NAME

BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux


SYNTAX

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


DESCRIPTION

BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.

BusyBox has been written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind. It is also extremely modular so you can easily include or exclude commands (or features) at compile time. This makes it easy to customize your embedded systems. To create a working system, just add /dev, /etc, and a Linux kernel. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded system.

BusyBox is extremely configurable. This allows you to include only the components you need, thereby reducing binary size. Run 'make config' or 'make menuconfig' to select the functionality that you wish to enable. Then run 'make' to compile BusyBox using your configuration.

After the compile has finished, you should use 'make install' to install BusyBox. This will install the 'bin/busybox' binary, in the target directory specified by CONFIG_PREFIX. CONFIG_PREFIX can be set when configuring BusyBox, or you can specify an alternative location at install time (i.e., with a command line like 'make CONFIG_PREFIX=/tmp/foo install'). If you enabled any applet installation scheme (either as symlinks or hardlinks), these will also be installed in the location pointed to by CONFIG_PREFIX.


USAGE

BusyBox is a multi-call binary. A multi-call binary is an executable program that performs the same job as more than one utility program. That means there is just a single BusyBox binary, but that single binary acts like a large number of utilities. This allows BusyBox to be smaller since all the built-in utility programs (we call them applets) can share code for many common operations.

You can also invoke BusyBox by issuing a command as an argument on the command line. For example, entering

        /bin/busybox ls

will also cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls'.

Of course, adding '/bin/busybox' into every command would be painful. So most people will invoke BusyBox using links to the BusyBox binary.

For example, entering

        ln -s /bin/busybox ls
        ./ls

will cause BusyBox to behave as 'ls' (if the 'ls' command has been compiled into BusyBox). Generally speaking, you should never need to make all these links yourself, as the BusyBox build system will do this for you when you run the 'make install' command.

If you invoke BusyBox with no arguments, it will provide you with a list of the applets that have been compiled into your BusyBox binary.


COMMON OPTIONS

Most BusyBox applets support the --help argument to provide a terse runtime description of their behavior. If the CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE option has been enabled, more detailed usage information will also be available.


COMMANDS

Currently available applets include:

        [, [[, addgroup, adduser, awk, basename, beep, bunzip2, bzcat,
        bzip2, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chpasswd, chroot, chvt, cksum,
        clear, cmp, comm, cp, cryptpw, cut, date, dc, dd, delgroup, deluser,
        df, dhcprelay, dirname, dmesg, dnsdomainname, du, dumpkmap,
        dumpleases, echo, ed, egrep, eject, env, expand, expr, false, fgrep,
        find, fold, free, freeramdisk, fsync, ftpd, ftpget, ftpput, fuser,
        getopt, grep, groups, gunzip, gzip, head, hostid, hostname, hwclock,
        id, ifconfig, inetd, install, kbd_mode, kill, killall, killall5, ln,
        loadkmap, logname, losetup, ls, lzcat, lzma, makedevs, md5sum,
        mkdir, mkfifo, mkfs.minix, mknod, mkpasswd, mkswap, mktemp, more,
        mv, od, passwd, ping, pkill, pmap, ps, pwd, readlink, realpath,
        resize, rm, rmdir, route, run-parts, setkeycodes, setsid, sha1sum,
        showkey, sleep, sort, split, start-stop-daemon, stat, stty, swapoff,
        swapon, sync, sysctl, tac, tail, tar, tcpsvd, tee, test, time,
        touch, tr, traceroute, true, tty, udhcpc, udhcpd, uname, uniq,
        unlzma, unxz, unzip, usleep, vlock, volname, wc, wget, which,
        whoami, whois, xargs, xz, xzcat, yes, zcat


COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

addgroup

addgroup [-g GID] [USER] GROUP

Add a group or add a user to a group

        -g GID  Group id
        -S      Create a system group
adduser

adduser [OPTIONS] USER [GROUP]

Create new user, or add USER to GROUP

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

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

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

basename FILE [SUFFIX]

Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE

beep

beep -f FREQ -l LEN -d DELAY -r COUNT -n

        -f      Frequency in Hz
        -l      Length in ms
        -d      Delay in ms
        -r      Repetitions
        -n      Start new tone
bunzip2

bunzip2 [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILEs (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
bzcat

bzcat FILE

Decompress to stdout

bzip2

bzip2 [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Compress FILEs (or stdin) with bzip2 algorithm

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

cat [FILE]...

