hush/docs/busybox.pod
John Beppu 50ed0676ad + minor whitespace oddities removed
+ re-alphabetized AUTHORS section
+ added Id tag at bottom
2000-04-13 23:44:04 +00:00

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# vi: set sw=4 ts=4:
=head1 NAME
busybox - I am BusyBox of Borg. Unix will be assimilated.
=head1 SYNOPSIS
busybox <function> [arguments...] # or
<function> [arguments...] # if symlinked
=head1 DESCRIPTION
BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix utilities into a
single executable. Most people will create a link to busybox for each function
they wish to use, and BusyBox will act like whatever it was invoked as. For
example,
ln -s ./busybox ls
./ls
will cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled
into busybox). You can also invoke BusyBox by providing it the command to run
on the command line. For example,
./busybox ls
will also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'.
BusyBox has been written with size-optimization in mind. It is very easy to
include or exclude the commands (or features) you want installed. BusyBox
tries to make itself useful to small systems with limited resources.
=head1 COMMANDS
Currently defined functions include:
basename, cat, chmod, chown, chgrp, chroot, clear, chvt, cp, date,
dd, df, dirname, dmesg, du, dutmp, echo, false, fbset, fdflush, find, free,
freeramdisk, deallocvt, fsck.minix, mkfs.minix, grep, gunzip, gzip,
halt, head, hostid, hostname, init, kill, killall, length, ln, loadacm,
loadfont, loadkmap, ls, lsmod, makedevs, math, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod,
mkswap, mnc, more, mount, mt, mv, nslookup, poweroff, ping, printf, ps,
pwd, reboot, rm, rmdir, rmmod, sed, sh, fdisk, sfdisk, sleep, sort,
sync, syslogd, logger, logname, swapon, swapoff, tail, tar, [, test,
tee, touch, tr, true, tty, umount, uname, uptime, uniq, update,
usleep, wc, whoami, yes, zcat
=head1 COMMON OPTIONS
Most BusyBox commands support the B<--help> option to provide a
terse runtime description of their behavior.
=over 4
=item basename
Usage: basename [file ...]
Strips directory and suffix from filenames.
Example:
$ basename /usr/local/bin/foo
foo
$ basename /usr/local/bin/
bin
-------------------------------
=item cat
Usage: cat [file ...]
Concatenates files and prints them to the standard output.
Example:
$ cat /proc/uptime
110716.72 17.67
-------------------------------
=item chmod
Usage: chmod [B<-R>] MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
Changes file access permissions for the specified file(s) or directory(s).
Each MODE is defined by combining the letters for WHO has access to the file,
an OPERATOR for selecting how the permissions should be changed, and a
PERISSION for the file(s) or directory(s).
WHO may be chosen from:
u the User who owns the file
g users in the file's Group
o Other users not in the file's group
a All users
OPERATOR may be chosen from:
+ add a permission
- remove a permission
= assign a permission
PERMISSION may be chosen from:
r Read
w Write
x eXecute (or access for directories)
s Set user (or group) ID bit
t sTickey bit (for directories prevents removing files by non-owners)
Alternately, permissions may be set numerically where the first three
numbers are calculated by adding the octal values:
4 Read
2 Write
1 eXecute
An optional fourth digit may also be used to specify
4 Set user ID
2 Set group ID
1 sTickey bit
Options:
-R change files and directories recursively.
Example:
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
$ chmod u+x /tmp/foo
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-rwxrw-r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo*
$ chmod 444 /tmp/foo
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
-------------------------------
=item chown
Usage: chown [OPTION]... OWNER[.[GROUP] FILE...
Changes the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP.
Options:
-R change files and directories recursively
Example:
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
$ chown root /tmp/foo
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 root andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
$ chown root.root /tmp/foo
ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
-------------------------------
=item chgrp
Usage: chgrp [OPTION]... GROUP FILE...
Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP.
Options:
-R change files and directories recursively
Example:
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 andersen andersen 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
$ chgrp root /tmp/foo
$ ls -l /tmp/foo
-r--r--r-- 1 andersen root 0 Apr 12 18:25 /tmp/foo
-------------------------------
=item chroot
Usage: chroot NEWROOT [COMMAND...]
Run COMMAND with root directory set to NEWROOT.
Example:
$ ls -l /bin/ls
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Apr 13 00:46 /bin/ls -> /busybox
$ mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt -t minix
$ chroot /mnt
$ ls -l /bin/ls
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 40816 Feb 5 07:45 /bin/ls*
-------------------------------
=item clear
Clears the screen.
