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author | Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> | 2008-01-05 18:09:49 -0600 |
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committer | Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> | 2008-01-05 18:09:49 -0600 |
commit | e258af3efa2a89b80cbe330a300ffedcc2aed707 (patch) | |
tree | 8a0b6fa8055e1dc65bfd23bf398fe5aad88ce212 /www/about.html | |
parent | daa1d3cb547ba011aae449dfded417ac37329d03 (diff) | |
download | toybox-e258af3efa2a89b80cbe330a300ffedcc2aed707.tar.gz |
Update web pages.
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-rwxr-xr-x | www/about.html | 96 |
1 files changed, 96 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/www/about.html b/www/about.html new file mode 100755 index 00000000..4dae2d21 --- /dev/null +++ b/www/about.html @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +<!--#include file="header.html" --> + +<h2><a name="what" />What is ToyBox?</h2> + +<p>The goal of the Toybox project is to create simple implementations of all +the important Linux command line utilities. These implementations should +be small (the entire project should total less than a megabyte, uncompressed), +fast, simple, and correctly implemented (which is related to standards +compliance, but isn't quite the same thing). Click for +<a href="design.html">more about the design goals</a></p> + +<p>Toybox has configurable levels of functionality, and should scale from tiny +embedded systems up to full general purpose desktop and development +environments. The author plans to run it on his laptop, and the +<a href=/code/firmware>Firmware Linux</a> project is trying to get a complete +Linux system to rebuild itself from source code using toybox.</p> + +<p>Toybox is <a href=license.html>Licensed under GPL version 2</a>.</p> + +<p>Toybox can be built as a single "swiss army knife" executable (ala BusyBox +or Red Hat's Nash), or each command can be built as a traditional independent +executable.</p> + +<b><h2><a name="status" />What commands are implemented?</h2></b> + +<p>The current list of commands implemented by toybox is at the top of the +<a href=news.html>news page</a></p>. That list is updated when new commands +go in.</p> + +<p>In general, configuring toybox for "defconfig" enables all the commands +compete enough to be useful. Configuring "allyesconfig" enables partially +implemented commands as well.</p> + +<p>The following commands are incomplete, but demonstrate some basic +functionality: bzcat/bunzip2, help, mke2fs, sh/toysh, mdev.</p> + +<p>The following are partially implemented commands that don't actually do +anything yet: mke2fs.</p> + + +<b><h3>Command Shell</h3></b> +<p>The Toybox Shell (toysh) aims to be a reasonable bash replacement. It +implements the "sh" and "toysh" commands, plus the built-in commands "cd" and +"exit". This is the largest single sub-project in toybox.</p> + +<p>The following additional commands may be built into the shell (but not as +separate executables): cd, exit, if, while, for, function, fg, bg, jobs, source, +<a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/alias.html">alias</a>, +export, set, unset, read, trap, and exec. (Note: not done yet.)</p> + +</ul> + +<h2><a name="commands" />Which commands are planned?</h2> + +<p>The toybox <a href=todo.txt>todo list</a> mentions many potential commands +which may be added to this project. (Whether that file is readable by anybody +but the project's maintainer is open to debate.)</p> + +<p>The criteria for a toybox 1.0 release is that a system built from just the +Linux kernel, toybox, uClibc, and a compiler (such as tinycc) can rebuild +itself from source code.</p> + +<b><h3>Relevant Standards</h3></b> + +<p>Most commands are implemented according to +<a href=http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/idx/utilities.html>The +Single Unix Specification version 3</a> where applicable. This does not mean +that Toybox is implementing every SUSv3 utility: some such as SCCS and ed are +obsolete, while others such as c99 are outside the scope of the project. +Toybox also isn't implementing full internationalization support: it should be +8-bit clean and handle UTF-8, but otherwise we leave this to X11 and higher +layers. And some things (like $CDPATH support in "cd") await a good +explanation of why to bother with them. (The standard provides an important +frame of reference, but is not infallable set of commandments to be blindly +obeyed.)</p> + +<p>The other major sources of commands are the Linux man pages, and testing +the behavior of existing commands (although not generally looking at their +source code). SUSv3 does not include many basic commands such as "mount", +"init", and "mke2fs", which are kind of nice to have.</p> + +<b><h2><a name="downloads" />Download</h2></b> + +<p>This project is maintained as a mercurial archive. To get a copy of the +current development version, either use mercurial (hg clone +http://landley.net/toybox) or click on one of the zip/gz/bz2 links +at the top of the <a href=/hg/toybox>mercurial archive browser</a> page to get +an archive of the appropriate version. Click +<a href="/hg/toybox?cmd=tags">tags</a> to see all the tagged release +versions ("tip" is the current development version).</p> + +<p>The maintainer's <a href=/notes.html>development log</a> and the project's +<a href=http://www2.them.com:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/toybox>mailing +list</a> are also good ways to track what's going on with the project.</p> + +<!--#include file="footer.html" --> |