=head1 SYNTAX
- BusyBox <function> [arguments...] # or
+ busybox <applet> [arguments...] # or
- <function> [arguments...] # if symlinked
+ <applet> [arguments...] # if symlinked
=head1 DESCRIPTION
BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the
components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make
-menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. The run
+menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run
'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration.
After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install
-BusyBox. This will install the '/bin/busybox' binary, and will also create
-symlinks pointing to the '/bin/busybox' binary for each utility that you
-compile into BusyBox. By default, 'make install' will place these symlinks
-into the './_install' directory, unless you have defined 'PREFIX', thereby
-specifying some alternative location (i.e., 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install').
-If you wish to install using hardlinks, rather than the default of using
-symlinks, you can use 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install-hardlinks' instead.
+BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory
+specified by CONFIG_PREFIX. CONFIG_PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox,
+or you can specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a
+command line like 'make CONFIG_PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled
+any applet installation scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will
+also be installed in the location pointed to by CONFIG_PREFIX.
=head1 USAGE
that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there
is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large
number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in
-utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations.
+utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common
+operations.
You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the
command line. For example, entering
=head1 COMMON OPTIONS
-Most BusyBox commands support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime
+Most BusyBox applets support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime
description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has
been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available.
=head1 COMMANDS
-Currently defined functions include:
-
- addgroup, adduser, adjtimex, ar, arping, ash, awk, basename, bunzip2,
- busybox, bzcat, cal, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, chvt, clear, cmp,
- cp, cpio, crond, crontab, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, delgroup, deluser,
- devfsd, df, dirname, dmesg, dos2unix, dpkg, dpkg-deb, du, dumpkmap,
- dumpleases, echo, egrep, env, expr, false, fbset, fdflush, fdformat, fdisk,
- fgrep, find, fold, free, freeramdisk, fsck.minix, ftpget, ftpput, getopt,
- getty, grep, gunzip, gzip, halt, hdparm, head, hexdump, hostid, hostname,
- httpd, hush, hwclock, id, ifconfig, ifdown, ifup, inetd, init, insmod,
- install, ip, ipcalc, iplink, iproute, iptunnel, kill, killall, klogd, lash,
- last, length, linuxrc, ln, loadfont, loadkmap, logger, login, logname,
- logread, losetup, ls, lsmod, makedevs, md5sum, mesg, mkdir, mkfifo,
- mkfs.minix, mknod, mkswap, mktemp, modprobe, more, mount, msh, mt, mv,
- nameif, nc, netstat, nslookup, od, openvt, passwd, patch, pidof, ping,
- ping6, pipe_progress, pivot_root, poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, rdate,
- readlink, realpath, reboot, renice, reset, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, rpm,
- rpm2cpio, run-parts, rx, sed, seq, setkeycodes, sha1sum, sleep, sort,
- start-stop-daemon, strings, stty, su, sulogin, swapoff, swapon, sync,
- sysctl, syslogd, tail, tar, tee, telnet, telnetd, test, tftp, time, top,
- touch, tr, traceroute, true, tty, udhcpc, udhcpd, umount, uname,
- uncompress, uniq, unix2dos, unzip, uptime, usleep, uudecode, uuencode,
- vconfig, vi, vlock, watch, watchdog, wc, wget, which, who, whoami, xargs,
- yes, zcat
-
-=head1 LIBC NSS
-
-GNU Libc (glibc) uses the Name Service Switch (NSS) to configure the behavior
-of the C library for the local environment, and to configure how it reads
-system data, such as passwords and group information. This is implemented
-using an /etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file, and using one or more of the
-/lib/libnss_* libraries. BusyBox tries to avoid using any libc calls that make
-use of NSS. Some applets however, such as login and su, will use libc functions
-that require NSS.
-
-If you enable CONFIG_USE_BB_PWD_GRP, BusyBox will use internal functions to
-directly access the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files without
-using NSS. This may allow you to run your system without the need for
-installing any of the NSS configuration files and libraries.
-
-When used with glibc, the BusyBox 'networking' applets will similarly require
-that you install at least some of the glibc NSS stuff (in particular,
-/etc/nsswitch.conf, /lib/libnss_dns*, /lib/libnss_files*, and /lib/libresolv*).
-
-Shameless Plug: As an alternative, one could use a C library such as uClibc. In
-addition to making your system significantly smaller, uClibc does not require the
-use of any NSS support files or libraries.
-
-=over 4
-
+Currently available applets include: