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Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +00008<body text="#000000" alink="#660000" link="#660000" bgcolor="#dee2de" vlink="#660000">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +00009
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Matt Kraai9ba0daf2001-01-31 01:59:46 +000023 <a href="/"><IMG SRC="images/busybox2.jpg" alt="BusyBox" border="0" width="360" height="230"></a><BR>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000024
25
26<!-- Begin Introduction section -->
27
28
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000029<TABLE WIDTH="95%" CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 BORDER=1>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000030<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
31 <A NAME="intro"> <BIG><B>
32 The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000033 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000034</TD></TR>
35<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
36
37BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single
38small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities
39you usually find in fileutils, shellutils, findutils, textutils, grep, gzip,
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000040tar, etc. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or
41embedded system. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than
42their full featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000043the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.
44<p>
45BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind.
46It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000047features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +000048systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a kernel.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000049<p>
50
51BusyBox is now maintained by
Eric Andersen537d1652001-01-25 22:00:37 +000052<a href="http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000053Erik Andersen</a>, and its ongoing development is being sponsored by
54<a href="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</a>.
55<p>
56BusyBox is licensed under the
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000057<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE</a>.
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000058<p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000059
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000060
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000061<h3> Screenshot </h3>
62
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +000063<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000064is now available <a href="screenshot.html">right here</a>.
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000065
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000066
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000067<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +000068BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000069To subscribe, go and visit <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000070
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000071<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
72
73<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
74 <A NAME="news">
75 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000076 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000077 </B></BIG>
78 </A>
79</TD></TR>
80<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
81
82<ul>
83
Eric Andersen31b35a12001-08-23 22:05:55 +000084 <li> <b>23 August 2001 -- BusyBox 0.60.1 released</b>
85 <br>
86
87 This is a relatively minor bug fixing release that fixes
88 up the bugs that have shown up in the stable release in
89 the last few weeks. Fortunately, nothing <em>too</em>
90 serious has shown up. This release only fixes bugs -- no
91 new features, no new applets. So without further ado,
92 here it is. Come and get it.
93 <p>
94 The
95 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> has all
96 the details. As usual BusyBox 0.60.1 can be downloaded from
97 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
98 <p>Have Fun!
99 <p>
100
101
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +0000102 <li> <b>2 August 2001 -- BusyBox 0.60.0 released</b>
103 <br>
104 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
105 BusyBox 0.60.0. I have personally tested this release with libc5, glibc,
106 and <a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a> on
107 x86, ARM, and powerpc using linux 2.2 and 2.4, and I know a number
108 of people using it on everything from ia64 to m68k with great success.
109 Everything seems to be working very nicely now, so getting a nice
110 stable bug-free(tm) release out seems to be in order. This releases fixes
111 a memory leak in syslogd, a number of bugs in the ash and msh shells, and
112 cleans up a number of things.
113
114 <p>
115
116 Those wanting an easy way to test the 0.60.0 release with uClibc can
117 use <a href="http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/">User-Mode Linux</a>
118 to give it a try by downloading and compiling
119 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/buildroot.tar.gz">buildroot.tar.gz</a>.
120 You don't have to be root or reboot your machine to run test this way.
121 Preconfigured User-Mode Linux kernel source is also on oss.lineo.com.
122 <p>
123 Another cool thing is the nifty <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/tutorial/index.html">
124 BusyBox Tutorial</a> contributed by K Computing. This requires
125 a ShockWave plugin (or standalone viewer), so you may want to grab the
126 the GPLed shockwave viewer from <a href="http://www.swift-tools.com/Flash/flash-0.4.10.tgz">here</a>
127 to view the tutorial.
128 <p>
129
130 Finally, In case you didn't notice anything odd about the
131 version number of this release, let me point out that this release
132 is <em>not</em> 0.53, because I bumped the version number up a
133 bit. This reflects the fact that this release is intended to form
134 a new stable BusyBox release series. If you need to rely on a
135 stable version of BusyBox, you should plan on using the stable
136 0.60.x series. If bugs show up then I will release 0.60.1, then
137 0.60.2, etc... This is also intended to deal with the fact that
138 the BusyBox build system will be getting a major overhaul for the
139 next release and I don't want that to break products that people
140 are shipping. To avoid that, the new build system will be
141 released as part of a new BusyBox development series that will
142 have some not-yet-decided-on odd version number. Once things
Matt Kraai8aa0b622001-08-02 20:34:24 +0000143 stabilize and the new build system is working for everyone, then
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +0000144 I will release that as a new stable release series.
