exit status.





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uname [option]

	Print certain system information.  With no option, same as -s.

		-a	Display all information

		-m	Display machine hardware type.

		-n	Display machine network node hostname.

		-r	Display OS release

		-s	Display OS Name.

		-p	Display Host processor type.

		-v	Display OS Version.





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umount [flags] filesystem | directory

	Unmounts designated filesystem previously mounted on device.

		-a	Unmount all file systems.





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update

cvs update [options] files

	Incorporates recent changes from the repository into files in your working directory.  No 

	options are currently supported.





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zcat [options] files

	Usage: zcat [OPTION]... FILE

	Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-').
	(When invoked as zcat, defaults to having -c turned on)

	Options:
		-c      Write output to standard output
		-t      Test compressed file integrity




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gunzip  (Same as zcat, but without the "-c" option.)





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gzip [OPTION]... FILE

	Compress FILE with maximum compression.
	When FILE is -, reads standard input.  Implies -c.

	Options:
		-c      Write output to standard output instead of FILE.gz



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loadfont   

	No information available with --help.




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loadkmap

	No information available with --help





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linuxrc

	No information available with --help





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