menu "Linux System Utilities"
-
config CONFIG_DMESG
bool "dmesg"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ dmesg is used to examine or control the kernel ring buffer. When the
+ Linux kernel prints messages to the system log, they are stored in
+ the kernel ring buffer. You can use dmesg to print the kernel's ring
+ buffer, clear the kernel ring buffer, change the size of the kernel
+ ring buffer, and change the priority level at which kernel messages
+ are also logged to the system console. Enable this option if you
+ wish to enable the 'dmesg' utility.
config CONFIG_FBSET
bool "fbset"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ fbset is used to show or change the settings of a Linux frame buffer
+ device. The frame buffer device provides a simple and unique
+ interface to access a graphics display. Enable this option
+ if you wish to enable the 'fbset' utility.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_FBSET_FANCY
bool " Turn on extra fbset options"
default n
depends on CONFIG_FBSET
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ This option enables extended fbset options, allowing one to set the
+ framebuffer size, color depth, etc. interface to access a graphics
+ display. Enable this option if you wish to enable extended fbset
+ options.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_FBSET_READMODE
bool " Turn on fbset readmode support"
default n
depends on CONFIG_FBSET
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ This option allows fbset to read the video mode database stored by
+ default as /etc/fb.modes, which can be used to set frame buffer
+ device to pre-defined video modes.
config CONFIG_FDFLUSH
bool "fdflush"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ fdflush is only needed when changing media on slightly-broken
+ removable media drives. It is used to make Linux believe that a
+ hardware disk-change switch has been actuated, which causes Linux to
+ forget anything it has cached from the previous media. If you have
+ such a slightly-broken drive, you will need to run fdflush every time
+ you change a disk. Most people have working hardware and can safely
+ leave this disabled.
+
+config CONFIG_FDFORMAT
+ bool "fdformat"
+ default n
+ help
+ fdformat is used to low-level format a floppy disk.
config CONFIG_FDISK
bool "fdisk"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The fdisk utility is used to divide hard disks into one or more
+ logical disks, which are generally called partitions. This utility
+ can be used to list and edit the set of partitions or BSD style
+ 'disk slices' that are defined on a hard drive.
+
+config FDISK_SUPPORT_LARGE_DISKS
+ bool " support over 4GB disks"
+ default y
+ depends on CONFIG_FDISK
+ help
+ Enable this option to support large disks > 4GB.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
- bool " Write support"
+ bool " Write support"
default y
depends on CONFIG_FDISK
help
- Allow changes to be written to disk, without this you
- will only be able to view the partition table.
+ Enabling this option allows you to create or change a partition table
+ and write those changes out to disk. If you leave this option
+ disabled, you will only be able to view the partition table.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_AIX_LABEL
bool " Support AIX disklabels"
default n
- depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
+ depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this option allows you to create or change AIX disklabels.
+ Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_SGI_LABEL
bool " Support SGI disklabels"
default n
depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this option allows you to create or change SGI disklabels.
+ Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_SUN_LABEL
bool " Support SUN disklabels"
default n
- depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
+ depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this option allows you to create or change SUN disklabels.
+ Most people can safely leave this option disabled.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_OSF_LABEL
bool " Support BSD disklabels"
default n
depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this option allows you to create or change BSD disklabels
+ and define and edit BSD disk slices.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_ADVANCED
bool " Support expert mode"
default n
depends on CONFIG_FDISK && CONFIG_FEATURE_FDISK_WRITABLE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this option allows you to do terribly unsafe things like
+ define arbitrary drive geometry, move the beginning of data in a
+ partition, and similarly evil things. Unless you have a very good
+ reason you would be wise to leave this disabled.
config CONFIG_FREERAMDISK
bool "freeramdisk"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Linux allows you to create ramdisks. This utility allows you to
+ delete them and completely free all memory that was used for the
+ ramdisk. For example, if you boot Linux into a ramdisk and later
+ pivot_root, you may want to free the memory that is allocated to the
+ ramdisk. If you have no use for freeing memory from a ramdisk, leave
+ this disabled.
config CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX
bool "fsck_minix"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem
+ with little overhead. It is not a journaling filesystem however and
+ can experience corruption if it is not properly unmounted or if the
+ power goes off in the middle of a write. This utility allows you to
+ check for and attempt to repair any corruption that occurs to a minix
+ filesystem.
config CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
bool "mkfs_minix"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The minix filesystem is a nice, small, compact, read-write filesystem
+ with little overhead. If you wish to be able to create minix filesystems
+ this utility will do the job for you.
comment "Minix filesystem support"
depends on CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX || CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
default y
depends on CONFIG_FSCK_MINIX || CONFIG_MKFS_MINIX
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ If you wish to be able to create version 2 minix filesystems, enable this.
