1 The following document includes a continuous description of the current
2 commands, functions and utilities included in the busybox.
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12 BusyBox 0.38, Functions and the Arguments they Support
15 New Apps that have been added to BusyBox since this document was written:
16 ping, hostname, mkfifo, free, tail, du, tee, head, sort, uniq, lsmod, rmmod, fbset, and loadacm.
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27 Display file contents to standard output.
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38 chmod [-R] Mode,[Mode] file
40 Change file access permissions (mode) of one or more files.
42 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,
58 s Set user (or group) ID
60 t Sticky bit file cannot be removed by other
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73 chown [option] owner[group]file
75 Change owner and (or) group of file to owner and (or) group.
77 Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change an owner.
79 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories, applying
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94 chgrp [option] newgroup file
96 Change group of file or files to new group name or ID number located in /etc/group.
98 Only the current owner or a priveleged user may change the group name or ID
100 -R Follows the directory tree from the current location thru all sub-directories,
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115 chroot NEWROOT [Command...] (System Admin Command)
117 Run command with root directory set to NEWROOT. Only the current owner or a priveleged
119 user may use this command.
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140 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
146 cp [option] fileA fileB
148 Copy fileA to fileB or fileA to directory maintaining fileA name.
150 -a archive Maintain file attributes whenever possible. Same as -dpR
152 -d no dereference Maintain hard link relationships between fileA and fileB.
154 No dereference of symbolic links.
156 -p maintain file Maintain all file attributes and information including owner
158 attributes group permissions and time information.
160 -R recursive Copies directories recursively
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172 date [option [+format] [date]
174 date [option] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.SS]]
176 Display the current system date and time.
178 -R RFC-822 string Output an RFC-822 compliant date string.
180 -s set DATE Set date where date is entered in MMDDhhmm etc. format.
182 -u universal Print or set Coordinated Universal Time.
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195 dd [if=name] [of=name] [bs=n] [count=n]
198 Copy a file, converting and formatting according to options. Most useful when copying from
200 physical input and output devices.
202 if=fileA (instead of standard input)
204 of=fileB (instead of standard output)
206 bs=n Read and write N Bytes at a time.
208 count=n Copy only n input blocks.
210 Bytes may be suffixed by k for x1024, b for x512 and w for x2.
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225 Display filesystem, number of blocks used, number of blocks available, number of blocks in use,
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241 dmesg [-c] [-n level] [-s bufsize] (System Admin Command)
244 Display system control messages. Stored in the kernel ring buffer are all messages since the
246 last system boot, or the most recent if the buffer had been full.
249 -c Clear buffer after printing messages.
251 -n level Set the level of system message to be displayed on the console.
253 -s bufsize Display the size of the kernel ring buffer.
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266 find [PATH] [EXPRESSION]
268 Search for files in the current directory, and all subdirectories for patterns that match
270 expression. Expressions may consist of the following.
272 -follow Dereference symbolic links.
274 -name PATTERN Find files that match PATTERN. Metacharacters should be escaped or
278 -print Print full file name, followed by a newline, to standard out.
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293 Change foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN.
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307 Deallocate unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN.
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319 fsck.minix [-larvsmf] /dev/name
321 Perform a consistency check for minix filesystems.
325 -r Perform interactive repairs.
327 -a Perform automatic repairs
331 -s Output superblock information
333 -m Activates minix-like "mode not cleared" warnings.
335 -f Force file system check.
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346 mkfs.minix [-c | -l filename ] [-nXX] [-iXX] /dev/name [blocks]
348 Make a minix file system.
350 -c Check device for bad blocks.
352 -n [ 14|30 ] Specify max length of filenames.
354 -i Specify number of inodes for filesystem.
358 Read the bad blocks list from filename.
360 -v Make a minix version 2 filesystem.
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372 grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE]
374 Search for PATTERN in each FILE or from standard input.
376 -h Suppress prefixing filename on output.
378 -i Ignore case distinctions.
380 -n Print line number with output lines.
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394 The parent of all processes. Only to be run by the kernel.
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406 kill [ -s sigspec | -signum | -sigspec ] [pid | job ] or
408 kill -l [ exitstatus ]
410 Currently no information help page for this command
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422 ln [option] TARGET... LINK_NAME|DIRECTORY
424 Create a link named LINK_NAME or DIRECTORY to TARGET.
426 -s Make symbolic links instead of hard links.
428 -f Remove existing destination files.
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440 ls [ -1acdelnpuxACF ] [FILENAMES]
442 List contents of directories.
444 -1 Single entry per column of output.
