BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux
busybox <applet> [arguments...] # or
<applet> [arguments...] # if symlinkedBusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.
BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind. It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a Linux kernel. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded system.
BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run 'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration.
After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory specified by CONFIG_PREFIX. CONFIG_PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox, or you can specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a command line like 'make CONFIG_PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled any applet installation scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will also be installed in the location pointed to by CONFIG_PREFIX.
BusyBox is a multi-call binary. A multi-call binary is an executable program that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations.
You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the command line. For example, entering
/bin/busybox lswill also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'.
Of course, adding '/bin/busybox' into every command would be painful. So most people will invoke BusyBox using links to the BusyBox binary.
For example, entering
ln -s /bin/busybox ls
./lswill cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled into BusyBox). Generally speaking, you should never need to make all these links yourself, as the BusyBox build system will do this for you when you run the 'make install' command.
If you invoke BusyBox with no arguments, it will provide you with a list of the applets that have been compiled into your BusyBox binary.
Most BusyBox applets support the --help argument to provide a terse runtime description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available.
Currently available applets include:
[, [[, ash, awk, basename, brctl, bunzip2, bzcat, cat, chgrp, chmod,
chown, chroot, clear, cmp, cp, crond, crontab, cut, date, dd, df,
dirname, dmesg, du, echo, egrep, env, expr, false, fgrep, find,
free, fsync, grep, gunzip, gzip, halt, head, hexdump, hwclock, id,
ifconfig, ip, kill, killall, less, ln, lock, logger, login, ls,
md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mkswap, mktemp, mount, mv, nc, netmsg,
netstat, nice, nslookup, ntpd, passwd, pgrep, pidof, ping, ping6,
pivot_root, poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, readlink, reboot, reset, rm,
rmdir, route, sed, seq, sh, sha256sum, sleep, sort,
start-stop-daemon, strings, switch_root, sync, sysctl, tail, tar,
tee, test, time, top, touch, tr, traceroute, traceroute6, true,
udhcpc, umount, uname, uniq, uptime, vi, wc, which, xargs, yes,
zcatash [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS]]
Unix shell interpreter
awk [OPTIONS] [AWK_PROGRAM] [FILE]...
-v VAR=VAL Set variable
-F SEP Use SEP as field separator
-f FILE Read program from FILE
-e AWK_PROGRAMbasename FILE [SUFFIX]
Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE
brctl COMMAND [BRIDGE [INTERFACE]]
Manage ethernet bridges
Commands:
show Show a list of bridges
addbr BRIDGE Create BRIDGE
delbr BRIDGE Delete BRIDGE
addif BRIDGE IFACE Add IFACE to BRIDGE
delif BRIDGE IFACE Delete IFACE from BRIDGE
setageing BRIDGE TIME Set ageing time
setfd BRIDGE TIME Set bridge forward delay
sethello BRIDGE TIME Set hello time
setmaxage BRIDGE TIME Set max message age
setpathcost BRIDGE COST Set path cost
setportprio BRIDGE PRIO Set port priority
setbridgeprio BRIDGE PRIO Set bridge priority
stp BRIDGE [1/yes/on|0/no/off] STP on/offbunzip2 [-cf] [FILE]...
Decompress FILEs (or stdin)
-c Write to stdout
-f Forcebzcat [FILE]...
Decompress to stdout
cat [FILE]...
Concatenate FILEs and print them to stdout
chgrp [-RhLHP]... GROUP FILE...
Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP
-R Recurse
-h Affect symlinks instead of symlink targets
-L Traverse all symlinks to directories
-H Traverse symlinks on command line only
-P Don't traverse symlinks (default)chmod [-R] MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
Each MODE is one or more of the letters ugoa, one of the symbols +-= and one or more of the letters rwxst
-R Recursechown [-Rh]... OWNER[<.|:>[GROUP]] FILE...
Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP
-R Recurse
-h Affect symlinks instead of symlink targetschroot NEWROOT [PROG ARGS]
Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT
clear
Clear screen
cmp [-l] [-s] FILE1 [FILE2]
Compare FILE1 with FILE2 (or stdin)
-l Write the byte numbers (decimal) and values (octal)
for all differing bytes
-s Quietcp [OPTIONS] SOURCE... DEST
Copy SOURCE(s) to DEST
-a Same as -dpR
-R,-r Recurse
-d,-P Preserve symlinks (default if -R)
-L Follow all symlinks
-H Follow symlinks on command line
-p Preserve file attributes if possible
-f Overwrite
-i Prompt before overwrite
-l,-s Create (sym)linkscrond -fbS -l N -L LOGFILE -c DIR
-f Foreground
-b Background (default)
-S Log to syslog (default)
-l N Set log level. Most verbose:0, default:8
-L FILE Log to FILE
-c DIR Cron dir. Default:/etc/crontabscrontab [-c DIR] [-u USER] [-ler]|[FILE]
-c Crontab directory
-u User
-l List crontab
-e Edit crontab
-r Delete crontab
FILE Replace crontab by FILE ('-': stdin)cut [OPTIONS] [FILE]...
