BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind.
It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or
features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
-systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, a shell, and a kernel. For
-a really minimal system, you can even use the busybox shell (not Bourne
-compatible, but very small and quite usable) and the busybox vi editor.
+systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a kernel.
BusyBox was originally written to support the Debian Rescue/Install disks, but
it also makes an excellent environment for any small or embedded system.
As of version 0.20 there is now a version number. : ) Also as of version 0.20,
BusyBox is now modularized to easily allow you to build only the components you
-need, thereby reducing binary size. To turn off unwanted BusyBox components,
-simply edit the file "Config.h" and comment out the components you do not need
-using C++ style (//) comments.
+need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make menuconfig'
+for select the functionality that you wish to enable.
After the build is complete, a busybox.links file is generated. This is
used by 'make install' to create symlinks to the busybox binary for all
Busybox in general will build on any architecture supported by gcc. It has
a few specialized features added for __sparc__ and __alpha__. insmod
functionality is currently limited to x86, ARM, SH3/4, powerpc, m68k,
- and MIPS.
+ MIPS, and v850e.
Supported libcs:
- glibc-2.0.x, glibc-2.1.x, Linux-libc5, uClibc. People are looking at
- newlib and diet-libc, but consider them unsupported, untested, or worse.
+ glibc-2.0.x, glibc-2.1.x, glibc-2.2.x, Linux-libc5, uClibc. People
+ are looking at newlib and diet-libc, but consider them unsupported,
+ untested, or worse.
Supported kernels:
a command prompt, but it is not suitable for any but the most trivial
scripting (such as an initrd that calls insmod a few times) since it does
not understand Bourne shell grammer. It does handle pipes, redirects, and
-job control though. Adding in command editing makes it very nice
+job control though. Adding in command editing makes it a very nice
lightweight command prompt.
hush is also quite small (just 18k) and it has very complete Bourne shell
grammer. It handles if/then/else/fi just fine, but doesn't handle loops
like for/do/done or case/esac and such. It also currently has a problem
-with job control.
+with job control. Using hush is not yet recommended.
msh: The minix shell (adds just 30k) is quite complete and handles things
like for/do/done, case/esac and all the things you expect a Bourne shell to
complete and most pedantically correct shell included with busybox. This
shell was also recently added, and several people (mainly Vladimir and Erik)
have been working on it. There are a number of configurable things at the
-top of ash.c as well, so check those out if you want to tweak things. The
-Posix math support is currently disabled (that bit of code was horrible) but
-will be restored for the next BusyBox release.
+top of ash.c as well, so check those out if you want to tweak things.
----------------
Getting help:
When you find you need help, you can check out the BusyBox mailing list
-archives at http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/ or even join
+archives at http://busybox.net/lists/busybox/ or even join
the mailing list if you are interested.
----------------
Bugs:
If you find bugs, please submit a bug report. Full instructions on how to
-report a bug are found at http://bugs.lineo.com/Reporting.html.
+report a bug are found at http://bugs.busybox.net/Reporting.html.
For the impatient: To submit a bug, simply send an email describing the problem
-to submit@bugs.lineo.com. Bug reports should look something like this:
+to submit@bugs.busybox.net. Bug reports should look something like this:
- To: submit@bugs.lineo.com
+ To: submit@bugs.busybox.net
From: diligent@testing.linux.org
Subject: /bin/true doesn't work
FTP:
-Source for the latest released version can always be downloaded from
- ftp://ftp.lineo.com/pub/busybox.
+Source for the latest released version, as well as daily snapshots, can always
+be downloaded from
+ http://busybox.net/downloads/
----------------
CVS:
BusyBox now has its own publicly browsable CVS tree at:
- http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/
+ http://busybox.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/
Anonymous CVS access is available. For instructions, check out:
- http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html
+ http://busybox.net/cvs_anon.html
For those that are actively contributing there is even CVS write access:
- http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html
+ http://busybox.net/cvs_write.html
----------------
Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to:
Erik Andersen
- <andersen@lineo.com>
+ <andersen@codepoet.org>
<andersee@debian.org>
- <andersee@codepoet.org>
-
-<blatant plug>
-Many thanks to go to Lineo for paying me to work on busybox.
-</blatant plug>