1 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [...]>
2 <book id="BusyBoxDocumentation">
4 <title>BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux</title>
8 This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
9 it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
10 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
11 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
16 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
17 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
18 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
19 See the GNU General Public License for more details.
23 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
24 License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
25 Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
30 For more details see the file COPYING in the source
31 distribution of Linux.
37 <chapter id="Introduction">
38 <title>Introduction</title>
41 BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single
42 small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the
43 utilities you usually find in fileutils, shellutils, findutils, textutils,
44 grep, gzip, tar, etc. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment
45 for any small or embedded system. The utilities in BusyBox generally have
46 fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options
47 that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much
48 like their GNU counterparts.
52 BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in
53 mind. It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude
54 commands (or features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize
55 your embedded systems. To create a working system, just add a kernel, a
56 shell (such as ash), and an editor (such as elvis-tiny or ae).
61 <title>How to use BusyBox</title>
62 <sect1 id="How to use BusyBox">
67 BusyBox <function> [arguments...] # or
73 <function> [arguments...] # if symlinked
78 <sect1 id="Invoking BusyBox">
80 When you create a link to BusyBox for the function you wish to use, when
81 BusyBox is called using that link it will behave as if the command itself
97 will cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled
102 You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing the command as an argument on the
103 command line. For example, entering
113 will also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'.
118 <sect1 id="Common options">
120 Most BusyBox commands support the <emphasis>--help</emphasis> option to provide
121 a terse runtime description of their behavior.
126 <chapter id="Commands">
127 <title>BusyBox Commands</title>
128 <sect1 id="Available BusyBox Commands">
129 <title>Available BusyBox Commands</title>
131 Currently defined functions include:
135 ar, basename, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, chvt, clear,
136 cp, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, df, dirname, dmesg, du,
137 dumpkmap, dutmp, echo, false, fbset, fdflush, find, free,
138 freeramdisk, fsck.minix, grep, gunzip, gzip, halt, head,
139 hostid, hostname, id, init, insmod, kill, killall, length, ln,
140 loadacm, loadfont, loadkmap, logger, logname, ls, lsmod,
141 makedevs, mkdir, mkfifo, mkfs.minix, mknod, mkswap, mktemp,
142 more, mount, mt, mv, nc, nslookup, ping, poweroff, printf, ps,
143 pwd, reboot, renice, rm, rmdir, rmmod, sed, setkeycodes, sh, sleep,
144 sort, swapoff, swapon, sync, syslogd, tail, tar, tee, telnet,
145 test, touch, tr, true, tty, umount, uname, uniq, update,
146 uptime, usleep, uudecode, uuencode, wc, which, whoami, yes,
155 Usage: ar [OPTION] archive [FILENAME]...
159 Extract or list files from an ar archive.
168 o Preserve original dates
172 v Verbosely list files processed
177 <sect1 id="basename">
178 <title>basename</title>
180 Usage: basename FILE [SUFFIX]
184 Strip directory path and suffixes from FILE. If specified, also removes
194 $ basename /usr/local/bin/foo
196 $ basename /usr/local/bin/
198 $ basename /foo/bar.txt .txt
212 Concatenate <literal>FILE(s)</literal> and prints them to the standard
232 Usage: chgrp [OPTION]... GROUP FILE...
236 Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP.
245 -R Change files and directories recursively
256 -r--r--r-- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
257 $ chgrp root /tmp/foo
259 -r--r--r-- 1 andersen root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
268 Usage: chmod [<emphasis>-R</emphasis>] MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
272 Change file access permissions for the specified
273 <literal>FILE(s)</literal> (or directories). Each MODE is defined by
274 combining the letters for WHO has access to the file, an OPERATOR for
275 selecting how the permissions should be changed, and a PERMISSION for
276 <literal>FILE(s)</literal> (or directories).
280 WHO may be chosen from
285 u User who owns the file
286 g Users in the file's Group
287 o Other users not in the file's group
293 OPERATOR may be chosen from
299 - Remove a permission
300 = Assign a permission
305 PERMISSION may be chosen from
312 x Execute (or access for directories)
313 s Set user (or group) ID bit
314 t Sticky bit (for directories prevents removing files by non-owners)
319 Alternately, permissions can be set numerically where the first three
320 numbers are calculated by adding the octal values, such as
332 An optional fourth digit can also be used to specify
349 -R Change files and directories recursively.
360 -rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
363 -rwxrw-r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo*
366 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
374 Usage: chown [OPTION]... OWNER[<.|:>[GROUP] FILE...
378 Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP.
