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:

        [, [[, ash, basename, bunzip2, bzcat, cat, chroot, chvt, clear, cp,
        cpio, cut, date, dd, depmod, df, dirname, dmesg, du, echo, eject,
        env, expr, false, fbset, fdisk, ftpget, gunzip, gzip, halt, head,
        insmod, ip, ipaddr, iplink, iproute, kill, killall, killall5, ln,
        ls, lsmod, lzmacat, md5sum, mdev, mkdir, mknod, modprobe, mount, mv,
        ping, ping6, poweroff, ps, pwd, reboot, reset, rm, rmdir, rmmod,
        run-parts, setkeycodes, sh, sleep, sync, tail, tar, tee, test, true,
        umount, uname, unlzma, unzip, yes, zcat

COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS¶

basename

basename FILE [SUFFIX]

Strip directory path and suffixes from FILE. If specified, also remove any trailing SUFFIX.

bunzip2

bunzip2 [OPTIONS] [FILE]

Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-' or omitted)

Options:

        -c      Write to standard output
        -f      Force
    

bzcat

bzcat FILE

Uncompress to stdout

cat

cat [-u] [FILE]...

Concatenate FILE(s) and print them to stdout

Options:

        -u      Use unbuffered i/o (ignored)
    

chroot

chroot NEWROOT [PROG [ARGS]]

Run PROG with root directory set to NEWROOT

chvt

chvt N

Change the foreground virtual terminal to /dev/ttyN

clear

clear

Clear screen

cp

cp [OPTIONS] SOURCE DEST

Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY

Options:

        -a      Same as -dpR
        -d,-P   Preserve links
        -H,-L   Dereference all symlinks (default)
        -p      Preserve file attributes if possible
        -f      Force overwrite
        -i      Prompt before overwrite
        -R,-r   Recurse directories
        -l,-s   Create (sym)links
    

cpio

cpio -[tidmvu] [-F FILE]

Extract or list files from a cpio archive Main operation mode:

        -t      List
        -i      Extract
Options:
        -d      Make leading directories
        -m      Preserve mtime
        -v      Verbose
        -u      Overwrite
        -F      Input file
    

cut

cut [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Print selected fields from each input FILE to standard output

Options:

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

date

date [OPTIONS] [+FMT] [TIME]

Display time (using +FMT), or set time

Options:

        [-s] TIME       Set time to TIME
        -u              Work in UTC (don't convert to local time)
        -R              Output RFC-822 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 FILE         Display last modification time of FILE
        -d 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]
    

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

Options:

        if=FILE         Read from FILE instead of stdin
        of=FILE         Write to FILE instead of stdout
        bs=N            Read and write N bytes at a time
        ibs=N           Read N bytes at a time
        obs=N           Write N bytes at a time
        count=N         Copy only N input blocks
        skip=N          Skip N input blocks
        seek=N          Skip N output blocks
        conv=notrunc    Don't truncate output file
        conv=noerror    Continue after read errors
        conv=sync       Pad blocks with zeros
        conv=fsync      Physically write data out before finishing
    

Numbers may be suffixed by c (x1), w (x2), b (x512), kD (x1000), k (x1024), MD (x1000000), M (x1048576), GD (x1000000000) or G (x1073741824)

df

df [-Pkmhai] [-B SIZE] [FILESYSTEM...]

Print filesystem usage statistics

Options:

        -P      POSIX output format
        -k      1024-byte blocks (default)
        -m      1M-byte blocks
        -h      Human readable (e.g. 1K 243M 2G)
        -a      Show all filesystems
        -i      Inodes
        -B SIZE Blocksize
    

dirname

dirname FILENAME

Strip non-directory suffix from FILENAME

dmesg

dmesg [-c] [-n LEVEL] [-s SIZE]

Print or control the kernel ring buffer

Options:

        -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. Disk space is printed in units of 512 bytes.

Options:

        -a      Show file sizes too
        -H      Follow symlinks on command line
        -L      Follow all symlinks
        -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
    

echo

echo [-neE] [ARG...]

