Contents of /trunk/mkinitrd-magellan/busybox/docs/busybox_header.pod
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Sat Sep 1 22:45:15 2007 UTC (17 years ago) by niro
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Sat Sep 1 22:45:15 2007 UTC (17 years ago) by niro
File size: 3276 byte(s)
-import if magellan mkinitrd; it is a fork of redhats mkinitrd-5.0.8 with all magellan patches and features; deprecates magellan-src/mkinitrd
1 | # vi: set sw=4 ts=4: |
2 | |
3 | =head1 NAME |
4 | |
5 | BusyBox - 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 | |
15 | BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single |
16 | small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities |
17 | you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox |
18 | generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the |
19 | options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very |
20 | much like their GNU counterparts. |
21 | |
22 | BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind. |
23 | It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or |
24 | features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded |
25 | systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a Linux kernel. |
26 | BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded |
27 | system. |
28 | |
29 | BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the |
30 | components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make |
31 | menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run |
32 | 'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration. |
33 | |
34 | After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install |
35 | BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory |
36 | specified by PREFIX. PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox, or you can |
37 | specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a command line |
38 | like 'make PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled any applet installation |
39 | scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will also be installed in |
40 | the location pointed to by PREFIX. |
41 | |
42 | =head1 USAGE |
43 | |
44 | BusyBox is a multi-call binary. A multi-call binary is an executable program |
45 | that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there |
46 | is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large |
47 | number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in |
48 | utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations. |
49 | |
50 | You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the |
51 | command line. For example, entering |
52 | |
53 | /bin/busybox ls |
54 | |
55 | will also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'. |
56 | |
57 | Of course, adding '/bin/busybox' into every command would be painful. So most |
58 | people will invoke BusyBox using links to the BusyBox binary. |
59 | |
60 | For example, entering |
61 | |
62 | ln -s /bin/busybox ls |
63 | ./ls |
64 | |
65 | will cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled |
66 | into BusyBox). Generally speaking, you should never need to make all these |
67 | links yourself, as the BusyBox build system will do this for you when you run |
68 | the 'make install' command. |
69 | |
70 | If you invoke BusyBox with no arguments, it will provide you with a list of the |
71 | applets that have been compiled into your BusyBox binary. |
72 | |
73 | =head1 COMMON OPTIONS |
74 | |
75 | Most BusyBox commands support the B<--help> argument to provide a terse runtime |
76 | description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has |
77 | been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available. |
78 | |
79 | =head1 COMMANDS |
80 | |
81 | Currently defined functions include: |
82 |