+ If you enabled 'mkfs_minix' then you almost certainly want to be using the
+ version 2 filesystem support.
config CONFIG_GETOPT
bool "getopt"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The getopt utility is used to break up (parse) options in command
+ lines to make it easy to write complex shell scripts that also check
+ for legal (and illegal) options. If you want to write horribly
+ complex shell scripts, or use some horribly complex shell script
+ written by others, this utility may be for you. Most people will
+ wisely leave this disabled.
config CONFIG_HEXDUMP
bool "hexdump"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The hexdump utility is used to display binary data in a readable
+ way that is comparable to the output from most hex editors.
config CONFIG_HWCLOCK
bool "hwclock"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The hwclock utility is used to read and set the hardware clock
+ on a system. This is primarily used to set the current time on
+ shutdown in the hardware clock, so the hardware will keep the
+ correct time when Linux is _not_ running.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_HWCLOCK_LONGOPTIONS
bool " Support long options (--hctosys,...)"
default n
depends on CONFIG_HWCLOCK
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ By default, the hwclock utility only uses short options. If you
+ are overly fond of its long options, such as --hctosys, --utc, etc)
+ then enable this option.
+
+config CONFIG_FEATURE_HWCLOCK_ADJTIME_FHS
+ bool " Use FHS /var/lib/hwclock/adjtime"
+ default y
+ depends on CONFIG_HWCLOCK
+ help
+ Starting with FHS 2.3, the adjtime state file is supposed to exist
+ at /var/lib/hwclock/adjtime instead of /etc/adjtime. If you wish
+ to use the FHS behavior, answer Y here, otherwise answer N for the
+ classic /etc/adjtime path.
+
+ http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARLIBHWCLOCKSTATEDIRECTORYFORHWCLO
+
+config CONFIG_IPCRM
+ bool "ipcrm"
+ default n
+ select CONFIG_FEATURE_SUID
+ help
+ The ipcrm utility allows the removal of System V interprocess
+ communication (IPC) objects and the associated data structures
+ from the system.
+
+config CONFIG_IPCS
+ bool "ipcs"
+ default n
+ select CONFIG_FEATURE_SUID
+ help
+ The ipcs utility is used to provide information on the currently
+ allocated System V interprocess (IPC) objects in the system.
config CONFIG_LOSETUP
bool "losetup"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ losetup is used to associate or detach a loop device with a regular
+ file or block device, and to query the status of a loop device. This
+ version does not currently support enabling data encryption.
+
+config CONFIG_MDEV
+ bool "mdev"
+ default n
+ help
+ mdev is a mini-udev implementation: call it with -s to populate
+ /dev from /sys, then "echo /sbin/mdev > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug" to
+ have it handle hotplug events afterwards. Device names are taken
+ from sysfs.
+
+config CONFIG_FEATURE_MDEV_CONF
+ bool " Support /etc/mdev.conf"
+ default n
+ depends on CONFIG_MDEV
+ help
+ The mdev config file contains lines that look like:
+
+ hd[a-z][0-9]* 0:3 660
+
+ That's device name (with regex match), uid:gid, and permissions.
+
+ Optionally, that can be followed (on the same line) by an asterisk
+ and a command line to run after creating the corresponding device(s),
+ ala:
+
+ hdc root:cdrom 660 *ln -s hdc cdrom
+
+ Config file parsing stops on the first matching line. If no config
+ entry is matched, devices are created with default 0:0 660. (Make
+ the last line match .* to override this.)
config CONFIG_MKSWAP
bool "mkswap"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The mkswap utility is used to configure a file or disk partition as
+ Linux swap space. This allows Linux to use the entire file or
+ partition as if it were additional RAM, which can greatly increase
+ the capability of low-memory machines. This additional memory is
+ much slower than real RAM, but can be very helpful at preventing your
+ applications being killed by the Linux out of memory (OOM) killer.
+ Once you have created swap space using 'mkswap' you need to enable
+ the swap space using the 'swapon' utility.
config CONFIG_MORE
bool "more"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ more is a simple utility which allows you to read text one screen
+ sized page at a time. If you want to read text that is larger than
+ the screen, and you are using anything faster than a 300 baud modem,
+ you will probably find this utility very helpful. If you don't have
+ any need to reading text files, you can leave this disabled.
config CONFIG_FEATURE_USE_TERMIOS
bool " Use termios to manipulate the screen"
default y
depends on CONFIG_MORE
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ This option allows utilities such as 'more' and 'top' to determine
+ the size of the screen. If you leave this disabled, your utilities
+ that display things on the screen will be especially primitive and
+ will be unable to determine the current screen size, and will be
+ unable to move the cursor.
-comment "Common options for ls and more"
- depends on CONFIG_LS || CONFIG_MORE
+config CONFIG_MOUNT
+ bool "mount"
+ default n
+ help
+ All files and filesystems in Unix are arranged into one big directory
+ tree. The 'mount' utility is used to graft a filesystem onto a
+ particular part of the tree. A filesystem can either live on a block
+ device, or it can be accessible over the network, as is the case with
+ NFS filesystems. Most people using BusyBox will also want to enable
+ the 'mount' utility.
