busybox <applet> [arguments...] # or <applet> [arguments...] # if symlinked
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.
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.
[, [[, adjtimex, arping, ash, awk, basename, blockdev, brctl,
bunzip2, bzcat, bzip2, cal, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, chvt,
clear, cmp, cp, cpio, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, df, dirname,
dmesg, dnsdomainname, dos2unix, du, dumpkmap, dumpleases, echo,
egrep, env, expr, false, fgrep, find, fold, free, ftpget, ftpput,
getopt, grep, gunzip, gzip, head, hexdump, hostid, hostname, httpd,
id, ifconfig, ionice, ip, ipcalc, kill, killall, klogd, last,
length, ln, loadfont, loadkmap, logger, logname, logread, losetup,
ls, lzcat, lzma, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mktemp, more, mount,
mt, mv, nameif, nc, netstat, nslookup, od, openvt, patch, pidof,
ping, ping6, printf, ps, pwd, rdate, readlink, realpath, renice,
reset, rev, rm, rmdir, route, rpm, rpm2cpio, run-parts, sed,
setkeycodes, sh, sha1sum, sha256sum, sha512sum, sleep, sort,
start-stop-daemon, strings, stty, swapoff, swapon, sync, sysctl,
syslogd, tac, tail, tar, tee, telnet, test, tftp, time, top, touch,
tr, traceroute, traceroute6, true, tty, udhcpc, udhcpd, umount,
uname, uncompress, uniq, unix2dos, unlzma, unxz, unzip, uptime,
usleep, uudecode, uuencode, vi, watch, watchdog, wc, wget, which,
who, whoami, xargs, xz, xzcat, yes, zcat
Read and optionally set system timebase parameters. See adjtimex(2)
Options:
-q Quiet
-o OFF Time offset, microseconds
-f FREQ Frequency adjust, integer kernel units (65536 is 1ppm)
(positive values make clock run faster)
-t TICK Microseconds per tick, usually 10000
-p TCONST
Send ARP requests/replies
Options:
-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
Options:
-v VAR=VAL Set variable
-F SEP Use SEP as field separator
-f FILE Read program from FILE
Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE
Options:
--setro Set ro
--setrw Set rw
--getro Get ro
--getss Get sector size
--getbsz Get block size
--setbsz BYTES Set block size
--getsize Get device size in 512-byte sectors
--getsize64 Get device size in bytes
--flushbufs Flush buffers
--rereadpt Reread partition table
Manage ethernet bridges
Commands:
addbr BRIDGE Create BRIDGE
delbr BRIDGE Delete BRIDGE
addif BRIDGE IFACE Add IFACE to BRIDGE
delif BRIDGE IFACE Delete IFACE from BRIDGE
Decompress FILEs (or stdin)
Options:
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Decompress to stdout
Compress FILEs (or stdin) with bzip2 algorithm
Options:
-1..9 Compression level
-d Decompress
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Display a calendar
Options:
-j Use julian dates
-y Display the entire year
Concatenate FILEs and print them to stdout
Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP
Options:
-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)
-c List changed files
-v Verbose
-f Hide errors
Each MODE is one or more of the letters ugoa, one of the symbols +-= and one or more of the letters rwxst
Options:
-R Recurse
-c List changed files
-v List all files
-f Hide errors
Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP
Options:
-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)
-c List changed files
-v List all files
-f Hide errors
Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT
Change the foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN
Clear screen
Compare FILE1 with FILE2 (or stdin)
Options:
-l Write the byte numbers (decimal) and values (octal)
for all differing bytes
-s Quiet
Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY
Options:
-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
Extract or list files from a cpio archive, or create an archive using file list on stdin
Main operation mode:
-t List
-i Extract
-o Create (requires -H newc)
Options:
-d Make leading directories
-m Preserve mtime
-v Verbose
-u Overwrite
-F FILE Input (-t,-i,-p) or output (-o) file
-H newc Archive format
Print selected fields from each input FILE to stdout
Options:
-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
Display time (using +FMT), or set time
Options:
[-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]
Tiny RPN calculator. Operations: +, add, -, sub, *, mul, /, div, %, mod, **, exp, and, or, not, eor, p - print top of the stack (without altering the stack), f - print entire stack, o - pop the value and set output radix (value must be 10 or 16). Examples: 'dc 2 2 add' -> 4, 'dc 8 8 * 2 2 + /' -> 16
Copy a file with converting and formatting
Options:
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)
Deallocate unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN
Print filesystem usage statistics
Options:
-P POSIX output format
-k 1024-byte blocks (default)
-m 1M-byte blocks
-h Human readable (e.g. 1K 243M 2G)
-a Show all filesystems
-i Inodes
-B SIZE Blocksize
Strip non-directory suffix from FILENAME
Print or control the kernel ring buffer
Options:
-c Clear ring buffer after printing
-n LEVEL Set console logging level
-s SIZE Buffer size
Convert FILE in-place from DOS to Unix format. When no file is given, use stdin/stdout.
