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30 <td class="c1">BUSYBOX</td>
33 <a href="/"><img src="images/busybox1.png" alt="BusyBox"
34 border="0" width="164" height="116"></a><br>
35 <!-- Begin Introduction section -->
38 <table width="95%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="4" border=
41 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name= "intro"><big>
42 <b>The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux</b>
47 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
48 BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities
49 into a single small executable. It provides minimalist
50 replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU
51 fileutils, shellutils, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally
52 have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins;
53 however, the options that are included provide the expected
54 functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.
55 BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any
56 small or embedded system.
58 <p>BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and
59 limited resources in mind. It is also extremely modular
60 so you can easily include or exclude commands (or
61 features) at compile time. This makes it easy to
62 customize your embedded systems. To create a working
63 system, just add /dev, /etc, and a kernel.</p>
65 <p>BusyBox is maintained by <a href=
66 "http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">Erik
67 Andersen</a>, and licensed under the <a href=
68 "http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL
69 PUBLIC LICENSE</a>.</p>
73 <p>Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of
74 BusyBox is now available <a href=
75 "screenshot.html">right here</a>.</p>
77 <h3>Mailing List Information</h3>
78 BusyBox has a <a href="/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>.<br>
79 To subscribe, go and visit <a href="/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
81 Before asking questions on the mailing list
82 you should probably first search the mailing list archives...
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91 <!-- Begin Latest News section -->
96 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
97 "news"><big><b>Latest News</b></big></a></td>
101 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
105 <li><b>30 July 2003 -- BusyBox 1.0.0-pre2 released</b><p>
107 Here goes another pre release for the new BusyBox stable
108 series. The last prerelease (pre1) was given quite a lot of
109 testing (thanks everyone!) which has helped turn up a number of
110 bugs, and these problems have now been fixed.
114 Highlights of -pre2 include updating the 'ash' shell to sync up
115 with the Debian 'dash' shell, a new 'hdparm' applet was added,
116 init again supports pivot_root, The 'reboot' 'halt' and
117 'poweroff' applets can now be used without using busybox init.
118 an ifconfig buffer overflow was fixed, losetup now allows
119 read-write loop devices, uClinux daemon support was added, the
120 'watchdog', 'fdisk', and 'kill' applets were rewritten, there were
121 tons of doc updates, and there were many other bugs fixed.
124 If you have submitted a patch and it is not included in this
125 release and Erik has not emailed you explaining why your patch
126 was rejected, it is safe to say that he has lost your patch.
127 That happens sometimes. Please re-submit your patch to the
128 BusyBox mailing list.
131 The point of the "-preX" versions is to get a larger group of
132 people and vendors testing, so any problems that turn up can be
133 fixed prior to the final 1.0.0 release. The main feature that
134 is still still on the TODO list before the final BusyBox 1.0.0
135 release is adding module support for the new 2.6.x kernels. If
136 necessary, a -pre3 BusyBox release will happen on August 6th.
137 Hopefully (i.e. unless some horrible catastrophic problem
138 turns up) the final BusyBox 1.0.0 release will be ready by
142 As usual you can <a href="downloads">download busybox here</a>.
143 You don't really need to bother with the
144 <a href="downloads/Changelog">changelog</a>, as the changes
145 vs the stable version are way too extensive to easily enumerate.
146 But you can take a look if you really want too.
154 <li><b>Old News</b><br>
155 For the old news, visit <a href="oldnews.html">the
156 old news page</a>.</li>
162 <!-- Begin Sponsors section -->
164 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
165 "sponsors"><big><b>Sponsors</b></big></a></td>
169 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
170 Please visit our sponsors and thank them for their
171 support! They have provided money for equipment and
172 bandwidth. Next time you need help with a project,
173 consider these fine companies!
177 <li><a href="http://www.penguru.net">Penguru Consulting</a><br>
178 Custom development for embedded Linux systems and multimedia platforms
181 <li><a href="http://opensource.se/">opensource.se</a><br>
182 Embedded open source consulting in Europe.
185 <li><a href="http://www.codepoet-consulting.com">Codepoet Consulting</a><br>
186 Custom Linux, embedded Linux, BusyBox, and uClibc
191 Several individuals have also contributed. If you have
192 already contributed and would like your name added
193 here, just let me know. If you would like to be a
194 BusyBox sponsor, email <a href=
195 "mailto:andersen@codepoet.org">Erik</a>.
