# CONFIG_BUSYBOX is not set: breakage on master

[Tito]

On 08/27/2016 04:39 PM, Denys Vlasenko wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 11:52 AM, Cristian Ionescu-Idbohrn
> <cristian.ionescu-idbohrn at axis.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, 27 Aug 2016, Michael Conrad wrote:
>>> On 8/27/2016 2:18 AM, Cristian Ionescu-Idbohrn wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 27 Aug 2016, Denys Vlasenko wrote:
>>>>> config BUSYBOX
>>>>>          bool "Include busybox applet"
>>>>>          default y
>>>>>          help
>>>>>            The busybox applet provides general help regarding busybox and
>>>>>            allows the included applets to be listed.  It's also required
>>>>>            if applet links are to be installed at runtime.
>>>>>
>>>>>            If you can live without these features disabling this will save
>>>>>            some space.
>>>> And this is also expected:
>>>>
>>>>     $ ./busybox
>>>>     busybox: applet not found
>>>>
>>>> when executed immediately after build?  And this too?
>>>>
>>>>     $ ./busybox --help
>>>>     -help: applet not found
>>>>
>>>>     $ ./busybox --list
>>>>     -list: applet not found
>>>
>>> Yes, adding or removing those behaviors is precisely the purpose of
>>> the CONFIG_BUSYBOX setting.
>>
>> Is it?  I didn't realize that and I still don't :(
>>
>>> Maybe you should explain your situation and what you expected?
>>> because a person reading your subject line would assume you are
>>> trying to say "I compiled busybox without the CONFIG_BUSYBOX flag,
>>> and now I'm surprised that it did what it said it would do"...
>>
>> Alright.  My bad.  I'll go back and read the ML...
>>
>> So, I went back and re-read the "Make busybox an applet" threads where
>> "turn off help and list of applets" is mentioned.
>>
>> On Tue, 31 May 2016, Ron Yorston wrote:
>> |
>> | This doesn't make busybox an applet, it just makes it possible to turn
>> | off help and list of applets.
>> |
>> | I'm not really interested in that:  I wanted busybox to be an actual
>> | applet to avoid having to treat it as a special case in standalone
>> | shell mode.
>> |
>> | If busybox is a real applet there's no need for FEATURE_SHARED_BUSYBOX
>> | because FEATURE_INDIVIDUAL will make a busybox binary along with those
>> | for all the other applets.
>>
>> And my understandig now is that if CONFIG_BUSYBOX=y, the '--help',
>> '--list' and '--list-full' options are removed, and at the same time
>> adds about 900 bytes to the binary.
>>
>> I may be thick, but what I still don't understand is what benefits
>> does that bring?
>
> This thing is meant for people who are in real squeeze and don't want
> any more functionality than they absolutely must have.
>
> If they configured 20 applets they need and they prepare their filesystem
> so that the /bin/foo -> /bin/busybox links are created by means
> other than busybox --install, they don't need the code which says this:
>

Hi,
I think at least this part of text should be mandatory
with every possible config.

"BusyBox is copyrighted by many authors between 1998-2015.
Licensed under GPLv2. See source distribution for detailed
copyright notices."

Eventually reduced to:

Busybox V. x.xx.x (C) GPLv2 1998-2016

The usage text etc. could be optional.

BTW we should update the year of the copyright text
to  1998-2016.

Ciao,
Tito

>
> Usage: busybox [function [arguments]...]
>    or: busybox --list[-full]
>    or: busybox --install [-s] [DIR]
>    or: function [arguments]...
>
>     BusyBox is a multi-call binary that combines many common Unix
>     utilities into a single executable.  Most people will create a
>     link to busybox for each function they wish to use and BusyBox
>     will act like whatever it was invoked as.
>
> It's just useless bloat for them. Now they can switch it off.
>
> OTOH, you do want that code to be present. Thus, please turn CONFIG_BUSYBOX=y.