docs/Configure.help - busybox - Git at Google

 # BusyBox configuration option Help File
 #
 # Format of this file: description<nl>variable<nl>help text<nl><nl>.
 # The help texts may contain empty lines, but every non-empty line must
 # be indented two positions.  Order of the help texts does not matter,
 # however, no variable should be documented twice: if it is, only the
 # first occurrence will be used. We try to keep the help texts of related
 # variables close together. Lines starting with `#' are ignored. To be
 # nice to menuconfig, limit your line length to 70 characters.
 #
 # Comments of the form "# Choice:" followed by a menu name are used
 # internally by the maintainers' consistency-checking tools.
 #
 # If you add a help text to this file, please try to be as gentle as
 # possible. Don't use unexplained acronyms and generally write for the
 # hypothetical ignorant but intelligent user who has just bought a PC,
 # removed Windows, installed Linux and is now compiling up BusyBox
 # for the first time. Tell them what to do if they're unsure.
 #
 # Mention all the relevant READMEs and HOWTOs in the help text.
 # Make them file URLs relative to the top level of the source tree so
 # that help browsers can turn them into hotlinks.  All URLs ahould be
 # surrounded by <>.
 #
 # Repetitions are fine since the help texts are not meant to be read
 # in sequence.  It is good style to include URLs pointing to more
 # detailed technical information, pictures of the hardware, etc.
 #
 # The most important thing to include in a help entry is *motivation*.
 # Explain why someone configuring BusyBox might want to select your
 # option.
 #

 Show verbose applets usage message
 CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE
   All BusyBox applets will show more verbose help messages when
   busybox is invoked with --help.  This will add lots of text to the
   busybox binary.  In the default configuration, this will add about
   13k, but it can add much more depending on your configuration.

 Enable automatic symlink creation for BusyBox built-in applets
 CONFIG_FEATURE_INSTALLER
   Enable 'busybox --install [-s]' support.  This will allow you to use
   busybox at runtime to create hard links or symlinks for all the
   applets that are compiled into busybox.  This feature requires the
   /proc filesystem.

 Locale support
 CONFIG_LOCALE_SUPPORT
   Enable this if your system has locale support, and you would like
   busybox to support locale settings.

 Enable devfs support
 CONFIG_FEATURE_DEVFS
   Enable if you want BusyBox to work with devfs.

 Clean up all memory before exiting
 CONFIG_FEATURE_CLEAN_UP
   As a size optimization, busybox by default does not cleanup memory
   that is dynamically allocated or close files before exiting. This
   saves space and is usually not needed since the OS will clean up for
   us.  Don't enable this unless you have a really good reason to clean
   things up manually.

 Buffers allocation policy
 CONFIG_FEATURE_BUFFERS_USE_MALLOC
   There are 3 ways BusyBox can handle buffer allocations:
   - Use malloc. This costs code size for the call to xmalloc.
   - Put them on stack. For some very small machines with limited stack
     space, this can be deadly.  For most folks, this works just fine.
   - Put them in BSS. This works beautifully for computers with a real
     MMU (and OS support), but wastes runtime RAM for uCLinux. This
     behavior was the only one available for BusyBox versions 0.48 and
     earlier.

 Enable the ar applet
 CONFIG_AR
   ar is an archival utility program used to create, modify, and
   extract contents from archives.  An archive is a single file holding
   a collection of other files in a structure that makes it possible to
   retrieve the original individual files (called archive members).
   The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner,
   and group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on
   extraction.
   On an x86 system, the ar applet adds about XXX bytes.

   Unless you have a specific application which requires ar, you should
   probably say N here.

 Enable the bunzip2 applet
 CONFIG_BUNZIP2
   bunzip2 is an compression utility using the Burrows-Wheeler block
   sorting text compression algorithm, and Huffman coding.  Compression
   is generally considerably better than that achieved by more
   conventional LZ77/LZ78-based compressors, and approaches the
   performance of the PPM family of statistical compressors.

   The BusyBox bunzip2 applet is limited to de-compression only.  On an
   x86 system, this applet adds about XXX bytes.

   Unless you have a specific application which requires bunzip2, you
   should probably say N here.

 # FIXME -- document the rest of the BusyBox config options....

 Enable the run-parts applet
 CONFIG_RUN_PARTS
   run-parts is an utility designed to run all the scripts in a directory.