199 <!-- Begin Download section -->
202 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
203 "download"><big><b>Download</b></big></a></td>
207 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
208 Source for the latest release can always be
209 downloaded from <a href="downloads">http://www.busybox.net/downloads</a>.
212 BusyBox now has <b>two</b> CVS trees. The "busybox-stable" tree
213 contains the older 0.60.x stable series. The "busybox" tree contains
214 the latest 1.0.0-preX development version of busybox.<br>
217 <li><a href= "downloads/snapshots/">Daily Snapshots of the the latest
218 stable, and the latest development CVS source trees can be found right here</a>.
220 </li><li><a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">Click here to browse the CVS
221 tree for the 1.0.0-preX development version of BusyBox</a>
222 </li><li><a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox.stable/">Click here to browse
223 the CVS tree for the stable 0.60.x version of BusyBox</a>.
224 </li><li>Anonymous <a href="cvs_anon.html">CVS
225 access</a> is available.
226 </li><li>For those that are actively contributing there is
227 even <a href="cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.</li>
232 <!-- Begin Docs section -->
234 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
235 "docs"><big><b>Documentation</b></big></a></td>
239 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
240 Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
244 "downloads/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>. This is a
245 list of the all the available commands in BusyBox
246 with complete usage information and examples of how
247 to use each app. I have spent a <em>lot</em> of time
248 updating these docs and trying to make them fairly
249 comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
250 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.</li>
252 <li><a href="downloads/README">README</a>. This is
253 the README file included in the busybox source
256 <li>If you need more help, the BusyBox <a href=
257 "lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is a good place to
263 <!-- Begin Links section -->
265 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
266 "links"><big><b>Important Links</b></big></a></td>
270 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
272 <li><a href="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">Free
273 Software from Bruce Perens</a><br>
274 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up
275 to 0.26 were written by <a href=
276 "mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is
277 his BusyBox website.</li>
280 "http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">Freshmeat
281 AppIndex record for BusyBox</a></li>
284 "http://tinylogin.busybox.net/">TinyLogin</a> is a
285 nice embedded tool for handling authentication,
286 changing passwords, and similar tasks which nicely
287 complements BusyBox.</li>
289 <li><a href="http://udhcp.busybox.net/">udhcp</a> is
290 a tiny dhcp client and/or server which is ideal for
291 embedded systems.</li>
293 <li><a href="http://www.uclibc.org/">uClibc</a> is a
294 C library for embedded systems. You can actually
295 statically link a "Hello World" application under x86
296 that only takes 4k (as opposed to 200k under GNU
297 libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely
298 with BusyBox to create very small embedded Linux systems.
304 <!-- Begin Projects section -->
306 <td bgcolor="#CCCCC0" align="center"><a name=
307 "projects"><big><b>Products/Projects Using BusyBox</b></big></a></td>
311 <td bgcolor="#EEEEE0">
312 <p>I know of the following products and/or projects
313 that use BusyBox -- listed in the order I happen to add
314 them to the web page:</p>
319 <li><a href="/cgi-bin/cvsweb/buildroot/">buildroot</a> a configurable
320 means for building your own busybox/uClibc based system systems.