Concatenate FILEs and print them to stdout

chgrp

chgrp [-RhLHPcvf]... 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)
        -c      List changed files
        -v      Verbose
        -f      Hide errors
chmod

chmod [-Rcvf] 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
        -c      List changed files
        -v      List all files
        -f      Hide errors
chown

chown [-RhLHPcvf]... 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)
        -c      List changed files
        -v      List all files
        -f      Hide errors
chpasswd

chpasswd [--md5|--encrypted]

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

        -e,--encrypted  Supplied passwords are in encrypted form
        -m,--md5        Use MD5 encryption instead of DES
chroot

chroot NEWROOT [PROG ARGS]

Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT

chvt

chvt N

Change the foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN

cksum

cksum FILES...

Calculate the CRC32 checksums of FILES

clear

clear

Clear screen

cmp

cmp [-l] [-s] FILE1 [FILE2 [SKIP1 [SKIP2]]]

Compare FILE1 with FILE2 (or stdin)

        -l      Write the byte numbers (decimal) and values (octal)
                for all differing bytes
        -s      Quiet
comm

comm [-123] FILE1 FILE2

Compare FILE1 with FILE2

        -1      Suppress lines unique to FILE1
        -2      Suppress lines unique to FILE2
        -3      Suppress lines common to both files
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
cryptpw

cryptpw [OPTIONS] [PASSWORD] [SALT]

Crypt PASSWORD using crypt(3)

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

cut [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Print selected fields from each input FILE to stdout

        -b LIST Output only bytes from LIST
        -c LIST Output only characters from LIST
        -d CHAR Use CHAR instead of tab as the field delimiter
        -s      Output only the lines containing delimiter
        -f N    Print only these fields
        -n      Ignored
date

date [OPTIONS] [+FMT] [TIME]

Display time (using +FMT), or set time

        [-s,--set] TIME Set time to TIME
        -u,--utc        Work in UTC (don't convert to local time)
        -R,--rfc-2822   Output RFC-2822 compliant date string
        -I[SPEC]        Output ISO-8601 compliant date string
                        SPEC='date' (default) for date only,
                        'hours', 'minutes', or 'seconds' for date and
                        time to the indicated precision
        -r,--reference FILE     Display last modification time of FILE
        -d,--date TIME  Display TIME, not 'now'
        -D FMT          Use FMT for -d TIME conversion

Recognized TIME formats:

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

dc EXPRESSION...

Tiny RPN calculator. Operations: +, add, -, sub, *, mul, /, div, %, mod, **, exp, and, or, not, xor, p - print top of the stack (without popping), f - print entire stack, o - pop the value and set output radix (must be 10, 16, 8 or 2). Examples: 'dc 2 2 add p' -> 4, 'dc 8 8 mul 2 2 + / p' -> 16

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)

delgroup

delgroup [USER] GROUP

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

deluser

deluser USER

Delete USER from the system

df

df [-Pkmhai] [-B SIZE] [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)
        -a      Show all filesystems
        -i      Inodes
        -B SIZE Blocksize
dhcprelay

dhcprelay CLIENT_IFACE[,CLIENT_IFACE2]... SERVER_IFACE [SERVER_IP]

Relay DHCP requests between clients and server

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)
dumpkmap

dumpkmap > keymap

Print a binary keyboard translation table to stdout

dumpleases

dumpleases [-r|-a] [-f LEASEFILE]

Display DHCP leases granted by udhcpd

        -f,--file=FILE  Lease file
        -r,--remaining  Show remaining time
        -a,--absolute   Show expiration time
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)
ed

ed

eject

eject [-t] [-T] [DEVICE]

Eject DEVICE or default /dev/cdrom

        -s      SCSI device
        -t      Close tray
        -T      Open/close tray (toggle)
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
expand

expand [-i] [-t N] [FILE]...

