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