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Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]8<body text="#000000" alink="#660000" link="#660000" bgcolor="#dee2de" vlink="#660000">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]9
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17 <FONT FACE="lucida, helvetica" COLOR="#ccccc0">
18 <B>B&nbsp;u&nbsp;s&nbsp;y&nbsp;B&nbsp;o&nbsp;x</B>
19 </FONT>
20 </TD>
21 </TR>
22 </TABLE>
Matt Kraai9ba0daf2001-01-31 01:59:46 +0000[diff] [blame]23 <a href="/"><IMG SRC="images/busybox2.jpg" alt="BusyBox" border="0" width="360" height="230"></a><BR>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]24
25
26<!-- Begin Introduction section -->
27
28
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]29<TABLE WIDTH="95%" CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=4 BORDER=1>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]30<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 +0000[diff] [blame]33 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]34</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 +0000[diff] [blame]40tar, 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 +0000[diff] [blame]43the 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 +0000[diff] [blame]47features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded
48systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, a kernel, and an editor,
49such as nano, e3, or elvis-tiny. For a really minimal system, you can even use
50the busybox shell (not Bourne compatible, but very small and quite usable).
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]51<p>
52
53BusyBox is now maintained by
Eric Andersen537d1652001-01-25 22:00:37 +0000[diff] [blame]54<a href="http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]55Erik Andersen</a>, and its ongoing development is being sponsored by
56<a href="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</a>.
57<p>
58BusyBox is licensed under the
59<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE</a>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]60<p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]61
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000[diff] [blame^]62
63<h3> Busybox Boot-Floppy Image </h3>
64
65<p> Because you asked for it, we have made available a <a href=
66"ftp://opensource.lineo.com/busybox/busybox.floppy.img"> Busybox boot floppy
67image</a>. Here's how you use it:
68
69<ol>
70
71 <li> <a href= "ftp://opensource.lineo.com/busybox/busybox.floppy.img">
72 Download the image</a>
73
74 <li> dd it onto a floppy like so: <tt> dd if=busybox.floppy.img
75 of=/dev/fd0 ; sync </tt>
76
77 <li> Pop it in a machine and boot up.
78
79</ol>
80
81<p> If you want to look at the contents of the initrd image, do this:
82
83<pre>
84
85 mount ./busybox.floppy.img /mnt -o loop -t msdos
86 cp /mnt/initrd.gz /tmp
87 umount /mnt
88 gunzip /tmp/initrd.gz
89 mount /tmp/initrd /mnt -o loop -t minix
90
91</pre>
92
93<p> Enjoy.
94
95
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]96<h3> Screenshot </h3>
97
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]98<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
99is now available <a href="screenshot.html"> right here</a>
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]100
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000[diff] [blame^]101
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]102<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +0000[diff] [blame]103BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]104To subscribe, go and visit <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]105
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]106<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
107
108<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
109 <A NAME="news">
110 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]111 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]112 </B></BIG>
113 </A>
114</TD></TR>
115<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
116
117<ul>
118
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]119 <li> <b>15 March 2001 -- BusyBox 0.50 released</b>
120 <br>
121
122 This release adds several new applets including ifconfig, route, pivot_root, stty,
123 and tftp, and also fixes tons of bugs. Tab completion in the
124 shell is now working very well, and the shell's environment variable
125 expansion was fixed. Tons of other things were fixed or made
126 smaller. For a fairly complete overview, see the
127 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
128 <p>
129 lash (the busybox shell) is still with us, fixed up a bit so it
130 now behaves itself quite nicely. It really is quite usable as
131 long as you don't expect it to provide Bourne shell grammer.
132 Standard things like pipes, redirects, command line editing, and
133 environment variable expansion work great. But we have found that
134 this shell, while very usable, does not provide an extensible
135 framework for adding in full Bourne shell behavior. So the first order of
136 business as we begin working on the next BusyBox release will be to merge in the new shell
137 currently in progress at
138 <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry Doolittle's website</a>.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]139 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]140
141
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]142 <li> <b>27 January 2001 -- BusyBox 0.49 released</b>
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]143 <br>
144
145 Several new applets, lots of bug fixes, cleanups, and many smaller
146 things made nicer. Several cleanups and improvements to the shell.