Convert tabs to spaces, writing to stdout

        -i,--initial    Don't convert tabs after non blanks
        -t,--tabs=N     Tabstops every N chars
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)

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
fold

fold [-bs] [-w WIDTH] [FILE]...

Wrap input lines in each FILE (or stdin), writing to stdout

        -b      Count bytes rather than columns
        -s      Break at spaces
        -w      Use WIDTH columns instead of 80
free

free [-b/k/m/g]

Display the amount of free and used system memory

freeramdisk

freeramdisk DEVICE

Free all memory used by the specified ramdisk

fsync

fsync [-d] FILE...

Write files' buffered blocks to disk

        -d      Avoid syncing metadata
ftpd

ftpd [-wvS] [-t N] [-T N] [DIR]

Anonymous FTP server

ftpd should be used as an inetd service. ftpd's line for inetd.conf: 21 stream tcp nowait root ftpd ftpd /files/to/serve It also can be ran from tcpsvd:

        tcpsvd -vE 0.0.0.0 21 ftpd /files/to/serve
        -w      Allow upload
        -v      Log errors to stderr. -vv: verbose log
        -S      Log errors to syslog. -SS: verbose log
        -t,-T   Idle and absolute timeouts
        DIR     Change root to this directory
ftpget

ftpget [OPTIONS] HOST [LOCAL_FILE] REMOTE_FILE

Download a file via FTP

        -c,--continue           Continue previous transfer
        -v,--verbose            Verbose
        -u,--username USER      Username
        -p,--password PASS      Password
        -P,--port NUM           Port
ftpput

ftpput [OPTIONS] HOST [REMOTE_FILE] LOCAL_FILE

Upload a file to a FTP server

        -v,--verbose            Verbose
        -u,--username USER      Username
        -p,--password PASS      Password
        -P,--port NUM           Port
fuser

fuser [OPTIONS] FILE or PORT/PROTO

Find processes which use FILEs or PORTs

        -m      Find processes which use same fs as FILEs
        -4,-6   Search only IPv4/IPv6 space
        -s      Don't display PIDs
        -k      Kill found processes
        -SIGNAL Signal to send (default: KILL)
getopt

getopt [OPTIONS] [--] OPTSTRING PARAMS

        -a,--alternative                Allow long options starting with single -
        -l,--longoptions=LOPT[,...]     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

Example:

O=`getopt -l bb: -- ab:c:: ``$@''` || exit 1 eval set -- ``$O'' while true; do case ``$1'' in -a) echo A; shift;; -b|--bb) echo ``B:'$2'''; shift 2;; -c) case ``$2'' in ``'') echo C; shift 2;; *) echo ``C:'$2'''; shift 2;; esac;; --) shift; break;; *) echo Error; exit 1;; esac done

grep

grep [-HhnlLoqvsriwFEz] [-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
        -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
groups

groups [USER]

Print the group memberships of USER or for the current process

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
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).

hostid

hostid

Print out a unique 32-bit identifier for the machine

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
hwclock

hwclock [-r|--show] [-s|--hctosys] [-w|--systohc] [-t|--systz] [-l|--localtime] [-u|--utc] [-f|--rtc FILE]

Query and set hardware clock (RTC)

        -r      Show hardware clock time
        -s      Set system time from hardware clock
        -w      Set hardware clock from system time
        -t      Set in-kernel timezone, correct system time
                if hardware clock is in local time
        -u      Assume hardware clock is kept in UTC
        -l      Assume hardware clock is kept in local time
        -f FILE Use specified device (e.g. /dev/rtc2)
id

id [OPTIONS] [USER]

