annotate www/about.html @ 230:5c03ba9e3924

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author Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>
date Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:28:26 -0600
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1 <!--#include file="header.html" -->
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2
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3 <h2><a name="what" />What is ToyBox?</h2>
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4
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5 <p>The goal of the Toybox project is to create simple implementations of all
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6 the important Linux command line utilities. These implementations should
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7 be small (the entire project should total less than a megabyte, uncompressed),
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8 fast, simple, and correctly implemented (which is related to standards
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9 compliance, but isn't quite the same thing). Click for
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10 <a href="design.html">more about the design goals</a></p>
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11
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12 <p>Toybox has configurable levels of functionality, and should scale from tiny
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13 embedded systems up to full general purpose desktop and development
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14 environments. The author plans to run it on his laptop, and the
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15 <a href=/code/firmware>Firmware Linux</a> project is trying to get a complete
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16 Linux system to rebuild itself from source code using toybox.</p>
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17
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18 <p>Toybox is <a href=license.html>Licensed under GPL version 2</a>.</p>
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19
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20 <p>Toybox can be built as a single "swiss army knife" executable (ala BusyBox
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21 or Red Hat's Nash), or each command can be built as a traditional independent
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22 executable.</p>
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23
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24 <b><h2><a name="status" />What commands are implemented?</h2></b>
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25
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26 <p>The current list of commands implemented by toybox is at the top of the
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27 <a href=news.html>news page</a></p>. That list is updated when new commands
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28 go in.</p>
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29
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30 <p>In general, configuring toybox for "defconfig" enables all the commands
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31 compete enough to be useful. Configuring "allyesconfig" enables partially
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32 implemented commands as well.</p>
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33
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34 <p>The following commands are incomplete, but demonstrate some basic
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35 functionality: bzcat/bunzip2, help, mke2fs, sh/toysh, mdev.</p>
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36
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37 <p>The following are partially implemented commands that don't actually do
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38 anything yet: mke2fs.</p>
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39
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40 <p>Several toybox commands can do things other vesions can't. For example:</p>
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41
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42 <p>The toybox "df" isn't confused by initramfs the way other df implementations
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43 are. If initramfs is visible, df shows it like any other mount point.</p>
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44
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45 <p>The toybox "touch" command has a -l option to set the length of a file.
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46 This can truncate a file, or create completely sparse files.</p>
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47
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48 <b><h3>Command Shell</h3></b>
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49 <p>The Toybox Shell (toysh) aims to be a reasonable bash replacement. It
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50 implements the "sh" and "toysh" commands, plus the built-in commands "cd" and
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51 "exit". This is the largest single sub-project in toybox.</p>
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52
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53 <p>The following additional commands may be built into the shell (but not as
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54 separate executables): cd, exit, if, while, for, function, fg, bg, jobs, source,
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55 <a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/alias.html">alias</a>,
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56 export, set, unset, read, trap, and exec. (Note: not done yet.)</p>
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57
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58 </ul>
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59
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60 <h2><a name="commands" />Which commands are planned?</h2>
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61
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62 <p>The toybox <a href=todo.txt>todo list</a> mentions many potential commands
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63 which may be added to this project. (Whether that file is readable by anybody
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64 but the project's maintainer is open to debate.)</p>
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65
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66 <p>The criteria for a toybox 1.0 release is that a system built from just the
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67 Linux kernel, toybox, uClibc, and a compiler (such as tinycc) can rebuild
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68 itself from source code.</p>
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69
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70 <b><h3>Relevant Standards</h3></b>
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71
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72 <p>Most commands are implemented according to
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73 <a href=http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/idx/utilities.html>The
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74 Single Unix Specification version 3</a> where applicable. This does not mean
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75 that Toybox is implementing every SUSv3 utility: some such as SCCS and ed are
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76 obsolete, while others such as c99 are outside the scope of the project.
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77 Toybox also isn't implementing full internationalization support: it should be
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78 8-bit clean and handle UTF-8, but otherwise we leave this to X11 and higher
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79 layers. And some things (like $CDPATH support in "cd") await a good
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80 explanation of why to bother with them. (The standard provides an important
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81 frame of reference, but is not infallable set of commandments to be blindly
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82 obeyed.)</p>
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83
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84 <p>The other major sources of commands are the Linux man pages, and testing
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85 the behavior of existing commands (although not generally looking at their
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86 source code). SUSv3 does not include many basic commands such as "mount",
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87 "init", and "mke2fs", which are kind of nice to have.</p>
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88
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89 <b><h2><a name="downloads" />Download</h2></b>
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90
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91 <p>This project is maintained as a mercurial archive. To get a copy of the
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92 current development version, either use mercurial (hg clone
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93 http://landley.net/toybox) or click on one of the zip/gz/bz2 links
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94 at the top of the <a href=/hg/toybox>mercurial archive browser</a> page to get
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95 an archive of the appropriate version. Click
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96 <a href="/hg/toybox?cmd=tags">tags</a> to see all the tagged release
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97 versions ("tip" is the current development version).</p>
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98
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99 <p>The maintainer's <a href=/notes.html>development log</a> and the project's
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100 <a href=http://www2.them.com:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/toybox>mailing
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101 list</a> are also good ways to track what's going on with the project.</p>
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102
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103 <b><h2><a name="toycans" />What's the background image on the web page?</h2></b>
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104
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105 <p>It's <a href=toycans-big.jpg>carefully stacked soda cans</a>. Specifically,
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106 it's a bunch of the original "Coke Zero" and "Pepsi One" cans, circa 2006,
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107 stacked to spell out the binary values of the ascii string "Toybox", with
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108 null terminator at the bottom. (The big picture's on it's side because
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109 the camera was held sideways to get a better shot.)</p>
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110
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111 <p>No, it's not photoshopped, I actually had these cans until a coworker
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112 who Totally Did Not Get It <sup><font size=-3><a href=http://www.timesys.com>tm</a></font></sup> threw them out one day after I'd gone home,
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113 thinking they were recycling. (I still have two of each kind, but
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114 Pepsi One seems discontinued and Coke Zero switched its can color
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115 from black to grey, presumably in celebration. It was fun while it lasted...)</p>
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116
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117 <!--#include file="footer.html" -->