Options:
-u dos2unix
-d unix2dos
Summarize disk space used for each FILE and/or directory. Disk space is printed in units of 1024 bytes.
Options:
-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)
Print a binary keyboard translation table to stdout
Display DHCP leases granted by udhcpd
Options:
-f,--file=FILE Lease file
-r,--remaining Show remaining time
-a,--absolute Show expiration time
Print the specified ARGs to stdout
Options:
-n Suppress trailing newline
-e Interpret backslash escapes (i.e., \t=tab)
-E Don't interpret backslash escapes (default)
Print the current environment or run PROG after setting up the specified environment
Options:
-, -i Start with an empty environment
-u Remove variable from the environment
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.
Return an exit code of FALSE (1)
Search for files. The default PATH is the current directory, default EXPRESSION is '-print'
EXPRESSION may consist of:
-follow Follow symlinks
-xdev Don't descend directories on other filesystems
-maxdepth N Descend at most N levels. -maxdepth 0 applies
tests/actions to command line arguments only
-mindepth N Don't act on first N levels
-name PATTERN File name (w/o directory name) matches PATTERN
-iname PATTERN Case insensitive -name
-path PATTERN Path matches PATTERN
-regex PATTERN Path matches regex PATTERN
-type X File type is X (X is one of: f,d,l,b,c,...)
-perm NNN Permissions match any of (+NNN), all of (-NNN),
or exactly NNN
-mtime DAYS Modified time is greater than (+N), less than (-N),
or exactly N days
-mmin MINS Modified time is greater than (+N), less than (-N),
or exactly N minutes
-newer FILE Modified time is more recent than FILE's
-inum N File has inode number N
-user NAME File is owned by user NAME (numeric user ID allowed)
-group NAME File belongs to group NAME (numeric group ID allowed)
-depth Process directory name after traversing it
-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
-print Print (default and assumed)
-print0 Delimit output with null characters rather than
newlines
-exec CMD ARG ; Run CMD with all instances of {} replaced by the
matching files
-prune Stop traversing current subtree
(EXPR) Group an expression
Wrap input lines in each FILE (or stdin), writing to stdout
Options:
-b Count bytes rather than columns
-s Break at spaces
-w Use WIDTH columns instead of 80
Display the amount of free and used system memory
Retrieve a remote file via FTP
Options:
-c,--continue Continue previous transfer
-v,--verbose Verbose
-u,--username Username
-p,--password Password
-P,--port Port number
Store a local file on a remote machine via FTP
Options:
-v,--verbose Verbose
-u,--username Username
-p,--password Password
-P,--port Port number
Options:
-a,--alternative Allow long options starting with single -
-l,--longoptions=longopts Long options to be recognized
-n,--name=progname The name under which errors are reported
-o,--options=optstring Short options to be recognized
-q,--quiet Disable error reporting by getopt(3)
-Q,--quiet-output No normal output
-s,--shell=shell Set shell quoting conventions
-T,--test Test for getopt(1) version
-u,--unquoted Don't quote the output
Search for PATTERN in FILEs (or stdin)
Options:
-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
-F PATTERN is a literal (not regexp)
-E PATTERN is an extended regexp
-z Input is NUL terminated
-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
Decompress FILEs (or stdin)
Options:
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
-t Test file integrity
Compress FILEs (or stdin)
Options:
-d Decompress
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Print first 10 lines of each FILE (or stdin) to stdout. With more than one FILE, precede each with a filename header.