Print selected fields from each input FILE to stdout
-b LIST Output only bytes from LIST
-c LIST Output only characters from LIST
-d CHAR Use CHAR instead of tab as the field delimiter
-s Output only the lines containing delimiter
-f N Print only these fields
-n Ignoreddate [OPTIONS] [+FMT] [TIME]
Display time (using +FMT), or set time
[-s,--set] TIME Set time to TIME
-u,--utc Work in UTC (don't convert to local time)
-R,--rfc-2822 Output RFC-2822 compliant date string
-I[SPEC] Output ISO-8601 compliant date string
SPEC='date' (default) for date only,
'hours', 'minutes', or 'seconds' for date and
time to the indicated precision
-r,--reference FILE Display last modification time of FILE
-d,--date TIME Display TIME, not 'now'
-D FMT Use FMT for -d TIME conversion
-k Set Kernel timezone from localtime and exitRecognized TIME formats:
hh:mm[:ss]
[YYYY.]MM.DD-hh:mm[:ss]
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]
[[[[[YY]YY]MM]DD]hh]mm[.ss]dd [if=FILE] [of=FILE] [ibs=N] [obs=N] [bs=N] [count=N] [skip=N] [seek=N] [conv=notrunc|noerror|sync|fsync]
Copy a file with converting and formatting
if=FILE Read from FILE instead of stdin
of=FILE Write to FILE instead of stdout
bs=N Read and write N bytes at a time
ibs=N Read N bytes at a time
obs=N Write N bytes at a time
count=N Copy only N input blocks
skip=N Skip N input blocks
seek=N Skip N output blocks
conv=notrunc Don't truncate output file
conv=noerror Continue after read errors
conv=sync Pad blocks with zeros
conv=fsync Physically write data out before finishing
conv=swab Swap every pair of bytesN may be suffixed by c (1), w (2), b (512), kB (1000), k (1024), MB, M, GB, G
df [-PkmhT] [FILESYSTEM]...
Print filesystem usage statistics
-P POSIX output format
-k 1024-byte blocks (default)
-m 1M-byte blocks
-h Human readable (e.g. 1K 243M 2G)
-T Print filesystem typedirname FILENAME
Strip non-directory suffix from FILENAME
dmesg [-c] [-n LEVEL] [-s SIZE]
Print or control the kernel ring buffer
-c Clear ring buffer after printing
-n LEVEL Set console logging level
-s SIZE Buffer size
-r Print raw message bufferdu [-aHLdclsxhmk] [FILE]...
Summarize disk space used for each FILE and/or directory
-a Show file sizes too
-L Follow all symlinks
-H Follow symlinks on command line
-d N Limit output to directories (and files with -a) of depth < N
-c Show grand total
-l Count sizes many times if hard linked
-s Display only a total for each argument
-x Skip directories on different filesystems
-h Sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 243M 2G)
-m Sizes in megabytes
-k Sizes in kilobytes (default)echo [-neE] [ARG]...
Print the specified ARGs to stdout
-n Suppress trailing newline
-e Interpret backslash escapes (i.e., \t=tab)
-E Don't interpret backslash escapes (default)env [-iu] [-] [name=value]... [PROG ARGS]
Print the current environment or run PROG after setting up the specified environment
-, -i Start with an empty environment
-u Remove variable from the environmentexpr EXPRESSION
Print the value of EXPRESSION to stdout
EXPRESSION may be:
ARG1 | ARG2 ARG1 if it is neither null nor 0, otherwise ARG2
ARG1 & ARG2 ARG1 if neither argument is null or 0, otherwise 0
ARG1 < ARG2 1 if ARG1 is less than ARG2, else 0. Similarly:
ARG1 <= ARG2
ARG1 = ARG2
ARG1 != ARG2
ARG1 >= ARG2
ARG1 > ARG2
ARG1 + ARG2 Sum of ARG1 and ARG2. Similarly:
ARG1 - ARG2
ARG1 * ARG2
ARG1 / ARG2
ARG1 % ARG2
STRING : REGEXP Anchored pattern match of REGEXP in STRING
match STRING REGEXP Same as STRING : REGEXP
substr STRING POS LENGTH Substring of STRING, POS counted from 1
index STRING CHARS Index in STRING where any CHARS is found, or 0
length STRING Length of STRING
quote TOKEN Interpret TOKEN as a string, even if
it is a keyword like 'match' or an
operator like '/'
(EXPRESSION) Value of EXPRESSIONBeware that many operators need to be escaped or quoted for shells. Comparisons are arithmetic if both ARGs are numbers, else lexicographical. Pattern matches return the string matched between \( and \) or null; if \( and \) are not used, they return the number of characters matched or 0.
