NAME

BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux

SYNTAX

 busybox <applet> [arguments...]  # or

 <applet> [arguments...]          # if symlinked

DESCRIPTION

BusyBox 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.

USAGE

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 ls

will 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
        ./ls

will 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.

COMMON OPTIONS

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.

COMMANDS

Currently available applets include:

        [, [[, addgroup, adduser, arp, ash, awk, base64, basename, bunzip2,
        bzcat, bzip2, cat, chmod, chpasswd, cmp, cp, crond, crontab,
        cryptpw, cut, date, dd, delgroup, deluser, dmesg, dnsdomainname,
        echo, egrep, expr, false, fgrep, find, free, grep, gunzip, gzip,
        halt, head, hostname, ifconfig, ifplugd, init, init, insmod, kill,
        killall, killall5, ln, login, ls, lsmod, md5sum, mkdir, mknod,
        mkpasswd, modinfo, modprobe, mount, mpstat, mv, netstat, passwd,
        pgrep, ping, ping6, poweroff, ps, pwd, reboot, rm, rmmod, route,
        sed, sh, sleep, stat, sync, sysctl, tail, tar, taskset, telnetd,
        test, top, touch, tr, true, tunctl, umount, uname, uptime, usleep,
        vconfig, watchdog, wc, xargs, yes, zcat

COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

addgroup

addgroup [-g GID] [-S] [USER] GROUP

Add a group or add a user to a group

        -g GID  Group id
        -S      Create a system group

adduser

adduser [OPTIONS] USER [GROUP]

Create new user, or add USER to GROUP

        -h DIR          Home directory
        -g GECOS        GECOS field
        -s SHELL        Login shell
        -G GRP          Add user to existing group
        -S              Create a system user
        -D              Don't assign a password
        -H              Don't create home directory
        -u UID          User id
        -k SKEL         Skeleton directory (/etc/skel)

arp

arp [-vn] [-H HWTYPE] [-i IF] -a [HOSTNAME] [-v] [-i IF] -d HOSTNAME [pub] [-v] [-H HWTYPE] [-i IF] -s HOSTNAME HWADDR [temp] [-v] [-H HWTYPE] [-i IF] -s HOSTNAME HWADDR [netmask MASK] pub [-v] [-H HWTYPE] [-i IF] -Ds HOSTNAME IFACE [netmask MASK] pub

Manipulate ARP cache

        -a              Display (all) hosts
        -d              Delete ARP entry
        -s              Set new entry
        -v              Verbose
        -n              Don't resolve names
        -i IF           Network interface
        -D              Read HWADDR from IFACE
        -A,-p AF        Protocol family
        -H HWTYPE       Hardware address type

ash

ash [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS]]

Unix shell interpreter

awk

awk [OPTIONS] [AWK_PROGRAM] [FILE]...

        -v VAR=VAL      Set variable
        -F SEP          Use SEP as field separator
        -f FILE         Read program from FILE

base64

base64 [-d] [FILE]

Base64 encode or decode FILE to standard output -d Decode data

basename

basename FILE [SUFFIX]

Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE

bunzip2

bunzip2 [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILEs (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force

bzcat

bzcat [FILE]...

Decompress to stdout

bzip2

bzip2 [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Compress FILEs (or stdin) with bzip2 algorithm

        -1..9   Compression level
        -d      Decompress
        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force

cat

cat [FILE]...

Concatenate FILEs and print them to stdout

chmod

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      Recurse

chpasswd

chpasswd [--md5|--encrypted|--crypt-method]

Read user:password from stdin and update /etc/passwd

        -e,--encrypted          Supplied passwords are in encrypted form
        -m,--md5                Use MD5 encryption instead of DES
        -c,--crypt-method       Use the specified method to encrypt the passwords

cmp

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      Quiet

cp

cp [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)links
        -u      Copy only newer files

crond

crond -fbS -l N -d 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
        -d N    Set log level, log to stderr
        -L FILE Log to FILE
        -c DIR  Cron dir. Default:/var/spool/cron/crontabs

crontab

crontab [-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)

cryptpw

cryptpw [OPTIONS] [PASSWORD] [SALT]

Crypt PASSWORD using crypt(3)

