Memory Beta | Main / Busybox

Standard core userspace toolset for embedded Linux devices and Linux distribution installation. Single binary that combines many useful command line tools. Inclusions are customizable (.config file with CONFIG_ assignments generated by make system). Uses the ash shell.

First app to run on target (/sbin/init is sym link to /bin/busybox):
1- sets up signal handlers for init
2- console init
3- parse /etc/inittab
4- init script /etc/init.d/rcS
5- blocking inittab commands
6- single action inittab commands
7- enter loop for respawn actions, ask actions, and waits for children to exit

In Buildroot, you can add busybox in the main build config but not configure it. For that you must edit the separate busybox config which is done with make <target>-busybox-menuconfig. The generated .config goes under output/<target>/build/<busybox>/.config.

Remember that the busybox version of these tools is often quite different from the full version that you could install with a package manager on your desktop, for example. Many of the options and features are removed, as they use kind of a stripped down version of the tool codebase for creating the busybox version.