- add option to suppress the terse usage messages. Saves 6.8k for defconfig:

text	   data	    bss	    dec	    hex	filename
 861791	  11264	1039140	1912195	 1d2d83	busybox.have-terse-usage
 854799	  11264	1039140	1905203	 1d1233	busybox.no-terse

Config.in

@@ -37,9 +37,19 @@ config CONFIG_FEATURE_BUFFERS_GO_IN_BSS
 
 endchoice
 
+config CONFIG_SHOW_USAGE
+	bool "Show terse applet usage messages"
+	default y
+	help
+	  All BusyBox applets will show help messages when invoked with
+	  wrong arguments. You can turn off printing these terse usage
+	  messages if you say no here.
+	  This will save you up to 7k.
+
 config CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE
 	bool "Show verbose applet usage messages"
 	default n
+	select CONFIG_SHOW_USAGE
 	help
 	  All BusyBox applets will show more verbose help messages when
 	  busybox is invoked with --help.  This will add a lot of text to the

applets/applets.c

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include <assert.h>
 #include "busybox.h"
 
+#if ENABLE_SHOW_USAGE
 const char usage_messages[] =
 
 #define MAKE_USAGE
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ const char usage_messages[] =
 ;
 
 #undef MAKE_USAGE
+#endif /* ENABLE_SHOW_USAGE */
 #undef APPLET
 #undef APPLET_NOUSAGE
 #undef PROTOTYPES
@@ -407,6 +409,7 @@ static void check_suid (struct BB_applet *applet)
 
 void bb_show_usage (void)
 {
+#if ENABLE_SHOW_USAGE
   const char *format_string;
   const char *usage_string = usage_messages;
   int i;
@@ -422,6 +425,7 @@ void bb_show_usage (void)
 	format_string = "%s\n\nNo help available.\n\n";
   fprintf (stderr, format_string, bb_msg_full_version, applet_using->name,
 		   usage_string);
+#endif /* ENABLE_SHOW_USAGE */
 
   exit (bb_default_error_retval);
 }