NAME BusyBox - The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux SYNTAX busybox [arguments...] # or [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: [, [[, ash, awk, basename, brctl, bunzip2, bzcat, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, clear, cmp, cp, crond, crontab, cut, date, dd, devmem, df, dirname, dmesg, du, echo, egrep, env, expr, false, fgrep, find, flock, free, fsync, grep, gunzip, gzip, halt, head, hexdump, hwclock, id, ifconfig, ip, kill, killall, less, ln, lock, logger, login, ls, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mkswap, mktemp, mount, mv, nc, netmsg, netstat, nice, nslookup, ntpd, passwd, pgrep, pidof, ping, ping6, pivot_root, poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, readlink, reboot, reset, rm, rmdir, route, sed, seq, sh, sha256sum, sleep, sort, start-stop-daemon, strings, swapoff, swapon, switch_root, sync, sysctl, tail, tar, tee, test, time, top, touch, tr, traceroute, traceroute6, true, udhcpc, umount, uname, uniq, uptime, vi, wc, which, xargs, yes, zcat COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS ash ash [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS] / -s [ARGS]] Unix shell interpreter awk awk [OPTIONS] [AWK_PROGRAM] [FILE]... -v VAR=VAL Set variable -F SEP Use SEP as field separator -f FILE Read program from FILE -e AWK_PROGRAM basename basename FILE [SUFFIX] Strip directory path and .SUFFIX from FILE brctl brctl COMMAND [BRIDGE [INTERFACE]] Manage ethernet bridges Commands: show Show a list of bridges addbr BRIDGE Create BRIDGE delbr BRIDGE Delete BRIDGE addif BRIDGE IFACE Add IFACE to BRIDGE delif BRIDGE IFACE Delete IFACE from BRIDGE setageing BRIDGE TIME Set ageing time setfd BRIDGE TIME Set bridge forward delay sethello BRIDGE TIME Set hello time setmaxage BRIDGE TIME Set max message age setpathcost BRIDGE COST Set path cost setportprio BRIDGE PRIO Set port priority setbridgeprio BRIDGE PRIO Set bridge priority stp BRIDGE [1/yes/on|0/no/off] STP on/off bunzip2 bunzip2 [-cfk] [FILE]... Decompress FILEs (or stdin) -c Write to stdout -f Force -k Keep input files bzcat bzcat [FILE]... Decompress to stdout cat cat [FILE]... Print FILEs to stdout chgrp chgrp [-RhLHP]... GROUP FILE... Change the group membership of each FILE to GROUP -R Recurse -h Affect symlinks instead of symlink targets -L Traverse all symlinks to directories -H Traverse symlinks on command line only -P Don't traverse symlinks (default) chmod chmod [-R] MODE[,MODE]... FILE... Each MODE is one or more of the letters ugoa, one of the symbols +-= and one or more of the letters rwxst -R Recurse chown chown [-Rh]... USER[:[GRP]] FILE... Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to USER and/or GRP -R Recurse -h Affect symlinks instead of symlink targets chroot chroot NEWROOT [PROG ARGS] Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT clear clear Clear screen cmp cmp [-l] [-s] FILE1 [FILE2] Compare FILE1 with FILE2 (or stdin) -l Write the byte numbers (decimal) and values (octal) for all differing bytes -s Quiet cp cp [OPTIONS] SOURCE... DEST Copy SOURCE(s) to DEST -a Same as -dpR -R,-r Recurse -d,-P Preserve symlinks (default if -R) -L Follow all symlinks -H Follow symlinks on command line -p Preserve file attributes if possible -f Overwrite -i Prompt before overwrite -l,-s Create (sym)links -T Treat DEST as a normal file -u Copy only newer files crond crond -fbS -l N -L LOGFILE -c DIR -f Foreground -b Background (default) -S Log to syslog (default) -l N Set log level. Most verbose 0, default 8 -L FILE Log to FILE -c DIR Cron dir. Default:/etc/crontabs crontab crontab [-c DIR] [-u USER] [-ler]|[FILE] -c Crontab directory -u User -l List crontab -e Edit crontab -r Delete crontab FILE Replace crontab by FILE ('-': stdin) 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 -k Set Kernel timezone from localtime and exit 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] dd dd [if=FILE] [of=FILE] [ibs=N obs=N/bs=N] [count=N] [skip=N] [seek=N] [conv=notrunc|noerror|sync|fsync] [iflag=skip_bytes|fullblock] [oflag=seek_bytes] 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 conv=swab Swap every pair of bytes iflag=skip_bytes skip=N is in bytes iflag=fullblock Read full blocks oflag=seek_bytes seek=N is in