387 -R Change files and directories recursively
398 -r--r--r-- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
399 $ chown root /tmp/foo
401 -r--r--r-- 1 root andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
402 $ chown root.root /tmp/foo
404 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
410 <title>chroot</title>
412 Usage: chroot NEWROOT [COMMAND...]
416 Run COMMAND with root directory set to NEWROOT.
426 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 13 00:46 /bin/ls -> /BusyBox
427 $ mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt -t minix
430 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 40816 Feb 5 07:45 /bin/ls*
442 Change the foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN
462 Usage: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST
467 or: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
472 Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple <literal>SOURCE(s)</literal> to
484 -p Preserve file attributes if possible
485 -R Copy directories recursively
494 Usage: cut [OPTION]... [FILE]...
498 Print selected fields from each input FILE to standard output.
507 -b LIST Output only bytes from LIST
508 -c LIST Output only characters from LIST
509 -d CHAR Use CHAR instead of tab as the field delimiter
510 -s Output only the lines containing delimiter
511 -f N Print only these fields
522 $ echo "Hello world" | cut -f 1 -d ' '
524 $ echo "Hello world" | cut -f 2 -d ' '
534 Usage: date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
539 or: date [OPTION] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
544 Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.
553 -R Output RFC-822 compliant date string
554 -s Set time described by STRING
555 -u Print or set Coordinated Universal Time
566 Wed Apr 12 18:52:41 MDT 2000
575 Usage: dc [EXPRESSION]
579 This is a Tiny RPN calculator that understands the
580 following operations: +, -, /, *, and, or, not, eor. If
581 no arguments are given, dc will process input from
586 The behaviour of BusyBox/dc deviates (just a little ;-)
587 from GNU/dc, but this will be remedied in the future.
604 $ echo 72 9 div 8 mul | dc
614 Usage: dd [OPTION]...
618 Copy a file, converting and formatting according to
628 if=FILE Read from FILE instead of stdin
629 of=FILE Write to FILE instead of stdout
630 bs=N Read and write N bytes at a time
631 count=N Copy only N input blocks
632 skip=N Skip N input blocks
633 seek=N Skip N output blocks
638 Numbers may be suffixed by w (x2), k (x1024), b (x512),
648 $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ram1 bs=1M count=4
655 <sect1 id="deallocvt">
656 <title>deallocvt</title>
663 Deallocate unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN.
675 Print the filesystem space used and space available.
685 Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
686 /dev/sda3 8690864 8553540 137324 98% /
687 /dev/sda1 64216 36364 27852 57% /boot
689 Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
690 /dev/sda3 8690864 8553540 137324 98% /
696 <title>dirname</title>
703 Strip non-directory suffix from NAME.
724 Usage: dmesg [OPTION]...
728 Print or control the kernel ring buffer.
737 -c Clear the ring buffer after printing
738 -n LEVEL Set the console logging level to LEVEL
739 -s BUFSIZE Query ring buffer using a buffer of BUFSIZE
748 Usage: du [OPTION]... [FILE]...
752 Summarize the disk space used for each FILE or current
753 directory. Disk space printed in units of 1k (i.e.
763 -l Count sizes many times if hard linked
764 -s Display only a total for each argument
776 12 ./kernel-patches/CVS
789 <sect1 id="dumpkmap">
790 <title>dumpkmap</title>
797 Prints out a binary keyboard translation table to standard input.
809 Dump utmp file format (pipe delimited) from FILE or
819 $ dutmp /var/run/utmp
820 8|7||si|||0|0|0|955637625|760097|0
821 2|0|~|~~|reboot||0|0|0|955637625|782235|0
822 1|20020|~|~~|runlevel||0|0|0|955637625|800089|0
823 8|125||l4|||0|0|0|955637629|998367|0
824 6|245|tty1|1|LOGIN||0|0|0|955637630|998974|0
825 6|246|tty2|2|LOGIN||0|0|0|955637630|999498|0
826 7|336|pts/0|vt00andersen|andersen|:0.0|0|0|0|955637763|0|0
835 Usage: echo [OPTION]... [ARG]...
839 Print ARGs to stdout.
848 -n Suppress trailing newline
849 -e Enable interpretation of escaped characters
850 -E Disable interpretation of escaped characters
860 $ echo "Erik is cool"
862 $ echo -e "Erik\nis\ncool"
866 $ echo "Erik\nis\ncool"
