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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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18 <B>B&nbsp;u&nbsp;s&nbsp;y&nbsp;B&nbsp;o&nbsp;x</B>
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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
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]63<h3> Screenshot </h3>
64
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]65<p> Because everybody loves screenshots, a screenshot of BusyBox
66is now available <a href="screenshot.html"> right here</a>
Mark Whitleyac21e932001-01-30 23:37:15 +0000[diff] [blame]67
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000[diff] [blame]68
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]69<H3>Mailing List Information</h3>
Matt Kraai8677d7b2000-12-15 15:41:03 +0000[diff] [blame]70BusyBox now has a <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a>!
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]71To 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]72
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]73<!-- Begin Latest News section -->
74
75<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
76 <A NAME="news">
77 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]78 Latest News
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]79 </B></BIG>
80 </A>
81</TD></TR>
82<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
83
84<ul>
85
Eric Andersenf77d8862001-04-01 04:49:41 +0000[diff] [blame^]86 <li> <b>Busybox Boot-Floppy Image</b>
87
88 <p>Because you asked for it, we have made available a <a href=
89 "ftp://opensource.lineo.com/busybox/busybox.floppy.img"> Busybox boot floppy
90 image</a>. Here's how you use it:
91
92 <ol>
93
94 <li> <a href= "ftp://opensource.lineo.com/busybox/busybox.floppy.img">
95 Download the image</a>
96
97 <li> dd it onto a floppy like so: <tt> dd if=busybox.floppy.img
98 of=/dev/fd0 ; sync </tt>
99
100 <li> Pop it in a machine and boot up.
101
102 </ol>
103
104 <p> If you want to look at the contents of the initrd image, do this:
105
106 <pre>
107 mount ./busybox.floppy.img /mnt -o loop -t msdos
108 cp /mnt/initrd.gz /tmp
109 umount /mnt
110 gunzip /tmp/initrd.gz
111 mount /tmp/initrd /mnt -o loop -t minix
112 </pre>
113
114
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]115 <li> <b>15 March 2001 -- BusyBox 0.50 released</b>
116 <br>
117
118 This release adds several new applets including ifconfig, route, pivot_root, stty,
119 and tftp, and also fixes tons of bugs. Tab completion in the
120 shell is now working very well, and the shell's environment variable
121 expansion was fixed. Tons of other things were fixed or made
122 smaller. For a fairly complete overview, see the
123 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
124 <p>
125 lash (the busybox shell) is still with us, fixed up a bit so it
126 now behaves itself quite nicely. It really is quite usable as
127 long as you don't expect it to provide Bourne shell grammer.
128 Standard things like pipes, redirects, command line editing, and
129 environment variable expansion work great. But we have found that
130 this shell, while very usable, does not provide an extensible
131 framework for adding in full Bourne shell behavior. So the first order of
132 business as we begin working on the next BusyBox release will be to merge in the new shell
133 currently in progress at
134 <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry Doolittle's website</a>.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]135 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]136
137
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]138 <li> <b>27 January 2001 -- BusyBox 0.49 released</b>
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]139 <br>
140
141 Several new applets, lots of bug fixes, cleanups, and many smaller
142 things made nicer. Several cleanups and improvements to the shell.
143 For a list of the most interesting changes
144 you might want to look at the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
145 <p>
146 Special thanks go out to Matt Kraai and Larry Doolittle for all their
147 work on this release, and for keeping on top of things while I've been
148 out of town.
149 <p>
150 <em>Special Note</em><br>
151
152 BusyBox 0.49 was supposed to have replaced lash, the BusyBox
153 shell, with a new shell that understands full Bourne shell/Posix shell grammer.
154 Well, that simply didn't happen in time for this release. A new
155 shell that will eventually replace lash is already under
156 construction. This new shell is being developed by Larry
157 Doolittle, and could use all of our help. Please see the work in
158 progress on <a href="http://doolittle.faludi.com/~larry/parser.html">Larry's website</a>
159 and help out if you can. This shell will be included in the next
160 release of BusyBox.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]161 <p>
Eric Andersen8ec10a92001-01-27 09:33:39 +0000[diff] [blame]162
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]163 <li> <b>13 December 2000 -- BusyBox 0.48 released</b>
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]164 <br>
165
166 This release fixes lots and lots of bugs. This has had some very
167 rigorous testing, and looks very, very clean. The usual tar
168 update of course: tar no longer breaks hardlinks, tar -xzf is
169 optionally supported, and the LRP folks will be pleased to know
170 that 'tar -X' and 'tar --exclude' are both now in. Applets are
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]171 now looked up using a binary search making lash (the busybox
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]172 shell) much faster. For the new debian-installer (for Debian
173 woody) a .udeb can now be generated.
