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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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18 <B>B&nbsp;u&nbsp;s&nbsp;y&nbsp;B&nbsp;o&nbsp;x</B>
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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 Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +000084 <li> <b>2 August 2001 -- BusyBox 0.60.0 released</b>
85 <br>
86 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
87 BusyBox 0.60.0. I have personally tested this release with libc5, glibc,
88 and <a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a> on
89 x86, ARM, and powerpc using linux 2.2 and 2.4, and I know a number
90 of people using it on everything from ia64 to m68k with great success.
91 Everything seems to be working very nicely now, so getting a nice
92 stable bug-free(tm) release out seems to be in order. This releases fixes
93 a memory leak in syslogd, a number of bugs in the ash and msh shells, and
94 cleans up a number of things.
95
96 <p>
97
98 Those wanting an easy way to test the 0.60.0 release with uClibc can
99 use <a href="http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/">User-Mode Linux</a>
100 to give it a try by downloading and compiling
101 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/buildroot.tar.gz">buildroot.tar.gz</a>.
102 You don't have to be root or reboot your machine to run test this way.
103 Preconfigured User-Mode Linux kernel source is also on oss.lineo.com.
104 <p>
105 Another cool thing is the nifty <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/tutorial/index.html">
106 BusyBox Tutorial</a> contributed by K Computing. This requires
107 a ShockWave plugin (or standalone viewer), so you may want to grab the
108 the GPLed shockwave viewer from <a href="http://www.swift-tools.com/Flash/flash-0.4.10.tgz">here</a>
109 to view the tutorial.
110 <p>
111
112 Finally, In case you didn't notice anything odd about the
113 version number of this release, let me point out that this release
114 is <em>not</em> 0.53, because I bumped the version number up a
115 bit. This reflects the fact that this release is intended to form
116 a new stable BusyBox release series. If you need to rely on a
117 stable version of BusyBox, you should plan on using the stable
118 0.60.x series. If bugs show up then I will release 0.60.1, then
119 0.60.2, etc... This is also intended to deal with the fact that
120 the BusyBox build system will be getting a major overhaul for the
121 next release and I don't want that to break products that people
122 are shipping. To avoid that, the new build system will be
123 released as part of a new BusyBox development series that will
124 have some not-yet-decided-on odd version number. Once things
Matt Kraai8aa0b622001-08-02 20:34:24 +0000125 stabilize and the new build system is working for everyone, then
Eric Andersen9e6089e2001-08-02 19:31:08 +0000126 I will release that as a new stable release series.
127
128 <p>
129 The
130 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> has all
131 the details. As usual BusyBox 0.60.0 can be downloaded from
132 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
133 <p>Have Fun!
134 <p>
135
136
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000137 <li> <b>7 July 2001 -- BusyBox 0.52 released</b>
138 <br>
139
140 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
141 BusyBox 0.52 (the "new-and-improved rock-solid release"). This
142 release is the result of <em>many</em> hours of work and has tons
143 of bugfixes, optimizations, and cleanups. This release adds
Eric Andersend0b4d3d2001-07-07 08:47:21 +0000144 several new applets, including several new shells (such as hush, msh,
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +0000145 and ash).
146
147 <p>
148 The
149 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> covers
150 some of the more obvious details, but there are many many things that
151 are not mentioned, but have been improved in subtle ways. As usual,
152 BusyBox 0.52 can be downloaded from
153 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
154 <p>Have Fun!
155 <p>
156
157
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000158 <li> <b>10 April 2001 - Graph of Busybox Growth </b>
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000159 <br>
160 The illustrious Larry Doolittle has made a PostScript chart of the growth
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000161 of the Busybox tarball size over time. It is available for downloading /
162 viewing <a href= "busybox-growth.ps"> right here</a>.
163
164 <p> (Note that while the number of applets in Busybox has increased, you
165 can still configure Busybox to be as small as you want by selectively
166 turning off whichever applets you don't need.)
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000167 <p>
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000168
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000169
170
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000171 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000172 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000173 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 +0000174</ul>
175
176
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000177<!-- Begin Download section -->
178
179<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
180 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
181 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000182 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000183</TD></TR>
184<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
185<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000186
187 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000188 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000189
190 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
191 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
192
193 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000194 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
195 anonymous
196 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
197 for those that are actively contributing there is even
198 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000199
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000200</ul>
201
202
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000203<!-- Begin Docs section -->
204
205<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
206 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
207 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000208 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000209</TD></TR>
210<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
211Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
212<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000213 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
214 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
215 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
216 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
217 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
218 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000219 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
220 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000221 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000222 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000223 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
224 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
225 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000226</ul>
227
228
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000229<!-- Begin Links section -->
230
231<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
232 <A NAME="links">
233 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000234 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000235 </B></BIG>
236 </A>
237</TD></TR>
238<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
239
240<ul>
241
242 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
243 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
244 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
245 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
246 <p>
247
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000248 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000249 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
250 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000251 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
252 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
253 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
254 <p>
255
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000256 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000257 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
258 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
259 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000260 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000261 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000262
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000263 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
264 <p>
265
266 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
267 <p>
268
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000269 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
270 <p>
271
272</ul>
273
274
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000275<!-- Begin Projects section -->
276
277<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
278 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
279 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000280 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000281</TD></TR>
282<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
283
284<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
285listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
286
287<ul>
288 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
289 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
290 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
291 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
292 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
293 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
294 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
295 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
296 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
297 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
298 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
299 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
300 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
301 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
302 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000303 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000304 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
305 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000306
307 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
308 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
309 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
310 Erik at the top of <a href=
311 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
312 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000313
Eric Andersen583e3ca2001-06-12 22:04:40 +0000314 <li> <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">Linux Terminal Server Project</a>
315 <li> <a href="http://www.devil-linux.org/">Devil-Linux</a>
Eric Andersen4f3e2492001-06-06 18:21:25 +0000316
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000317</ul>
318
319<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
320you.
321
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000322
323
324<!-- End of Table -->
325
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337 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
338 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000339 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000340 </font>
341 </TD>
342
343 <TD>
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000344 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
345 src="images/written.in.vi.png"
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000346 alt="This site created with the vi editor"></a>
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Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000350 <a href="http://www.gimp.org/"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
351 src="images/gfx_by_gimp.png" alt="Graphics by GIMP"></a>
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353
354 <TD>
355 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000356 src="images/ltbutton2.png" alt="Linux Today"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000357 </TD>
358
359 <TD>
360 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000361 src="images/sdsmall.png" alt="Slashdot"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000362 </TD>
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365 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000366 src="images/fm.mini.png" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
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