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 a kernel and an editor (such as
-e3 (http://www.sax.de/~adlibiti) or elvis-tiny).
+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
compiled in functions. By default, 'make install' will place the symlink
forest into `pwd`/_install unless you have defined the PREFIX environment
-variable (i.e., make PREFIX="/tmp/foo" install)
+variable (i.e., 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install')
----------------
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, and SH3/4.
+ functionality is currently limited to x86, ARM, SH3/4, powerpc, m68k,
+ 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:
----------------
+Shells:
+
+lash is the very smallest shell (adds just 10k) and it is quite usable as
+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 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. 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
+do. It is not always pedantically correct about Bourne shell grammer (try
+running the shell testscript "tests/sh.testcases" on it and compare vs bash)
+but for most things it works quite well. It also uses only vfork, so it can
+be used on uClinux systems. This was only recently added, so there is still
+room to shrink it further...
+
+ash: This adds about 60k in the default configuration and is the most
+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.
+
+----------------
+
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
Package: busybox
- Version: 0.48
+ Version: 0.51
When I invoke '/bin/true' it doesn't work. I expected it to return
a "0" but it returned a "1" instead. Here is the transcript:
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>
-<blatant plug>
-Many thanks to go to Lineo for paying me to work on busybox.
-</blatant plug>
-