find [-HL] [PATH]... [OPTIONS] [ACTIONS]
Search for files and perform actions on them. First failed action stops processing of current file. Defaults: PATH is current directory, action is '-print'
-L,-follow Follow symlinks
-H ...on command line only
-xdev Don't descend directories on other filesystems
-maxdepth N Descend at most N levels. -maxdepth 0 applies
actions to command line arguments only
-mindepth N Don't act on first N levels
-depth Act on directory *after* traversing itActions:
( ACTIONS ) Group actions for -o / -a
! ACT Invert ACT's success/failure
ACT1 [-a] ACT2 If ACT1 fails, stop, else do ACT2
ACT1 -o ACT2 If ACT1 succeeds, stop, else do ACT2
Note: -a has higher priority than -o
-name PATTERN Match file name (w/o directory name) to PATTERN
-iname PATTERN Case insensitive -name
-path PATTERN Match path to PATTERN
-ipath PATTERN Case insensitive -path
-regex PATTERN Match path to regex PATTERN
-type X File type is X (one of: f,d,l,b,c,...)
-perm MASK At least one mask bit (+MASK), all bits (-MASK),
or exactly MASK bits are set in file's mode
-mtime DAYS mtime is greater than (+N), less than (-N),
or exactly N days in the past
-user NAME/ID File is owned by given user
-group NAME/ID File is owned by given group
-size N[bck] File size is N (c:bytes,k:kbytes,b:512 bytes(def.))
+/-N: file size is bigger/smaller than N
-prune If current file is directory, don't descend into it
If none of the following actions is specified, -print is assumed
-print Print file name
-print0 Print file name, NUL terminated
-exec CMD ARG ; Run CMD with all instances of {} replaced by
file name. Fails if CMD exits with nonzerofree
Display the amount of free and used system memory
fsync [-d] FILE...
Write files' buffered blocks to disk
-d Avoid syncing metadatagrep [-HhnlLoqvsriwFE] [-m N] [-A/B/C N] PATTERN/-e PATTERN.../-f FILE [FILE]...
Search for PATTERN in FILEs (or stdin)
-H Add 'filename:' prefix
-h Do not add 'filename:' prefix
-n Add 'line_no:' prefix
-l Show only names of files that match
-L Show only names of files that don't match
-c Show only count of matching lines
-o Show only the matching part of line
-q Quiet. Return 0 if PATTERN is found, 1 otherwise
-v Select non-matching lines
-s Suppress open and read errors
-r Recurse
-i Ignore case
-w Match whole words only
-x Match whole lines only
-F PATTERN is a literal (not regexp)
-E PATTERN is an extended regexp
-m N Match up to N times per file
-A N Print N lines of trailing context
-B N Print N lines of leading context
-C N Same as '-A N -B N'
-e PTRN Pattern to match
-f FILE Read pattern from filegunzip [-cft] [FILE]...
Decompress FILEs (or stdin)
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
-t Test file integritygzip [-cfd] [FILE]...
Compress FILEs (or stdin)
-d Decompress
-c Write to stdout
-f Forcehalt [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f]
Halt the system
-d SEC Delay interval
-n Do not sync
-f Force (don't go through init)head [OPTIONS] [FILE]...
Print first 10 lines of each FILE (or stdin) to stdout. With more than one FILE, precede each with a filename header.
-n N[kbm] Print first N lines
-n -N[kbm] Print all except N last lines
-c [-]N[kbm] Print first N bytes
-q Never print headers
-v Always print headersN may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (x1024^2).
hexdump [-bcCdefnosvx] [FILE]...
Display FILEs (or stdin) in a user specified format
-b One-byte octal display
-c One-byte character display
-C Canonical hex+ASCII, 16 bytes per line
-d Two-byte decimal display
-e FORMAT_STRING
-f FORMAT_FILE
-n LENGTH Interpret only LENGTH bytes of input
-o Two-byte octal display
-s OFFSET Skip OFFSET bytes
-v Display all input data
-x Two-byte hexadecimal displayhwclock [-r] [-s] [-w] [-t] [-l] [-u] [-f FILE]
Query and set hardware clock (RTC)
-r Show hardware clock time
-s Set system time from hardware clock
-w Set hardware clock from system time
-t Set in-kernel timezone, correct system time
if hardware clock is in local time
-u Assume hardware clock is kept in UTC
-l Assume hardware clock is kept in local time
-f FILE Use specified device (e.g. /dev/rtc2)id [OPTIONS] [USER]
Print information about USER or the current user
-u User ID
-g Group ID
-G Supplementary group IDs
-n Print names instead of numbers
-r Print real ID instead of effective IDifconfig [-a] interface [address]
Configure a network interface
[add ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
[del ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
[[-]broadcast [ADDRESS]] [[-]pointopoint [ADDRESS]]
[netmask ADDRESS] [dstaddr ADDRESS]
[hw ether ADDRESS] [metric NN] [mtu NN]
[[-]trailers] [[-]arp] [[-]allmulti]
[multicast] [[-]promisc] [txqueuelen NN] [[-]dynamic]
[up|down] ...ip [OPTIONS] {address | route | link | rule} {COMMAND}
ip [OPTIONS] OBJECT {COMMAND} where OBJECT := {address | route | link | rule} OPTIONS := { -f[amily] { inet | inet6 | link } | -o[neline] }
kill [-l] [-SIG] PID...