        -P,--password-fd=N      Read password from fd N
        -m,--method=TYPE        Encryption method
        -S,--salt=SALT

cut

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      Ignored

date

date [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

Recognized TIME formats:

        hh:mm[:ss]
        [YYYY.]MM.DD-hh:mm[:ss]
        YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]
        [[[[[YY]YY]MM]DD]hh]mm[.ss]
        'date TIME' form accepts MMDDhhmm[[YY]YY][.ss] instead

dd

dd [if=FILE] [of=FILE] [bs=N] [count=N] [skip=N] [seek=N]

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
        count=N         Copy only N input blocks
        skip=N          Skip N input blocks
        seek=N          Skip N output blocks

N may be suffixed by c (1), w (2), b (512), kB (1000), k (1024), MB, M, GB, G

delgroup

delgroup [USER] GROUP

Delete group GROUP from the system or user USER from group GROUP

deluser

deluser [--remove-home] USER

Delete USER from the system

dmesg

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 buffer

echo

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)

expr

expr 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 EXPRESSION

Beware 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

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

Actions:

        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
If none of the following actions is specified, -print is assumed
        -print          Print file name

free

free

Display the amount of free and used system memory

grep

grep [-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 file

gunzip

gunzip [-cft] [FILE]...

Decompress FILEs (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
        -t      Test file integrity

gzip

gzip [-cfd] [FILE]...

Compress FILEs (or stdin)

        -d      Decompress
        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force

halt

halt [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f]

Halt the system

        -d SEC  Delay interval
        -n      Do not sync
        -f      Force (don't go through init)

head

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 may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (x1024^2).

hostname

hostname [OPTIONS] [HOSTNAME | -F FILE]

Get or set hostname or DNS domain name

        -s      Short
        -i      Addresses for the hostname
        -d      DNS domain name
        -f      Fully qualified domain name
        -F FILE Use FILE's content as hostname

ifconfig

ifconfig [-a] interface [address]

Configure a network interface

        [add ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
        [del ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
        [[-]broadcast [ADDRESS]] [[-]pointopoint [ADDRESS]]
        [netmask ADDRESS] [dstaddr ADDRESS]
        [hw ether|infiniband ADDRESS] [metric NN] [mtu NN]
        [[-]trailers] [[-]arp] [[-]allmulti]
        [multicast] [[-]promisc] [txqueuelen NN] [[-]dynamic]
        [up|down] ...

ifplugd

ifplugd [OPTIONS]

Network interface plug detection daemon

        -n              Don't daemonize
        -s              Don't log to syslog
        -i IFACE        Interface
        -f/-F           Treat link detection error as link down/link up
                        (otherwise exit on error)
        -a              Don't up interface at each link probe
        -M              Monitor creation/destruction of interface
                        (otherwise it must exist)
        -r PROG         Script to run
        -x ARG          Extra argument for script
        -I              Don't exit on nonzero exit code from script
        -p              Don't run "up" script on startup
        -q              Don't run "down" script on exit
        -l              Always run script on startup
        -t SECS         Poll time in seconds
        -u SECS         Delay before running script after link up
        -d SECS         Delay after link down
        -m MODE         API mode (mii, priv, ethtool, wlan, iff, auto)
        -k              Kill running daemon

init

init

Init is the first process started during boot. It never exits. It (re)spawns children according to /etc/inittab.

init

init

Init is the first process started during boot. It never exits. It (re)spawns children according to /etc/inittab.

insmod

insmod FILE [SYMBOL=VALUE]...

Load kernel module

kill

kill [-l] [-SIG] PID...

Send a signal (default: TERM) to given PIDs

        -l      List all signal names and numbers

killall

killall [-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 killed

killall5

killall5 [-l] [-SIG] [-o PID]...

Send a signal (default: TERM) to all processes outside current session

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
        -o PID  Don't signal this PID

ln

ln [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      Verbose

login

login [-p] [-h HOST] [[-f] USER]

Begin a new session on the system

        -f      Don't authenticate (user already authenticated)
        -h HOST Host user came from (for network logins)
        -p      Preserve environment

ls

ls [-1AaCxdRFplinsehctu] [-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
        -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)
        -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

lsmod

lsmod

List the currently loaded kernel modules

md5sum

md5sum [FILE]...