Options:
-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).
Display FILEs (or stdin) in a user specified format
Options:
-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 display
Print out a unique 32-bit identifier for the machine
Get or set hostname or DNS domain name
Options:
-s Short
-i Addresses for the hostname
-d DNS domain name
-f Fully qualified domain name
-F FILE Use FILE's content as hostname
Listen for incoming HTTP requests
Options:
-i Inetd mode
-f Don't daemonize
-v[v] Verbose
-p [IP:]PORT Bind to ip:port (default *:80)
-r REALM Authentication Realm for Basic Authentication
-h HOME Home directory (default .)
-c FILE Configuration file (default {/etc,HOME}/httpd.conf)
-e STRING HTML encode STRING
-d STRING URL decode STRING
Print information about USER or the current user
Options:
-u Print user ID
-g Print group ID
-G Print supplementary group IDs
-n Print name instead of a number
-r Print real user ID instead of effective ID
Configure a network interface
Options:
[add ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
[del ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]]
[[-]broadcast [ADDRESS]] [[-]pointopoint [ADDRESS]]
[netmask ADDRESS] [dstaddr ADDRESS]
[outfill NN] [keepalive NN]
[hw ether|infiniband ADDRESS] [metric NN] [mtu NN]
[[-]trailers] [[-]arp] [[-]allmulti]
[multicast] [[-]promisc] [txqueuelen NN] [[-]dynamic]
[mem_start NN] [io_addr NN] [irq NN]
[up|down] ...
Change I/O priority and class
Options:
-c Class. 1:realtime 2:best-effort 3:idle
-n Priority
ip [OPTIONS] OBJECT {COMMAND} where OBJECT := {address | route | link | tunnel | rule} OPTIONS := { -f[amily] { inet | inet6 | link } | -o[neline] }
Calculate IP network settings from a IP address
Options:
-b,--broadcast Display calculated broadcast address
-n,--network Display calculated network address
-m,--netmask Display default netmask for IP
-p,--prefix Display the prefix for IP/NETMASK
-h,--hostname Display first resolved host name
-s,--silent Don't ever display error messages
Send a signal (default: TERM) to given PIDs
Options:
-l List all signal names and numbers
Send a signal (default: TERM) to given processes
Options:
-l List all signal names and numbers
-q Don't complain if no processes were killed
Kernel logger
Options:
-c N Only messages with level < N are printed to console
-n Run in foreground
Show listing of the last users that logged into the system
Print STRING's length
Create a link LINK or DIR/TARGET to the specified TARGET(s)
Options:
-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
Load a console font from stdin
Load a binary keyboard translation table from stdin
Write MESSAGE (or stdin) to syslog
Options:
-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)
Print the name of the current user
Show messages in syslogd's circular buffer
Options:
-f Output data as log grows
Options:
-o OFS Start OFS bytes into FILE
-f Show first free loop device
List directory contents
Options:
-1 List in a single column
-A Don't list . and ..
-a Don't hide entries starting with .
-C List by columns
-c With -l: sort by ctime
--color[={always,never,auto}] Control coloring
-d List directory entries instead of contents
-e List full date and time
-F Append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
-i List inode numbers
-l Long listing format
-n List numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names
-p Append indicator (one of /=@|) to entries
-L List entries pointed to by symlinks
-R Recurse
-r Sort in reverse order
-S Sort by file size
-s List the size of each file, in blocks
-T N Assume tabstop every N columns
-t With -l: sort by modification time
-u With -l: sort by access time
-v Sort by version
-w N Assume the terminal is N columns wide
-x List by lines
-X Sort by extension
-h List sizes in human readable format (1K 243M 2G)
Decompress to stdout
Decompress FILE (or stdin)
Options:
-d Decompress
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Print MD5 checksums
Create DIRECTORY
Options:
-m Mode
-p No error if exists; make parent directories as needed
Create named pipe (identical to 'mknod name p')
Options:
-m MODE Mode (default a=rw)
Create a special file (block, character, or pipe)
Options:
-m Create the special file using the specified mode (default a=rw)
TYPEs include:
b: Make a block device
c or u: Make a character device
p: Make a named pipe (MAJOR and MINOR are ignored)
Create a temporary file with name based on TEMPLATE and print its name. TEMPLATE must end with XXXXXX (e.g. [/dir/]nameXXXXXX).
