1 <html><head><title>toybox: old news</title> 2 <!--#include file="header.html" --> 3 4 <h2>Old News</h2> 5 6 <p>This project <a href=http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2006-September/024794.html>started in 2006</a>, got mothballed in 2009 7 <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2009.html#18-06-2009>for</a> 8 <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2011.html#31-03-2011>various</a> 9 <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2011.html#08-06-2011>reasons</a> 10 (during which time I 11 <a href=http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-March/071783.html>contributed</a> 12 some toybox code and design ideas to busybox</a> but retained the copyrights to 13 my work), then <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2011.html#13-11-2011>relaunched</a> 14 under a 2-clause BSD license in 2011. 15 The following news entries predate that relaunch:</p> 16 17 <hr> 18 <p><b>December 1, 2009</b> - <a href=downloads/toybox-0.1.0.tar.bz2>toybox-0.1.0</a> is out.</p> 19 20 <p>This release is a couple build fixes and another bugfix to patch.</p> 21 22 <hr> 23 <p><b>April 17, 2009</b> - Another bugfix release, 24 <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.9.2.tar.bz2>toybox-0.0.9.2</a>, off by one allocation error in patch.</p> 25 26 <p>(Darn fiddly command, innit?)</p> 27 28 <hr> 29 <p><b>March 29, 2009</b> - Released 30 <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.9.1.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.9.1</a> which is a bugfix 31 release for issues with the patch command.</p> 32 33 <p>The project is currently on hold while the developers learn Lua and 34 decide whether or not to port the whole thing to that language. 35 (Also note: the mailing list moved. See the links on the left. You'll 36 have to resubscribe.)</p> 37 38 <hr> 39 <p><b>January 29, 2009</b> - Released 40 <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.9.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.9.tar.bz2</a> which is a minor packaging 41 fix for 0.0.8. (The previous release tarball contained a prebuilt x86-64 42 kconfig/conf file, because the release script ran defconfig to 43 pregenerate help.h, and didn't run make clean afterwards.) The actual source 44 code is identical to the previous release.</p> 45 46 <hr> 47 <p><b>January 20, 2009</b> - <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.8.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.8</a> 48 adds the uname, cksum, and mkswapfs commands.</p> 49 50 <p>This uname implementation is cross compile friendly: when built as a 32 bit 51 binary on an x86_64 host, it reports "i686" to confuse autoconf less.</p> 52 53 <p>This cksum has several extra command line options which can be used to 54 produce different cksum variants based on the same crc32 algorithm. For 55 example, the broadcom "trx" image packaging uses a little endian crc, 56 pre-inverted instead of post-inverted, and does not include the length. 57 (Without these arguments, it produces the normal SUSv4 cksum output.)</p> 58 59 <p>It also upgrades netcat with a server mode (-l option) and fixes several 60 netcat bugs. It also fixed multiple bugs in "patch", works around a 61 reiserfs bug in cp, and oneit can reboot on exit more reliably.</p> 62 63 <p><b>November 12, 2008</b> - 64 <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.7.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.7</a> 65 adds sort and tee commands, upgrades the internal option parsing logic and the 66 test suite, and numerous bugfixes (bunzip, chroot, cat, patch).</p> 67 68 <p><b>May 26, 2008</b> - <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.6.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.6</a> 69 adds cat, rmdir, and seq. Bugfixes to cp and a new -v option. Updates mdev to 70 work with the 2.6.25 kernel. Updates patch to knows that a file dated 71 1969-12-31 means it doesn't exist, and to fail if a file it needs to create 72 already exists. Command line option parsing can now handle things like "echo 73 -nex" vs "echo -ne". Several updates to the test suite (run scripts/test.sh), 74 and some build fixes.</p> 75 76 <p> 77 <hr> 78 <p><b>March 29, 2008</b> - 79 Time to release <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.5.tar.bz2>toybox 0.0.5</a>, with 80 new commands cp and chvt and several bugfixes.</p> 81 82 <p>More makefile targets: "make test" runs the test suite (which needs more test 83 scripts), and make install/install_flat/uninstall/uninstall_flat calls 84 make/install.sh (with options --long --symlink --force --uninstall depending 85 on the context).</p> 86 87 <p>Most of the work has been behind the scenes, namely a significant rewrite of 88 the build logic so adding each new command consists of adding a single C file to 89 the "toys" directory, eliminating the need to touch any other files. 90 There are specially formatted comments at the top of the C file to generate 91 the other files, see toys/hello.c for an example. (See generated/README.txt 92 and <a href=code.html>code.html</a> for details.)</p> 93 94 <p><b>January 2, 2008</b> - And <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.4.tar.bz2>toybox-0.0.4.tar.bz2</a> is out. 95 The new applets this time around include basename, chroot, dirname, dmesg, 96 help, mkfifo, netcat, patch, sha1sum, touch, and tty.</p> 97 98 <p>Note that this "touch" includes -l to set the length, which can truncate 99 a file or create a commpletely sparse file, good for filesystem images.</p> 100 101 <p>Expect the next release in about 6 months.</p> 102 103 <p><b>December 12, 2007</b> - Updated the list of implemented applications, 104 put up a <a href=todo.txt>todo list</a> and <a href=code.html>infrastructure 105 documentation</a>. Expect another release towards the end of the month.</p> 106 107 <p><b>June 18, 2007</b> - Put out 108 <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.3.tar.bz2>toybox-0.0.3.tar.bz2</a> since it's 109 been too long since I did something like that. This one implements 110 catv, count, df, echo, false, oneit, pwd, sleep, sync, toysh, true, which, 111 and yes (which is what "make defconfig" enables). There are several other 112 commands not enabled by defconfig, because they don't really work yet.</p> 113 114 <p>Most of the general infrastructure's there now, although lots of tweaking 115 and optimizing is still needed. The test suite is skeletal and not entirely 116 checked in yet, but I'm working on that.</p> 117 118 <p>I don't have nearly as much time to work on this as I'd like, but I'm making 119 a little progress.</p> 120 121 <p><b>January 31, 2007</b> - 122 Toybox <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.2.tar.bz2>0.0.2 release</a>. 123 Implements count, yes, pwd, echo, bzcat, catv, oneit, and an unfinished 124 skeleton of mke2fs. Adds argument parsing logic and bunzip code to library. 125 Now configured with menuconfig. Adds "make baseline" and "make bloatcheck" 126 using Matt Mackall's bloat-o-meter, and scripts/showasm.</p> 127 128 <p>Screwing up the web page a bit, adding an index bar along the side 129 which doesn't properly connect up to anything yet. (Busy implementing 130 mke2fs and gene2fs.)</p> 131 132 <p><b>October 30, 2006</b> - 133 Toybox <a href=downloads/toybox-0.0.1.tar.bz2>0.0.1 release</a>. Implements 134 df, a skeletal toysh, and some library functions. Proof of concept, really.</p> 135 136 <p><b>September 7, 2006</b> - 137 Project launched, first commit to mercurial archive.</p> 138 139 <!--#include file="footer.html" --> 140