880 Return an exit code of FALSE (1).
900 Usage: fbset [OPTION]... [MODE]
904 Show and modify frame buffer device settings.
913 -h Display option summary
914 -fb DEVICE Operate on DEVICE
915 -db FILE Use FILE for mode database
916 -g XRES YRES VXRES VYRES DEPTH Set all geometry parameters
917 -t PIXCLOCK LEFT RIGHT UPPER LOWER HSLEN VSLEN Set all timing parameters
918 -xres RES Set visible horizontal resolution
919 -yres RES Set visible vertical resolution
931 # D: 78.653 MHz, H: 59.949 kHz, V: 75.694 Hz
932 geometry 1024 768 1024 768 16
933 timings 12714 128 32 16 4 128 4
935 rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
942 <title>fdflush</title>
945 Usage: fdflush DEVICE
949 Force floppy disk drive to detect disk change on DEVICE.
957 Usage: find [PATH]... [EXPRESSION]
961 Search for files in a directory hierarchy. The default
962 PATH is the current directory; default EXPRESSION is
967 EXPRESSION may consist of:
972 -follow Dereference symbolic links
973 -name PATTERN File name (leading directories removed) matches PATTERN
974 -print Print the full file name followed by a newline to stdout
984 $ find / -name /etc/passwd
998 Displays the amount of free and used system memory.
1008 total used free shared buffers
1009 Mem: 257628 248724 8904 59644 93124
1010 Swap: 128516 8404 120112
1011 Total: 386144 257128 129016
1016 <sect1 id="freeramdisk">
1017 <title>freeramdisk</title>
1020 Usage: freeramdisk DEVICE
1024 Free all memory used by the ramdisk DEVICE.
1033 $ freeramdisk /dev/ram2
1038 <sect1 id="fsck.minix">
1039 <title>fsck.minix</title>
1042 Usage: fsck.minix [OPTION]... DEVICE
1046 Perform a consistency check on the MINIX filesystem on
1056 -l List all filenames
1057 -r Perform interactive repairs
1058 -a Perform automatic repairs
1060 -s Output super-block information
1061 -m Activate MINIX-like "mode not cleared" warnings
1062 -f Force file system check.
1071 Usage: grep [OPTIONS]... PATTERN [FILE]...
1075 Search for PATTERN in each FILE or stdin.
1084 -h Suppress the prefixing filename on output
1085 -i Ignore case distinctions
1086 -n Print line number with output lines
1087 -q Be quiet. Returns 0 if result was found, 1 otherwise
1088 -v Select non-matching lines
1093 This version of grep matches full regular expressions.
1102 $ grep root /etc/passwd
1103 root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
1104 $ grep ^[rR]oo. /etc/passwd
1105 root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
1111 <title>gunzip</title>
1114 Usage: gunzip [OPTION]... FILE
1118 Uncompress FILE (or stdin if FILE is '-').
1127 -c Write output to standard output
1128 -t Test compressed file integrity
1138 $ ls -la /tmp/BusyBox*
1139 -rw-rw-r-- 1 andersen andersen 557009 Apr 11 10:55 /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar.gz
1140 $ gunzip /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar.gz
1141 $ ls -la /tmp/BusyBox*
1142 -rw-rw-r-- 1 andersen andersen 1761280 Apr 14 17:47 /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar
1151 Usage: gzip [OPTION]... FILE
1155 Compress FILE (or stdin if FILE is '-') with maximum
1156 compression to FILE.gz (or stdout if FILE is '-').
1165 -c Write output to standard output
1175 $ ls -la /tmp/BusyBox*
1176 -rw-rw-r-- 1 andersen andersen 1761280 Apr 14 17:47 /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar
1177 $ gzip /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar
1178 $ ls -la /tmp/BusyBox*
1179 -rw-rw-r-- 1 andersen andersen 554058 Apr 14 17:49 /tmp/BusyBox-0.43.tar.gz
1200 Usage: head [OPTION] FILE...
1204 Print first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output.
1205 With more than one FILE, precede each with a header
1206 giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -,
1207 read standard input.
1216 -n NUM Print first NUM lines instead of first 10
1226 $ head -n 2 /etc/passwd
1227 root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
1228 daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
1234 <title>hostid</title>
1241 Prints out a unique 32-bit identifier for the current
1242 machine. The 32-bit identifier is intended to be unique
1243 among all UNIX systems in existence.
1247 <sect1 id="hostname">
1248 <title>hostname</title>
1251 Usage: hostname [OPTION]... [HOSTNAME|-F FILE]
1255 Get or set the hostname or DNS domain name. If a
1256 hostname is given (or a file with the -F parameter), the
1257 host name will be set.
