[20] | 1 | # vi: set sw=4 ts=4: |
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| 2 | |
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| 3 | =head1 NAME |
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| 4 | |
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| 5 | BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux |
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| 6 | |
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| 7 | =head1 SYNTAX |
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| 8 | |
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| 9 | BusyBox <function> [arguments...] # or |
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| 10 | |
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| 11 | <function> [arguments...] # if symlinked |
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| 12 | |
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| 13 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
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| 14 | |
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| 15 | BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single |
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| 16 | small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities |
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| 17 | you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox |
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| 18 | generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the |
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| 19 | options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very |
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| 20 | much like their GNU counterparts. |
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| 21 | |
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| 22 | BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind. |
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| 23 | It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or |
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| 24 | features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded |
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| 25 | systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a Linux kernel. |
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| 26 | BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded |
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| 27 | system. |
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| 28 | |
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| 29 | BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the |
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| 30 | components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make |
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| 31 | menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run |
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| 32 | 'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration. |
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| 33 | |
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| 34 | After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install |
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| 35 | BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory |
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| 36 | specified by CONFIG_PREFIX. CONFIG_PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox, |
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| 37 | or you can specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a |
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| 38 | command line like 'make CONFIG_PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled |
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| 39 | any applet installation scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will |
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| 40 | also be installed in the location pointed to by CONFIG_PREFIX. |
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| 41 | |
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| 42 | =head1 USAGE |
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| 43 | |
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| 44 | BusyBox is a multi-call binary. A multi-call binary is an executable program |
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| 45 | that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there |
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| 46 | is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large |
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| 47 | number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in |
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| 48 | utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations. |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the |
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| 51 | command line. For example, entering |
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| 52 | |
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| 53 | /bin/busybox ls |
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| 54 | |
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| 55 | will also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'. |
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| 56 | |
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| 57 | Of course, adding '/bin/busybox' into every command would be painful. So most |
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| 58 | people will invoke BusyBox using links to the BusyBox binary. |
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| 59 | |
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| 60 | For example, entering |
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| 61 | |
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| 62 | ln -s /bin/busybox ls |
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| 63 | ./ls |
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| 64 | |
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| 65 | will cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled |
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| 66 | into BusyBox). Generally speaking, you should never need to make all these |
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| 67 | links yourself, as the BusyBox build system will do this for you when you run |
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| 68 | the 'make install' command. |
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| 69 | |
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| 70 | If you invoke BusyBox with no arguments, it will provide you with a list of the |
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| 71 | applets that have been compiled into your BusyBox binary. |
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| 72 | |
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| 73 | =head1 COMMON OPTIONS |
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| 74 | |
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| 75 | Most BusyBox commands support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime |
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| 76 | description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has |
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| 77 | been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available. |
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| 78 | |
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| 79 | =head1 COMMANDS |
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| 80 | |
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| 81 | Currently defined functions include: |
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| 82 | |
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