make menuconfig # This creates a file called ".config"
make # This creates the "busybox" executable
- make install # or make PREFIX=/path/from/root install
+ make install # or make CONFIG_PREFIX=/path/from/root install
The full list of configuration and install options is available by typing:
The easy way to try out BusyBox for the first time, without having to install
it, is to enable all features and then use "standalone shell" mode with a
-blank command $PATH:
-
- make allyesconfig
+blank command $PATH.
+
+To enable all features, use "make defconfig", which produces the largest
+general-purpose configuration. It's allyesconfig minus debugging options,
+optional packaging choices, and a few special-purpose features requiring
+extra configuration to use. Then enable "standalone shell" feature:
+
+ make defconfig
+ make menuconfig
+ # select Busybox Settings
+ # then General Configuration
+ # then exec prefers applets
+ # exit back to top level menu
+ # select Shells
+ # then Standalone shell
+ # exit back to top level menu
+ # exit and save new configuration
+ # OR
+ # use these commands to modify .config directly:
+ sed -e 's/.*FEATURE_PREFER_APPLETS.*/CONFIG_FEATURE_PREFER_APPLETS=y/' -i .config
+ sed -e 's/.*FEATURE_SH_STANDALONE.*/CONFIG_FEATURE_SH_STANDALONE=y/' -i .config
make
PATH= ./busybox ash
programs by that name. Supplying an empty command path (as above) means
the only commands busybox can find are the built-in ones.
-(Note that the standalone shell requires the /proc directory to function.)
+Note that the standalone shell requires CONFIG_BUSYBOX_EXEC_PATH
+to be set appropriately, depending on whether or not /proc/self/exe is
+available. If you do not have /proc, then point that config option
+to the location of your busybox binary, usually /bin/busybox.
+Another solution is to patch the kernel (see
+examples/linux-*_proc_self_exe.patch) to make exec("/proc/self/exe")
+always work.
Configuring Busybox:
====================
Busybox is optimized for size, but enabling the full set of functionality
-still results in a fairly large executable (more than 1 megabyte when
-statically linked). To save space, busybox can be configured with only the
+still results in a fairly large executable -- more than 1 megabyte when
+statically linked. To save space, busybox can be configured with only the
set of applets needed for each environment. The minimal configuration, with
all applets disabled, produces a 4k executable. (It's useless, but very small.)
-The manual configurators "make config" and "make menuconfig" modify the
-existing configuration. Quick ways to get starting configurations include
-"make allyesconfig" (enables almost all options), "make allnoconfig" (disables
-all options), "make allbaseconfig" (enables all applets but disables all
-optional features), and "make defconfig" (reset to defaults).
+The manual configurator "make menuconfig" modifies the existing configuration.
+(For systems without ncurses, try "make config" instead.) The two most
+interesting starting configurations are "make allnoconfig" (to start with
+everything disabled and add just what you need), and "make defconfig" (to
+start with everything enabled and remove what you don't need). If menuconfig
+is run without an existing configuration, make defconfig will run first to
+create a known starting point.
+
+Other starting configurations (mostly used for testing purposes) include
+"make allbareconfig" (enables all applets but disables all optional features),
+"make allyesconfig" (enables absolutely everything including debug features),
+and "make randconfig" (produce a random configuration). The configs/ directory
+contains a number of additional configuration files ending in _defconfig which
+are useful in specific cases. "make help" will list them.
Configuring BusyBox produces a file ".config", which can be saved for future
-use.
+use. Run "make oldconfig" to bring a .config file from an older version of
+busybox up to date.
Installing Busybox:
===================
"./busybox cat LICENSE". (Running the busybox applet with no arguments gives
a list of all enabled applets.) The standalone shell can also call busybox
applets without links to busybox under other names in the filesystem. You can
-also configure a standaone install capability into the busybox base applet,
+also configure a standalone install capability into the busybox base applet,
and then install such links at runtime with one of "busybox --install" (for
hardlinks) or "busybox --install -s" (for symlinks).
-If you built busybox as shared object which uses libbusybox.so and have not
-yet installed the binary but want to run tests, then set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH
-accordingly before running the executable:
+If you enabled the busybox shared library feature (libbusybox.so) and want
+to run tests without installing, set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH accordingly when
+running the executable:
- export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`
- ./busybox
+ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd` ./busybox
Building out-of-tree:
=====================
By default, the BusyBox build puts its temporary files in the source tree.
-Building from a read-only source tree, or to building multiple
-configurations from the same source directory, requires the ability to
-put the temporary files somewhere else.
+Building from a read-only source tree, or building multiple configurations from
+the same source directory, requires the ability to put the temporary files
+somewhere else.
-To build out of tree, cd to the empty directory and do this instead:
+To build out of tree, cd to an empty directory and configure busybox from there:
- make -f /path/to/source/Makefile allyesconfig
+ make KBUILD_SRC=/path/to/source -f /path/to/source/Makefile defconfig
make
make install
-Alternately, use the O=$BUILDPATH option during the configuration step, as in:
+Alternately, use the O=$BUILDPATH option (with an absolute path) during the
+configuration step, as in:
make O=/some/empty/directory allyesconfig
cd /some/empty/directory
make
- make PREFIX=. install
-
-(Note, O= requires an absolute path.)
-
+ make CONFIG_PREFIX=. install
More Information:
=================
Se also the busybox FAQ, under the questions "How can I get started using
BusyBox" and "How do I build a BusyBox-based system?" The BusyBox FAQ is
-available from http://www.busybox.net/FAQ.html or as the file
-docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html in this tarball.
+available from http://www.busybox.net/FAQ.html
projects / oweals / busybox.git / blobdiff