174 <p>
Matt Kraaie3a94f72000-12-13 19:50:48 +0000[diff] [blame]175 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]176 the <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/Changelog">changelog</a>.
177 <p>
178 Many thanks go out to the many many people that have contributed to
179 this release, especially Matt Kraai, Larry Doolittle, and Kent Robotti.
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]180 <p>
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]181
182
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]183 <li> <b>Old News</b>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]184 <br>
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]185 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]186</ul>
187
188
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]189<!-- Begin Download section -->
190
191<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
192 <A NAME="download"><BIG><B>
193 Download
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]194 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]195</TD></TR>
196<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
197<ul>
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]198
199 <li> Source for the latest release can always be downloaded from
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]200 <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox">ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]201
202 <li> A new snapshot of the source is made daily and is available as a GNU
203 gzipped tarball <a href="busybox.tar.gz"> right here</a>.
204
205 <li> BusyBox now has its own publically browsable
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]206 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/busybox/">CVS tree</a>,
207 anonymous
208 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_anon.html">CVS access</a>, and
209 for those that are actively contributing there is even
210 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/cvs_write.html">CVS write access</a>.
Mark Whitley8ba1b112001-01-25 23:29:58 +0000[diff] [blame]211
Eric Andersen4a971ae2000-06-22 01:27:11 +0000[diff] [blame]212</ul>
213
214
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]215<!-- Begin Docs section -->
216
217<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
218 <A NAME="docs"><BIG><B>
219 Documentation
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]220 </B></BIG></A>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]221</TD></TR>
222<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
223Current documentation for BusyBox includes:
224<ul>
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]225 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/BusyBox.html">BusyBox.html</a>.
226 This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox with
227 complete usage information and examples of how to use each app. I
228 have spent a <em>lot</em> of time updating these docs and trying to
229 make them fairly comprehensive. If you find any errors (factual,
230 grammatical, whatever) please let me know.
Eric Andersen43622002000-12-13 18:30:13 +0000[diff] [blame]231 <li> <a href="ftp://oss.lineo.com/busybox/README">README</a>.
232 This is the README file included in the busybox source release.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]233 <li> <a href="http://bugs.lineo.com/db/pa/lbusybox.html">BusyBox Bugs</a>.
Eric Andersenbdcc6fb2000-09-26 06:15:12 +0000[diff] [blame]234 Need to report a bug? Need to check if a bug has been filed?
Eric Andersenaec27bc2000-07-11 18:18:40 +0000[diff] [blame]235 <li> If you need more help, the BusyBox
236 <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/lists/busybox/">mailing list</a> is
237 a good place to start.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]238</ul>
239
240
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]241<!-- Begin Links section -->
242
243<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
244 <A NAME="links">
245 <BIG><B>
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]246 Important Links
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]247 </B></BIG>
248 </A>
249</TD></TR>
250<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
251
252<ul>
253
254 <li> <A HREF="http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/">
255 Free Software from Bruce Perens</A><br>
256 The original idea for BusyBox, and all versions up to 0.26 were written
257 by <A HREF="mailto:bruce@perens.com">Bruce Perens</a>. This is his BusyBox website.
258 <p>
259
Eric Andersen5efa2292001-03-05 18:26:50 +0000[diff] [blame]260 <li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/busybox/">
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]261 Freshmeat AppIndex record for BusyBox</A>
262 <p>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]263 <li><a href="http://tinylogin.lineo.com/">TinyLogin</a>
264 is a nice embedded tool for handling authentication, changing passwords,
265 and similar tasks which nicely complements BusyBox.
266 <p>
267
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]268 <li><a href="http://cvs.uclinux.org/uClibc.html">uClibc</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]269 is a C library for embedded systems. You can actually statically link
270 a "Hello World" application under x86 that only takes 4k (as opposed to
271 200k under GNU libc). It can do dynamic linking too and works nicely with
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]272 BusyBox to create very small embedded systems.
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]273 <p>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]274
Eric Andersen766c0122000-06-21 22:43:07 +0000[diff] [blame]275 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/software.html">Other cool embedded software</a>.
276 <p>
277
278 <li> <a href="http://opensource.lineo.com/">opensource.lineo.com</a>.
