<!--#include file="header.html" --> <h1>Answers to <a href="#what">What</a>, <a href="#why">Why</a>, <a href="#who">Who</a>, <a href="#how">How</a>, <a href="#when">when</a></h1> <h2><a name="what" />What is ToyBox?</h2> <p>The goal of the Toybox project is to create simple, small, fast, and correct implementations of all the standard Linux command line utilities. There's a <a href="design.html">page on design goals</a>.</p> <p>Toybox offers configurable levels of functionality, and should scale from tiny embedded systems up to general purpose development environments. The author plans to install it on his Android phone in place of Toolbox, and the <a href=/aboriginal>Aboriginal Linux</a> project is working to get a complete Linux system to rebuild itself from source code using toybox.</p> <p>Toybox is <a href=license.html>released under a simple 2-clause BSD-style license</a>. (Earlier versions were released under GPLv2, but <a href=oldlicense.html>that changed</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 in Toybox?</h2></b> <p>The current list of commands implemented by toybox is on the <a href=status.html>status page</a>, which is updated each release. There is also <a href=roadmap.html>roadmap</a> of planned commands for the 1.0 release.</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, along with debugging features.</p> <p>Several toybox commands can do things other vesions can't. For example the toybox "df" isn't confused by initramfs the way other df implementations are. (If initramfs is visible, df shows it like any other mount point.)</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://opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/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.) The roadmap wiki in the nav bar has a more human readable version.</p> <p>The criteria for a toybox 1.0 release is that a system built from just the Linux kernel, toybox, C library (such as 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://opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/idx/utilities.html>The Single Unix Specification version 4</a> where applicable. This does not mean that Toybox is implementing every SUSv4 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), including the commands in Android's toolbox. SUSv4 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/hg/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://lists.landley.net/listinfo.cgi/toybox-landley.net>mailing list</a> are also good ways to track what's going on with the project.</p> <!-- <b><h2><a name="why">Why do toybox?</h2></b> <p>Because smart phones are replacing the PC, and Android must become self-hosting to beat the iPhone in establishing the new standard.</p> <p>This is the third such major transition in computer history: (mainframe->minicomputer->microcomputer->smartphone). The mainframe was replaced by the minicomputer, which was replaced by the microcomputer (renamed the "personal" computer to make clear you could access porn through it), which is being replaced by the smartphone. Nobody needed to wait for printouts from a big computer in another building when they could use a little one down the hall. Then nobody needed the big computer down the hall when they had a little one on their desk. Now nobody needs the big computer on their desk when they have a little one in their pocket.</p> <p>The new platform displaces the old when it becomes natively self hosting. Often they leverage existing technology: just as early microcmputers used teletypes and televisions for output, phones can use <a href=http://us.toshiba.com/accessory/PA3575U-1PRP>USB docking stations</a> to access a bigger screen, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc. Plugging a phone into USB even charges the battery. But to use the phone as a development workstation, it needs more software, such as a Posix command line, a native compiler, and drivers for the USB peripherals.</p> <p>The new platform also eventually weans itself off of its dominant language. Dalvik is to Android what ROM Basic was to the PC: something it must eventually outgrow. Thus toybox is native C code, not Java.</p> <b><h3>So why aren't self-hosting smartphones attracting more attention?</h3></b> <p>Because most people are focusing on the legacy platforms, not on the new stuff. Existing multi-billion dollar industries are getting evicted from their decades-old established niche, and are trying to spin the transition as an opportunity instead of a forced march onto reservations. When elephants run from mice, it's easier to notice the elephants.