Print the specified ARGs to stdout

Options:

        -n      Suppress trailing newline
        -e      Interpret backslash-escaped characters (i.e., \t=tab)
        -E      Disable interpretation of backslash-escaped characters
    

eject

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

Eject specified DEVICE (or default /dev/cdrom)

Options:

        -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

Options:

        -, -i   Start with an empty environment
        -u      Remove variable from the environment
    

expr

expr EXPRESSION

Print the value of EXPRESSION to standard output.

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)

fbset

fbset [OPTIONS] [MODE]

Show and modify frame buffer settings

fdisk

fdisk [-ul] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

Change partition table

Options:

        -u              Start and End are in sectors (instead of cylinders)
        -l              Show partition table for each DISK, then exit
        -b 2048         (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors
        -C CYLINDERS    Set number of cylinders/heads/sectors
        -H HEADS
        -S SECTORS
    

ftpget

ftpget [OPTIONS] HOST LOCAL_FILE REMOTE_FILE

Retrieve a remote file via FTP

Options:

        -c,--continue   Continue previous transfer
        -v,--verbose    Verbose
        -u,--username   Username
        -p,--password   Password
        -P,--port       Port number
    

gunzip

gunzip [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Uncompress FILEs (or standard input)

Options:

        -c      Write to standard output
        -f      Force
        -t      Test file integrity
    

gzip

gzip [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Compress FILEs (or standard input)

Options:

        -c      Write to standard output
        -d      Decompress
        -f      Force
    

halt

halt [-d delay] [-n] [-f]

Halt the system

Options:

        -d      Delay interval for halting
        -n      No call to sync()
        -f      Force halt (don't go through init)
    

head

head [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Print first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Options:

        -n NUM  Print first NUM lines instead of first 10
        -c NUM  Output the first NUM bytes
        -q      Never output headers giving file names
        -v      Always output headers giving file names
    

insmod

insmod FILE [symbol=value]...

Load the specified kernel modules into the kernel

ip

ip [OPTIONS] {address | route | link | } {COMMAND}

ip [OPTIONS] OBJECT {COMMAND} where OBJECT := {address | route | link | } OPTIONS := { -f[amily] { inet | inet6 | link } | -o[neline] }

ipaddr

ipaddr { {add|del} IFADDR dev STRING | {show|flush} [dev STRING] [to PREFIX] }

ipaddr {add|delete} IFADDR dev STRING ipaddr {show|flush} [dev STRING] [scope SCOPE-ID] [to PREFIX] [label PATTERN] IFADDR := PREFIX | ADDR peer PREFIX [broadcast ADDR] [anycast ADDR] [label STRING] [scope SCOPE-ID] SCOPE-ID := [host | link | global | NUMBER]

iplink

iplink { set DEVICE { up | down | arp { on | off } | show [DEVICE] }

iplink set DEVICE { up | down | arp | multicast { on | off } | dynamic { on | off } | mtu MTU } iplink show [DEVICE]

iproute

iproute { list | flush | { add | del | change | append | replace | monitor } ROUTE }

iproute { list | flush } SELECTOR iproute get ADDRESS [from ADDRESS iif STRING] [oif STRING] [tos TOS] iproute { add | del | change | append | replace | monitor } ROUTE SELECTOR := [root PREFIX] [match PREFIX] [proto RTPROTO] ROUTE := [TYPE] PREFIX [tos TOS] [proto RTPROTO] [metric METRIC]

kill

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

Send a signal (default is TERM) to given PIDs

Options:

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
    

killall

killall [-l] [-q] [-SIG] process-name...

Send a signal (default is TERM) to given processes

Options:

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
        -q      Do not complain if no processes were killed
    

killall5

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

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

Options:

        -l      List all signal names and numbers
        -o PID  Do not signal this PID
    

ln

ln [OPTIONS] TARGET... LINK_NAME|DIRECTORY

Create a link named LINK_NAME or DIRECTORY to the specified TARGET. Use '--' to indicate that all following arguments are non-options.

