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README

      1 Toybox: all-in-one Linux command line.
      2 
      3 --- Getting started
      4 
      5 You can download static binaries for various targets from:
      6 
      7   http://landley.net/toybox/bin
      8 
      9 The special name "." indicates the current directory (just like ".." means
     10 the parent directory), and you can run a program that isn't in the $PATH by
     11 specifying a path to it, so this should work:
     12 
     13   wget http://landley.net/bin/toybox-x86_64
     14   chmod +x toybox-x86_64
     15   ./toybox-x86_64 echo hello world
     16 
     17 --- Building toybox
     18 
     19 Type "make help" for build instructions.
     20 
     21 Toybox uses the "make menuconfig; make; make install" idiom same as
     22 the Linux kernel. Usually you want something like:
     23 
     24   make defconfig
     25   make
     26   make install
     27 
     28 Or maybe:
     29 
     30   LDFLAGS="--static" CROSS_COMPILE=armv5l- make defconfig toybox
     31   PREFIX=/path/to/root/filesystem/bin make install_flat
     32 
     33 The file "configure" defines default values for many environment
     34 variables that control the toybox build; if you set a value for any of
     35 these, your value is used instead of the default in that file.
     36 
     37 The CROSS_COMPILE argument above is optional, the default builds a version of
     38 toybox to run on the current machine. Cross compiling requires an appropriately
     39 prefixed cross compiler toolchain, several example toolchains are available at:
     40 
     41   http;//landley.net/aboriginal/bin
     42 
     43 For the "CROSS_COMPILE=armv5l-" example above, download
     44 cross-compiler-armv5l.tar.bz2, extract it, and add its "bin" subdirectory to
     45 your $PATH. (And yes, the trailing - is significant, because the prefix
     46 includes a dash.)
     47 
     48 For more about cross compiling, see:
     49 
     50   http://landley.net/writing/docs/cross-compiling.html
     51   http://landley.net/aboriginal/architectures.html
     52 
     53 For a more thorough description of the toybox build process, see
     54 http://landley.net/toybox/code.html#building
     55 
     56 --- Using toybox
     57 
     58 The toybox build produces a multicall binary, a "swiss-army-knife" program
     59 that acts differently depending on the name it was called by (cp, mv, cat...).
     60 Installing toybox adds symlinks for each command name to the $PATH.
     61 
     62 The special "toybox" command treats its first argument as the command to run.
     63 With no arguments, it lists available commands. This allows you to use toybox
     64 without installing it. This is the only command that can have an arbitrary
     65 suffix (hence "toybox-armv5l").
     66 
     67 The "help" command provides information about each command (ala "help cat").
     68 
     69 --- Configuring toybox
     70 
     71 It works like the Linux kernel: allnoconfig, defconfig, and menuconfig edit
     72 a ".config" file that selects which features to include in the resulting
     73 binary.
     74 
     75 The maximum sane configuration is "make defconfig": allyesconfig isn't
     76 recommended for toybox because it enables unfinished commands and debug code.
     77 
     78 --- Creating a Toybox-based Linux system
     79 
     80 Toybox is not a complete operating system, it's a program that runs under
     81 an operating system. Booting a simple system to a shell prompt requires
     82 three packages: an operating system kernel (Linux) to drive the hardware,
     83 a program for the system to run (toybox), and a C library to tie them
     84 together (toybox has been tested with musl, uClibc, glibc, and bionic).
     85 
     86 The C library is part of a "toolchain", which is an integrated suite
     87 of compiler, assembler, and linker, plus the standard headers and libraries
     88 necessary to build C programs.
     89 
     90 Static linking (with the --static option) copies the shared library contents
     91 into the program, resulting in larger but more portable programs, which
     92 can run even if they're the only file in the filesystem. Otherwise,
     93 the "dynamically" linked programs require the library files to be present on
     94 the target system ("man ldd" and "man ld.so" for details).
     95 
     96 An example toybox-based system is Aboriginal Linux:
     97 
     98   http://landley.net/aboriginal/about.html
     99 
    100 That's designed to run under qemu, emulating several different hardware
    101 architectures (x86, x86-64, arm, mips, sparc, powerpc, sh4). Each toybox
    102 release is regression tested by building Linux From Scratch under this
    103 toybox-based system on each supported architecture, using QEMU to emulate
    104 big and little endian systems with different word size and alignment
    105 requirements.
    106 
    107 --- Presentations
    108 
    109 1) "Why Toybox?" 2013 talk here at CELF
    110 
    111     video: http://youtu.be/SGmtP5Lg_t0
    112     outline: http://landley.net/talks/celf-2013.txt
    113     linked from http://landley.net/toybox/ in nav bar on left as "Why is it?"
    114     - march 21, 2013 entry has section links.
    115 
    116 2) "Why Public Domain?" The rise and fall of copyleft, Ohio LinuxFest 2013
    117 
    118     audio: https://archive.org/download/OhioLinuxfest2013/24-Rob_Landley-The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Copyleft.mp3
    119     outline: http://landley.net/talks/ohio-2013.txt
    120 
    121 3) Why did I do Aboriginal Linux (which led me here)
    122 
    123     260 slide presentation:
    124     https://speakerdeck.com/landley/developing-for-non-x86-targets-using-qemu
    125 
    126     How and why to make android self-hosting:
    127       http://landley.net/aboriginal/about.html#selfhost
    128 
    129 4) What's new with toybox (ELC 2015 status update):
    130 
    131     video: http://elinux.org/ELC_2015_Presentations
    132     outline: http://landley.net/talks/celf-2015.txt
    133 
    134 --- Code of conduct
    135 
    136 We're using twitter's https://engineering.twitter.com/opensource/code-of-conduct
    137 except email rob (a] landley.net with complaints.
    138