Print information about USER or the current user

        -u      User ID
        -g      Group ID
        -G      Supplementary group IDs
        -n      Print names instead of numbers
        -r      Print real ID instead of effective ID
ifconfig

ifconfig [-a] interface [address]

Configure a network interface

        [[-]broadcast [ADDRESS]] [[-]pointopoint [ADDRESS]]
        [netmask ADDRESS] [dstaddr ADDRESS]
        [outfill NN] [keepalive NN]
        [hw ether ADDRESS] [metric NN] [mtu NN]
        [[-]trailers] [[-]arp] [[-]allmulti]
        [multicast] [[-]promisc] [txqueuelen NN] [[-]dynamic]
        [mem_start NN] [io_addr NN] [irq NN]
        [up|down] ...
inetd

inetd [-fe] [-q N] [-R N] [CONFFILE]

Listen for network connections and launch programs

        -f      Run in foreground
        -e      Log to stderr
        -q N    Socket listen queue (default: 128)
        -R N    Pause services after N connects/min
                (default: 0 - disabled)
install

install [-cdDsp] [-o USER] [-g GRP] [-m MODE] [SOURCE]... DEST

Copy files and set attributes

        -c      Just copy (default)
        -d      Create directories
        -D      Create leading target directories
        -s      Strip symbol table
        -p      Preserve date
        -o USER Set ownership
        -g GRP  Set group ownership
        -m MODE Set permissions
kbd_mode

kbd_mode [-a|k|s|u] [-C TTY]

Report or set the keyboard mode

        -a      Default (ASCII)
        -k      Medium-raw (keyboard)
        -s      Raw (scancode)
        -u      Unicode (utf-8)
        -C TTY  Affect TTY instead of /dev/tty
kill

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

Send a signal (default: TERM) to given PIDs

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
killall

killall [-l] [-q] [-SIG] PROCESS_NAME...

Send a signal (default: TERM) to given processes

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
        -q      Don't complain if no processes were killed
killall5

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

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

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

ln [OPTIONS] TARGET... LINK|DIR

Create a link LINK or DIR/TARGET to the specified TARGET(s)

        -s      Make symlinks instead of hardlinks
        -f      Remove existing destinations
        -n      Don't dereference symlinks - treat like normal file
        -b      Make a backup of the target (if exists) before link operation
        -S suf  Use suffix instead of ~ when making backup files
        -T      2nd arg must be a DIR
        -v      Verbose
loadkmap

loadkmap < keymap

Load a binary keyboard translation table from stdin

logname

logname

Print the name of the current user

losetup

losetup [-r] [-o OFS] LOOPDEV FILE - associate loop devices
losetup -d LOOPDEV - disassociate
losetup [-f] - show

        -o OFS  Start OFS bytes into FILE
        -r      Read-only
        -f      Show first free loop device
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
lzcat

lzcat FILE

Decompress to stdout

lzma

lzma -d [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILE (or stdin)

        -d      Decompress
        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
makedevs

makedevs [-d device_table] rootdir

Create a range of special files as specified in a device table. Device table entries take the form of:

<name> <type> <mode> <uid> <gid> <major> <minor> <start> <inc> <count> Where name is the file name, type can be one of: f Regular file d Directory c Character device b Block device p Fifo (named pipe) uid is the user id for the target file, gid is the group id for the target file. The rest of the entries (major, minor, etc) apply to to device special files. A '-' may be used for blank entries.