1267 -i Addresses for the hostname
1269 -F FILE Use the contents of FILE to specify the hostname
1289 Usage: id [OPTION]... [USERNAME]
1293 Print information for USERNAME or the current user.
1302 -g Print only the group ID
1303 -u Print only the user ID
1304 -r Print the real user ID instead of the effective ID (with -ug)
1315 uid=1000(andersen) gid=1000(andersen)
1328 Init is the parent of all processes.
1332 This version of init is designed to be run only by the
1337 BusyBox init doesn't support multiple runlevels. The
1338 runlevels field of the /etc/inittab file is completely
1339 ignored by BusyBox init. If you want runlevels, use
1344 BusyBox init works just fine without an inittab. If no
1345 inittab is found, it has the following default behavior:
1350 ::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
1356 If it detects that /dev/console is _not_ a serial
1357 console, it will also run:
1362 tty2::askfirst:/bin/sh
1367 If you choose to use an /etc/inittab file, the inittab
1368 entry format is as follows:
1373 <id>:<runlevels>:<action>:<process>
1380 WARNING: This field has a non-traditional
1381 meaning for BusyBox init! The id field is used
1382 by BusyBox init to specify the controlling tty
1383 for the specified process to run on. The
1384 contents of this field are appended to "/dev/"
1385 and used as-is. There is no need for this field
1386 to be unique, although if it isn't you may have
1387 strange results. If this field is left blank,
1388 it is completely ignored. Also note that if
1389 BusyBox detects that a serial console is in use,
1390 then all entries containing non-empty id fields
1391 will _not_ be run. BusyBox init does nothing
1392 with utmp. We don't need no stinkin' utmp.
1397 <title>runlevels</title>
1400 The runlevels field is completely ignored.
1405 <title>action</title>
1408 Valid actions include: sysinit, respawn,
1409 askfirst, wait, once, and ctrlaltdel.
1413 askfirst acts just like respawn, but before
1414 running the specified process it displays the
1415 line "Please press Enter to activate this
1416 console." and then waits for the user to press
1417 enter before starting the specified process.
1421 Unrecognized actions (like initdefault) will
1422 cause init to emit an error message, and then go
1423 along with its business.
1428 <title>process</title>
1431 Specifies the process to be executed and its
1437 Example /etc/inittab file:
1442 # This is run first except when booting in single-user mode.
1444 ::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS
1446 # /bin/sh invocations on selected ttys
1448 # Start an "askfirst" shell on the console (whatever that may be)
1450 # Start an "askfirst" shell on /dev/tty2
1451 tty2::askfirst:/bin/sh
1453 # /sbin/getty invocations for selected ttys
1455 tty4::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
1456 tty5::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
1458 # Example of how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal)
1460 #ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
1461 #ttyS1::respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 9600 vt100
1463 # Example how to put a getty on a modem line.
1464 #ttyS2::respawn:/sbin/getty -x0 -s 57600 ttyS2
1466 # Stuff to do before rebooting
1467 ::ctrlaltdel:/bin/umount -a -r > /dev/null 2>&1
1468 ::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/swapoff -a > /dev/null 2>&1
1474 <title>insmod</title>
1477 Usage: insmod [OPTION]... MODULE [symbol=value]...
1481 Load MODULE into the kernel.
1490 -f Force module to load into the wrong kernel version.
1491 -k Make module autoclean-able.
1493 -x Do not export externs
1502 Usage: kill [OPTION] PID...
1506 Send a signal (default is SIGTERM) to the specified
1516 -l List all signal names and numbers
1517 -SIG Send signal SIG
1528 252 root root S [apache]
1529 263 www-data www-data S [apache]
1530 264 www-data www-data S [apache]
1531 265 www-data www-data S [apache]
1532 266 www-data www-data S [apache]
1533 267 www-data www-data S [apache]
1539 <sect1 id="killall">
1540 <title>killall</title>
1543 Usage: killall [OPTION] NAME...
1547 Send a signal (default is SIGTERM) to the specified
1557 -l List all signal names and numbers
1558 -SIG Send signal SIG
1574 <title>length</title>
1577 Usage: length STRING
1581 Print the length of STRING.
1600 Usage: ln [OPTION]... TARGET FILE|DIRECTORY
1604 Create a link named FILE or DIRECTORY to the specified
1605 TARGET. You may use '--' to indicate that all following
1606 arguments are non-options.
1615 -s Make symbolic link instead of hard link
1616 -f Remove existing destination file
1626 $ ln -s BusyBox /tmp/ls
1628 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 12 18:39 ls -> BusyBox*
1633 <sect1 id="loadacm">
1634 <title>loadacm</title>
1641 Load an acm from stdin.
1650 $ loadacm < /etc/i18n/acmname
1655 <sect1 id="loadfont">
1656 <title>loadfont</title>
1663 Load a console font from stdin.
1672 $ loadfont < /etc/i18n/fontname
1677 <sect1 id="loadkmap">
1678 <title>loadkmap</title>
1685 Load a binary keyboard translation table from stdin.
1694 $ loadkmap < /etc/i18n/lang-keymap
1700 <title>logger</title>
1703 Usage: logger [OPTION]... [MESSAGE]
1707 Write MESSAGE to the system log. If MESSAGE is '-', log
1717 -s Log to stderr as well as the system log
1718 -t Log using the specified tag (defaults to user name)
1719 -p Enter the message with the specified priority
1720 This may be numerical or a ``facility.level'' pair
1735 <sect1 id="logname">
1736 <title>logname</title>
1743 Print the name of the current user.
1762 Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
1775 -a Do not hide entries starting with .