-------------------------------
=item chvt
Usage: chvt N
Change foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN
-------------------------------
=item cp
Usage: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST
or: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
-a same as -dpR
-d preserve links
-p preserve file attributes if possable
-R copy directories recursively
-------------------------------
=item date
Usage: date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
or: date [OPTION] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.
Options:
-R output RFC-822 compliant date string
-s set time described by STRING
-u print or set Coordinated Universal Time
Example:
$ date
Wed Apr 12 18:52:41 MDT 2000
-------------------------------
=item dd
Usage: dd [if=name] [of=name] [bs=n] [count=n] [skip=n] [seek=n]
Copy a file, converting and formatting according to 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
count=n copy only n input blocks
skip=n skip n input blocks
seek=n skip n output blocks
Numbers may be suffixed by w (x2), k (x1024), b (x512), or M (x1024^2)
Example:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ram1 bs=1M count=4
4+0 records in
4+0 records out
-------------------------------
=item df
Usage: df [filesystem ...]
Prints the filesystem space used and space available.
Example:
$ df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 8690864 8553540 137324 98% /
/dev/sda1 64216 36364 27852 57% /boot
$ df /dev/sda3
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 8690864 8553540 137324 98% /
-------------------------------
=item dirname
Usage: dirname NAME
Strip non-directory suffix from file name
Example:
$ dirname /tmp/foo
/tmp
$ dirname /tmp/foo/
/tmp
-------------------------------
=item dmesg
Usage: dmesg [B<-c>] [B<-n> level] [B<-s> bufsize]
Print or controls the kernel ring buffer.
-------------------------------
=item du
Usage: du [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Summarize disk space used for each FILE and/or directory.
Disk space is printed in units of 1k (i.e. 1024 bytes).
Options:
-l count sizes many times if hard linked
-s display only a total for each argument
Example:
$ ./busybox du
16 ./CVS
12 ./kernel-patches/CVS
80 ./kernel-patches
12 ./tests/CVS
36 ./tests
12 ./scripts/CVS
16 ./scripts
12 ./docs/CVS
104 ./docs
2417 .
-------------------------------
=item dutmp
Usage: dutmp [FILE]
Dump utmp file format (pipe delimited) from FILE
or stdin to stdout.
Example:
$ dutmp /var/run/utmp
8|7||si|||0|0|0|955637625|760097|0
2|0|~|~~|reboot||0|0|0|955637625|782235|0
1|20020|~|~~|runlevel||0|0|0|955637625|800089|0
8|125||l4|||0|0|0|955637629|998367|0
6|245|tty1|1|LOGIN||0|0|0|955637630|998974|0
6|246|tty2|2|LOGIN||0|0|0|955637630|999498|0
7|336|pts/0|vt00andersen|andersen|:0.0|0|0|0|955637763|0|0
-------------------------------
=item echo
Usage: echo [-neE] [ARG ...]
Prints the specified ARGs to stdout
Options:
-n suppress trailing newline
-e interpret backslash-escaped characters (i.e. \t=tab etc)
-E disable interpretation of backslash-escaped characters
Example:
$ echo "Erik is cool"
Erik is cool
$ echo -e "Erik\nis\ncool"
Erik
is
cool
$ echo "Erik\nis\ncool"
Erik\nis\ncool
-------------------------------
=item false
-------------------------------
=item fbset
Usage: fbset [options] [mode]
Show and modify frame buffer device settings
Options:
-h
-fb
-db
-a
-i
-g
-t
-accel
-hsync
-vsync
-laced
-double
Example:
$ fbset
mode "1024x768-76"
# D: 78.653 MHz, H: 59.949 kHz, V: 75.694 Hz
geometry 1024 768 1024 768 16
timings 12714 128 32 16 4 128 4
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode
-------------------------------
=item fdflush
Usage: fdflush device
Force floppy disk drive to detect disk change
-------------------------------
=item find
Usage: find [PATH...] [EXPRESSION]
Search for files in a directory hierarchy. The default PATH is
the current directory; default EXPRESSION is '-print'
EXPRESSION may consist of:
-follow Dereference symbolic links.
-name PATTERN File name (leading directories removed) matches PATTERN.
-print print the full file name followed by a newline to stdout.
Example:
$ find / -name /etc/passwd
/etc/passwd
-------------------------------
=item free
Usage: free
Displays the amount of free and used memory in the system.
