Noob question on adding programs to Busybox

Rob Landley rob at landley.net
Thu Feb 11 06:28:47 UTC 2010


On Wednesday 10 February 2010 20:58:09 Denys Vlasenko wrote:
> On Wednesday 10 February 2010 18:02, Pete Helgren wrote:
> > Background: I am not a *NIX person although I do have a few Linux
> > installations under my belt.  I have had to compile Linux apps before
> > (Asterisk for example) but it has been done by following step by step
> > instructions (monkey see, monkey do) so this may be ridiculously simple
> > question for the regular Linux guy. I did read quite a bit last night
> > about how to compile Busybox and how to cross compile in Linux in
> > general but I didn't see a clear answer.  I am primarily a Java
> > developer so I have been insulated from the C and C++ environments when
> > it comes to having to compile applications.
> >
> > Here is the situation: I have a device that has Busybox installed
> > (BusyBox v1.1.3 (2007.10.23-16:18+0000) Built-in shell (ash) ).  What is
> > missing in this particular build on this device is any kind of http
> > server.  I want to be able to send a request to the device and have it
> > return a file to me.  After looking at the options, it seems that an
> > http server, with maybe a cgi app that parses and returns the data might
> > be the easiest way to do it.  I could probably do it with FTP as well.
> > The whole idea is to send a request for data, query the sqlite DB and
> > send back a file of the data.
> >
> > So, finally, the question: Can I compile an application on Busybox and
> > have it work?  Or, do I need to follow the cross compile instructions
> > and "build" this http server on a Linux distro and then move the
> > executable onto Busybox OR do I need to build a whole new Busybox
> > executable and include the http server?  Since I am not 100% sure of how
> > Busybox is implemented, I am not sure of how best to approach getting an
> > http server into this currently embedded version of Busybox.
> >
> > Links, tutorials, and step by step instructions are appreciated.
>
> http://busybox.net/FAQ.html#build

I'm always up for expanding the FAQ. :)

(Speaking of which, http://busybox.net/FAQ.html#backporting still links to 
#item_init and the item_ prefix got taken off.  Broken link.  How does one 
actually make changes to the web page these days?  I remember Mike moved it 
out of the busybox source control tree, but have no idea where it went...)

> http://landley.net/code/firmware/

I actually point people at http://impactlinux.com/fwl these days because it's 
a higher bandwidth server.  (landley.net was getting a bit pummeled at times.)  
Same content mirrored in both places...

Do you think it's worth a link from the end of 
http://busybox.net/tinyutils.html ?

Thanks,

Rob

-- 
Latency is more important than throughput. It's that simple. - Linus Torvalds


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