Send a signal (default: TERM) to given PIDs
-l List all signal names and numberskillall [-l] [-q] [-SIG] PROCESS_NAME...
Send a signal (default: TERM) to given processes
-l List all signal names and numbers
-q Don't complain if no processes were killedless [-ENh~] [FILE]...
View FILE (or stdin) one screenful at a time
-E Quit once the end of a file is reached
-N Prefix line number to each line
-~ Suppress ~s displayed past EOFln [OPTIONS] TARGET... LINK|DIR
Create a link LINK or DIR/TARGET to the specified TARGET(s)
-s Make symlinks instead of hardlinks
-f Remove existing destinations
-n Don't dereference symlinks - treat like normal file
-b Make a backup of the target (if exists) before link operation
-S suf Use suffix instead of ~ when making backup files
-T 2nd arg must be a DIR
-v Verboselogger [OPTIONS] [MESSAGE]
Write MESSAGE (or stdin) to syslog
-s Log to stderr as well as the system log
-t TAG Log using the specified tag (defaults to user name)
-p PRIO Priority (numeric or facility.level pair)login [-p] [-h HOST] [[-f] USER]
Begin a new session on the system
-f Don't authenticate (user already authenticated)
-h Name of the remote host
-p Preserve environmentls [-1AaCxdLHRFplinsehrSXvctu] [-w WIDTH] [FILE]...
List directory contents
-1 One column output
-a Include entries which start with .
-A Like -a, but exclude . and ..
-C List by columns
-x List by lines
-d List directory entries instead of contents
-L Follow symlinks
-H Follow symlinks on command line
-R Recurse
-p Append / to dir entries
-F Append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
-l Long listing format
-i List inode numbers
-n List numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names
-s List allocated blocks
-e List full date and time
-h List sizes in human readable format (1K 243M 2G)
-r Sort in reverse order
-S Sort by size
-X Sort by extension
-v Sort by version
-c With -l: sort by ctime
-t With -l: sort by mtime
-u With -l: sort by atime
-w N Assume the terminal is N columns wide
--color[={always,never,auto}] Control coloringmd5sum [-c[sw]] [FILE]...
Print or check MD5 checksums
-c Check sums against list in FILEs
-s Don't output anything, status code shows success
-w Warn about improperly formatted checksum linesmkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...
Create DIRECTORY
-m MODE Mode
-p No error if exists; make parent directories as neededmkfifo [-m MODE] NAME
Create named pipe
-m MODE Mode (default a=rw)mknod [-m MODE] NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR
Create a special file (block, character, or pipe)
-m MODE Creation mode (default a=rw)
TYPE:
b Block device
c or u Character device
p Named pipe (MAJOR and MINOR are ignored)mkswap [-L LBL] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]
Prepare BLOCKDEV to be used as swap partition
-L LBL Labelmktemp [-dt] [-p DIR] [TEMPLATE]
Create a temporary file with name based on TEMPLATE and print its name. TEMPLATE must end with XXXXXX (e.g. [/dir/]nameXXXXXX). Without TEMPLATE, -t tmp.XXXXXX is assumed.
-d Make directory, not file
-q Fail silently on errors
-t Prepend base directory name to TEMPLATE
-p DIR Use DIR as a base directory (implies -t)
-u Do not create anything; print a nameBase directory is: -p DIR, else $TMPDIR, else /tmp
mount [OPTIONS] [-o OPT] DEVICE NODE
Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc.