Options:
-d Make a directory instead of a file
-t Generate a path rooted in temporary directory
-p DIR Use DIR as a temporary directory (implies -t)
For -t or -p, directory is chosen as follows: $TMPDIR if set, else -p DIR, else /tmp
View FILE (or stdin) one screenful at a time
Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc.
Options:
-a Mount all filesystems in fstab
-i Don't run mount helper
-r Read-only mount
-w Read-write mount (default)
-t FSTYPE Filesystem type
-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
bind Bind a file or directory 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.
Control magnetic tape drive operation
Available Opcodes:
bsf bsfm bsr bss datacompression drvbuffer eof eom erase fsf fsfm fsr fss load lock mkpart nop offline ras1 ras2 ras3 reset retension rewind rewoffline seek setblk setdensity setpart tell unload unlock weof wset
Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY
Options:
-f Don't prompt before overwriting
-i Interactive, prompt before overwrite
Rename network interface while it in the down state
Options:
-c FILE Use configuration file (default: /etc/mactab)
-s Use syslog (LOCAL0 facility)
IFNAME MACADDR new_interface_name interface_mac_address
Open a pipe to IP:PORT
Display networking information
Options:
-l Display listening server sockets
-a Display all sockets (default: connected)
-e Display other/more information
-n Don't resolve names
-t Tcp sockets
-u Udp sockets
-w Raw sockets
-x Unix sockets
-r Display routing table
Query the nameserver for the IP address of the given HOST optionally using a specified DNS server
Write an unambiguous representation, octal bytes by default, of FILE (or stdin) to stdout
Start PROG on a new virtual terminal
Options:
-c N Use specified VT
-s Switch to the VT
-w Wait for PROG to exit
-p,--strip N Strip N leading components from file names
-i,--input DIFF Read DIFF instead of stdin
-R,--reverse Reverse patch
-N,--forward Ignore already applied patches
--dry-run Don't actually change files
List PIDs of all processes with names that match NAMEs
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts
Options:
-4, -6 Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
-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
-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 displays output at start
and when finished
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts
Options:
-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 displays output at start
and when finished
Format and print ARGUMENT(s) according to FORMAT, where FORMAT controls the output exactly as in C printf
Show list of processes
Options:
-o COL1,COL2=HEADER Select columns for display
-T Show threads
Print the full filename of the current working directory
Get and possibly set the system date and time from a remote HOST
Options:
-s Set the system date and time (default)
-p Print the date and time
Display the value of a symlink
Options:
-f Canonicalize by following all symlinks
-n Don't add newline
-v Verbose
Return the absolute pathnames of given FILE
Change scheduling priority for a running process
Options:
-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)
Reset the screen
Reverse lines of FILE
Remove (unlink) FILEs
Options:
-i Always prompt before removing
-f Never prompt
-R,-r Recurse
Remove DIRECTORY if it is empty
Options:
-p|--parents Include parents
--ignore-fail-on-non-empty
Edit kernel routing tables
Options:
-n Don't resolve names
-e Display other/more information
-A inet{6} Select address family
Manipulate RPM packages
Commands:
-i Install package
-qp Query package
Options:
-i Show information
-l List contents
-d List documents
-c List config files
Output a cpio archive of the rpm file
Run a bunch of scripts in DIRECTORY
Options:
-t Print what would be run, but don't actually run anything
-a ARG Pass ARG as argument for every program
-u MASK Set the umask to MASK before running every program
Options:
-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).
Set entries into the kernel's scancode-to-keycode map, allowing unusual keyboards to generate usable keycodes.
SCANCODE may be either xx or e0xx (hexadecimal), and KEYCODE is given in decimal.