147 For a list of the most interesting changes
148 you might want to look at the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
149 <p>
150 Special thanks go out to Matt Kraai and Larry Doolittle for all their
151 work on this release, and for keeping on top of things while I've been
152 out of town.
153 <p>
154 <em>Special Note</em><br>
155
156 BusyBox 0.49 was supposed to have replaced lash, the BusyBox
157 shell, with a new shell that understands full Bourne shell/Posix shell grammer.
158 Well, that simply didn't happen in time for this release. A new
159 shell that will eventually replace lash is already under
160 construction. This new shell is being developed by Larry
161 Doolittle, and could use all of our help. Please see the work in
162 progress on <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry's website</a>
163 and help out if you can. This shell will be included in the next
164 release of BusyBox.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]165 <p>
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]166
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]167 <li> <b>13 December 2000 -- BusyBox 0.48 released</b>
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]168 <br>
169
170 This release fixes lots and lots of bugs. This has had some very
171 rigorous testing, and looks very, very clean. The usual tar
172 update of course: tar no longer breaks hardlinks, tar -xzf is
173 optionally supported, and the LRP folks will be pleased to know
174 that 'tar -X' and 'tar --exclude' are both now in. Applets are
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]175 now looked up using a binary search making lash (the busybox
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]176 shell) much faster. For the new debian-installer (for Debian
177 woody) a .udeb can now be generated.
178 <p>
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]179 The curious can get a list of some of the more interesting changes by reading
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]180 the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
181 <p>
182 Many thanks go out to the many many people that have contributed to
183 this release, especially Matt Kraai, Larry Doolittle, and Kent Robotti.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]184 <p>
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]185
186
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]187 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]188 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]189 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 +0000[diff] [blame]190</ul>
191
192
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]193<!-- Begin Download section -->
194
195<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
196 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
197 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]198 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]199</TD></TR>
200<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
201<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]202
203 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]204 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]205
206 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
207 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
208
209 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]210 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
211 anonymous
212 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
213 for those that are actively contributing there is even
214 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]215
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]216</ul>
217
218
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]219<!-- Begin Docs section -->
220
221<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
222 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
223 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]224 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]225</TD></TR>
226<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
227Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
228<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]229 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
230 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
231 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
232 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
233 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
234 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]235 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
236 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]237 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]238 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000[diff] [blame]239 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
240 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
241 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]242</ul>
243
244
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]245<!-- Begin Links section -->
246
247<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
248 <A NAME="links">
249 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]250 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]251 </B></BIG>
252 </A>
253</TD></TR>
254<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
255
256<ul>
257
258 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
259 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
260 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
261 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
262 <p>
263
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000[diff] [blame]264 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]265 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
266 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]267 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
268 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
269 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
270 <p>
271
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]272 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]273 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
274 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
275 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]276 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]277 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]278
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]279 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
280 <p>
281
282 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
283 <p>
284
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]285 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
286 <p>
287
288</ul>
289
290
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]291<!-- Begin Projects section -->
292
293<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
294 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
295 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]296 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]297</TD></TR>
298<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
299
300<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
301listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
302
303<ul>
304 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
305 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
306 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
307 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
308 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
309 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
310 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
311 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
312 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
313 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
314 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
315 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
316 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
317 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
318 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]319 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]320 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
321 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000[diff] [blame^]322
323 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
324 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
325 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
326 Erik at the top of <a href=
327 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
328 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000[diff] [blame]329
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]330</ul>
331
332<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
333you.
334
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]335
336
337<!-- End of Table -->
338
339</TD></TR>
340</TABLE>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]341
342
343
344<!-- Footer -->
345<HR>
346<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
347 <TR>
348 <TD>
349 <font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
350 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
351 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]352 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]353 </font>
354 </TD>
355
356 <TD>
357 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=88 height=32
358 src="images/anim.written.in.vi.gif"
359 alt="This site created with the vi editor"></a>
360 </TD>
361
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363 <a href="http://www.gimp.org/"><img border=0 width=88 height=38
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367 <TD>
368 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
369 src="images/ltbutton2.jpg" alt="Linux Today"></a>
370 </TD>
371
372 <TD>
373 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
374 src="images/sdsmall.gif" alt="Slashdot"></a>
375 </TD>
376
377 <TD>
378 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
379 src="images/fm.mini.jpg" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
380 </TD>
381
382 </TR>
383</TABLE>
384
385
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]386</CENTER>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]387</BODY>
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