1776 -c With -l: show ctime (the time of last
1777 modification of file status information)
1778 -d List directory entries instead of contents
1779 -e List both full date and full time
1780 -l Use a long listing format
1781 -n List numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names
1782 -p Append indicator (one of /=@|) to entries
1783 -u With -l: show access time (the time of last
1785 -x List entries by lines instead of by columns
1786 -A Do not list implied . and ..
1787 -C List entries by columns
1788 -F Append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
1789 -R List subdirectories recursively
1804 <title>lsmod</title>
1811 List currently loaded kernel modules.
1815 <sect1 id="makedevs">
1816 <title>makedevs</title>
1819 Usage: makedevsf NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR FIRST LAST [s]
1823 Create a range of block or character special files.
1832 b Make a block (buffered) device
1833 c or u Make a character (un-buffered) device
1834 p Make a named pipe. MAJOR and MINOR are ignored for named pipes
1839 FIRST specifies the number appended to NAME to create
1840 the first device. LAST specifies the number of the last
1841 item that should be created. If 's' is the last
1842 argument, the base device is created as well.
1851 $ makedevs /dev/ttyS c 4 66 2 63
1852 [creates ttyS2-ttyS63]
1853 $ makedevs /dev/hda b 3 0 0 8 s
1854 [creates hda,hda1-hda8]
1860 <title>md5sum</title>
1863 Usage: md5sum [OPTION]... FILE...
1867 Print or check MD5 checksums.
1876 -b Read files in binary mode
1877 -c Check MD5 sums against given list
1878 -t Read files in text mode (default)
1884 The following two options are useful only when verifying
1890 -s Don't output anything, status code shows success
1891 -w Warn about improperly formated MD5 checksum lines
1902 6fd11e98b98a58f64ff3398d7b324003 busybox
1904 6fd11e98b98a58f64ff3398d7b324003 busybox
1905 6fd11e98b98a58f64ff3398d7b324002 busybox
1906 md5sum: MD5 check failed for 'busybox'
1913 <title>mkdir</title>
1916 Usage: mkdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...
1920 Create the DIRECTORY(s), if they do not already exist.
1929 -m Set permission mode (as in chmod), not rwxrwxrwx - umask
1930 -p No error if directory exists, make parent directories as needed
1942 /tmp/foo: File exists
1943 $ mkdir /tmp/foo/bar/baz
1944 /tmp/foo/bar/baz: No such file or directory
1945 $ mkdir -p /tmp/foo/bar/baz
1951 <title>mkfifo</title>
1954 Usage: mkfifo [OPTION] NAME
1958 Create a named pipe (identical to 'mknod NAME p').
1967 -m MODE Create the pipe using the specified mode (default a=rw)
1972 <sect1 id="mkfs.minix">
1973 <title>mkfs.minix</title>
1976 Usage: mkfs.minix [OPTION]... NAME [BLOCKS]
1980 Make a MINIX filesystem.
1989 -c Check the device for bad blocks
1990 -n [14|30] Specify the maximum length of filenames
1991 -i Specify the number of inodes for the filesystem
1992 -l FILENAME Read the bad blocks list from FILENAME
1993 -v Make a Minix version 2 filesystem
1999 <title>mknod</title>
2002 Usage: mknod [OPTION]... NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR
2006 Create a special file (block, character, or pipe).
2015 -m Create the special file using the specified mode (default a=rw)
2025 b Make a block (buffered) device
2026 c or u Make a character (un-buffered) device
2027 p Make a named pipe. MAJOR and MINOR are ignored for named pipes
2037 $ mknod /dev/fd0 b 2 0
2038 $ mknod -m 644 /tmp/pipe p
2044 <title>mkswap</title>
2047 Usage: mkswap [OPTION]... DEVICE [BLOCKS]
2051 Prepare a disk partition to be used as a swap partition.
2060 -c Check for read-ability.
2061 -v0 Make version 0 swap [max 128 Megs].
2062 -v1 Make version 1 swap [big!] (default for kernels > 2.1.117).
