Introduction
"Busybox" often referred to as the "The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux" is an popular existing linux based project (Refer [1]) whose stated goal is "to be the smallest and simplest correct implementation of the standard Linux command line tools."
Busybox on OpenSolaris(this project) is about providing a busybox(Refer [1]) equivalent for OpenSolaris. This will help in making possible small sized distros and distros(exp LiveCD) with better bootup time and run-time performance.
The project would have 2 outputs:
- Shell integration of stand-alone commands in a modular manner. ksh93 will be the shell of choice for the same.
- All the identified commands housed in a stand alone executable.
Given that the default shell of choice is ksh93, this project is closely linked to the ksh93-integration project(Refer [2]).
The set of built-in commands will be configurable. The set of commands that will be made as the default integration set will be identified based on commands frequently used in the startup and smf scripts of solaris distros. The modularity of the setup will ensure addition/removal of commands is possible at buildtime.
The project will use the code-base of ON. Where multiple command sources are present (ex: /usr/bin,/usr/xpg4/bin,etc), the project would choose the source code base that is most standards compliant and aware of multibyte characters.
Future possibilities include :
- Optimizing the libraries(libc in particular) for size and resources, generating customized libc with reduced functionality.
- Ability to customize the set of features included in the commands in the interest of minimization.
Mailing Lists
- For development related discussions use busybox-dev at opensolaris dot org. For discussions that are of relevance to ksh3 design, consider the mailing ksh93-integration at opensolaris dot org as well.
- For issues of wider interest use appliances-discuss at opensolaris dot org
Related links/references
- busybox project "The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux" is an active existing project
- ksh93-integration project is an existing opensolaris.org project.