-a Mount all filesystems in fstab
-i Don't run mount helper
-r Read-only mount
-t FSTYPE[,...] Filesystem type(s)
-O OPT Mount only filesystems with option OPT (-a only)
-o OPT:
loop Ignored (loop devices are autodetected)
[a]sync Writes are [a]synchronous
[no]atime Disable/enable updates to inode access times
[no]diratime Disable/enable atime updates to directories
[no]relatime Disable/enable atime updates relative to modification time
[no]dev (Dis)allow use of special device files
[no]exec (Dis)allow use of executable files
[no]suid (Dis)allow set-user-id-root programs
[r]shared Convert [recursively] to a shared subtree
[r]slave Convert [recursively] to a slave subtree
[r]private Convert [recursively] to a private subtree
[un]bindable Make mount point [un]able to be bind mounted
[r]bind Bind a file or directory [recursively] to another location
move Relocate an existing mount point
remount Remount a mounted filesystem, changing flags
ro Same as -rThere are filesystem-specific -o flags.
mv [-fin] SOURCE DEST or: mv [-fin] SOURCE... DIRECTORY
Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY
-f Don't prompt before overwriting
-i Interactive, prompt before overwrite
-n Don't overwrite an existing filenc [IPADDR PORT]
Open a pipe to IP:PORT
netstat [-ral] [-tuwx] [-enWp]
Display networking information
-r Routing table
-a All sockets
-l Listening sockets
Else: connected sockets
-t TCP sockets
-u UDP sockets
-w Raw sockets
-x Unix sockets
Else: all socket types
-e Other/more information
-n Don't resolve names
-W Wide display
-p Show PID/program name for socketsnice [-n ADJUST] [PROG ARGS]
Change scheduling priority, run PROG
-n ADJUST Adjust priority by ADJUSTnslookup [HOST] [SERVER]
Query the nameserver for the IP address of the given HOST optionally using a specified DNS server
ntpd [-dnqNwl -I IFACE] [-S PROG] [-p PEER]...
NTP client/server
-d Verbose
-n Do not daemonize
-q Quit after clock is set
-N Run at high priority
-w Do not set time (only query peers), implies -n
-S PROG Run PROG after stepping time, stratum change, and every 11 mins
-p PEER Obtain time from PEER (may be repeated)
-l Also run as server on port 123
-I IFACE Bind server to IFACE, implies -lpasswd [OPTIONS] [USER]
Change USER's password (default: current user)
-a ALG Encryption method
-d Set password to ''
-l Lock (disable) account
-u Unlock (enable) accountpgrep [-flnovx] [-s SID|-P PPID|PATTERN]
Display process(es) selected by regex PATTERN
-l Show command name too
-f Match against entire command line
-n Show the newest process only
-o Show the oldest process only
-v Negate the match
-x Match whole name (not substring)
-s Match session ID (0 for current)
-P Match parent process IDpidof [NAME]...
List PIDs of all processes with names that match NAMEs
ping [OPTIONS] HOST
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts
-4,-6 Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
-c CNT Send only CNT pings
-s SIZE Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default:56)
-t TTL Set TTL
-I IFACE/IP Use interface or IP address as source
-W SEC Seconds to wait for the first response (default:10)
(after all -c CNT packets are sent)
-w SEC Seconds until ping exits (default:infinite)
(can exit earlier with -c CNT)
-q Quiet, only display output at start
and when finished
-p Pattern to use for payloadping6 [OPTIONS] HOST
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts
-c CNT Send only CNT pings
-s SIZE Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default:56)
-I IFACE/IP Use interface or IP address as source
-q Quiet, only display output at start
and when finished
-p Pattern to use for payloadpivot_root NEW_ROOT PUT_OLD
Move the current root file system to PUT_OLD and make NEW_ROOT the new root file system
poweroff [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f]
Halt and shut off power
-d SEC Delay interval
-n Do not sync
-f Force (don't go through init)printf FORMAT [ARG]...
Format and print ARG(s) according to FORMAT (a-la C printf)
ps
Show list of processes
w Wide outputpwd
Print the full filename of the current working directory
readlink [-fnv] FILE
Display the value of a symlink
-f Canonicalize by following all symlinks
-n Don't add newline
-v Verbosereboot [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f]
Reboot the system
-d SEC Delay interval
-n Do not sync
-f Force (don't go through init)reset
Reset the screen
rm [-irf] FILE...
Remove (unlink) FILEs
-i Always prompt before removing
-f Never prompt
-R,-r Recursermdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...
Remove DIRECTORY if it is empty
-p Include parentsroute [{add|del|delete}]
Edit kernel routing tables
-n Don't resolve names
-e Display other/more information
-A inet{6} Select address familysed [-inrE] [-f FILE]... [-e CMD]... [FILE]... or: sed [-inrE] CMD [FILE]...
-e CMD Add CMD to sed commands to be executed
-f FILE Add FILE contents to sed commands to be executed
-i[SFX] Edit files in-place (otherwise sends to stdout)
Optionally back files up, appending SFX
-n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space
-r,-E Use extended regex syntaxIf no -e or -f, the first non-option argument is the sed command string. Remaining arguments are input files (stdin if none).
seq [-w] [-s SEP] [FIRST [INC]] LAST
Print numbers from FIRST to LAST, in steps of INC. FIRST, INC default to 1.