</p> <p>History's our guide here: the previous technology always gets kicked up into the "server space", moving from "the thing you stood in front of waiting for your printout" to "that thing you sometimes accessed remotely via the new computer". This time around they're calling it "the cloud" and pretending it's a big deal; it's really just a beowulf cluster with a layer of virtualization/containerization software implementing hotplug hardware and live migration to provide cheap commodity processing power that dominant players (like amazon) literally give away for free. These old machines become secondary, only accessed through the new machines users now directly interact with.</p> <p>Since there's only one server space, the mainframe ate the minicomputer in the 1980's (when DEC went under), and this time around "the cloud" seems to be eating the mainframe (IBM ain't happy). The inevitable consolidation leads to drama, but doesn't mean much in the long run.</p> <p><a href=http://landley.net/notes-2012.html#12-07-2012>For more on this topic...</a></p> <b><h3><a name="why_android">Why is Android important?</h2></b> <p>Major hardware transitions introduce <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2011.html#26-06-2011>new software standards</a> which are extremely sticky once established, due to network effects.</p> <p>Last time around, the PC was stuck with a proprietary operating system (DOS/Windows) which is still dominant on that hardware platform's descendants 30 years later. This time around, the choice is between Android (a Linux derivative) and iPhone (a closed BSD fork ala SunOS, put out by a company already engaged in multiple aggressive IP lawsuits). The main difference between Apple and Microsoft is that Apple is competent.</p> <p>And yes, it has to be Android, it won't be vanilla Linux any time soon, for three reasons. 1) <a href=http://landley.net/notes-2010.html#13-08-2010>Open Source can't do user interfaces</a> for about the same reason wikipedia can't write a novel, 2) it's too late to the party (a 5 year headstart is forever in computers), 3) preinstalls matter (GPLv3 spooked all the hardware vendors, Android has a "no GPL in userspace" policy which is rigidly enforced).</p> <p>And "any time soon" is important: attempting to displace an existing entrenched de-facto standard is what linux has spent the last 20 years trying (and failing) to do on the desktop. Spending another 20 years fighting for less than 1% of the phone market would just be sad.</p> <b><h3><a name="how_google">How is Google less evil than Apple?</h3></b> <p>Because Android isn't Google's core business, attaching advertising to large scale data searches is. Android and Chrome and such are Google's way of "commoditizing their co-factors" to drive down the price of ingredients to their core business.</p> <p>Thus Google is pursuing a commodity market and encouring as many vendors as possible to participate, not to control the new space but to hold it open, so that its search products are widely available without requiring the permission of some other monopoly gatekeeper. Apple is attemping to corner the smartphone market and extract monopoly rents, excluding all vendors except itself.</p> <p>So if Google wins we get a commodity market in smartphone/tablet software, and may be able to open it further in future. If Apple wins we get a proprietary smartphone/tablet OS with a single monopoly vendor, which is likely to close it further.</p> <b><h3>Why not just use BusyBox?</h3></b> <p>Android can't. Busybox predates android by many years; if they were ever going to ship it they'd have done so by now. Android has had a "No GPL in Userspace" policy ever since GPLv3 came out (before the first Android phone shipped), and they mean it.</p> <p>Toybox also has a better design and simpler code. I did both and this is the one I enjoy banging on; I tried to contribute a few things to busybox and it was like crawling through a thornbush of #ifdefs. Busybox development is just no fun anymore.</p> --> <b><h2><a name="toycans" />What's the toybox logo image?</h2></b> <p>It's <a href=toycans-big.jpg>carefully stacked soda cans</a>. Specifically, it's a bunch of the original "Coke Zero" and "Pepsi One" cans, circa 2006, stacked to spell out the binary values of the ascii string "Toybox", with null terminator at the bottom. (The big picture's on it's side because the camera was held sideways to get a better shot.)</p> <p>No, it's not photoshopped, I actually had these cans until a coworker who Totally Did Not Get It <sup><font size=-3><a href=http://www.timesys.com>tm</a></font></sup> threw them out one day after I'd gone home, thinking they were recycling. (I still have two of each kind, but Pepsi One seems discontinued and Coke Zero switched its can color from black to grey, presumably in celebration. It was fun while it lasted...)</p> <!--#include file="footer.html" -->