Example:
$ free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 257628 248724 8904 59644 93124
Swap: 128516 8404 120112
Total: 386144 257128 129016
-------------------------------
=item freeramdisk
Usage: freeramdisk DEVICE
Free all memory used by the specified ramdisk.
Example:
$ freeramdisk /dev/ram2
-------------------------------
=item deallocvt
Usage: deallocvt N
Deallocates unused virtual terminal /dev/ttyN
-------------------------------
=item fsck.minix
Usage: fsck.minix [B<-larvsmf>] /dev/name
Performs a consistency check for MINIX filesystems.
OPTIONS:
-l Lists all filenames
-r Perform interactive repairs
-a Perform automatic repairs
-v verbose
-s Outputs super-block information
-m Activates MINIX-like "mode not cleared" warnings
-f Force file system check.
-------------------------------
=item mkfs.minix
Usage: mkfs.minix [B<-c> | B<-l> filename] [B<-nXX>] [B<-iXX>] /dev/name [blocks]
Make a MINIX filesystem.
OPTIONS:
-c Check the device for bad blocks
-n [14|30] Specify the maximum length of filenames
-i Specify the number of inodes for the filesystem
-l FILENAME Read the bad blocks list from FILENAME
-v Make a Minix version 2 filesystem
-------------------------------
=item grep
Usage: grep [OPTIONS]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Search for PATTERN in each FILE or standard input.
OPTIONS:
-h suppress the prefixing filename on output
-i ignore case distinctions
-n print line number with output lines
-q be quiet. Returns 0 if result was found, 1 otherwise
This version of grep matches full regular expresions.
Example:
$ grep root /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
$ grep ^[rR]oo. /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
-------------------------------
=item gunzip
-------------------------------
=item gzip
-------------------------------
=item halt
-------------------------------
=item head
Usage: head [OPTION] [FILE]...
Print first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output.
With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the
file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Options:
-n NUM Print first NUM lines instead of first 10
Example:
$ head -n 2 /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
-------------------------------
=item hostid
-------------------------------
=item hostname
Usage: hostname [OPTION] {hostname | B<-F> file}
Get or set the hostname or DNS domain name. If a hostname is given
(or a file with the B<-F> parameter), the host name will be set.
Options:
-s Short
-i Addresses for the hostname
-d DNS domain name
-F FILE Use the contents of FILE to specify the hostname
Example:
$ hostname
slag
-------------------------------
=item init
-------------------------------
=item kill
Usage: kill [B<-signal>] process-id [process-id ...]
Send a signal (default is SIGTERM) to the specified process(es).
Options:
-l List all signal names and numbers.
Example:
$ ps | grep apache
252 root root S [apache]
263 www-data www-data S [apache]
264 www-data www-data S [apache]
265 www-data www-data S [apache]
266 www-data www-data S [apache]
267 www-data www-data S [apache]
$ kill 252
-------------------------------
=item killall
-------------------------------
=item length
-------------------------------
=item ln
Usage: ln [OPTION] TARGET... LINK_NAME|DIRECTORY
Create a link named LINK_NAME or DIRECTORY to the specified TARGET
Options:
-s make symbolic links instead of hard links
-f remove existing destination files
Example:
$ ln -s busybox /tmp/ls
[andersen@debian busybox]$ ls -l /tmp/ls
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Apr 12 18:39 ls -> busybox*
-------------------------------
=item loadacm
-------------------------------
=item loadfont
-------------------------------
=item loadkmap
-------------------------------
=item ls
Usage: ls [B<-1acdelnpuxACF>] [filenames...]
Options:
-a do not hide entries starting with .
-c with -l: show ctime (the time of last
modification of file status information)
-d list directory entries instead of contents
-e list both full date and full time
-l use a long listing format
-n list numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names
-p append indicator (one of /=@|) to entries
-u with -l: show access time (the time of last
access of the file)
-x list entries by lines instead of by columns
-A do not list implied . and ..
-C list entries by columns
-F append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
-------------------------------
=item lsmod
Usage: lsmod
Shows information about all loaded modules.
-------------------------------
=item makedevs
-------------------------------
=item math
-------------------------------
=item mkdir
Usage: mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY...
