BusyBox simplifies embedded Linux systems

A small toolkit for small environments

BusyBox is a single executable implementation of many standard Linux utilities. BusyBox
contains simple utilities, such as cat and echo, as well as larger, more complex tools, such as grep,
find, mount, and telnet (albeit, with fewer options than the traditional version! some refer to
BusyBox as the "wiss Army knife of utilities. #his article explores the purpose of BusyBox, how it
works, and why it$s important for memory%constrained environments.
The birth of BusyBox
BusyBox was first written by Bruce &erens in '(() for the *ebian +,-.Linux setup disk. #he goal
was to create a bootable +,-.Linux system on a single floppy disk that could be used as an install
and rescue disk. A single floppy disk can hold around './%'.01B, so there$s not much room
available for the Linux kernel and associated user applications.
BusyBox license
BusyBox is licensed under the +,- +eneral &ublic License (+&L. #his means that if you use
BusyBox in a pro2ect, you must abide by the license. 3ou can view the license on the BusyBox 4eb
site (see the 5esources section later in this article. #he BusyBox team appears to keep busy by
monitoring violators of their license. 6n fact, they maintain a 78all of "hame7 page to document
violations.
BusyBox exploits the fact that the standard Linux utilities share many common elements. 9or
example, many file%based utilities (such as grep and find re:uire code to recurse a directory in
search of files. 4hen the utilities are combined into a single executable, they can share these
common elements, which results in a smaller executable. 6n fact, BusyBox can pack almost ;.<1B
of utilities into around =>>?B. #his provides greater functionality to bootable floppy disks and
embedded devices that use Linux. 3ou can use BusyBox with both the =./ and =.) Linux kernels.