2063 BLOCKS Number of block to use (default is entire partition).
2069 <title>mktemp</title>
2072 Usage: mktemp TEMPLATE
2076 Creates a temporary file with its name based on
2077 TEMPLATE. TEMPLATE is any name with six `Xs' (i.e.
2087 $ mktemp /tmp/temp.XXXXXX
2089 $ ls -la /tmp/temp.mWiLjM
2090 -rw------- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 25 17:10 /tmp/temp.mWiLjM
2099 Usage: more [FILE]...
2103 Page through text one screenful at a time.
2118 <title>mount</title>
2121 Usage: mount [OPTION]...
2126 or: mount [OPTION]... DEVICE DIRECTORY
2140 -a Mount all filesystems in /etc/fstab
2141 -o One of the many filesystem options listed below
2142 -r Mount the filesystem read-only
2143 -t TYPE Specify the filesystem type
2144 -w Mount the filesystem read-write
2149 Options for use with the -o flag:
2154 async/sync Writes are asynchronous / synchronous
2155 atime/noatime Enable / disable updates to inode access times
2156 dev/nodev Allow / disallow use of special device files
2157 exec/noexec Allow / disallow use of executable files
2158 loop Mount a file via loop device
2159 suid/nosuid Allow / disallow set-user-id-root programs
2160 remount Remount a currently mounted filesystem
2161 ro/rw Mount filesystem read-only / read-write
2166 There are even more flags that are filesystem specific.
2167 You'll have to see the written documentation for those.
2177 /dev/hda3 on / type minix (rw)
2178 proc on /proc type proc (rw)
2179 devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
2180 $ mount /dev/fd0 /mnt -t msdos -o ro
2181 $ mount /tmp/diskimage /opt -t ext2 -o loop
2190 Usage: mt [OPTION] OPCODE VALUE
2194 Control magnetic tape drive operation.
2203 -f DEVICE Control DEVICE
2212 Usage: mv SOURCE DEST
2217 or: mv SOURCE... DIRECTORY
2222 Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
2231 $ mv /tmp/foo /bin/bar
2244 Open a pipe to HOST:PORT.
2253 $ nc foobar.somedomain.com 25
2254 220 foobar ESMTP Exim 3.12 #1 Sat, 15 Apr 2000 00:03:02 -0600
2256 214-Commands supported:
2257 214- HELO EHLO MAIL RCPT DATA AUTH
2258 214 NOOP QUIT RSET HELP
2260 221 foobar closing connection
2265 <sect1 id="nslookup">
2266 <title>nslookup</title>
2269 Usage: nslookup [HOST]
2273 Query the nameserver for the IP address of the given
2283 $ nslookup localhost
2297 Usage: ping [OPTION]... HOST
2301 Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to HOST.
2310 -c COUNT Send only COUNT pings
2311 -s SIZE Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default=56)
2312 -q Quiet mode, only displays output at start and when finished
2323 PING slag (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
2324 64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=20.1 ms
2326 --- debian ping statistics ---
2327 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
2328 round-trip min/avg/max = 20.1/20.1/20.1 ms
2333 <sect1 id="poweroff">
2334 <title>poweroff</title>
2341 Shut down the system, and request that the kernel turn
2342 off power upon halting.
2347 <title>printf</title>
2350 Usage: printf FORMAT [ARGUMENT]...
2354 Format and print the given data in a manner similar to
2355 the C printf command.
2364 $ printf "Val=%d\n" 5
2378 Report process status. This version of ps accepts no
2398 PID Uid Gid State Command
2400 2 root root S [kflushd]
2401 3 root root S [kupdate]
2402 4 root root S [kpiod]
2403 5 root root S [kswapd]
2404 742 andersen andersen S [bash]
2405 743 andersen andersen S -bash
2406 745 root root S [getty]
2407 2990 andersen andersen R ps
2420 Print the full filename of the current working
2437 <title>reboot</title>
2449 <title>renice</title>
2452 Usage: renice priority pid [pid ...]
2456 Changes priority of running processes. Allowed priorities range
2457 from 20 (the process runs only when nothing else is running) to 0
2458 (default priority) to -20 (almost nothing else ever gets to run).
2466 Usage: rm [OPTION]... FILE...
2470 Remove (unlink) the FILE(s). You may use '--' to
2471 indicate that all following arguments are non-options.
2480 -f Remove existing destinations, never prompt
2481 -r or -R Remove the contents of directories recursively
2497 <title>rmdir</title>
2500 Usage: rmdir DIRECTORY...
2504 Remove DIRECTORY(s) if they are empty.
2519 <title>rmmod</title>
2522 Usage: rmmod [OPTION]... [MODULE]...
2526 Unload MODULE(s) from the kernel.
2535 -a Try to remove all unused kernel modules
2554 Usage: sed [OPTION]... SCRIPT [FILE]...
2558 Allowed sed scripts come in the following form:
2573 NUMBER Match specified line number
2575 /REGEXP/ Match specified regexp
2580 ! inverts the meaning of the match
2589 s/regexp/replacement/[igp]
2590 which attempt to match regexp against the pattern space
2591 and if successful replaces the matched portion with replacement.