bytes N may be suffixed by c (1), w (2), b (512), kB (1000), k (1024), MB, M, GB, G devmem devmem ADDRESS [WIDTH [VALUE]] Read/write from physical address ADDRESS Address to act upon WIDTH Width (8/16/...) VALUE Data to be written df df [-PkmhT] [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) -T Print filesystem type 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 -r Print raw message buffer du du [-aHLdclsxhmk] [FILE]... Summarize disk space used for each FILE and/or directory -a Show file sizes too -L Follow all symlinks -H Follow symlinks on command line -d N Limit output to directories (and files with -a) of depth < N -c Show grand total -l Count sizes many times if hard linked -s Display only a total for each argument -x Skip directories on different filesystems -h Sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 243M 2G) -m Sizes in megabytes -k Sizes in kilobytes (default) echo echo [-neE] [ARG]... Print the specified ARGs to stdout -n Suppress trailing newline -e Interpret backslash escapes (i.e., \t=tab) -E Don't interpret backslash escapes (default) env env [-iu] [-] [name=value]... [PROG ARGS] Print the current environment or run PROG after setting up the specified environment -, -i Start with an empty environment -u Remove variable from the environment expr expr EXPRESSION Print the value of EXPRESSION to stdout EXPRESSION may be: ARG1 | ARG2 ARG1 if it is neither null nor 0, otherwise ARG2 ARG1 & ARG2 ARG1 if neither argument is null or 0, otherwise 0 ARG1 < ARG2 1 if ARG1 is less than ARG2, else 0. Similarly: ARG1 <= ARG2 ARG1 = ARG2 ARG1 != ARG2 ARG1 >= ARG2 ARG1 > ARG2 ARG1 + ARG2 Sum of ARG1 and ARG2. Similarly: ARG1 - ARG2 ARG1 * ARG2 ARG1 / ARG2 ARG1 % ARG2 STRING : REGEXP Anchored pattern match of REGEXP in STRING match STRING REGEXP Same as STRING : REGEXP substr STRING POS LENGTH Substring of STRING, POS counted from 1 index STRING CHARS Index in STRING where any CHARS is found, or 0 length STRING Length of STRING quote TOKEN Interpret TOKEN as a string, even if it is a keyword like 'match' or an operator like '/' (EXPRESSION) Value of EXPRESSION Beware that many operators need to be escaped or quoted for shells. Comparisons are arithmetic if both ARGs are numbers, else lexicographical. Pattern matches return the string matched between \( and \) or null; if \( and \) are not used, they return the number of characters matched or 0. find find [-HL] [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' -L,-follow Follow symlinks -H ...on command line only -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,s,p) -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 -newer FILE mtime is more recent than FILE's -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 -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 flock flock [-sxun] FD|{FILE [-c] PROG ARGS} [Un]lock file descriptor, or lock FILE, run PROG -s Shared lock -x Exclusive lock (default) -u Unlock FD -n Fail rather than wait free free Display the amount of free and used system memory fsync fsync [-d] FILE... Write files' buffered blocks to disk -d Avoid syncing metadata grep grep [-HhnlLoqvsriwFE] [-m N] [-A/B/C N] PATTERN/-e PATTERN.../-f FILE [FILE]... Search for PATTERN in FILEs (or stdin) -H Add 'filename:' prefix -h Do not add 'filename:' prefix -n Add 'line_no:' prefix -l Show only names of files that match -L Show only names of files that don't match -c Show only count of matching lines -o Show only the matching part of line -q Quiet. Return 0 if PATTERN is found, 1 otherwise -v Select non-matching lines -s Suppress open and read errors -r Recurse -i Ignore case -w Match whole words only -x Match whole lines only -F PATTERN is a literal (not regexp) -E PATTERN is an extended regexp -m N Match up to N times per file -A N Print N lines of trailing context -B N Print N lines of leading context -C N Same as '-A N -B N' -e PTRN Pattern to match -f FILE Read pattern from file gunzip gunzip [-cfkt] [FILE]... Decompress FILEs (or stdin) -c Write to stdout -f Force -k Keep input files -t Test file integrity gzip gzip [-cfkdt] [FILE]... Compress FILEs (or stdin) -d Decompress -t Test file integrity -c Write to stdout -f Force -k Keep input files halt halt [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f] Halt