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
mkdir

mkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Create DIRECTORY

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

mkfifo [-m MODE] NAME

Create named pipe

        -m MODE Mode (default a=rw)
mkfs.minix

mkfs.minix [-c | -l FILE] [-nXX] [-iXX] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]

Make a MINIX filesystem

        -c              Check device for bad blocks
        -n [14|30]      Maximum length of filenames
        -i INODES       Number of inodes for the filesystem
        -l FILE         Read bad blocks list from FILE
        -v              Make version 2 filesystem
mknod

mknod [-m MODE] NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR

Create a special file (block, character, or pipe)

        -m MODE Creation mode (default a=rw)
TYPE:
        b       Block device
        c or u  Character device
        p       Named pipe (MAJOR and MINOR are ignored)
mkpasswd

mkpasswd [OPTIONS] [PASSWORD] [SALT]

Crypt PASSWORD using crypt(3)

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

mkswap [-L LBL] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]

Prepare BLOCKDEV to be used as swap partition

        -L LBL  Label
mktemp

mktemp [-dt] [-p DIR] [TEMPLATE]

Create a temporary file with name based on TEMPLATE and print its name. TEMPLATE must end with XXXXXX (e.g. [/dir/]nameXXXXXX). Without TEMPLATE, -t tmp.XXXXXX is assumed.

        -d      Make directory, not file
        -q      Fail silently on errors
        -t      Prepend base directory name to TEMPLATE
        -p DIR  Use DIR as a base directory (implies -t)
        -u      Do not create anything; print a name

Base directory is: -p DIR, else $TMPDIR, else /tmp

more

more [FILE]...

View FILE (or stdin) one screenful at a time

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
od

od [-abcdfhilovxs] [-t TYPE] [-A RADIX] [-N SIZE] [-j SKIP] [-S MINSTR] [-w WIDTH] [FILE]...

Print FILEs (or stdin) unambiguously, as octal bytes by default

passwd

passwd [OPTIONS] [USER]

Change USER's password (default: current user)

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

ping [OPTIONS] HOST

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts

        -4,-6           Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
        -c CNT          Send only CNT pings
        -s SIZE         Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default:56)
        -t TTL          Set TTL
        -I IFACE/IP     Use interface or IP address as source
        -W SEC          Seconds to wait for the first response (default:10)
                        (after all -c CNT packets are sent)
        -w SEC          Seconds until ping exits (default:infinite)
                        (can exit earlier with -c CNT)
        -q              Quiet, only displays output at start
                        and when finished
pkill

pkill [-l|-SIGNAL] [-fnovx] [-s SID|-P PPID|PATTERN]

Send a signal to process(es) selected by regex PATTERN

        -l      List all signals
        -f      Match against entire command line
        -n      Signal the newest process only
        -o      Signal the oldest process only
        -v      Negate the match
        -x      Match whole name (not substring)
        -s      Match session ID (0 for current)
        -P      Match parent process ID
pmap

pmap [-xq] PID

Display detailed process memory usage

        -x      Show details
        -q      Quiet
ps

ps [-o COL1,COL2=HEADER] [-T]

Show list of processes

        -o COL1,COL2=HEADER     Select columns for display
        -T                      Show threads
pwd

pwd

Print the full filename of the current working directory

readlink

readlink [-fnv] FILE

Display the value of a symlink

        -f      Canonicalize by following all symlinks
        -n      Don't add newline
        -v      Verbose
realpath

realpath FILE...

Return the absolute pathnames of given FILE

resize

resize

Resize the screen

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|--parents    Include parents
        --ignore-fail-on-non-empty
route

route [{add|del|delete}]

Edit kernel routing tables

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

run-parts [-tl] [-a ARG]... [-u MASK] DIRECTORY

Run a bunch of scripts in DIRECTORY

        -t      Dry run
        -l      Print names of matching files even if they are not executable
        -a ARG  Pass ARG as argument to programs
        -u MASK Set umask to MASK before running programs
setkeycodes

setkeycodes SCANCODE KEYCODE...

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.

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.

sha1sum

sha1sum [-c[sw]] [FILE]...