-w Pad to last with leading zeros
-s SEP String separatorsh [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS]]
Unix shell interpreter
sha256sum [-c[sw]] [FILE]...
Print or check SHA256 checksums
-c Check sums against list in FILEs
-s Don't output anything, status code shows success
-w Warn about improperly formatted checksum linessleep [N]...
Pause for a time equal to the total of the args given, where each arg can have an optional suffix of (s)econds, (m)inutes, (h)ours, or (d)ays
sort [-nru] [FILE]...
Sort lines of text
-n Sort numbers
-r Reverse sort order
-u Suppress duplicate linesstart-stop-daemon [OPTIONS] [-S|-K] ... [-- ARGS...]
Search for matching processes, and then -K: stop all matching processes. -S: start a process unless a matching process is found.
Process matching:
-u USERNAME|UID Match only this user's processes
-n NAME Match processes with NAME
in comm field in /proc/PID/stat
-x EXECUTABLE Match processes with this command
command in /proc/PID/cmdline
-p FILE Match a process with PID from the file
All specified conditions must match
-S only:
-x EXECUTABLE Program to run
-a NAME Zeroth argument
-b Background
-c USER[:[GRP]] Change to user/group
-m Write PID to the pidfile specified by -p
-K only:
-s SIG Signal to send
-t Match only, exit with 0 if a process is found
Other:
-q Quietstrings [-afo] [-n LEN] [FILE]...
Display printable strings in a binary file
-a Scan whole file (default)
-f Precede strings with filenames
-n LEN At least LEN characters form a string (default 4)
-o Precede strings with decimal offsetsswitch_root [-c /dev/console] NEW_ROOT NEW_INIT [ARGS]
Free initramfs and switch to another root fs:
chroot to NEW_ROOT, delete all in /, move NEW_ROOT to /, execute NEW_INIT. PID must be 1. NEW_ROOT must be a mountpoint.
-c DEV Reopen stdio to DEV after switchsync
Write all buffered blocks to disk
sysctl [OPTIONS] [KEY[=VALUE]]...
Show/set kernel parameters
-e Don't warn about unknown keys
-n Don't show key names
-a Show all values
-w Set values
-p FILE Set values from FILE (default /etc/sysctl.conf)
-q Set values silentlytail [OPTIONS] [FILE]...
Print last 10 lines of each FILE (or stdin) to stdout. With more than one FILE, precede each with a filename header.
-f Print data as file grows
-c [+]N[kbm] Print last N bytes
-n N[kbm] Print last N lines
-n +N[kbm] Start on Nth line and print the rest
-q Never print headers
-s SECONDS Wait SECONDS between reads with -f
-v Always print headers
-F Same as -f, but keep retryingN may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (x1024^2).
tar -[cxtzhvO] [-X FILE] [-T FILE] [-f TARFILE] [-C DIR] [FILE]...
Create, extract, or list files from a tar file
Operation:
c Create
x Extract
t List
f Name of TARFILE ('-' for stdin/out)
C Change to DIR before operation
v Verbose
z (De)compress using gzip
O Extract to stdout
h Follow symlinks
X File with names to exclude
T File with names to includetee [-ai] [FILE]...
Copy stdin to each FILE, and also to stdout
-a Append to the given FILEs, don't overwrite
-i Ignore interrupt signals (SIGINT)time [-v] PROG ARGS
Run PROG, display resource usage when it exits
-v Verbosetop [-b] [-nCOUNT] [-dSECONDS]
Provide a view of process activity in real time. Read the status of all processes from /proc each SECONDS and display a screenful of them. Keys:
N/M/P/T: sort by pid/mem/cpu/time
R: reverse sort
Q,^C: exitOptions:
-b Batch mode
-n N Exit after N iterations
-d N Delay between updatestouch [-c] [-d DATE] [-t DATE] [-r FILE] FILE...
