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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 Andersenaa64ba42001-07-07 16:36:29 +000048systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, a kernel. You can even use
49the busybox shell and the busybox vi editor.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000050<p>
51
52BusyBox is now maintained by
Eric Andersen537d1652001-01-25 22:00:37 +000053<a href="http://codepoet.org/andersen/erik/erik.html">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000054Erik Andersen</a>, and its ongoing development is being sponsored by
55<a href="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</a>.
56<p>
57BusyBox is licensed under the
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000058<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE</a>.
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000059<p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000060
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000061
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000062<h3> Screenshot </h3>
63
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +000064<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
Matt Kraaicb378a52001-05-14 06:35:15 +000065is now available <a href="screenshot.html">right here</a>.
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +000066
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +000067
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +000068<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +000069BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +000070To subscribe, go and visit <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/mailman/listinfo/busybox">this page</a>.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000071
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000072<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
73
74<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
75 <A NAME="news">
76 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +000077 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +000078 </B></BIG>
79 </A>
80</TD></TR>
81<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
82
83<ul>
84
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +000085 <li> <b>7 July 2001 -- BusyBox 0.52 released</b>
86 <br>
87
88 I am very pleased to announce the immediate availability of
89 BusyBox 0.52 (the "new-and-improved rock-solid release"). This
90 release is the result of <em>many</em> hours of work and has tons
91 of bugfixes, optimizations, and cleanups. This release adds
Eric Andersend0b4d3d2001-07-07 08:47:21 +000092 several new applets, including several new shells (such as hush, msh,
Eric Andersen40ecf7d2001-07-07 08:25:03 +000093 and ash).
94
95 <p>
96 The
97 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a> covers
98 some of the more obvious details, but there are many many things that
99 are not mentioned, but have been improved in subtle ways. As usual,
100 BusyBox 0.52 can be downloaded from
101 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
102 <p>Have Fun!
103 <p>
104
105
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000106 <li> <b>10 April 2001 - Graph of Busybox Growth </b>
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000107 <br>
108 The illustrious Larry Doolittle has made a PostScript chart of the growth
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000109 of the Busybox tarball size over time. It is available for downloading /
110 viewing <a href= "busybox-growth.ps"> right here</a>.
111
112 <p> (Note that while the number of applets in Busybox has increased, you
113 can still configure Busybox to be as small as you want by selectively
114 turning off whichever applets you don't need.)
Eric Andersen93ffa952001-04-10 22:10:42 +0000115 <p>
Mark Whitleyefcfe872001-04-10 21:58:32 +0000116
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000117
118
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000119 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000120 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000121 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 +0000122</ul>
123
124
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000125<!-- Begin Download section -->
126
127<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
128 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
129 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000130 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000131</TD></TR>
132<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
133<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000134
135 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000136 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000137
138 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
139 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
140
141 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000142 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
143 anonymous
144 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
145 for those that are actively contributing there is even
146 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000147
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000148</ul>
149
150
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000151<!-- Begin Docs section -->
152
153<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
154 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
155 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000156 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000157</TD></TR>
158<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
159Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
160<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000161 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
162 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
163 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
164 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
165 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
166 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000167 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
168 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000169 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000170 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000171 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
172 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
173 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000174</ul>
175
176
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000177<!-- Begin Links section -->
178
179<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
180 <A NAME="links">
181 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000182 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000183 </B></BIG>
184 </A>
185</TD></TR>
186<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
187
188<ul>
189
190 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
191 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
192 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
193 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
194 <p>
195
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000196 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000197 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
198 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000199 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
200 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
201 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
202 <p>
203
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000204 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000205 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
206 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
207 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000208 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000209 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000210
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000211 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
212 <p>
213
214 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
215 <p>
216
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000217 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
218 <p>
219
220</ul>
221
222
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000223<!-- Begin Projects section -->
224
225<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
226 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
227 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000228 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000229</TD></TR>
230<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
231
232<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
233listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
234
235<ul>
236 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
237 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
238 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
239 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
240 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
241 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
242 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
243 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
244 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
245 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
246 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
247 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
248 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
249 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
250 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000251 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000252 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
253 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000254
255 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
256 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
257 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
258 Erik at the top of <a href=
259 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
260 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000261
Eric Andersen583e3ca2001-06-12 22:04:40 +0000262 <li> <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">Linux Terminal Server Project</a>
263 <li> <a href="http://www.devil-linux.org/">Devil-Linux</a>
Eric Andersen4f3e2492001-06-06 18:21:25 +0000264
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000265</ul>
266
267<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
268you.
269
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000270
271
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285 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
286 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000287 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000288 </font>
289 </TD>
290
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Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000292 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
293 src="images/written.in.vi.png"
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000294 alt="This site created with the vi editor"></a>
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Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000298 <a href="http://www.gimp.org/"><img border=0 width=90 height=36
299 src="images/gfx_by_gimp.png" alt="Graphics by GIMP"></a>
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302 <TD>
303 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000304 src="images/ltbutton2.png" alt="Linux Today"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000305 </TD>
306
307 <TD>
308 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000309 src="images/sdsmall.png" alt="Slashdot"></a>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000310 </TD>
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313 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
Eric Andersen19ec9ee2001-05-02 17:19:25 +0000314 src="images/fm.mini.png" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
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