the system -d SEC Delay interval -n Do not sync -f Force (don't go through init) head head [OPTIONS] [FILE]... Print first 10 lines of each FILE (or stdin) to stdout. With more than one FILE, precede each with a filename header. -n N[kbm] Print first N lines -n -N[kbm] Print all except N last 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). hexdump hexdump [-bcCdefnosvx] [FILE]... Display FILEs (or stdin) in a user specified format -b 1-byte octal display -c 1-byte character display -d 2-byte decimal display -o 2-byte octal display -x 2-byte hex display -C hex+ASCII 16 bytes per line -v Show all (no dup folding) -e FORMAT_STR Example: '16/1 "%02x|""\n"' -f FORMAT_FILE -n LENGTH Show only first LENGTH bytes -s OFFSET Skip OFFSET bytes hwclock hwclock [-r|--show] [-s|--hctosys] [-w|--systohc] [--systz] [--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 --systz Set in-kernel timezone, correct system time if hardware clock is in local time -u Assume hardware clock is kept in UTC --localtime 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 [add ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]] [del ADDRESS[/PREFIXLEN]] [[-]broadcast [ADDRESS]] [[-]pointopoint [ADDRESS]] [netmask ADDRESS] [dstaddr ADDRESS] [hw ether ADDRESS] [metric NN] [mtu NN] [[-]trailers] [[-]arp] [[-]allmulti] [multicast] [[-]promisc] [txqueuelen NN] [[-]dynamic] [up|down] ... ip ip [OPTIONS] address|route|link|neigh|rule [ARGS] OPTIONS := -f[amily] inet|inet6|link | -o[neline] ip addr add|del IFADDR dev IFACE | show|flush [dev IFACE] [to PREFIX] ip route list|flush|add|del|change|append|replace|test ROUTE ip link set IFACE [up|down] [arp on|off] [multicast on|off] [promisc on|off] [mtu NUM] [name NAME] [qlen NUM] [address MAC] [master IFACE | nomaster] ip neigh show|flush [to PREFIX] [dev DEV] [nud STATE] ip rule [list] | add|del SELECTOR ACTION 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 less less [-EFNh~] [FILE]... View FILE (or stdin) one screenful at a time -E Quit once the end of a file is reached -F Quit if entire file fits on first screen -N Prefix line number to each line -~ Suppress ~s displayed past EOF 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 logger logger [OPTIONS] [MESSAGE] Write MESSAGE (or stdin) to syslog -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) login login [-p] [-h HOST] [[-f] USER] Begin a new session on the system -f Don't authenticate (user already authenticated) -h HOST Host user came from (for network logins) -p Preserve environment ls ls [-1AaCxdLHRFplinshrSXvctu] [-w WIDTH] [FILE]... List directory contents -1 One column output -a Include entries which start with . -A Like -a, but exclude . and .. -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 -lc List ctime -lu List atime --full-time List full date and time -h Human readable sizes (1K 243M 2G) --group-directories-first -S Sort by size -X Sort by extension -v Sort by version -t Sort by mtime -tc Sort by ctime -tu Sort by atime -r Reverse sort order -w N Format N columns wide --color[={always,never,auto}] Control coloring 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) 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 MINOR must be omitted) 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 mount mount [OPTIONS] [-o OPT] DEVICE NODE Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc. -a Mount all filesystems in fstab -i Don't run mount helper -r Read-only mount -t FSTYPE[,...] Filesystem type(s) -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 [r]bind Bind a file or directory [recursively] to another location move Relocate an existing mount point remount Remount a mounted filesystem, changing flags ro Same as -r There are filesystem-specific -o flags. mv mv [-fin] SOURCE DEST or: mv [-fin] SOURCE... DIRECTORY Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY -f Don't prompt before overwriting -i Interactive, prompt before overwrite -n Don't overwrite an existing file nc nc [-l] [-p PORT] [IPADDR PORT] Open a pipe to IP:PORT -l Listen mode, for inbound connects -p PORT Local port netstat netstat [-ral] [-tuwx] [-enWp] Display networking information -r Routing table -a All sockets -l Listening sockets Else: connected sockets -t TCP