279 <p>
280
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]281 <li> <A HREF="http://www.lineo.com/">Lineo</A> is sponsoring BusyBox development.
282 <p>
283
284</ul>
285
286
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]287<!-- Begin Projects section -->
288
289<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#ccccc0" ALIGN=center>
290 <A NAME="projects"><BIG><B>
291 Products/Projects Using BusyBox
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]292 </B></BIG></A>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]293</TD></TR>
294<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#eeeee0">
295
296<p> I know of the following products and/or projects that use BusyBox --
297listed in the order I happen to add them to the web page:
298
299<ul>
300 <li> <a href="http://www.lineo.com/products/embedix_linux/">Lineo Embedix Linux</a>
301 <li> <a href="http://cvs.debian.org/boot-floppies/">Debian installer (boot floppies) project</a>
302 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxrouter.org/">Linux Router Project </a>
303 <li> <a href="http://linux-embedded.org/">LEM</a>
304 <li> <a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/">tomsrtbt</a>
305 <li> <a href="http://www.stormix.com/">Stormix Installer</a>
306 <li> <a href="http://www.emacinc.com/linux2_sbc.htm">EMAC Linux 2.0 SBC</a>
307 <li> <a href="http://www.trinux.org/">Trinux</a>
308 <li> <a href="http://oddas.sourceforge.net/">ODDAS project</a>
309 <li> <a href="http://www.kerbango.com/">The Kerbango Internet Radio</a>
310 <li> <a href="http://www.linuxmagic.com/vpn/">LinuxMagic VPN Firewall</a>
311 <li> <a href="http://byld.sourceforge.net/">Build Your Linux Disk</a>
312 <li> <a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
313 <li> <a href="http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery">Zdisk</a>
314 <li> <a href="http://www.adtran.com">AdTran - VPN/firewall VPN Linux Distribution</a>
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]315 <li> <a href="http://mkcdrec.ota.be/">mkCDrec - make CD-ROM recovery</a>
Eric Andersenc36c2ba2001-03-16 07:16:12 +0000[diff] [blame]316 <li> <a href="http://recycle.lbl.gov/~ldoolitt/bse/">Linux on nanoEngine</a>
317 <li> <a href="http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/"> Floppyfw</a>
Mark Whitley74476422001-03-20 19:57:30 +0000[diff] [blame]318
319 <li> <a href="http://midori.transmeta.com/"> Midori Linux</a> - <a href=
320 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399,00.html"> Article on
321 Midori Linux</a> on <a href= "http://www.wired.com"> Wired</a>. Quote from
322 Erik at the top of <a href=
323 "http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42399-2,00.html"> this
324 page</a>
Mark Whitley798ab302001-03-13 17:08:54 +0000[diff] [blame]325
Eric Andersen1b622ff2000-12-14 15:43:57 +0000[diff] [blame]326</ul>
327
328<p> Do you use BusyBox? I'd love to know about it and I'd be happy to link to
329you.
330
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]331
332
333<!-- End of Table -->
334
335</TD></TR>
336</TABLE>
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]337
338
339
340<!-- Footer -->
341<HR>
342<TABLE WIDTH="100%">
343 <TR>
344 <TD>
345 <font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">
346 Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to
347 <a href="mailto:andersen@lineo.com">Erik Andersen</a><BR>
Eric Andersendfba13d2001-03-16 08:30:00 +0000[diff] [blame]348 The Busybox logo is copyright 1999,2000,2001, Erik Andersen.
Erik Andersen330fd2b2000-05-19 05:35:19 +0000[diff] [blame]349 </font>
350 </TD>
351
352 <TD>
353 <a href="http://www.vim.org"><img border=0 width=88 height=32
354 src="images/anim.written.in.vi.gif"
355 alt="This site created with the vi editor"></a>
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359 <a href="http://www.gimp.org/"><img border=0 width=88 height=38
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361 </TD>
362
363 <TD>
364 <a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com"><img width=90 height=36
365 src="images/ltbutton2.jpg" alt="Linux Today"></a>
366 </TD>
367
368 <TD>
369 <p><a href="http://slashdot.org"><img width=90 height=36
370 src="images/sdsmall.gif" alt="Slashdot"></a>
371 </TD>
372
373 <TD>
374 <a href="http://freshmeat.net"><img width=90 height=36
375 src="images/fm.mini.jpg" alt="Freshmeat"></a>
376 </TD>
377
378 </TR>
379</TABLE>
380
381
Matt Kraai18d50642001-01-31 02:13:05 +0000[diff] [blame]382</CENTER>
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