2593 which appends TEXT after the pattern space
2598 This version of sed matches full regular expressions.
2607 -e Add the script to the commands to be executed
2608 -n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space
2618 $ echo "foo" | sed -e 's/f[a-zA-Z]o/bar/g'
2624 <sect1 id="setkeycodes">
2625 <title>setkeycodes</title>
2628 Usage: setkeycodes SCANCODE KEYCODE ...
2632 Set entries into the kernel's scancode-to-keycode map,
2633 allowing unusual keyboards to generate usable keycodes.
2637 SCANCODE may be either xx or e0xx (hexadecimal), and
2638 KEYCODE is given in decimal.
2647 $ setkeycodes e030 127
2661 lash -- the BusyBox LAme SHell (command interpreter)
2665 This command does not yet have proper documentation.
2669 Use lash just as you would use any other shell. It
2670 properly handles pipes, redirects, job control, can be
2671 used as the shell for scripts (#!/bin/sh), and has a
2672 sufficient set of builtins to do what is needed. It does
2673 not (yet) support Bourne Shell syntax. If you need
2674 things like ``if-then-else'', ``while'', and such, use
2675 ash or bash. If you just need a very simple and
2676 extremely small shell, this will do the job.
2681 <title>sleep</title>
2688 Pause for N seconds.
2698 [2 second delay results]
2707 Usage: sort [OPTION]... [FILE]...
2711 Sort lines of text in FILE(s).
2720 -n Compare numerically
2721 -r Reverse after sorting
2731 $ echo -e "e\nf\nb\nd\nc\na" | sort
2742 <sect1 id="swapoff">
2743 <title>swapoff</title>
2746 Usage: swapoff [OPTION] [DEVICE]
2750 Stop swapping virtual memory pages on DEVICE.
2759 -a Stop swapping on all swap devices
2765 <title>swapon</title>
2768 Usage: swapon [OPTION] [DEVICE]
2772 Start swapping virtual memory pages on the given device.
2781 -a Start swapping on all swap devices
2794 Write all buffered filesystem blocks to disk.
2798 <sect1 id="syslogd">
2799 <title>syslogd</title>
2802 Usage: syslogd [OPTION]...
2806 Linux system and kernel (provides klogd) logging
2807 utility. Note that this version of syslogd/klogd ignores
2817 -m NUM Interval between MARK lines (default=20min, 0=off)
2818 -n Run as a foreground process
2819 -K Do not start up the klogd process
2820 -O FILE Use an alternate log file (default=/var/log/messages)
2821 -R HOST[:PORT] Log messages to HOST on PORT (default=514) over UDP.
2831 $ syslogd -R masterlog:514
2832 $ syslogd -R 192.168.1.1:601
2841 Usage: tail [OPTION] [FILE]...
2845 Print last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output.
2846 With more than one FILE, precede each with a header
2847 giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -,
2857 -n NUM Print last NUM lines instead of last 10
2858 -f Output data as the file grows. This version
2859 of 'tail -f' supports only one file at a time.
2869 $ tail -n 1 /etc/resolv.conf
2879 Usage: tar [MODE] [OPTION] [FILE]...
2887 MODE may be chosen from
2904 f FILE Use FILE for tarfile (or stdin if '-')
2906 exclude FILE File to exclude
2907 v List files processed
2917 $ zcat /tmp/tarball.tar.gz | tar -xf -
2918 $ tar -cf /tmp/tarball.tar /usr/local
2927 Usage: tee [OPTION]... [FILE]...
2931 Copy stdin to FILE(s), and also to stdout.
2940 -a Append to the given FILEs, do not overwrite
2950 $ echo "Hello" | tee /tmp/foo
2959 <title>telnet</title>
2962 Usage: telnet HOST [PORT]
2966 Establish interactive communication with another
2967 computer over a network using the TELNET protocol.
2972 <title>test, [</title>
2975 Usage: test EXPRESSION
2983 Check file types and compare values returning an exit
2984 code determined by the value of EXPRESSION.
3010 <title>touch</title>
3013 Usage: touch [OPTION]... FILE...
3017 Update the last-modified date on (or create) FILE(s).
3026 -c Do not create files
3037 /bin/ls: /tmp/foo: No such file or directory
3040 -rw-rw-r-- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 15 01:11 /tmp/foo
3049 Usage: tr [OPTION]... STRING1 [STRING2]
3053 Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters from stdin,
3063 -c Take complement of STRING1
3064 -d Delete input characters coded STRING1
3065 -s Squeeze multiple output characters of STRING2 into one character
3075 $ echo "gdkkn vnqkc" | tr [a-y] [b-z]