145
146 <p>
147 The
148 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> has all
149 the details. As usual BusyBox 0.60.0 can be downloaded from
150 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
151 <p>Have Fun!
152 <p>
153
154
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000155 <li> <b>7 July 2001 -- BusyBox 0.52 released</b>
156 <br>
157
158 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
159 BusyBox 0.52 (the "new-and-improved rock-solid release"). This
160 release is the result of <em>many</em> hours of work and has tons
161 of bugfixes, optimizations, and cleanups. This release adds
Eric Andersend0b4d3d2001-07-07 08:47:21 +0000162 several new applets, including several new shells (such as hush, msh,
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000163 and ash).
164
165 <p>
166 The
167 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> covers
168 some of the more obvious details, but there are many many things that
169 are not mentioned, but have been improved in subtle ways. As usual,
170 BusyBox 0.52 can be downloaded from
171 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
172 <p>Have Fun!
173 <p>
174
175
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000176 <li> <b>10 April 2001 - Graph of Busybox Growth </b>
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000177 <br>
178 The illustrious Larry Doolittle has made a PostScript chart of the growth
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000179 of the Busybox tarball size over time. It is available for downloading /
180 viewing <a href= "busybox-growth.ps"> right here</a>.
181
182 <p> (Note that while the number of applets in Busybox has increased, you
183 can still configure Busybox to be as small as you want by selectively
184 turning off whichever applets you don't need.)
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000185 <p>
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000186
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000187
188
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000189 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000190 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000191 For the old news, visit <a href="http://busybox.lineo.com/oldnews.html">the old news page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000192</ul>
193
194
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000195<!-- Begin Download section -->
196
197<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
198 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
199 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000200 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000201</TD></TR>
202<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
203<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000204
205 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000206 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000207
208 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
209 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
210
211 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000212 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
213 anonymous
214 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
215 for those that are actively contributing there is even
216 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000217
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000218</ul>
219
220
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000221<!-- Begin Docs section -->
222
223<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
224 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
225 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000226 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000227</TD></TR>
228<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
229Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
230<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000231 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
232 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
233 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
234 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
235 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
236 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000237 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
238 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000239 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000240 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000241 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
242 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
243 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000244</ul>
245
246
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000247<!-- Begin Links section -->
248
249<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
250 <A NAME="links">
251 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000252 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000253 </B></BIG>
254 </A>
255</TD></TR>
256<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
257
258<ul>
259
260 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
261 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
262 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
263 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
264 <p>
265
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000266 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000267 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
268 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000269 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
270 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
271 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
272 <p>
273
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000274 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000275 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
276 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
277 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000278 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000279 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000280
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000281 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
282 <p>
283
284 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
285 <p>
286
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000287 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
288 <p>
289
290</ul>
291
292
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000293<!-- Begin Projects section -->
294
295<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
296 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
297 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000298 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000299</TD></TR>
300<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
301
302<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
303listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
304
305<ul>
306 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
307 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
308 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
309 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
310 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
311 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
312 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
313 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
314 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
315 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
316 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
317 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
318 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
319 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
320 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000321 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000322 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
323 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000324
325 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
326 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
327 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
328 Erik at the top of <a href=
329 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
330 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000331
Eric Andersen583e3ca2001-06-12 22:04:40 +0000332 <li> <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">Linux Terminal Server Project</a>
333 <li> <a href="http://www.devil-linux.org/">Devil-Linux</a>
Eric Andersen28d0ac12001-08-27 19:22:44 +0000334 <li> <a href="http://dutnux.sourceforge.net/">DutNux</a>
Eric Andersen4f3e2492001-06-06 18:21:25 +0000335
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000336</ul>
337
338<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
339you.
340
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000341
342
343<!-- End of Table -->
344
345</TD></TR>
346</TABLE>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000347
348
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356 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
357 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000358 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000359 </font>
360 </TD>
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Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000363 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
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374 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000375 src="images/ltbutton2.png" alt="Linux Today"></a>
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377
378 <TD>
379 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000380 src="images/sdsmall.png" alt="Slashdot"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000381 </TD>
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384 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000385 src="images/fm.mini.png" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
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