Print or check SHA1 checksums

        -c      Check sums against list in FILEs
        -s      Don't output anything, status code shows success
        -w      Warn about improperly formatted checksum lines
showkey

showkey [-a | -k | -s]

Show keys pressed

        -a      Display decimal/octal/hex values of the keys
        -k      Display interpreted keycodes (default)
        -s      Display raw scan-codes
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

sort

sort [-nrugMcszbdfimSTokt] [-o FILE] [-k start[.offset][opts][,end[.offset][opts]] [-t CHAR] [FILE]...

Sort lines of text

        -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
split

split [OPTIONS] [INPUT [PREFIX]]

        -b N[k|m]       Split by N (kilo|mega)bytes
        -l N            Split by N lines
        -a N            Use N letters as suffix
start-stop-daemon

start-stop-daemon [OPTIONS] [-S|-K] ... [-- ARGS...]

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/{exe,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
stat

stat [OPTIONS] FILE...

Display file (default) or filesystem status

        -c fmt  Use the specified format
        -f      Display filesystem status
        -L      Follow links
        -t      Display info in terse form

Valid format sequences for files:

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

Valid format sequences for file systems:

 %a     Free blocks available to non-superuser
 %b     Total data blocks in file system
 %c     Total file nodes in file system
 %d     Free file nodes in file system
 %f     Free blocks in file system
 %i     File System ID in hex
 %l     Maximum length of filenames
 %n     File name
 %s     Block size (for faster transfer)
 %S     Fundamental block size (for block counts)
 %t     Type in hex
 %T     Type in human readable form
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
swapoff

swapoff [-a] [DEVICE]

Stop swapping on DEVICE

        -a      Stop swapping on all swap devices
swapon

swapon [-a] [-p PRI] [DEVICE]

Start swapping on DEVICE

        -a      Start swapping on all swap devices
        -p PRI  Set swap device priority
sync

sync

Write all buffered blocks to disk

sysctl

sysctl [OPTIONS] [KEY[=VALUE]]...

Show/set kernel parameters

        -e      Don't warn about unknown keys
        -n      Don't show key names
        -a      Show all values
        -w      Set values
        -p FILE Set values from FILE (default /etc/sysctl.conf)
        -q      Set values silently
tac

tac [FILE]...

Concatenate FILEs and print them in reverse

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
        -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.

tar

tar -[cxtzJjahmvO] [-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 xz
        j       (De)compress using bzip2
        a       (De)compress using lzma
        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
tcpsvd

tcpsvd [-hEv] [-c N] [-C N[:MSG]] [-b N] [-u USER] [-l NAME] IP PORT PROG

Create TCP socket, bind to IP:PORT and listen for incoming connection. Run PROG for each connection.

        IP              IP to listen on, 0 = all
        PORT            Port to listen on
        PROG ARGS       Program to run
        -l NAME         Local hostname (else looks up local hostname in DNS)
        -u USER[:GRP]   Change to user/group after bind
        -c N            Handle up to N connections simultaneously
        -b N            Allow a backlog of approximately N TCP SYNs
        -C N[:MSG]      Allow only up to N connections from the same IP
                        New connections from this IP address are closed
                        immediately. MSG is written to the peer before close
        -h              Look up peer's hostname
        -E              Don't set up environment variables
        -v              Verbose
tee

tee [-ai] [FILE]...

Copy stdin to each FILE, and also to stdout

        -a      Append to the given FILEs, don't overwrite
        -i      Ignore interrupt signals (SIGINT)
test

test EXPRESSION ]

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

time

time [-v] PROG ARGS

Run PROG, display resource usage when it exits

        -v      Verbose
touch

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

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

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

tr [-cds] STRING1 [STRING2]

Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from stdin, writing to stdout

        -c      Take complement of STRING1
        -d      Delete input characters coded STRING1
        -s      Squeeze multiple output characters of STRING2 into one character
traceroute

traceroute [-FIldnrv] [-f 1ST_TTL] [-m MAXTTL] [-p PORT] [-q PROBES]
[-s SRC_IP] [-t TOS] [-w WAIT_SEC] [-g GATEWAY] [-i IFACE]
[-z PAUSE_MSEC] HOST [BYTES]

