1 The following document includes a continuous description of the current
2 commands, functions and utilities included in the busybox.
7 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
12 BusyBox 0.38, Functions and the Arguments they Support
17 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
24 Display file contents to standard output.
29 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
35 chmod [-R] Mode,[Mode] file
37 Change file access permissions (mode) of one or more files.
39 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,
55 s Set user (or group) ID
57 t Sticky bit file cannot be removed by other
64 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
70 chown [option] owner[group]file
72 Change owner and (or) group of file to owner and (or) group.
74 Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change an owner.
76 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories, applying
84 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
91 chgrp [option] newgroup file
93 Change group of file or files to new group name or ID number located in /etc/group.
95 Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change the group name or ID
97 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,
106 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
112 chroot NEWROOT [Command...] (System Admin Command)
114 Run command with root directory set to NEWROOT. Only the current owner or a priveleged
116 user may use this command.
122 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
137 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
143 cp [option] fileA fileB
145 Copy fileA to fileB or fileA to directory maintaining fileA name.
147 -a archive Maintain file attributes whenever possible. Same as -dpR
149 -d no dereference Maintain hard link relationships between fileA and fileB.
151 No dereference of symbolic links.
153 -p maintain file Maintain all file attributes and information including owner
155 attributes group permissions and time information.
157 -R recursive Copy to the current location and all subdirectories in the tree.
163 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
169 date [option [+format] [date]
171 date [option] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.SS]]
173 Display the current system date and time.
175 -R RFC-822 string Output an RFC-822 compliant date string.
177 -s set DATE Set date where date is entered in MMDDhhmm etc. format.
179 -u universal Print or set Coordinated Universal Time.
185 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
192 dd [if=name] [of=name] [bs=n] [count=n]
195 Copy a file, converting and formatting according to options. Most useful when copying from
197 physical input and output devices.
199 if=fileA (instead of standard input)
201 of=fileB (instead of standard output)
203 bs=n Read and write N Bytes at a time.
205 count=n Copy only n input blocks.
207 Bytes may be suffixed by k for x1024, b for x512 and w for x2.
213 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
222 Display filesystem, number of blocks used, number of blocks available, number of blocks in use,
231 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
238 dmesg [-c] [-n level] [-s bufsize] (System Admin Command)
241 Display system control messages. Stored in the kernel ring buffer are all messages since the
243 last system boot, or the most recent if the buffer had been full.
246 -c Clear buffer after printing messages.
248 -n level Set the level of system message to be displayed on the console.
250 -s bufsize Display the size of the kernel ring buffer.
256 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
263 find [PATH] [EXPRESSION]
265 Search for files in the current directory, and all subdirectories for patterns that match
267 expression. Expressions may consist of the following.
269 -follow Dereference symbolic links.
271 -name PATTERN Find files that match PATTERN. Metacharacters should be escaped or
275 -print Print full file name, followed by a newline, to standard out.
282 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
290 Change foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN.
296 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
304 Deallocate unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN.
310 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
316 fsck.minix [-larvsmf] /dev/name
318 Perform a consistency check for minix filesystems.
322 -r Perform interactive repairs.
324 -q Perform automatic repairs
328 -s Output superblock information
330 -m Activates minix-like "mode not cleared" warnings.
332 -f Force file system check.
337 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
343 mkfs.minix [-c | -l filename ] [-nXX] [-iXX] /dev/name [blocks]
345 Make a minix file system.
347 -c Check device for bad blocks.
349 -n [ 14|30 ] Specify max length of filenames.
351 -i Specify number of inodes for filesystem.
355 Read the bad blocks list from filename.
357 -v Make a minix version 2 filesystem.
363 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
369 grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE]
371 Search for PATTERN in each FILE or from standard input.
373 -h Suppress prefixing filename on output.
375 -i Ignore case distinctions.
377 -n Print line number with output lines.
383 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
391 The parent of all processes. Only to be run by the kernel.
397 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
403 kill [ -s sigspec | -signum | -sigspec ] [pid | job ] or
405 kill -l [ exitstatus ]
407 Currently no information help page for this command
413 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
419 ln [option] TARGET... LINK_NAME|DIRECTORY
421 Create a link named LINK_NAME or DIRECTORY to TARGET.
423 -s Make symbolic links instead of hard links.
425 -f Remove existing destination files.
431 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
437 ls [ -1acdelnpuxACF ] [FILENAMES]
439 List contents of directories.
441 -1 Single entry per column of output.
443 -a All files including hidden files beginning with a ..
445 -c Files are listed by status change time.
