README - codeaurora/busybox - Gitiles

 Please see the LICENSE file for copyright information.

 BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single
 small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities
 you usually find in fileutils, shellutils, findutils, textutils, grep, gzip,
 tar, etc. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or
 embedded system. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than
 their full featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide
 the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.

 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.

 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.

 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')

 ----------------

 Supported architectures:

    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.

 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.

 Supported kernels:

    Full functionality requires Linux 2.0.x, 2.2.x, or 2.4.x.  A large fraction
    of the code should run on just about anything.

 ----------------

 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 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.

 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.  The
 Posix math support is currently disabled (that bit of code was horrible) but
 will be restored for the next BusyBox release.

 ----------------

 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
 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.

 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.lineo.com
     From: diligent@testing.linux.org
     Subject: /bin/true doesn't work

     Package: busybox
     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:
 	$ /bin/true ; echo $?
 	1
     With GNU /bin/true, I get the following output:
 	$ /bin/true ; echo $?
 	0
     I am using Debian 2.2r2, kernel version 2.2.18, and the latest
     uClibc from CVS.  Thanks for the wonderful program!
 	-Diligent

 Note the careful description and use of examples showing not only what BusyBox
 does, but also a counter example showing what an equivalent GNU app does.  Bug
 reports lacking such detail may take a _long_ time to be fixed...  Thanks for
 understanding.

 ----------------

 FTP:

 Source for the latest released version can always be downloaded from
     ftp://ftp.lineo.com/pub/busybox.

 ----------------

 CVS:

 BusyBox now has its own publicly browsable CVS tree at:
     http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/

 Anonymous CVS access is available.  For instructions, check out:
     http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html

 For those that are actively contributing there is even CVS write access:
     http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html

 ----------------

 Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to:
 	Erik Andersen
 	<andersen@lineo.com>
 	<andersee@debian.org>
 	<andersee@codepoet.org>

 <blatant plug>
 Many thanks to go to Lineo for paying me to work on busybox.
 </blatant plug>
	Please see the LICENSE file for copyright information.

	BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single
	small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities
	you usually find in fileutils, shellutils, findutils, textutils, grep, gzip,
	tar, etc. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or
	embedded system. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than
	their full featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide
	the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.

	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.

	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.

	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')

	----------------

	Supported architectures:

	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.

	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.

	Supported kernels:

	Full functionality requires Linux 2.0.x, 2.2.x, or 2.4.x. A large fraction
	of the code should run on just about anything.

	----------------

	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 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.

	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. The
	Posix math support is currently disabled (that bit of code was horrible) but
	will be restored for the next BusyBox release.

	----------------

	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
	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.

	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.lineo.com
	From: diligent@testing.linux.org
	Subject: /bin/true doesn't work

	Package: busybox
	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:
	$ /bin/true ; echo $?
	1
	With GNU /bin/true, I get the following output:
	$ /bin/true ; echo $?
	0
	I am using Debian 2.2r2, kernel version 2.2.18, and the latest
	uClibc from CVS. Thanks for the wonderful program!
	-Diligent

	Note the careful description and use of examples showing not only what BusyBox
	does, but also a counter example showing what an equivalent GNU app does. Bug
	reports lacking such detail may take a _long_ time to be fixed... Thanks for
	understanding.

	----------------

	FTP:

	Source for the latest released version can always be downloaded from
	ftp://ftp.lineo.com/pub/busybox.

	----------------

	CVS:

	BusyBox now has its own publicly browsable CVS tree at:
	http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/

	Anonymous CVS access is available. For instructions, check out:
	http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html

	For those that are actively contributing there is even CVS write access:
	http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html

	----------------

	Please feed suggestions, bug reports, insults, and bribes back to:
	Erik Andersen
	<andersen@lineo.com>
	<andersee@debian.org>
	<andersee@codepoet.org>

	<blatant plug>
	Many thanks to go to Lineo for paying me to work on busybox.
	</blatant plug>