Trace the route to HOST

        -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)
true

true

Return an exit code of TRUE (0)

tty

tty

Print file name of stdin's terminal

        -s      Print nothing, only return exit status
udhcpc

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

        -i,--interface IFACE    Interface to use (default eth0)
        -p,--pidfile FILE       Create pidfile
        -s,--script PROG        Run PROG at DHCP events (default /usr/share/udhcpc/default.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
        -P,--client-port N      Use port N (default 68)
        -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
udhcpd

udhcpd [-fS] [-P N] [CONFFILE]

DHCP server

        -f      Run in foreground
        -S      Log to syslog too
        -P N    Use port N (default 67)
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
uniq

uniq [-cdu][-f,s,w N] [INPUT [OUTPUT]]

Discard duplicate lines

        -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
unlzma

unlzma [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILE (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
unxz

unxz [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILE (or stdin)

        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
unzip

unzip [-lnopq] FILE[.zip] [FILE]... [-x FILE...] [-d DIR]

Extract FILEs from ZIP archive

        -l      List contents (with -q for short form)
        -n      Never overwrite files (default: ask)
        -o      Overwrite
        -p      Print to stdout
        -q      Quiet
        -x FILE Exclude FILEs
        -d DIR  Extract into DIR
usleep

usleep N

Pause for N microseconds

vlock

vlock [-a]

Lock a virtual terminal. A password is required to unlock.

        -a      Lock all VTs
volname

volname [DEVICE]

Show CD volume name of the DEVICE (default /dev/cdrom)

wc

wc [-clwL] [FILE]...

Count lines, words, and bytes for each FILE (or stdin)

        -c      Count bytes
        -l      Count newlines
        -w      Count words
        -L      Print longest line length
wget

wget [-c|--continue] [-s|--spider] [-q|--quiet] [-O|--output-document FILE]
[--header 'header: value'] [-Y|--proxy on/off] [-P DIR]
[-U|--user-agent 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')
which

which [COMMAND]...

Locate a COMMAND

whoami

whoami

Print the user name associated with the current effective user id

whois

whois [-h SERVER] [-p PORT] NAME...

Query WHOIS info about NAME

        -h,-p   Server to query
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
xz

xz -d [-cf] [FILE]...

Decompress FILE (or stdin)

        -d      Decompress
        -c      Write to stdout
        -f      Force
xzcat

xzcat FILE

Decompress to stdout

yes

yes [STRING]

Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'

zcat

zcat FILE

Decompress to stdout


LIBC NSS

GNU Libc (glibc) uses the Name Service Switch (NSS) to configure the behavior of the C library for the local environment, and to configure how it reads system data, such as passwords and group information. This is implemented using an /etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file, and using one or more of the /lib/libnss_* libraries. BusyBox tries to avoid using any libc calls that make use of NSS. Some applets however, such as login and su, will use libc functions that require NSS.

If you enable CONFIG_USE_BB_PWD_GRP, BusyBox will use internal functions to directly access the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/shadow files without using NSS. This may allow you to run your system without the need for installing any of the NSS configuration files and libraries.

When used with glibc, the BusyBox 'networking' applets will similarly require that you install at least some of the glibc NSS stuff (in particular, /etc/nsswitch.conf, /lib/libnss_dns*, /lib/libnss_files*, and /lib/libresolv*).

Shameless Plug: As an alternative, one could use a C library such as uClibc. In addition to making your system significantly smaller, uClibc does not require the use of any NSS support files or libraries.


MAINTAINER

Denis Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>


AUTHORS

The following people have contributed code to BusyBox whether they know it or not. If you have written code included in BusyBox, you should probably be listed here so you can obtain your bit of eternal glory. If you should be listed here, or the description of what you have done needs more detail, or is incorrect, please send in an update.


Emanuele Aina <emanuele.aina@tiscali.it> run-parts


Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org>

    Tons of new stuff, major rewrite of most of the
    core apps, tons of new apps as noted in header files.
    Lots of tedious effort writing these boring docs that
    nobody is going to actually read.