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist
Options:
-m set permission mode (as in chmod), not rwxrwxrwx - umask
-p no error if dir exists, make parent directories as needed
Example:
$ mkdir /tmp/foo
$ mkdir /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo: File exists
$ mkdir /tmp/foo/bar/baz
/tmp/foo/bar/baz: No such file or directory
$ mkdir -p /tmp/foo/bar/baz
-------------------------------
=item mkfifo
-------------------------------
=item mknod
Usage: mknod NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR
Make block or character special files.
TYPEs include:
b: Make a block (buffered) device.
c or u: Make a character (un-buffered) device.
p: Make a named pipe. Major and minor are ignored for named pipes.
Example:
$ mknod /dev/fd0 b 2 0
-------------------------------
=item mkswap
Usage: mkswap [B<-c>] [B<-v0>|B<-v1>] device [block-count]
Prepare a disk partition to be used as a swap partition.
Options:
-c Check for read-ability.
-v0 Make version 0 swap [max 128 Megs].
-v1 Make version 1 swap [big!] (default for kernels > 2.1.117).
block-count Number of block to use (default is entire partition).
-------------------------------
=item mnc
-------------------------------
=item more
Usage: more [file ...]
More is a filter for paging through text one screenful at a time.
Example:
$ dmesg | more
-------------------------------
=item mount
Usage: mount [flags]
mount [flags] device directory [B<-o> options,more-options]
Flags:
-a: Mount all file systems in fstab.
-o option: One of many filesystem options, listed below.
-r: Mount the filesystem read-only.
-t filesystem-type: Specify the filesystem type.
-w: Mount for reading and writing (default).
Options for use with the "B<-o>" flag:
async / sync: Writes are asynchronous / synchronous.
dev / nodev: Allow use of special device files / disallow them.
exec / noexec: Allow use of executable files / disallow them.
loop: Mounts a file via loop device.
suid / nosuid: Allow set-user-id-root programs / disallow them.
remount: Re-mount a currently-mounted filesystem, changing its flags.
ro / rw: Mount for read-only / read-write.
There are EVEN MORE flags that are specific to each filesystem.
You'll have to see the written documentation for those.
Example:
$ mount
/dev/hda3 on / type minix (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
$ mount /dev/fd0 /mnt -t msdos -o ro
$ mount /tmp/diskimage /opt -t ext2 -o loop
-------------------------------
=item mt
-------------------------------
=item mv
Usage: mv SOURCE DEST
or: mv SOURCE... DIRECTORY
Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
Example:
$ mv /tmp/foo /bin/bar
-------------------------------
=item nslookup
-------------------------------
=item poweroff
-------------------------------
=item ping
Usage: ping [OPTION]... host
Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts.
Options:
-c COUNT Send only COUNT pings.
-q Quiet mode, only displays output at start
and when finished.
Example:
$ ping localhost
PING slag (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=20.1 ms
--- debian ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 20.1/20.1/20.1 ms
-------------------------------
=item printf
-------------------------------
=item ps
-------------------------------
=item pwd
-------------------------------
=item reboot
-------------------------------
=item rm
-------------------------------
=item syslogd
-------------------------------
=item logger
-------------------------------
=item logname
-------------------------------
=item swapon
-------------------------------
=item swapoff
-------------------------------
=item tail
-------------------------------
=item tar
-------------------------------
=item test, [
-------------------------------
=item tee
-------------------------------
=item touch
-------------------------------
=item tr
-------------------------------
=item true
-------------------------------
=item tty
-------------------------------
=item umount
-------------------------------
=item uname
-------------------------------
=item uptime
-------------------------------
=item uniq
-------------------------------
=item update
-------------------------------
=item usleep
-------------------------------
=item wc
-------------------------------
=item whoami
-------------------------------
=item yes
-------------------------------
=item zcat
-------------------------------
=back
=head1 SEE ALSO
textutils(1), shellutils(1), etc...
=head1 MAINTAINER
Erik Andersen <erik@lineo.com>
=head1 AUTHORS
The following people have contributed code to BusyBox whether
they know it or not.
Erik Andersen <erik@lineo.com>
=for html <br>
John Beppu <beppu@lineo.com>
=for html <br>
Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com>
=for html <br>
Randolph Chung <tausq@debian.org>
=for html <br>
Dave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>
=for html <br>
Karl M. Hegbloom <karlheg@debian.org>
=for html <br>
Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com>
=for html <br>
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
=for html <br>
Charles P. Wright <cpwright@villagenet.com>
=for html <br>
Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>
=for html <br>
=cut
# $Id: busybox.pod,v 1.9 2000/04/13 23:44:04 beppu Exp $