1Toybox: all-in-one Linux command line. 2 3--- Getting started 4 5You can download static binaries for various targets from: 6 7 http://landley.net/toybox/bin 8 9The special name "." indicates the current directory (just like ".." means 10the parent directory), and you can run a program that isn't in the $PATH by 11specifying 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 19Type "make help" for build instructions. 20 21Toybox uses the "make menuconfig; make; make install" idiom same as 22the Linux kernel. Usually you want something like: 23 24 make defconfig 25 make 26 make install 27 28Or maybe: 29 30 LDFLAGS="--static" CROSS_COMPILE=armv5l- make defconfig toybox 31 PREFIX=/path/to/root/filesystem/bin make install_flat 32 33The file "configure" defines default values for many environment 34variables that control the toybox build; if you set a value for any of 35these, your value is used instead of the default in that file. 36 37The CROSS_COMPILE argument above is optional, the default builds a version of 38toybox to run on the current machine. Cross compiling requires an appropriately 39prefixed cross compiler toolchain, several example toolchains are available at: 40 41 http;//landley.net/aboriginal/bin 42 43For the "CROSS_COMPILE=armv5l-" example above, download 44cross-compiler-armv5l.tar.bz2, extract it, and add its "bin" subdirectory to 45your $PATH. (And yes, the trailing - is significant, because the prefix 46includes a dash.) 47 48For more about cross compiling, see: 49 50 http://landley.net/writing/docs/cross-compiling.html 51 http://landley.net/aboriginal/architectures.html 52 53For a more thorough description of the toybox build process, see 54http://landley.net/toybox/code.html#building 55 56--- Using toybox 57 58The toybox build produces a multicall binary, a "swiss-army-knife" program 59that acts differently depending on the name it was called by (cp, mv, cat...). 60Installing toybox adds symlinks for each command name to the $PATH. 61 62The special "toybox" command treats its first argument as the command to run. 63With no arguments, it lists available commands. This allows you to use toybox 64without installing it. This is the only command that can have an arbitrary 65suffix (hence "toybox-armv5l"). 66 67The "help" command provides information about each command (ala "help cat"). 68 69--- Configuring toybox 70 71It works like the Linux kernel: allnoconfig, defconfig, and menuconfig edit 72a ".config" file that selects which features to include in the resulting 73binary. 74 75The maximum sane configuration is "make defconfig": allyesconfig isn't 76recommended for toybox because it enables unfinished commands and debug code. 77 78--- Creating a Toybox-based Linux system 79 80Toybox is not a complete operating system, it's a program that runs under 81an operating system. Booting a simple system to a shell prompt requires 82three packages: an operating system kernel (Linux) to drive the hardware, 83a program for the system to run (toybox), and a C library to tie them 84together (toybox has been tested with musl, uClibc, glibc, and bionic). 85 86The C library is part of a "toolchain", which is an integrated suite 87of compiler, assembler, and linker, plus the standard headers and libraries 88necessary to build C programs. 89 90Static linking (with the --static option) copies the shared library contents 91into the program, resulting in larger but more portable programs, which 92can run even if they're the only file in the filesystem. Otherwise, 93the "dynamically" linked programs require the library files to be present on 94the target system ("man ldd" and "man ld.so" for details). 95 96An example toybox-based system is Aboriginal Linux: 97 98 http://landley.net/aboriginal/about.html 99 100That's designed to run under qemu, emulating several different hardware 101architectures (x86, x86-64, arm, mips, sparc, powerpc, sh4). Each toybox 102release is regression tested by building Linux From Scratch under this 103toybox-based system on each supported architecture, using QEMU to emulate 104big and little endian systems with different word size and alignment 105requirements. 106 107--- Presentations 108 1091) "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 1162) "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 1213) 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 1294) 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 136We're using twitter's https://engineering.twitter.com/opensource/code-of-conduct 137except email rob@landley.net with complaints. 138