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:

        [, [[, arping, ash, basename, bash, blockdev, bunzip2, bzcat, cat,
        chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, chrt, cmp, cp, cttyhack, cut, date, dd,
        depmod, devmem, df, dirname, dmesg, dnsdomainname, du, echo, egrep,
        env, expr, false, fbset, fbsplash, fdisk, fgrep, find, grep, gunzip,
        gzip, halt, head, hostname, httpd, ifconfig, ifplugd, insmod, kill,
        killall, ln, ls, lsmod, md5sum, microcom, mkdir, mke2fs, mkfs.ext2,
        mknod, modprobe, more, mount, mv, nbd-client, nc, netstat, nice,
        ping, pivot_root, poweroff, ps, pwd, rdate, readahead, reboot,
        renice, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, sed, setconsole, setsid, sh, sleep,
        stty, switch_root, sync, tail, tar, telnetd, test, timeout, tr,
        true, udhcpc, umount, uname, unzip, usleep, vconfig, vi, wget,
        xargs, yes, zcat, zcip


COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

arping

arping [-fqbDUA] [-c CNT] [-w TIMEOUT] [-I IFACE] [-s SRC_IP] DST_IP

Send ARP requests/replies

        -f              Quit on first ARP reply
        -q              Quiet
        -b              Keep broadcasting, don't go unicast
        -D              Duplicated address detection mode
        -U              Unsolicited ARP mode, update your neighbors
        -A              ARP answer mode, update your neighbors
        -c N            Stop after sending N ARP requests
        -w TIMEOUT      Time to wait for ARP reply, seconds
        -I IFACE        Interface to use (default eth0)
        -s SRC_IP       Sender IP address
        DST_IP          Target IP address
ash

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

Unix shell interpreter

basename

basename FILE [SUFFIX]

Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE

bash

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

Unix shell interpreter

blockdev

blockdev OPTION BLOCKDEV

        --setro         Set ro
        --setrw         Set rw
        --getro         Get ro
        --getss         Get sector size
        --getbsz        Get block size
        --setbsz BYTES  Set block size
        --getsz         Get device size in 512-byte sectors
        --getsize64     Get device size in bytes
        --flushbufs     Flush buffers
        --rereadpt      Reread partition table
bunzip2

bunzip2 [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILEs (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
bzcat

bzcat FILE

Decompress to stdout

cat

cat [FILE]...

Concatenate FILEs and print them to stdout

chgrp

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

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
chown

chown [-RhLHP]... 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 targets
        -L      Traverse all symlinks to directories
        -H      Traverse symlinks on command line only
        -P      Don't traverse symlinks (default)
chroot

chroot NEWROOT [PROG ARGS]

Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT

chrt

chrt [-prfom] [PRIO] [PID | PROG ARGS]

Change scheduling priority and class for a process

        -p      Operate on PID
        -r      Set SCHED_RR class
        -f      Set SCHED_FIFO class
        -o      Set SCHED_OTHER class
        -m      Show min/max priorities
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
cttyhack

cttyhack [PROG ARGS]

Give PROG a controlling tty if possible. Example for /etc/inittab (for busybox init): ::respawn:/bin/cttyhack /bin/sh Giving controlling tty to shell running with PID 1: $ exec cttyhack sh Starting interactive shell from boot shell script:

        setsid cttyhack sh
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] [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

Numbers may be suffixed by c (x1), w (x2), b (x512), kD (x1000), k (x1024), MD (x1000000), M (x1048576), GD (x1000000000) or G (x1073741824)

depmod

depmod [-qfwrsv] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Force
        -w      Wait for unload
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
devmem

devmem ADDRESS [WIDTH [VALUE]]

Read/write from physical address

        ADDRESS Address to act upon
        WIDTH   Width (8/16/...)
        VALUE   Data to be written
df

df [-Pkmh] [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)
dirname

dirname FILENAME

Strip non-directory suffix from FILENAME

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
du

du [-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

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

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 environment
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.

false

false

Return an exit code of FALSE (1)

fbset

fbset [OPTIONS] [MODE]

Show and modify frame buffer settings

fbsplash

fbsplash -s IMGFILE [-c] [-d DEV] [-i INIFILE] [-f CMD]

        -s      Image
        -c      Hide cursor
        -d      Framebuffer device (default /dev/fb0)
        -i      Config file (var=value):
                        BAR_LEFT,BAR_TOP,BAR_WIDTH,BAR_HEIGHT
                        BAR_R,BAR_G,BAR_B
        -f      Control pipe (else exit after drawing image)
                        commands: 'NN' (% for progress bar) or 'exit'
fdisk

fdisk [-ul] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

Change partition table

        -u              Start and End are in sectors (instead of cylinders)
        -l              Show partition table for each DISK, then exit
        -b 2048         (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors
        -C CYLINDERS    Set number of cylinders/heads/sectors
        -H HEADS
        -S SECTORS
find

find [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'

        -follow         Follow symlinks
        -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 it

Actions:

