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