-config CONFIG_FEATURE_AUTOWIDTH
- bool " Calculate terminal & column widths"
- default y
- depends on CONFIG_LS || CONFIG_MORE
+config CONFIG_FEATURE_MOUNT_NFS
+ bool " Support mounting NFS file systems"
+ default n
+ depends on CONFIG_MOUNT
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enable mounting of NFS file systems.
config CONFIG_PIVOT_ROOT
bool "pivot_root"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The pivot_root utility swaps the mount points for the root filesystem
+ with some other mounted filesystem. This allows you to do all sorts
+ of wild and crazy things with your Linux system and is far more
+ powerful than 'chroot'.
+
+ Note: This is for initrd in linux 2.4. Under initramfs (introduced
+ in linux 2.6) use switch_root instead.
config CONFIG_RDATE
bool "rdate"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The rdate utility allows you to synchronize the date and time of your
+ system clock with the date and time of a remote networked system using
+ the RFC868 protocol, which is built into the inetd daemon on most
+ systems.
-config CONFIG_SWAPONOFF
- bool "swaponoff"
+config CONFIG_READPROFILE
+ bool "readprofile"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ This allows you to parse /proc/profile for basic profiling.
-config CONFIG_MOUNT
- bool "mount"
+config CONFIG_SWAPONOFF
+ bool "swaponoff"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ This option enables both the 'swapon' and the 'swapoff' utilities.
+ Once you have created some swap space using 'mkswap', you also need
+ to enable your swap space with the 'swapon' utility. The 'swapoff'
+ utility is used, typically at system shutdown, to disable any swap
+ space. If you are not using any swap space, you can leave this
+ option disabled.
-config CONFIG_NFSMOUNT
- bool " Support mounting nfs file systems"
+config CONFIG_SWITCH_ROOT
+ bool "switch_root"
default n
- depends on CONFIG_MOUNT
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ The switch_root utility is used from initramfs to select a new
+ root device. Under initramfs, you have to use this instead of
+ pivot_root. (Stop reading here if you don't care why.)
+
+ Booting with initramfs extracts a gzipped cpio archive into rootfs
+ (which is a variant of ramfs/tmpfs). Because rootfs can't be moved
+ or unmounted*, pivot_root will not work from initramfs. Instead,
+ switch_root deletes everything out of rootfs (including itself),
+ does a mount --move that overmounts rootfs with the new root, and
+ then execs the specified init program.
+
+ * Because the Linux kernel uses rootfs internally as the starting
+ and ending point for searching through the kernel's doubly linked
+ list of active mount points. That's why.
config CONFIG_UMOUNT
bool "umount"
default n
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
-
-config CONFIG_FEATURE_MOUNT_FORCE
- bool " Support forced filesystem unmounting"
- default n
- depends on CONFIG_UMOUNT
- help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ When you want to remove a mounted filesystem from its current mount point,
+ for example when you are shutting down the system, the 'umount' utility is
+ the tool to use. If you enabled the 'mount' utility, you almost certainly
+ also want to enable 'umount'.
comment "Common options for mount/umount"
depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
config CONFIG_FEATURE_MOUNT_LOOP
- bool " Support for loop devices"
+ bool " Support loopback mounts"
default n
depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Enabling this feature allows automatic mounting of files (containing
+ filesystem images) via the linux kernel's loopback devices. The mount
+ command will detect you are trying to mount a file instead of a block
+ device, and transparently associate the file with a loopback device.
+ The umount command will also free that loopback device.
+
+ You can still use the 'losetup' utility (to manually associate files
+ with loop devices) if you need to do something advanced, such as
+ specify an offset or cryptographic options to the loopback device.
+ (If you don't want umount to free the loop device, use "umount -D".)
config CONFIG_FEATURE_MTAB_SUPPORT
- bool " Support for a real /etc/mtab (instead of /proc/mounts)"
+ bool " Support for the old /etc/mtab file"
default n
depends on CONFIG_MOUNT || CONFIG_UMOUNT
help
- Please submit a patch to add help text for this item.
+ Historically, Unix systems kept track of the currently mounted
+ partitions in the file "/etc/mtab". These days, the kernel exports
+ the list of currently mounted partitions in "/proc/mounts", rendering
+ the old mtab file obsolete. (In modern systems, /etc/mtab should be
+ a symlink to /proc/mounts.)
+
+ The only reason to have mount maintain an /etc/mtab file itself is if
+ your stripped-down embedded system does not have a /proc directory.
+ If you must use this, keep in mind it's inherently brittle (for
+ example a mount under chroot won't update it), can't handle modern
+ features like separate per-process filesystem namespaces, requires
+ that your /etc directory be writeable, tends to get easily confused
+ by --bind or --move mounts, and so on. (In brief: avoid.)
endmenu
projects / oweals / busybox.git / blobdiff