Options:

        -s      Make symlinks instead of hardlinks
        -f      Remove existing destination files
        -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
    

ls

ls [-1AacCdeFilnpLRsTtuwxhk] [FILE]...

List directory contents

Options:

        -1      List in a single column
        -A      Don't list . and ..
        -a      Don't hide entries starting with .
        -C      List by columns
        -c      With -l: sort by ctime
        -d      List directory entries instead of contents
        -e      List full date and time
        -F      Append indicator (one of */=@|) to entries
        -i      List inode numbers
        -l      Long listing format
        -n      List numeric UIDs and GIDs instead of names
        -p      Append indicator (one of /=@|) to entries
        -L      List entries pointed to by symlinks
        -R      List subdirectories recursively
        -s      List the size of each file, in blocks
        -T NUM  Assume tabstop every NUM columns
        -t      With -l: sort by modification time
        -u      With -l: sort by access time
        -w NUM  Assume the terminal is NUM columns wide
        -x      List by lines
        -h      List sizes in human readable format (1K 243M 2G)
    

lsmod

lsmod

List the currently loaded kernel modules

lzmacat

lzmacat FILE

Uncompress to stdout

md5sum

md5sum [OPTIONS] [FILE]...
or: md5sum [OPTIONS] -c [FILE]

Print or check MD5 checksums

Options:

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

mdev

mdev [-s]

        -s      Scan /sys and populate /dev during system boot
    

It can be run by kernel as a hotplug helper. To activate it:
echo /bin/mdev >/proc/sys/kernel/hotplug It uses /etc/mdev.conf with lines [-]DEVNAME UID:GID PERM [>|=PATH] [@|$|*PROG]

mkdir

mkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Create DIRECTORY

Options:

        -m      Set permission mode (as in chmod), not rwxrwxrwx - umask
        -p      No error if existing, make parent directories as needed
    

mknod

mknod [OPTIONS] NAME TYPE MAJOR MINOR

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

Options:

        -m      Create the special file using the specified mode (default a=rw)
TYPEs include:
        b:      Make a block device
        c or u: Make a character device
        p:      Make a named pipe (MAJOR and MINOR are ignored)
    

modprobe

modprobe [-knqrsv] MODULE [symbol=value...]

Options:

        -n      Dry run
        -q      Quiet
        -r      Remove module (stacks) or do autoclean
        -s      Report via syslog instead of stderr
        -v      Verbose
        -b      Apply blacklist to module names too
    

mount

mount [flags] DEVICE NODE [-o OPT,OPT]

Mount a filesystem. Filesystem autodetection requires /proc be mounted.

Options:

        -a              Mount all filesystems in fstab
        -f              Dry run
        -r              Read-only mount
        -w              Read-write mount (default)
        -t FSTYPE       Filesystem type
        -O OPT          Mount only filesystems with option OPT (-a only)
-o OPT:
        [a]sync         Writes are [a]synchronous
        [no]atime       Disable/enable updates to inode access times
        [no]diratime    Disable/enable atime updates to directories
        [no]relatime    Disable/enable atime updates relative to modification time
        [no]dev         (Dis)allow use of special device files
        [no]exec        (Dis)allow use of executable files
        [no]suid        (Dis)allow set-user-id-root programs
        [r]shared       Convert [recursively] to a shared subtree
        [r]slave        Convert [recursively] to a slave subtree
        [r]private      Convert [recursively] to a private subtree
        [un]bindable    Make mount point [un]able to be bind mounted
        bind            Bind a directory to an additional location
        move            Relocate an existing mount point
        remount         Remount a mounted filesystem, changing its flags
        ro/rw           Read-only/read-write mount
    

There are EVEN MORE flags that are specific to each filesystem You'll have to see the written documentation for those filesystems

mv

mv [OPTIONS] SOURCE DEST or: mv [OPTIONS] SOURCE... DIRECTORY

Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY

Options:

        -f      Don't prompt before overwriting
        -i      Interactive, prompt before overwrite
    

ping

ping host

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts

ping6

ping6 host

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts

poweroff

poweroff [-d delay] [-n] [-f]