Laurence Anderson <l.d.anderson@warwick.ac.uk>

    rpm2cpio, unzip, get_header_cpio, read_gz interface, rpm

Jeff Angielski <jeff@theptrgroup.com>

    ftpput, ftpget

Edward Betts <edward@debian.org>

    expr, hostid, logname, whoami

John Beppu <beppu@codepoet.org>

    du, nslookup, sort

Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com>

    tiny-ls(ls)

Randolph Chung <tausq@debian.org>

    fbset, ping, hostname

Dave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>

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

Jordan Crouse <jordan@cosmicpenguin.net>

    ipcalc

Magnus Damm <damm@opensource.se>

    tftp client insmod powerpc support

Larry Doolittle <ldoolitt@recycle.lbl.gov>

    pristine source directory compilation, lots of patches and fixes.

Glenn Engel <glenne@engel.org>

    httpd

Gennady Feldman <gfeldman@gena01.com>

    Sysklogd (single threaded syslogd, IPC Circular buffer support,
    logread), various fixes.

Karl M. Hegbloom <karlheg@debian.org>

    cp_mv.c, the test suite, various fixes to utility.c, &c.

Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>

    mktemp.c

Matt Kraai <kraai@alumni.cmu.edu>

    documentation, bugfixes, test suite

Stephan Linz <linz@li-pro.net>

    ipcalc, Red Hat equivalence

John Lombardo <john@deltanet.com>

    tr

Glenn McGrath <bug1@iinet.net.au>

    Common unarchiving code and unarchiving applets, ifupdown, ftpgetput,
    nameif, sed, patch, fold, install, uudecode.
    Various bugfixes, review and apply numerous patches.

Manuel Novoa III <mjn3@codepoet.org>

    cat, head, mkfifo, mknod, rmdir, sleep, tee, tty, uniq, usleep, wc, yes,
    mesg, vconfig, make_directory, parse_mode, dirname, mode_string,
    get_last_path_component, simplify_path, and a number trivial libbb routines
    also bug fixes, partial rewrites, and size optimizations in
    ash, basename, cal, cmp, cp, df, du, echo, env, ln, logname, md5sum, mkdir,
    mv, realpath, rm, sort, tail, touch, uname, watch, arith, human_readable,
    interface, dutmp, ifconfig, route

Vladimir Oleynik <dzo@simtreas.ru>

    cmdedit; xargs(current), httpd(current);
    ports: ash, crond, fdisk, inetd, stty, traceroute, top;
    locale, various fixes
    and irreconcilable critic of everything not perfect.

Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com>

    Original author of BusyBox in 1995, 1996. Some of his code can
    still be found hiding here and there...

Tim Riker <Tim@Rikers.org>

    bug fixes, member of fan club

Kent Robotti <robotti@metconnect.com>

    reset, tons and tons of bug reports and patches.

Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com>, <crosenth@covad.com>

    wget - Contributed by permission of Covad Communications

Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>

    Lots of bugs fixes and patches.

Gyepi Sam <gyepi@praxis-sw.com>

    Remote logging feature for syslogd

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>

    mkswap, fsck.minix, mkfs.minix

Mark Whitley <markw@codepoet.org>

    grep, sed, cut, xargs(previous),
    style-guide, new-applet-HOWTO, bug fixes, etc.

Charles P. Wright <cpwright@villagenet.com>

    gzip, mini-netcat(nc)

Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

    tarcat (since removed), loadkmap, various fixes, Debian maintenance

Tito Ragusa <farmatito@tiscali.it>

    devfsd and size optimizations in strings, openvt and deallocvt.

Paul Fox <pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us>

    vi editing mode for ash, various other patches/fixes

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

    port: dnsd

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

    misc

Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>

    initial e2fsprogs, printenv, setarch, sum, misc

Jie Zhang <jie.zhang@analog.com>

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