Print MD5 checksums

mkdir

mkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Create DIRECTORY

        -m MODE Mode
        -p      No error if exists; make parent directories as needed

mknod

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)

mkpasswd

mkpasswd [OPTIONS] [PASSWORD] [SALT]

Crypt PASSWORD using crypt(3)

        -P,--password-fd=N      Read password from fd N
        -m,--method=TYPE        Encryption method
        -S,--salt=SALT

modinfo

modinfo [-adlpn0] [-F keyword] MODULE

        -a              Shortcut for '-F author'
        -d              Shortcut for '-F description'
        -l              Shortcut for '-F license'
        -p              Shortcut for '-F parm'
        -F keyword      Keyword to look for
        -0              Separate output with NULs

modprobe

modprobe [-alrqvsDb] MODULE [SYMBOL=VALUE]...

        -a      Load multiple MODULEs
        -l      List (MODULE is a pattern)
        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -s      Log to syslog
        -D      Show dependencies
        -b      Apply blacklist to module names too

mount

mount [OPTIONS] [-o OPT] DEVICE NODE

Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc.

        -a              Mount all filesystems in fstab
        -f              Dry run
        -v              Verbose
        -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)
        remount         Remount a mounted filesystem, changing flags
        ro              Same as -r

There are filesystem-specific -o flags.

mpstat

mpstat [-A] [-I SUM|CPU|ALL|SCPU] [-u] [-P num|ALL] [INTERVAL [COUNT]]

Per-processor statistics

        -A                      Same as -I ALL -u -P ALL
        -I SUM|CPU|ALL|SCPU     Report interrupt statistics
        -P num|ALL              Processor to monitor
        -u                      Report CPU utilization

mv

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 file

netstat

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 sockets

passwd

passwd [OPTIONS] [USER]

Change USER's password (default: current user)

        -a ALG  Encryption method
        -d      Set password to ''
        -l      Lock (disable) account
        -u      Unlock (enable) account

pgrep

pgrep [-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 ID

ping

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 payload

ping6

ping6 [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 payload

poweroff

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)

ps

ps

Show list of processes

        w       Wide output
        T       Show threads

pwd

pwd

Print the full filename of the current working directory

reboot

reboot [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f]

Reboot the system

        -d SEC  Delay interval
        -n      Do not sync
        -f      Force (don't go through init)

rm

rm [-irf] FILE...

Remove (unlink) FILEs

        -i      Always prompt before removing
        -f      Never prompt
        -R,-r   Recurse

rmmod

rmmod [-wfa] [MODULE]...

Unload kernel modules

        -w      Wait until the module is no longer used
        -f      Force unload
        -a      Remove all unused modules (recursively)

route

route [{add|del|delete}]

Edit kernel routing tables

        -n      Don't resolve names
        -e      Display other/more information
        -A inet{6}      Select address family

sed

sed [-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 syntax

If no -e or -f, the first non-option argument is the sed command string. Remaining arguments are input files (stdin if none).

sh

sh [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS]]

Unix shell interpreter

sleep

sleep N

Pause for N seconds

stat

stat [OPTIONS] FILE...

Display file status

        -c FMT  Use the specified format
        -L      Follow links
        -t      Terse display

FMT sequences:

 %a     Access rights in octal
 %A     Access rights in human readable form
 %b     Number of blocks allocated (see %B)
 %B     Size in bytes of each block reported by %b
 %d     Device number in decimal
 %D     Device number in hex
 %f     Raw mode in hex
 %F     File type
 %g     Group ID
 %G     Group name
 %h     Number of hard links
 %i     Inode number
 %n     File name
 %N     File name, with -> TARGET if symlink
 %o     I/O block size
 %s     Total size in bytes
 %t     Major device type in hex
 %T     Minor device type in hex
 %u     User ID
 %U     User name
 %x     Time of last access
 %X     Time of last access as seconds since Epoch
 %y     Time of last modification
 %Y     Time of last modification as seconds since Epoch
 %z     Time of last change
 %Z     Time of last change as seconds since Epoch

sync

sync

Write all buffered blocks to disk

sysctl

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 silently

tail

tail [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

tar

tar -[cxtzjhvO] [-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
        j       (De)compress using bzip2
        O       Extract to stdout
        h       Follow symlinks

taskset

taskset [-p] [MASK] [PID | PROG ARGS]

Set or get CPU affinity

        -p      Operate on an existing PID

telnetd

telnetd [OPTIONS]