        ( 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
        -mmin MINS      mtime is greater than (+N), less than (-N),
                        or exactly N minutes in the past
        -newer FILE     mtime is more recent than FILE's
        -inum N         File has inode number N
        -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
        -links N        Number of links is greater than (+N), less than (-N),
                        or exactly 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 nonzero
        -delete         Delete current file/directory. Turns on -depth option
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
        -c N[kbm]       Print first N bytes
        -q              Never print headers
        -v              Always print headers

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
httpd

httpd [-ifv[v]] [-c CONFFILE] [-p [IP:]PORT] [-h HOME] or httpd -d/-e STRING

Listen for incoming HTTP requests

        -i              Inetd mode
        -f              Don't daemonize
        -v[v]           Verbose
        -p [IP:]PORT    Bind to IP:PORT (default *:80)
        -h HOME         Home directory (default .)
        -c FILE         Configuration file (default {/etc,HOME}/httpd.conf)
        -e STRING       HTML encode STRING
        -d STRING       URL decode STRING
ifconfig

ifconfig [-a] interface [address]

Configure a network interface

        [[-]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] ...
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 script on daemon startup
        -q              Don't run script on daemon quit
        -l              Run script on startup even if no cable is detected
        -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
insmod

insmod [-qfwrsv] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Force
        -w      Wait for unload
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
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
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
ls

ls [-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 coloring
lsmod

lsmod [-qfwrsv] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Force
        -w      Wait for unload
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
md5sum

md5sum [-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 lines
microcom

microcom [-d DELAY] [-t TIMEOUT] [-s SPEED] [-X] TTY

Copy bytes for stdin to TTY and from TTY to stdout

        -d      Wait up to DELAY ms for TTY output before sending every
                next byte to it
        -t      Exit if both stdin and TTY are silent for TIMEOUT ms
        -s      Set serial line to SPEED
        -X      Disable special meaning of NUL and Ctrl-X from stdin
mkdir

mkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Create DIRECTORY

        -m MODE Mode
        -p      No error if exists; make parent directories as needed
mke2fs

mke2fs [-Fn] [-b BLK_SIZE] [-i INODE_RATIO] [-I INODE_SIZE] [-m RESERVED_PERCENT] [-L LABEL] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]

        -b BLK_SIZE     Block size, bytes
        -F              Force
        -i RATIO        Max number of files is filesystem_size / RATIO
        -I BYTES        Inode size (min 128)
        -L LBL          Volume label
        -m PERCENT      Percent of blocks to reserve for admin
        -n              Dry run
mkfs.ext2

mkfs.ext2 [-Fn] [-b BLK_SIZE] [-i INODE_RATIO] [-I INODE_SIZE] [-m RESERVED_PERCENT] [-L LABEL] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]

        -b BLK_SIZE     Block size, bytes
        -F              Force
        -i RATIO        Max number of files is filesystem_size / RATIO
        -I BYTES        Inode size (min 128)
        -L LBL          Volume label
        -m PERCENT      Percent of blocks to reserve for admin
        -n              Dry run
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)
modprobe

modprobe [-qfwrsv] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Force
        -w      Wait for unload
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
more

more [FILE]...

View FILE (or stdin) one screenful at a time

mount

mount [OPTIONS] [-o OPTS] DEVICE NODE

Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc.

        -a              Mount all filesystems in fstab
        -f              Dry run
        -r              Read-only mount
        -w              Read-write mount (default)
        -t FSTYPE[,...] Filesystem type(s)
        -O OPT          Mount only filesystems with option OPT (-a only)
-o OPT:
        [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/rw           Same as -r/-w

There are filesystem-specific -o flags.

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
nbd-client

nbd-client HOST PORT BLOCKDEV

Connect to HOST and provide a network block device on BLOCKDEV

nc

nc [-iN] [-wN] [-l] [-p PORT] [-f FILE|IPADDR PORT] [-e PROG]

Open a pipe to IP:PORT or FILE

        -e PROG Run PROG after connect
        -l      Listen mode, for inbound connects
                (use -l twice with -e for persistent server)
        -p PORT Local port
        -w SEC  Timeout for connect
        -i SEC  Delay interval for lines sent
        -f FILE Use file (ala /dev/ttyS0) instead of network
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
nice

nice [-n ADJUST] [PROG ARGS]

Change scheduling priority, run PROG

        -n ADJUST       Adjust priority by ADJUST
ping

ping HOST

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts

pivot_root

pivot_root NEW_ROOT PUT_OLD

Move the current root file system to PUT_OLD and make NEW_ROOT the new root file system

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
        l       Long output
pwd

pwd

Print the full filename of the current working directory

rdate

rdate [-sp] HOST

Get and possibly set the system date and time from a remote HOST

        -s      Set the system date and time (default)
        -p      Print the date and time
readahead

readahead [FILE]...

Preload FILEs to RAM

reboot

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

Reboot the system

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

renice {{-n INCREMENT} | PRIORITY} [[-p | -g | -u] ID...]

Change scheduling priority for a running process

        -n      Adjust current nice value (smaller is faster)
        -p      Process id(s) (default)
        -g      Process group id(s)
        -u      Process user name(s) and/or id(s)
rm

rm [-irf] FILE...