Update the last-modified date on the given FILE[s]
-c Don't create files
-d DT Date/time to use
-t DT Date/time to use
-r FILE Use FILE's date/timetr [-cds] STRING1 [STRING2]
Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from stdin, writing to stdout
-c Take complement of STRING1
-d Delete input characters coded STRING1
-s Squeeze multiple output characters of STRING2 into one charactertraceroute [-46FIlnrv] [-f 1ST_TTL] [-m MAXTTL] [-q PROBES] [-p PORT] [-t TOS] [-w WAIT_SEC] [-s SRC_IP] [-i IFACE] [-z PAUSE_MSEC] HOST [BYTES]
Trace the route to HOST
-4,-6 Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
-F Set don't fragment bit
-l Display TTL value of the returned packet
-n Print numeric addresses
-r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST
-v Verbose
-f N First number of hops (default 1)
-m N Max number of hops
-q N Number of probes per hop (default 3)
-p N Base UDP port number used in probes
(default 33434)
-s IP Source address
-i IFACE Source interface
-t N Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0)
-w SEC Time to wait for a response (default 3)
-g IP Loose source route gateway (8 max)traceroute6 [-nrv] [-m MAXTTL] [-q PROBES] [-p PORT] [-t TOS] [-w WAIT_SEC] [-s SRC_IP] [-i IFACE] HOST [BYTES]
Trace the route to HOST
-n Print numeric addresses
-r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST
-v Verbose
-m N Max number of hops
-q N Number of probes per hop (default 3)
-p N Base UDP port number used in probes
(default 33434)
-s IP Source address
-i IFACE Source interface
-t N Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0)
-w SEC Time wait for a response (default 3)udhcpc [-fbqRB] [-t N] [-T SEC] [-A SEC/-n] [-i IFACE] [-s PROG] [-p PIDFILE] [-oC] [-r IP] [-V VENDOR] [-F NAME] [-x OPT:VAL]... [-O OPT]...
-i,--interface IFACE Interface to use (default eth0)
-s,--script PROG Run PROG at DHCP events (default /usr/share/udhcpc/default.script)
-p,--pidfile FILE Create pidfile
-B,--broadcast Request broadcast replies
-t,--retries N Send up to N discover packets (default 3)
-T,--timeout SEC Pause between packets (default 3)
-A,--tryagain SEC Wait if lease is not obtained (default 20)
-n,--now Exit if lease is not obtained
-q,--quit Exit after obtaining lease
-R,--release Release IP on exit
-f,--foreground Run in foreground
-b,--background Background if lease is not obtained
-S,--syslog Log to syslog too
-r,--request IP Request this IP address
-o,--no-default-options Don't request any options (unless -O is given)
-O,--request-option OPT Request option OPT from server (cumulative)
-x OPT:VAL Include option OPT in sent packets (cumulative)
Examples of string, numeric, and hex byte opts:
-x hostname:bbox - option 12
-x lease:3600 - option 51 (lease time)
-x 0x3d:0100BEEFC0FFEE - option 61 (client id)
-F,--fqdn NAME Ask server to update DNS mapping for NAME
-V,--vendorclass VENDOR Vendor identifier (default 'udhcp VERSION')
-C,--clientid-none Don't send MAC as client identifier
Signals:
USR1 Renew lease
USR2 Release leaseumount [OPTIONS] FILESYSTEM|DIRECTORY
Unmount file systems
-a Unmount all file systems
-r Try to remount devices as read-only if mount is busy
-l Lazy umount (detach filesystem)
-f Force umount (i.e., unreachable NFS server)
-D Don't free loop device even if it has been useduname [-amnrspvio]
Print system information
-a Print all
-m The machine (hardware) type
-n Hostname
-r Kernel release
-s Kernel name (default)
-p Processor type
-v Kernel version
-i The hardware platform
-o OS nameuniq [-cdu][-f,s,w N] [INPUT [OUTPUT]]
Discard duplicate lines
-c Prefix lines by the number of occurrences
-d Only print duplicate lines
-u Only print unique lines
-f N Skip first N fields
-s N Skip first N chars (after any skipped fields)
-w N Compare N characters in lineuptime
Display the time since the last boot
vi [OPTIONS] [FILE]...
Edit FILE
-c CMD Initial command to run ($EXINIT also available)
-R Read-only
-H List available featureswc [-clwL] [FILE]...
Count lines, words, and bytes for each FILE (or stdin)
-c Count bytes
-l Count newlines
-w Count words
-L Print longest line lengthwhich [COMMAND]...
Locate a COMMAND
xargs [OPTIONS] [PROG ARGS]
Run PROG on every item given by stdin
-p Ask user whether to run each command
-r Don't run command if input is empty
-0 Input is separated by NUL characters
-t Print the command on stderr before execution
-e[STR] STR stops input processing
-n N Pass no more than N args to PROG
-s N Pass command line of no more than N bytes
-x Exit if size is exceededyes [STRING]
Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'
zcat [FILE]...
Decompress to stdout
GNU Libc (glibc) uses the Name Service Switch (NSS) to configure the behavior of the C library for the local environment, and to configure how it reads system data, such as passwords and group information. This is implemented using an /etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file, and using one or more of the /lib/libnss_* libraries. BusyBox tries to avoid using any libc calls that make use of NSS. Some applets however, such as login and su, will use libc functions that require NSS.
If you enable CONFIG_USE_BB_PWD_GRP, BusyBox will use internal functions to directly access the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files without using NSS. This may allow you to run your system without the need for installing any of the NSS configuration files and libraries.