Handle incoming telnet connections

        -l LOGIN        Exec LOGIN on connect
        -f ISSUE_FILE   Display ISSUE_FILE instead of /etc/issue
        -K              Close connection as soon as login exits
                        (normally wait until all programs close slave pty)
        -p PORT         Port to listen on
        -b ADDR[:PORT]  Address to bind to
        -F              Run in foreground
        -i              Inetd mode

top

top [-b] [-nCOUNT] [-dSECONDS] [-m]

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: show CPU usage, sort by pid/mem/cpu/time
        S: show memory
        R: reverse sort
        H: toggle threads, 1: toggle SMP
        Q,^C: exit

Options:

        -b      Batch mode
        -n N    Exit after N iterations
        -d N    Delay between updates
        -m      Same as 's' key

touch

touch [-c] [-d DATE] [-t DATE] [-r FILE] FILE...

Update the last-modified date on the given FILE[s]

        -c      Don't create files
        -h      Don't follow links
        -d DT   Date/time to use
        -t DT   Date/time to use
        -r FILE Use FILE's date/time

tr

tr [-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 character

tunctl

tunctl [-f device] ([-t name] | -d name) [-u owner] [-g group] [-b]

Create or delete tun interfaces

        -f name         tun device (/dev/net/tun)
        -t name         Create iface 'name'
        -d name         Delete iface 'name'
        -u owner        Set iface owner
        -g group        Set iface group
        -b              Brief output

umount

umount [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 used

uname

uname [-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 name

uptime

uptime

Display the time since the last boot

usleep

usleep N

Pause for N microseconds

vconfig

vconfig COMMAND [OPTIONS]

Create and remove virtual ethernet devices

        add             IFACE VLAN_ID
        rem             VLAN_NAME
        set_flag        IFACE 0|1 VLAN_QOS
        set_egress_map  VLAN_NAME SKB_PRIO VLAN_QOS
        set_ingress_map VLAN_NAME SKB_PRIO VLAN_QOS
        set_name_type   NAME_TYPE

watchdog

watchdog [-t N[ms]] [-T N[ms]] [-F] DEV

Periodically write to watchdog device DEV

        -T N    Reboot after N seconds if not reset (default 60)
        -t N    Reset every N seconds (default 30)
        -F      Run in foreground

Use 500ms to specify period in milliseconds

wc

wc [-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 length

xargs

xargs [OPTIONS] [PROG ARGS]

Run PROG on every item given by stdin

        -r      Don't run command if input is empty
        -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

yes

yes [STRING]

Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'

zcat

zcat [FILE]...

Decompress to stdout

LIBC NSS

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.

MAINTAINER

Denis Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>

AUTHORS

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, rpm

Jeff Angielski <jeff@theptrgroup.com>

    ftpput, ftpget

Edward Betts <edward@debian.org>

    expr, hostid, logname, whoami

John Beppu <beppu@codepoet.org>

    du, nslookup, sort

Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com>

    tiny-ls(ls)

Randolph Chung <tausq@debian.org>

    fbset, ping, hostname

Dave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>

    more(v2), makedevs, dutmp, modularization, auto links file,
    various fixes, Linux Router Project maintenance

Jordan Crouse <jordan@cosmicpenguin.net>

    ipcalc

Magnus Damm <damm@opensource.se>

    tftp client insmod powerpc support

Larry Doolittle <ldoolitt@recycle.lbl.gov>

    pristine source directory compilation, lots of patches and fixes.

Glenn Engel <glenne@engel.org>

    httpd

Gennady 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.c

Matt Kraai <kraai@alumni.cmu.edu>

    documentation, bugfixes, test suite

Stephan Linz <linz@li-pro.net>

    ipcalc, Red Hat equivalence

John Lombardo <john@deltanet.com>

    tr

Glenn 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, route

Vladimir 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 club

Kent 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 Communications

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>

    Lots of bugs fixes and patches.

Gyepi Sam <gyepi@praxis-sw.com>

    Remote logging feature for syslogd

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>

    mkswap, fsck.minix, mkfs.minix

Mark 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 maintenance

Tito 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/fixes

Roberto A. Foglietta <me@roberto.foglietta.name>

    port: dnsd

Bernhard Reutner-Fischer <rep.dot.nop@gmail.com>

    misc

Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>

    initial e2fsprogs, printenv, setarch, sum, misc

Jie Zhang <jie.zhang@analog.com>

    fixed two bugs in msh and hush (exitcode of killed processes)