Remove (unlink) FILEs

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

rmdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Remove DIRECTORY if it is empty

        -p      Include parents
rmmod

rmmod [-qfwrsv] MODULE [symbol=value]...

        -r      Remove MODULE (stacks) or do autoclean
        -q      Quiet
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Force
        -w      Wait for unload
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
route

route [{add|del|delete}]

Edit kernel routing tables

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

sed [-inr] [-f FILE]... [-e CMD]... [FILE]... or: sed [-inr] CMD [FILE]...

        -e CMD  Add CMD to sed commands to be executed
        -f FILE Add FILE contents to sed commands to be executed
        -i      Edit files in-place (else sends result to stdout)
        -n      Suppress automatic printing of pattern space
        -r      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).

setconsole

setconsole [-r] [DEVICE]

Redirect system console output to DEVICE (default: /dev/tty)

        -r      Reset output to /dev/console
setsid

setsid PROG ARGS

Run PROG in a new session. PROG will have no controlling terminal and will not be affected by keyboard signals (Ctrl-C etc). See setsid(2) for details.

sh

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

Unix shell interpreter

sleep

sleep [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

stty

stty [-a|g] [-F DEVICE] [SETTING]...

Without arguments, prints baud rate, line discipline, and deviations from stty sane

        -F DEVICE       Open device instead of stdin
        -a              Print all current settings in human-readable form
        -g              Print in stty-readable form
        [SETTING]       See manpage
switch_root

switch_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 switch
sync

sync

Write all buffered blocks to disk

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
        -n N[kbm]       Print last N lines
tar

tar -[cxtzjhmvO] [-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
        j       (De)compress using bzip2
        O       Extract to stdout
        h       Follow symlinks
        m       Don't restore mtime
        exclude File to exclude
        X       File with names to exclude
        T       File with names to include
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
test

test EXPRESSION ]

Check file types, compare values etc. Return a 0/1 exit code depending on logical value of EXPRESSION

timeout

timeout [-t SECS] [-s SIG] PROG ARGS

Runs PROG. Sends SIG to it if it is not gone in SECS seconds. Defaults: SECS: 10, SIG: TERM.

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
true

true

Return an exit code of TRUE (0)

udhcpc

udhcpc [-fbnqvoCRB] [-i IFACE] [-r IP] [-s PROG] [-p PIDFILE]
[-V VENDOR] [-x OPT:VAL]... [-O OPT]...

        -i,--interface IFACE    Interface to use (default eth0)
        -p,--pidfile FILE       Create pidfile
        -s,--script PROG        Run PROG at DHCP events (default /zcnet.script)
        -B,--broadcast          Request broadcast replies
        -t,--retries N          Send up to N discover packets
        -T,--timeout N          Pause between packets (default 3 seconds)
        -A,--tryagain N         Wait N seconds after failure (default 20)
        -f,--foreground         Run in foreground
        -b,--background         Background if lease is not obtained
        -n,--now                Exit if lease is not obtained
        -q,--quit               Exit after obtaining lease
        -R,--release            Release IP on exit
        -S,--syslog             Log to syslog too
        -a,--arping             Use arping to validate offered address
        -O,--request-option OPT Request option OPT from server (cumulative)
        -o,--no-default-options Don't request any options (unless -O is given)
        -r,--request IP         Request this IP address
        -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
        -v                      Verbose
Signals:
        USR1    Renew lease
        USR2    Release lease
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)
uname

uname [-amnrspv]

Print system information

        -a      Print all
        -m      The machine (hardware) type
        -n      Hostname
        -r      OS release
        -s      OS name (default)
        -p      Processor type
        -v      OS version
unzip

unzip [-opts[modifiers]] FILE[.zip] [LIST] [-x XLIST] [-d DIR]

Extract files from ZIP archives

        -l      List archive contents (with -q for short form)
        -n      Never overwrite files (default)
        -o      Overwrite
        -p      Send output to stdout
        -q      Quiet
        -x XLST Exclude these files
        -d DIR  Extract files into DIR
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
vi

vi [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Edit FILE

        -c      Initial command to run ($EXINIT also available)
        -H      Short help regarding available features
wget

wget [-csq] [-O FILE] [-Y on/off] [-P DIR] [-U AGENT] [-T SEC] URL...

Retrieve files via HTTP or FTP

        -s      Spider mode - only check file existence
        -c      Continue retrieval of aborted transfer
        -q      Quiet
        -P DIR  Save to DIR (default .)
        -T SEC  Network read timeout is SEC seconds
        -O FILE Save to FILE ('-' for stdout)
        -U STR  Use STR for User-Agent header
        -Y      Use proxy ('on' or 'off')
xargs

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 exceeded
yes

yes [STRING]

Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'

zcat

zcat FILE

Decompress to stdout

zcip

zcip [OPTIONS] IFACE SCRIPT

Manage a ZeroConf IPv4 link-local address

        -f              Run in foreground
        -q              Quit after obtaining address
        -r 169.254.x.x  Request this address first
        -v              Verbose

With no -q, runs continuously monitoring for ARP conflicts, exits only on I/O errors (link down etc)


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)