447 -d List directories, not there contents.
449 -e (no information on this option)
451 -l List in long format including permissions, owner, size
453 modification time etc.
455 -n Similar to -l, except use group ID and user ID instead
457 of owner and group names.
459 -p Directories are marked with a /.
461 -u Display files sorted by file access time.
463 -x Display files across the screen in rows.
465 -A Display hidden and all other files except . and ...
467 -C (Default, display files in columns)
469 -F Tag files by type by appending:
486 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
492 mkdir [OPTION] directory
494 Create directories if they do not already exist. You must have write permission to create
496 directories. Default mode can be modified by users umask.
498 -m Used to set permission mode. (See chmod description)
500 -p Make parent directories if they don't already exist. Return error code if
509 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
515 mknod (Segmentation Fault when executing this command)
517 (No embedix information available for this command.)
523 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
530 mkswap [-c] [ -v0|-v1 ] device [block-count]
532 Prepare a disk partition to be used as a swap partition.
534 -c Check for read-ability.
536 -v0 Make version 0 swap [max 128 megs]
538 -v1 Make version 1 swap [big |] default for
544 Number of blocks to use. (Default is the entire
553 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
561 Display file one screen page at a time.
566 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
574 mount [flags] device directory [-o options, more options ]
576 Mount a filesystem for file access.
578 -a Mount all file systems in fstab.
582 async/sync: Writes are asynchronous/synchronous.
584 dev/nodev: Allow use of special device files
588 exec/noexec: Allow use of executable files
592 suid/nosuid: Allow set-user-id-root programs
596 remount: Remount a currently-mounted filesystem
600 ro/rw: Mount for read-only/read-write.
602 (There are more flags specific to each filesystem.
604 See the written documentation for those.)
606 -r Mount the filesystem read only.
610 Specify the filesystem type.
612 -w Mount for reading and writing default
619 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
630 Move fileA to fileB. (Renames fileA to fileB)
632 Move fileA to dirA (Moves fileA into dirA)
638 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
646 Report process status. No options are currently supported.
652 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
660 Print working directory
666 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
674 Reboot system. No options are currently supported.
680 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
688 Remove or unlink the files.
690 -f Remove existing destinations. Never prompt.
692 -r or -R Remove contents of directories recursively.
697 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
703 rmdir [OPTION] ... directory
705 Remove directories if they are empty.
710 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
718 Sed scripts are subject to the following format: 's/regexp/replacement/[gp]' which attempts to
720 to match regexp against the pattern space and if successful, replaces the matched portion with
722 replacement -r or -R Remove contents of directories recursively.
727 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
733 rmdir [OPTION] ... directory
735 Remove directories if they are empty.
741 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
747 rmdir [OPTION] ... directory
749 Remove directories if they are empty.
754 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
762 Sed scripts are subject to the following format: 's/regexp/replacement/[gp]' which attempts to
764 match regexp against the pattern space and if successful, replaces the matched portion with
766 replacement. This version of sed matches
768 full regular expressions.
770 -e Add the script to the commands to be executed.
772 -n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space..
774 -e Add the script to the commands to be executed.
776 -n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space..
778 -e Add the script to the commands to be executed.
780 -n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space.
786 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
800 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
806 tar -[cxtvOf] [tarFileName] [file]
808 Create, extract or list files from a tar file.
820 f=tarfile or "-" for standard input
826 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
834 Start swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.
840 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
848 Stop swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.
854 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
862 Write all buffered filesystem blocks to disk.
868 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
874 touch [-c] file [file...]
876 Update the last modified date on given file(s).
882 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
890 A null command that returns a successful 0 exit status code. (See false)
896 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
904 A null command that returns an unsuccessful or non-zero exit status.
910 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
918 Print certain system information. With no option, same as -s.
920 -a Display all information
922 -m Display machine hardware type.
924 -n Display machine network node hostname.
926 -r Display OS release
930 -p Display Host processor type.
932 -v Display OS Version.
938 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
944 umount [flags] filesystem | directory
946 Unmounts designated filesystem previously mounted on device.
948 -a Unmount all file systems.
954 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
962 cvs update [options] files
964 Incorporates recent changes from the repository into files in your working directory. No
966 options are currently supported.
972 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
980 Uncompress file from gzip, gunzip or compress command or standard input if file is '-'.
982 -c Write output to standard output.
988 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
994 gunzip (Same as zcat)
1000 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1013 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1022 No information available with --help.
1027 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1035 No information available with --help
1041 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1049 No information available with --help
1055 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________