When used with glibc, the BusyBox 'networking' applets will similarly require that you install at least some of the glibc NSS stuff (in particular, /etc/nsswitch.conf, /lib/libnss_dns*, /lib/libnss_files*, and /lib/libresolv*).
Shameless Plug: As an alternative, one could use a C library such as uClibc. In addition to making your system significantly smaller, uClibc does not require the use of any NSS support files or libraries.
Denis Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>
The following people have contributed code to BusyBox whether they know it or not. If you have written code included in BusyBox, you should probably be listed here so you can obtain your bit of eternal glory. If you should be listed here, or the description of what you have done needs more detail, or is incorrect, please send in an update.
Emanuele Aina <emanuele.aina@tiscali.it> run-parts
Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org>
Tons of new stuff, major rewrite of most of the
core apps, tons of new apps as noted in header files.
Lots of tedious effort writing these boring docs that
nobody is going to actually read.Laurence Anderson <l.d.anderson@warwick.ac.uk>
rpm2cpio, unzip, get_header_cpio, read_gz interface, rpmJeff Angielski <jeff@theptrgroup.com>
ftpput, ftpgetEdward Betts <edward@debian.org>
expr, hostid, logname, whoamiJohn Beppu <beppu@codepoet.org>
du, nslookup, sortBrian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com>
tiny-ls(ls)Randolph Chung <tausq@debian.org>
fbset, ping, hostnameDave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>
more(v2), makedevs, dutmp, modularization, auto links file,
various fixes, Linux Router Project maintenanceJordan Crouse <jordan@cosmicpenguin.net>
ipcalcMagnus Damm <damm@opensource.se>
tftp client insmod powerpc supportLarry Doolittle <ldoolitt@recycle.lbl.gov>
pristine source directory compilation, lots of patches and fixes.Glenn Engel <glenne@engel.org>
httpdGennady Feldman <gfeldman@gena01.com>
Sysklogd (single threaded syslogd, IPC Circular buffer support,
logread), various fixes.Karl M. Hegbloom <karlheg@debian.org>
cp_mv.c, the test suite, various fixes to utility.c, &c.Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>
mktemp.cMatt Kraai <kraai@alumni.cmu.edu>
documentation, bugfixes, test suiteStephan Linz <linz@li-pro.net>
ipcalc, Red Hat equivalenceJohn Lombardo <john@deltanet.com>
trGlenn McGrath <bug1@iinet.net.au>
Common unarchiving code and unarchiving applets, ifupdown, ftpgetput,
nameif, sed, patch, fold, install, uudecode.
Various bugfixes, review and apply numerous patches.Manuel Novoa III <mjn3@codepoet.org>
cat, head, mkfifo, mknod, rmdir, sleep, tee, tty, uniq, usleep, wc, yes,
mesg, vconfig, make_directory, parse_mode, dirname, mode_string,
get_last_path_component, simplify_path, and a number trivial libbb routines
also bug fixes, partial rewrites, and size optimizations in
ash, basename, cal, cmp, cp, df, du, echo, env, ln, logname, md5sum, mkdir,
mv, realpath, rm, sort, tail, touch, uname, watch, arith, human_readable,
interface, dutmp, ifconfig, routeVladimir Oleynik <dzo@simtreas.ru>
cmdedit; xargs(current), httpd(current);
ports: ash, crond, fdisk, inetd, stty, traceroute, top;
locale, various fixes
and irreconcilable critic of everything not perfect.Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com>
Original author of BusyBox in 1995, 1996. Some of his code can
still be found hiding here and there...Tim Riker <Tim@Rikers.org>
bug fixes, member of fan clubKent Robotti <robotti@metconnect.com>
reset, tons and tons of bug reports and patches.Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com>, <crosenth@covad.com>
wget - Contributed by permission of Covad CommunicationsPavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>
Lots of bugs fixes and patches.Gyepi Sam <gyepi@praxis-sw.com>
Remote logging feature for syslogdLinus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
mkswap, fsck.minix, mkfs.minixMark Whitley <markw@codepoet.org>
grep, sed, cut, xargs(previous),
style-guide, new-applet-HOWTO, bug fixes, etc.Charles P. Wright <cpwright@villagenet.com>
gzip, mini-netcat(nc)Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>
tarcat (since removed), loadkmap, various fixes, Debian maintenanceTito Ragusa <farmatito@tiscali.it>
devfsd and size optimizations in strings, openvt and deallocvt.Paul Fox <pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us>
vi editing mode for ash, various other patches/fixesRoberto A. Foglietta <me@roberto.foglietta.name>
port: dnsdBernhard Reutner-Fischer <rep.dot.nop@gmail.com>
miscMike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
initial e2fsprogs, printenv, setarch, sum, miscJie Zhang <jie.zhang@analog.com>
fixed two bugs in msh and hush (exitcode of killed processes)