323 "http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">
324 Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
326 </li><li><a href="http://redhat.com/">Red Hat 7.2
330 "http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/source/rootdsks/">
331 Slackware Installer</a>
333 </li><li><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux install/boot CDs</a>
334 </li><li><a href="http://www.mandrake.com/">The Mandrake installer</a>
336 </li><li><a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux
339 </li><li><a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
342 "http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
344 </li><li><a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix
348 "http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux
351 </li><li><a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
353 </li><li><a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS
356 </li><li><a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your
360 "http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
363 "http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
365 </li><li><a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran -
366 VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
368 </li><li><a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make
372 "http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on
376 "http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/">Floppyfw</a>
378 </li><li><a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/">Midori
380 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html">
381 Article on Midori Linux</a> on <a href=
382 "http://www.wired.com">Wired</a>. Quote from Erik at
384 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html">
387 </li><li><a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">Linux Terminal
391 "http://www.devil-linux.org/">Devil-Linux</a>
394 "http://dutnux.sourceforge.net/">DutNux</a>
397 "http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/mindi/">Mindi</a>
400 "http://www.tzi.de/~pharao90/ttylinux">ttylinux</a>
402 </li><li><a href="http://www.coyotelinux.com/">Coyote Linux</a>
404 </li><li><a href="http://www.partimage.org/">Partition
407 </li><li><a href="http://www.fli4l.de/">fli4l the on(e)-disk-router</a>
409 </li><li><a href="http://tinfoilhat.cultists.net/">Tinfoil
412 </li><li><a href="http://familiar.handhelds.org/">Familiar Linux</a> - a linux distribution for handheld computers
413 </li><li><a href="http://rescuecd.sourceforge.net/">Timo's Rescue CD Set</a>
414 </li><li><a href="http://sf.net/projects/netstation/">Netstation</a>
415 </li><li><a href="http://www.fiwix.org/">GNU/Fiwix Operating System</a>
416 </li><li><a href="http://www.softcraft.com/">Generations Linux</a>
417 </li><li><a href="http://systemimager.org/relatedprojects/">SystemImager / System Installation Suite</a>
418 </li><li><a href="http://www.bablokb.de/gendist/">GENDIST distribution generator</a>
419 </li><li><a href="http://diet-pc.sourceforge.net/">DIET-PC embedded Linux thin client distribution</a>
420 </li><li><a href="http://byzgl.sourceforge.net/">BYZantine Gnu/Linux</a>
421 </li><li><a href="http://dban.sourceforge.net/">Darik's Boot and Nuke</a>
422 </li><li><a href="http://www.timesys.com/">TimeSys real-time Linux</a>
423 </li><li><a href="http://movix.sf.net/">MoviX</a> -- boots from CD and automatically plays every video file on the CD
424 </li><li><a href="http://katamaran.sourceforge.net">katamaran</a>Linux, X11, xfce windowmanager, based on BusyBox
425 </li><li><a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/simplygnustep">Prometheus SimplyGNUstep</a>
426 </li><li><a href="http://www.renyi.hu/~ekho/lowlife/">lowlife</a>A documentation project on how to make your own uClibc-based systems and floppy.
427 </li><li><a href="http://metadistros.hispalinux.es/">Metadistros</a>a project to allow you easily make Live-CD distributions.
428 </li><li><a href="http://salvare.sourceforge.net/">Salvare</a>More Linux than tomsrtbt but less than Knoppix, aims to provide a useful workstation as well as a rescue disk.
429 </li><li><a href="http://www.stresslinux.org/">stresslinux</a>minimal linux distribution running from a bootable cdrom or via PXE.
430 </li><li><a href="http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/">thinstation</a>convert standard PCs into full-featured diskless thinclients.
431 </li><li><a href="http://www.uhulinux.hu/">UHU-Linux Hungary</a>
433 </li><li><a href="http://tuxscreen.net">Tuxscreen Linux Phone</a>
434 </li><li><a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
435 </li><li><a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
436 </li><li><a href="http://www.isilver-inc.com/">I-Silver Linux appliance servers</a>
437 </li><li><a href="http://zaurus.sourceforge.net/">Sharp Zaurus PDA</a>
438 </li><li><a href="http://www.cyclades.com/">Cyclades-TS and other Cyclades products</a>
439 </li><li><a href="http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/wireless/wbr-g54.htm">Buffalo WBR-G54 wireless router</a>
440 </li><li><a href="http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201522&pcount=&Product_Id=136493">Belkin 54g Wireless DSL/Cable Gateway Router</a>
441 </li><li><a href="http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=508">Linksys WRT54G - Wireless-G Broadband Router</a>
442 </li><li><a href="http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/topics/sbtopic_005_truemobile.htm">Dell TrueMobile 1184</a>
447 <p>Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and
448 I'd be happy to link to you. <!-- End of Table -->
458 <td class="c2">Mail all comments, insults, suggestions
459 and bribes to <a href="mailto:andersen@codepoet.org">Erik
461 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999-2002, Erik
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