sockets -u UDP sockets -w Raw sockets -x Unix sockets Else: all socket types -e Other/more information -n Don't resolve names -W Wide display -p Show PID/program name for sockets nice nice [-n ADJUST] [PROG ARGS] Change scheduling priority, run PROG -n ADJUST Adjust priority by ADJUST nslookup nslookup HOST [DNS_SERVER] Query DNS about HOST ntpd ntpd [-dnqNwl] [-I IFACE] [-S PROG] [-p PEER]... NTP client/server -d Verbose (may be repeated) -n Do not daemonize -q Quit after clock is set -N Run at high priority -w Do not set time (only query peers), implies -n -S PROG Run PROG after stepping time, stratum change, and every 11 min -p PEER Obtain time from PEER (may be repeated) -l Also run as server on port 123 -I IFACE Bind server to IFACE, implies -l passwd passwd [OPTIONS] [USER] Change USER's password (default: current user) -a ALG des,md5,sha256/512 (default md5) -d Set password to '' -l Lock (disable) account -u Unlock (enable) account pgrep pgrep [-flanovx] [-s SID|-P PPID|PATTERN] Display process(es) selected by regex PATTERN -l Show command name too -a Show command line too -f Match against entire command line -n Show the newest process only -o Show 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 pidof pidof [NAME]... List PIDs of all processes with names that match NAMEs 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) -i SECS Interval -A Ping as soon as reply is recevied -t TTL Set TTL -I IFACE/IP Source interface or IP address -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 display output at start and when finished -p HEXBYTE Pattern to use for payload ping6 ping6 [OPTIONS] HOST Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts -c CNT Send only CNT pings -s SIZE Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default 56) -i SECS Interval -A Ping as soon as reply is recevied -I IFACE/IP Source interface or IP address -q Quiet, only display output at start and when finished -p HEXBYTE Pattern to use for payload pivot_root pivot_root NEW_ROOT PUT_OLD Move the current root file system to PUT_OLD and make NEW_ROOT the new root file system poweroff poweroff [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f] Halt and shut off power -d SEC Delay interval -n Do not sync -f Force (don't go through init) printf printf FORMAT [ARG]... Format and print ARG(s) according to FORMAT (a-la C printf) ps ps Show list of processes w Wide output 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 reboot reboot [-d DELAY] [-n] [-f] Reboot the system -d SEC Delay interval -n Do not sync -f Force (don't go through init) reset reset Reset 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 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{6} Select address family sed sed [-i[SFX]] [-nrE] [-f FILE]... [-e CMD]... [FILE]... or: sed [-i[SFX]] [-nrE] CMD [FILE]... -e CMD Add CMD to sed commands to be executed -f FILE Add FILE contents to sed commands to be executed -i[SFX] Edit files in-place (otherwise sends to stdout) Optionally back files up, appending SFX -n Suppress automatic printing of pattern space -r,-E 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). seq seq [-w] [-s SEP] [FIRST [INC]] LAST Print numbers from FIRST to LAST, in steps of INC. FIRST, INC default to 1. -w Pad to last with leading zeros -s SEP String separator sh sh [-/+OPTIONS] [-/+o OPT]... [-c 'SCRIPT' [ARG0 [ARGS]] / FILE [ARGS] / -s [ARGS]] Unix shell interpreter sha256sum sha256sum [-c[sw]] [FILE]... Print or check SHA256 checksums -c Check sums against list in FILEs -s Don't output anything, status code shows success -w Warn about improperly formatted checksum lines 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 [-nru] [FILE]... Sort lines of text -n Sort numbers -r Reverse sort order -s Stable (don't sort ties alphabetically) -u Suppress duplicate lines -z Lines are terminated by NUL, not newline 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 USERNAME|UID Match only this user's processes -n NAME Match processes with NAME in comm field in /proc/PID/stat -x EXECUTABLE Match processes with this command command in /proc/PID/cmdline -p FILE Match a process with PID from FILE All specified conditions must match -S only: -x EXECUTABLE Program to run -a NAME Zeroth argument -b Background -c USER[:[GRP]] Change user/group -m Write PID to pidfile specified by -p -K only: -s SIG Signal to send -t Match only, exit with 0 if found Other: -q Quiet strings strings [-fo] [-t o/d/x] [-n LEN] [FILE]... Display printable strings in a binary file -f Precede strings with filenames -o Precede strings with octal offsets -t o/d/x Precede strings with offsets in base 8/10/16 -n LEN At least LEN characters form a string (default 4) swapoff swapoff [-a] [DEVICE] Stop swapping on DEVICE -a Stop swapping on all swap devices swapon swapon [-a] [-e] [-d[POL]] [-p PRI] [DEVICE] Start swapping on DEVICE -a Start swapping on all swap devices -d[POL] Discard blocks at swapon (POL=once), as freed (POL=pages), or both (POL omitted) -e Silently skip devices that do not exist -p PRI Set swap device priority switch_root switch_root [-c CONSOLE_DEV] NEW_ROOT NEW_INIT [ARGS] Free initramfs and switch to another root fs: chroot to NEW_ROOT, delete all in /, move NEW_ROOT to /, execute NEW_INIT. PID must be 1. NEW_ROOT must be a mountpoint. -c DEV Reopen stdio to DEV after switch sync sync Write all buffered blocks to disk sysctl sysctl -p [-enq] [FILE...] / [-enqaw] [KEY[=VALUE]]... Show/set kernel parameters -p Set values from FILEs (default /etc/sysctl.conf) -e Don't warn about unknown keys -n Don't show key names -q Quiet -a Show all values -w Set values 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 -c [+]N[kbm] Print last N bytes -n N[kbm] Print last N lines -n +N[kbm] Start on Nth line and print the rest -q Never print headers -s SECONDS Wait SECONDS between reads with -f -v Always print headers -F Same as -f, but keep retrying N may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (x1024^2). tar tar c|x|t [-zhvokO] [-f TARFILE] [-C DIR] [-T FILE] [-X FILE] [FILE]... Create, extract, or list files from a tar file c Create x Extract t List -f FILE Name of TARFILE ('-' for stdin/out) -C DIR Change to DIR before operation -v Verbose -O Extract to stdout -o Don't restore user:group -k Don't replace existing files -z (De)compress using gzip -h Follow symlinks -T FILE File with names to include -X FILE File with glob patterns to exclude 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) time time [-vpa] [-o FILE] PROG ARGS Run PROG, display resource usage when it exits -v Verbose -p POSIX output format -f FMT Custom format -o FILE Write result to FILE -a Append (else overwrite) top top [-b] [-nCOUNT] [-dSECONDS] 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. -b Batch mode -n N Exit after N iterations -d N Delay between updates 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 [-46FIlnrv] [-f 1ST_TTL] [-m MAXTTL] [-q PROBES] [-p PORT] [-t TOS] [-w WAIT_SEC] [-s SRC_IP] [-i IFACE] [-z PAUSE_MSEC] HOST [BYTES] Trace the route to HOST -4,-6 Force IP or IPv6 name resolution -F Set don't fragment bit -l Display TTL value of the returned packet -n Print numeric addresses -r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST -v Verbose -f N First number of hops (default 1) -m N Max number of hops -q N Number of probes per hop (default 3) -p N Base UDP port number used in probes (default 33434) -s IP Source address -i IFACE Source interface -t N Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0) -w SEC Time to wait for a response (default 3) -g IP Loose source route gateway (8 max) traceroute6 traceroute6 [-nrv] [-m MAXTTL] [-q PROBES] [-p PORT] [-t TOS] [-w WAIT_SEC] [-s SRC_IP] [-i IFACE] HOST [BYTES] Trace the route to HOST -n Print numeric addresses -r Bypass routing tables, send directly to HOST -v Verbose -m N Max number of hops -q N Number of probes per hop (default 3) -p N Base UDP port number used in probes (default 33434) -s IP Source address -i IFACE Source interface -t N Type-of-service in probe packets (default 0) -w SEC Time wait for a response (default 3) udhcpc udhcpc [-fbqRB] [-t N] [-T SEC] [-A SEC/-n] [-i IFACE] [-s PROG] [-p PIDFILE] [-oC] [-r IP] [-V VENDOR] [-F NAME] [-x OPT:VAL]... [-O OPT]... -i IFACE Interface to use (default eth0) -s PROG Run PROG at DHCP events (default /usr/share/udhcpc/default.script) -p FILE Create pidfile -B Request broadcast replies -t N Send up to N discover packets (default 3) -T SEC Pause between packets (default 3) -A SEC Wait if