Print SHA1 checksums
Print SHA256 checksums
Print SHA512 checksums
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 lines of text
Options:
-b Ignore leading blanks
-c Check whether input is sorted
-d Dictionary order (blank or alphanumeric only)
-f Ignore case
-g General numerical sort
-i Ignore unprintable characters
-k Sort key
-M Sort month
-n Sort numbers
-o Output to file
-k Sort by key
-t CHAR Key separator
-r Reverse sort order
-s Stable (don't sort ties alphabetically)
-u Suppress duplicate lines
-z Lines are terminated by NUL, not newline
-mST Ignored for GNU compatibility
Search for matching processes, and then -K: stop all matching processes. -S: start a process unless a matching process is found.
Process matching:
-u,--user USERNAME|UID Match only this user's processes
-n,--name NAME Match processes with NAME
in comm field in /proc/PID/stat
-x,--exec EXECUTABLE Match processes with this command
in /proc/PID/cmdline
-p,--pidfile FILE Match a process with PID from the file
All specified conditions must match
-S only:
-x,--exec EXECUTABLE Program to run
-a,--startas NAME Zeroth argument
-b,--background Background
-N,--nicelevel N Change nice level
-c,--chuid USER[:[GRP]] Change to user/group
-m,--make-pidfile Write PID to the pidfile specified by -p
-K only:
-s,--signal SIG Signal to send
-t,--test Match only, exit with 0 if a process is found
Other:
-o,--oknodo Exit with status 0 if nothing is done
-v,--verbose Verbose
-q,--quiet Quiet
Display printable strings in a binary file
Options:
-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 offsets
Without arguments, prints baud rate, line discipline, and deviations from stty sane
Options:
-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
Stop swapping on DEVICE
Options:
-a Stop swapping on all swap devices
Start swapping on DEVICE
Options:
-a Start swapping on all swap devices
Write all buffered blocks to disk
Configure kernel parameters at runtime
Options:
-n Don't print key names
-e Don't warn about unknown keys
-w Change sysctl setting
-p FILE Load sysctl settings from FILE (default /etc/sysctl.conf)
-a Display all values
-A Display all values in table form
System logging utility. This version of syslogd ignores /etc/syslog.conf
Options:
-n Run in foreground
-O FILE Log to given file (default:/var/log/messages)
-l N Set local log level
-S Smaller logging output
-R HOST[:PORT] Log to IP or hostname on PORT (default PORT=514/UDP)
-L Log locally and via network (default is network only if -R)
-C[size(KiB)] Log to shared mem buffer (read it using logread)
Concatenate FILEs and print them in reverse
Print last 10 lines of each FILE (or stdin) to stdout. With more than one FILE, precede each with a filename header.
Options:
-f Print data as file grows
-s SECONDS Wait SECONDS between reads with -f
-n N[kbm] Print last N lines
-c N[kbm] Print last N bytes
-q Never print headers
-v Always print headers
N may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (x1024^2). If N starts with a '+', output begins with the Nth item from the start of each file, not from the end.
Create, extract, or list files from a tar file
Operation:
c Create
x Extract
t List
Options:
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
a (De)compress using lzma
Z (De)compress using compress
O Extract to stdout
h Follow symlinks
m Don't restore mtime
Copy stdin to each FILE, and also to stdout
Options:
-a Append to the given FILEs, don't overwrite
-i Ignore interrupt signals (SIGINT)
Connect to telnet server
Options:
-a Automatic login with $USER variable
-l USER Automatic login as USER
Check file types, compare values etc. Return a 0/1 exit code depending on logical value of EXPRESSION
Transfer a file from/to tftp server
Options:
-l FILE Local FILE
-r FILE Remote FILE
-g Get file
-p Put file
-b SIZE Transfer blocks of SIZE octets
Run PROG, display resource usage when it exits
Options:
-v Verbose
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.