446 -a All files including hidden files beginning with a ..
448 -c Files are listed by status change time.
450 -d List directories, not there contents.
452 -e List both full date and full time
454 -l List in long format including permissions, owner, size
456 modification time etc.
458 -n Similar to -l, except use group ID and user ID instead
460 of owner and group names.
462 -p Directories are marked with a /.
464 -u Display files sorted by file access time.
466 -x Display files across the screen in rows.
468 -A Display hidden and all other files except . and ...
470 -C (Default, display files in columns)
472 -F Tag files by type by appending:
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495 mkdir [OPTION] directory
497 Create directories if they do not already exist. You must have write permission to create
499 directories. Default mode can be modified by users umask.
501 -m Used to set permission mode. (See chmod description)
503 -p Make parent directories if they don't already exist. Return error code if
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518 mknod NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR
520 Make block or character special files.
523 b: Make a block (buffered) device.
524 c or u: Make a character (un-buffered) device.
525 p: Make a named pipe. Major and minor are ignored for named pipes.
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536 mkswap [-c] [ -v0|-v1 ] device [block-count]
538 Prepare a disk partition to be used as a swap partition.
540 -c Check for read-ability.
542 -v0 Make version 0 swap [max 128 megs]
544 -v1 Make version 1 swap [big |] default for
550 Number of blocks to use. (Default is the entire
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567 Display file one screen page at a time.
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580 mount [flags] device directory [-o options, more options ]
582 Mount a filesystem for file access.
584 -a Mount all file systems in fstab.
588 async/sync: Writes are asynchronous/synchronous.
590 dev/nodev: Allow use of special device files
594 exec/noexec: Allow use of executable files
598 suid/nosuid: Allow set-user-id-root programs
602 remount: Remount a currently-mounted filesystem
606 ro/rw: Mount for read-only/read-write.
608 (There are more flags specific to each filesystem.
610 See the written documentation for those.)
612 -r Mount the filesystem read only.
616 Specify the filesystem type.
618 -w Mount for reading and writing default
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636 Move fileA to fileB. (Renames fileA to fileB)
638 Move fileA to dirA (Moves fileA into dirA)
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652 Report process status. No options are currently supported.
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666 Print working directory
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680 Reboot system. No options are currently supported.
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694 Remove or unlink the files.
696 -f Remove existing destinations. Never prompt.
698 -r or -R Remove contents of directories recursively.
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709 rmdir [OPTION] ... directory
711 Remove directories if they are empty.
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722 Usage: sed [-n] -e script [file...]
724 Allowed sed scripts come in the following form:
727 where address ADDR can be:
728 NUMBER Match specified line number
730 /REGEXP/ Match specified regexp
731 (! inverts the meaning of the match)
734 s/regexp/replacement/[igp]
735 which attempt to match regexp against the pattern space
736 and if successful replaces the matched portion with replacement.
739 which appends TEXT after the pattern space
741 -e add the script to the commands to be executed
742 -n suppress automatic printing of pattern space
744 This version of sed matches full regular expresions.
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768 tar -[cxtvOf] [tarFileName] [file]
770 Create, extract or list files from a tar file.
782 f=tarfile or "-" for standard input
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796 Start swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.
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810 Stop swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.
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824 Write all buffered filesystem blocks to disk.
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836 touch [-c] file [file...]
838 Update the last modified date on given file(s).
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852 A null command that returns a successful 0 exit status code. (See false)
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866 A null command that returns an unsuccessful or non-zero exit status.
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880 Print certain system information. With no option, same as -s.
882 -a Display all information
884 -m Display machine hardware type.
886 -n Display machine network node hostname.
888 -r Display OS release
892 -p Display Host processor type.
894 -v Display OS Version.
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906 umount [flags] filesystem | directory
908 Unmounts designated filesystem previously mounted on device.
910 -a Unmount all file systems.
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924 cvs update [options] files
926 Incorporates recent changes from the repository into files in your working directory. No
928 options are currently supported.
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942 Usage: zcat [OPTION]... FILE
944 Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-').
945 (When invoked as zcat, defaults to having -c turned on)
948 -c Write output to standard output
949 -t Test compressed file integrity
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960 gunzip (Same as zcat, but without the "-c" option.)
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972 gzip [OPTION]... FILE
974 Compress FILE with maximum compression.
975 When FILE is -, reads standard input. Implies -c.
978 -c Write output to standard output instead of FILE.gz
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991 No information available with --help.
996 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1004 No information available with --help
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1018 No information available with --help
1024 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________