3089 Return an exit code of TRUE (1).
3113 Print the file name of the terminal connected to stdin.
3122 -s Print nothing, only return an exit status
3139 <title>umount</title>
3142 Usage: umount [OPTION]... DEVICE|DIRECTORY
3155 -a Unmount all file systems
3156 -r Try to remount devices as read-only if mount is busy
3157 -f Force filesystem umount (i.e. unreachable NFS server)
3158 -l Do not free loop device (if a loop device has been used)
3174 <title>uname</title>
3177 Usage: uname [OPTION]...
3181 Print certain system information. With no OPTION, same
3191 -a Print all information
3192 -m Print the machine (hardware) type
3193 -n Print the machine's network node hostname
3194 -r Print the operating system release
3195 -s Print the operating system name
3196 -p Print the host processor type
3197 -v Print the operating system version
3208 Linux debian 2.2.15pre13 #5 Tue Mar 14 16:03:50 MST 2000 i686 unknown
3217 Usage: uniq [INPUT [OUTPUT]]
3221 Discard all but one of successive identical lines from
3222 INPUT (or stdin), writing to OUTPUT (or stdout).
3231 $ echo -e "a\na\nb\nc\nc\na" | sort | uniq
3240 <title>update</title>
3243 Usage: update [OPTION]...
3247 Periodically flush filesystem buffers.
3256 -S Force use of sync(2) instead of flushing
3257 -s SECS Call sync this often (default 30)
3258 -f SECS Flush some buffers this often (default 5)
3264 <title>uptime</title>
3271 Display how long the system has been running since boot.
3281 1:55pm up 2:30, load average: 0.09, 0.04, 0.00
3287 <title>usleep</title>
3294 Pause for N microseconds.
3304 [pauses for 1 second]
3309 <sect1 id="uudecode">
3310 <title>uudecode</title>
3313 Usage: uudecode [OPTION] [FILE]
3317 Uudecode a uuencoded file.
3326 -o FILE Direct output to FILE
3336 $ uudecode -o busybox busybox.uu
3338 -rwxr-xr-x 1 ams ams 245264 Jun 7 21:35 busybox
3343 <sect1 id="uuencode">
3344 <title>uuencode</title>
3347 Usage: uuencode [OPTION] [INFILE] OUTFILE
3360 -m Use base64 encoding as of RFC1521
3370 $ uuencode busybox busybox
3372 M?T5,1@$!`0````````````(``P`!````L+@$"#0```!0N@,``````#0`(``&
3374 $ uudecode busybox busybox > busybox.uu
3384 Usage: wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...
3388 Print line, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a
3389 total line if more than one FILE is specified. With no
3399 -c Print the byte counts
3400 -l Print the newline counts
3401 -L Print the length of the longest line
3402 -w Print the word counts
3413 31 46 1365 /etc/passwd
3419 <title>which</title>
3422 Usage: which [COMMAND]...
3442 <title>whoami</title>
3449 Print the user name associated with the current
3469 Usage: yes [STRING]...
3473 Repeatedly output a line with all specified STRING(s),
3482 Usage: zcat [OPTION]... FILE
3486 Uncompress FILE (or stdin if FILE is '-') to stdout.
3495 -t Test compressed file integrity
3510 <chapter id="LIBC-NSS">
3511 <title>LIBC NSS</title>
3514 GNU Libc uses the Name Service Switch (NSS) to configure the
3515 behavior of the C library for the local environment, and to
3516 configure how it reads system data, such as passwords and group
3517 information. BusyBox has made it Policy that it will never use
3518 NSS, and will never use libc calls that make use of NSS. This
3519 allows you to run an embedded system without the need for
3520 installing an /etc/nsswitch.conf file and without /lib/libnss_*
3521 libraries installed.
3525 If you are using a system that is using a remote LDAP server for
3526 authentication via GNU libc NSS, and you want to use BusyBox,
3527 then you will need to adjust the BusyBox source. Chances are
3528 though, that if you have enough space to install of that stuff
3529 on your system, then you probably want the full GNU utilities.
3533 <chapter id="SEE-ALSO">
3534 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
3537 <literal>textutils(1),</literal>
3538 <literal>shellutils(1),</literal>
3543 <chapter id="MAINTAINER">
3544 <title>MAINTAINER</title>
3547 Erik Andersen <andersee@debian.org> <andersen@lineo.com>
3551 <chapter id="AUTHORS">
3552 <title>AUTHORS</title>
3555 The following people have contributed code to BusyBox whether
3556 they know it or not.
3560 Erik Andersen <andersee@debian.org>
3564 John Beppu <beppu@lineo.com>
3568 Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com>
3572 Randolph Chung <tausq@debian.org>
3576 Dave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>
3580 Karl M. Hegbloom <karlheg@debian.org>
3584 John Lombardo <john@deltanet.com>
3588 Glenn McGrath <bug1@netconnect.com.au>
3592 Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com>
3596 Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>
3600 Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
3604 Charles P. Wright <cpwright@villagenet.com>
3608 Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>
3611 </book> <!-- End of the book -->