lease is not obtained (default 20) -n Exit if lease is not obtained -q Exit after obtaining lease -R Release IP on exit -f Run in foreground -b Background if lease is not obtained -S Log to syslog too -r IP Request this IP address -o Don't request any options (unless -O is given) -O OPT Request option OPT from server (cumulative) -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) -x 14:'"dumpfile"' - option 14 (shell-quoted) -F NAME Ask server to update DNS mapping for NAME -V VENDOR Vendor identifier (default 'udhcp VERSION') -C Don't send MAC as client identifier Signals: USR1 Renew lease USR2 Release lease umount umount [OPTIONS] FILESYSTEM|DIRECTORY Unmount file systems -a Unmount all file systems -r Try to remount devices as read-only if mount is busy -l Lazy umount (detach filesystem) -f Force umount (i.e., unreachable NFS server) -d Free loop device if it has been used -t FSTYPE[,...] Unmount only these filesystem type(s) uname uname [-amnrspvio] Print system information -a Print all -m The machine (hardware) type -n Hostname -r Kernel release -s Kernel name (default) -p Processor type -v Kernel version -i The hardware platform -o OS name 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 -i Ignore case -f N Skip first N fields -s N Skip first N chars (after any skipped fields) -w N Compare N characters in line uptime uptime Display the time since the last boot vi vi [OPTIONS] [FILE]... Edit FILE -c CMD Initial command to run ($EXINIT also available) -R Read-only -H List available features 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 which which [COMMAND]... Locate a COMMAND 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 NULs -t Print the command on stderr before execution -e[STR] STR stops input processing -n N Pass no more than N args to PROG -s N Pass command line of no more than N bytes -x Exit if size is exceeded yes yes [STRING] Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y' zcat zcat [FILE]... Decompress to stdout 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 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 run-parts Erik Andersen 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 rpm2cpio, unzip, get_header_cpio, read_gz interface, rpm Jeff Angielski ftpput, ftpget Edward Betts expr, hostid, logname, whoami John Beppu du, nslookup, sort Brian Candler tiny-ls(ls) Randolph Chung fbset, ping, hostname Dave Cinege more(v2), makedevs, dutmp, modularization, auto links file, various fixes, Linux Router Project maintenance Jordan Crouse ipcalc Magnus Damm tftp client insmod powerpc support Larry Doolittle pristine source directory compilation, lots of patches and fixes. Glenn Engel httpd Gennady Feldman Sysklogd (single threaded syslogd, IPC Circular buffer support, logread), various fixes. Karl M. Hegbloom cp_mv.c, the test suite, various fixes to utility.c, &c. Daniel Jacobowitz mktemp.c Matt Kraai documentation, bugfixes, test suite Stephan Linz ipcalc, Red Hat equivalence John Lombardo tr Glenn McGrath Common unarchiving code and unarchiving applets, ifupdown, ftpgetput, nameif, sed, patch, fold, install, uudecode. Various bugfixes, review and apply numerous patches. Manuel Novoa III 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 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 Original author of BusyBox in 1995, 1996. Some of his code can still be found hiding here and there... Tim Riker bug fixes, member of fan club Kent Robotti reset, tons and tons of bug reports and patches. Chip Rosenthal , wget - Contributed by permission of Covad Communications Pavel Roskin Lots of bugs fixes and patches. Gyepi Sam Remote logging feature for syslogd Linus Torvalds mkswap, fsck.minix, mkfs.minix Mark Whitley grep, sed, cut, xargs(previous), style-guide, new-applet-HOWTO, bug fixes, etc. Charles P. Wright gzip, mini-netcat(nc) Enrique Zanardi tarcat (since removed), loadkmap, various fixes, Debian maintenance Tito Ragusa devfsd and size optimizations in strings, openvt and deallocvt. Paul Fox vi editing mode for ash, various other patches/fixes Roberto A. Foglietta port: dnsd Bernhard Reutner-Fischer misc Mike Frysinger initial e2fsprogs, printenv, setarch, sum, misc Jie Zhang fixed two bugs in msh and hush (exitcode of killed processes)