Update the last-modified date on the given FILE[s]
Options:
-c Don't create files
-d DT Date/time to use
Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from stdin, writing to stdout
Options:
-c Take complement of STRING1
-d Delete input characters coded STRING1
-s Squeeze multiple output characters of STRING2 into one character
Trace the route to HOST
Options:
-4, -6 Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
-F Set the don't fragment bit
-I Use ICMP ECHO instead of UDP datagrams
-l Display the TTL value of the returned packet
-d Set SO_DEBUG options to socket
-n Print numeric addresses
-r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST
-v Verbose
-m Max time-to-live (max number of hops)
-p Base UDP port number used in probes
(default 33434)
-q Number of probes per TTL (default 3)
-s IP address to use as the source address
-t Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0)
-w Time in seconds to wait for a response (default 3)
-g Loose source route gateway (8 max)
Trace the route to HOST
Options:
-d Set SO_DEBUG options to socket
-n Print numeric addresses
-r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST
-v Verbose
-m Max time-to-live (max number of hops)
-p Base UDP port number used in probes
(default is 33434)
-q Number of probes per TTL (default 3)
-s IP address to use as the source address
-t Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0)
-w Time in seconds to wait for a response (default 3)
Return an exit code of TRUE (0)
Print file name of stdin's terminal
Options:
-s Print nothing, only return exit status
-i,--interface IFACE Interface to use (default eth0)
-p,--pidfile FILE Create pidfile
-r,--request IP IP address to request
-s,--script PROG Run PROG at DHCP events (default /usr/share/udhcpc/default.script)
-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
-S,--syslog Log to syslog too
-n,--now Exit if lease is not obtained
-q,--quit Exit after obtaining lease
-R,--release Release IP on exit
-a,--arping Use arping to validate offered address
-O,--request-option OPT Request DHCP option OPT (cumulative)
-o,--no-default-options Don't request any options (unless -O is given)
-x OPT:VAL Include option OPT in sent packets (cumulative)
-F,--fqdn NAME Ask server to update DNS mapping for NAME
-H,-h,--hostname NAME Send NAME as client hostname (default none)
-V,--vendorclass VENDOR Vendor identifier (default 'udhcp VERSION')
-c,--clientid CLIENTID Client identifier (default own MAC)
-C,--clientid-none Don't send client identifier
DHCP server
-f Run in foreground
-S Log to syslog too
Unmount file systems
Options:
-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 Free loop device if it has been used
Print system information
Options:
-a Print all
-m The machine (hardware) type
-n Hostname
-r OS release
-s OS name (default)
-p Processor type
-v OS version
Decompress .Z file[s]
Options:
-c Write to stdout
-f Overwrite
Discard duplicate lines
Options:
-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 line
Convert FILE in-place from Unix to DOS format. When no file is given, use stdin/stdout.
Options:
-u dos2unix
-d unix2dos
Decompress FILE (or stdin)
Options:
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Decompress FILE (or stdin)
Options:
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Extract files from ZIP archives
Options:
-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
Display the time since the last boot
Pause for N microseconds
Uudecode a file Finds outfile name in uuencoded source unless -o is given
Uuencode a file to stdout
Options:
-m Use base64 encoding per RFC1521
Edit FILE
Options:
-c Initial command to run ($EXINIT also available)
-R Read-only
-H Short help regarding available features
Run PROG periodically
Options:
-n Loop period in seconds (default 2)
-t Don't print header
Periodically write to watchdog device DEV
Options:
-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
Print line, word, and byte counts for each FILE (or stdin), and a total line if more than one FILE is specified
Options:
-c Print the byte counts
-l Print the newline counts
-L Print the length of the longest line
-w Print the word counts
Retrieve files via HTTP or FTP
Options:
-s Spider mode - only check file existence
-c Continue retrieval of aborted transfer
-q Quiet
-P Set directory prefix to DIR
-O FILE Save to FILE ('-' for stdout)
-U STR Use STR for User-Agent header
-Y Use proxy ('on' or 'off')
Locate a COMMAND
Show who is logged on
Options:
-a Show all
Print the user name associated with the current effective user id
Run PROG on every item given by stdin
Options:
-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
Decompress FILE (or stdin)
Options:
-d Decompress
-c Write to stdout
-f Force
Decompress to stdout
Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'
Decompress to stdout
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.
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.