Halt and shut off power

Options:

        -d      Delay interval for halting
        -n      No call to sync()
        -f      Force power off (don't go through init)
    

ps

ps

Report process status

Options:

        -o col1,col2=header     Select columns for display
    

pwd

pwd

Print the full filename of the current working directory

reboot

reboot [-d delay] [-n] [-f]

Reboot the system

Options:

        -d      Delay interval for rebooting
        -n      No call to sync()
        -f      Force reboot (don't go through init)
    

reset

reset

Reset the screen

rm

rm [OPTIONS] FILE...

Remove (unlink) the FILE(s). Use '--' to indicate that all following arguments are non-options.

Options:

        -i      Always prompt before removing
        -f      Never prompt
        -r,-R   Remove directories recursively
    

rmdir

rmdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY...

Remove the DIRECTORY, if it is empty.

Options:

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

rmmod

rmmod [OPTIONS] [MODULE]...

Unload the specified kernel modules from the kernel

Options:

        -w      Wait until the module is no longer used
        -f      Force unloading
        -a      Remove all unused modules (recursively)
    

run-parts

run-parts [-t] [-a ARG] [-u MASK] DIRECTORY

Run a bunch of scripts in a directory

Options:

        -t      Print what would be run, but don't actually run anything
        -a ARG  Pass ARG as argument for every program
        -u MASK Set the umask to MASK before running every program
    

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

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

sync

sync

Write all buffered blocks to disk

tail

tail [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Print last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Options:

        -c N[kbm]       Output the last N bytes
        -n N[kbm]       Print last N lines instead of last 10
        -f              Output data as the file grows
        -q              Never output headers giving file names
        -s SEC          Wait SEC seconds between reads with -f
        -v              Always output headers giving file names
    

If the first character of N (bytes or lines) is a '+', output begins with the Nth item from the start of each file, otherwise, print the last N items in the file. N bytes may be suffixed by k (x1024), b (x512), or m (1024^2).

tar

tar -[czjaxtvO] [-X FILE] [-f TARFILE] [-C DIR] [FILE(s)]...

Create, extract, or list files from a tar file

Options:

        c       Create
        x       Extract
        t       List
Archive format selection:
        z       Filter the archive through gzip
        j       Filter the archive through bzip2
        a       Filter the archive through lzma
File selection:
        f       Name of TARFILE or "-" for stdin
        O       Extract to stdout
        exclude File to exclude
        X       File with names to exclude
        C       Change to directory DIR before operation
        v       Verbose
    

tee

tee [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

Copy standard input to each FILE, and also to standard output

Options:

        -a      Append to the given FILEs, do not 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

true

true

Return an exit code of TRUE (0)

umount

umount [flags] FILESYSTEM|DIRECTORY

Unmount file systems

Options:

        -a      Unmount all file systems
        -r      Try to remount devices as read-only if mount is busy
        -l      Lazy umount (detach filesystem)
        -f      Force umount (i.e., unreachable NFS server)
    

uname

uname [-amnrspv]

Print system information.

Options:

        -a      Print all
        -m      The machine (hardware) type
        -n      Hostname
        -r      OS release
        -s      OS name (default)
        -p      Processor type
        -v      OS version
    

unlzma

unlzma [OPTIONS] [FILE]

Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-' or omitted)

Options:

        -c      Write to standard output
        -f      Force
    

unzip

unzip [-opts[modifiers]] file[.zip] [list] [-x xlist] [-d exdir]

Extract files from ZIP archives

Options:

        -l      List archive contents (with -q for short form)
        -n      Never overwrite existing files (default)
        -o      Overwrite files without prompting
        -p      Send output to stdout
        -q      Quiet
        -x      Exclude these files
        -d      Extract files into this directory
    

yes

yes [OPTIONS] [STRING]

Repeatedly output a line with STRING, or 'y'

zcat

zcat FILE

Uncompress 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 incorect, 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 unarchving 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.