   It is useful to set up a directory like cron.daily, where you need to
   execute all the scripts in that directory.

   This implementation of run-parts doesn't accept long options, and
   some features (like report mode) aren't implemented.

   Unless you know that run-parts is used in some of your scripts
   you can safely say N here.

 # The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
 # Local Variables:
 # case-fold-search:nil
 # fill-prefix:"  "
 # adaptive-fill:nil
 # fill-column:70
 # End:
	# BusyBox configuration option Help File
	#
	# Format of this file: description<nl>variable<nl>help text<nl><nl>.
	# The help texts may contain empty lines, but every non-empty line must
	# be indented two positions. Order of the help texts does not matter,
	# however, no variable should be documented twice: if it is, only the
	# first occurrence will be used. We try to keep the help texts of related
	# variables close together. Lines starting with `#' are ignored. To be
	# nice to menuconfig, limit your line length to 70 characters.
	#
	# Comments of the form "# Choice:" followed by a menu name are used
	# internally by the maintainers' consistency-checking tools.
	#
	# If you add a help text to this file, please try to be as gentle as
	# possible. Don't use unexplained acronyms and generally write for the
	# hypothetical ignorant but intelligent user who has just bought a PC,
	# removed Windows, installed Linux and is now compiling up BusyBox
	# for the first time. Tell them what to do if they're unsure.
	#
	# Mention all the relevant READMEs and HOWTOs in the help text.
	# Make them file URLs relative to the top level of the source tree so
	# that help browsers can turn them into hotlinks. All URLs ahould be
	# surrounded by <>.
	#
	# Repetitions are fine since the help texts are not meant to be read
	# in sequence. It is good style to include URLs pointing to more
	# detailed technical information, pictures of the hardware, etc.
	#
	# The most important thing to include in a help entry is motivation.
	# Explain why someone configuring BusyBox might want to select your
	# option.
	#

	Show verbose applets usage message
	CONFIG_FEATURE_VERBOSE_USAGE
	All BusyBox applets will show more verbose help messages when
	busybox is invoked with --help. This will add lots of text to the
	busybox binary. In the default configuration, this will add about
	13k, but it can add much more depending on your configuration.

	Enable automatic symlink creation for BusyBox built-in applets
	CONFIG_FEATURE_INSTALLER
	Enable 'busybox --install [-s]' support. This will allow you to use
	busybox at runtime to create hard links or symlinks for all the
	applets that are compiled into busybox. This feature requires the
	/proc filesystem.

	Locale support
	CONFIG_LOCALE_SUPPORT
	Enable this if your system has locale support, and you would like
	busybox to support locale settings.

	Enable devfs support
	CONFIG_FEATURE_DEVFS
	Enable if you want BusyBox to work with devfs.

	Clean up all memory before exiting
	CONFIG_FEATURE_CLEAN_UP
	As a size optimization, busybox by default does not cleanup memory
	that is dynamically allocated or close files before exiting. This
	saves space and is usually not needed since the OS will clean up for
	us. Don't enable this unless you have a really good reason to clean
	things up manually.

	Buffers allocation policy
	CONFIG_FEATURE_BUFFERS_USE_MALLOC
	There are 3 ways BusyBox can handle buffer allocations:
	- Use malloc. This costs code size for the call to xmalloc.
	- Put them on stack. For some very small machines with limited stack
	space, this can be deadly. For most folks, this works just fine.
	- Put them in BSS. This works beautifully for computers with a real
	MMU (and OS support), but wastes runtime RAM for uCLinux. This
	behavior was the only one available for BusyBox versions 0.48 and
	earlier.

	Enable the ar applet
	CONFIG_AR
	ar is an archival utility program used to create, modify, and
	extract contents from archives. An archive is a single file holding
	a collection of other files in a structure that makes it possible to
	retrieve the original individual files (called archive members).
	The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner,
	and group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on
	extraction.
	On an x86 system, the ar applet adds about XXX bytes.

	Unless you have a specific application which requires ar, you should
	probably say N here.

	Enable the bunzip2 applet
	CONFIG_BUNZIP2
	bunzip2 is an compression utility using the Burrows-Wheeler block
	sorting text compression algorithm, and Huffman coding. Compression
	is generally considerably better than that achieved by more
	conventional LZ77/LZ78-based compressors, and approaches the
	performance of the PPM family of statistical compressors.

	The BusyBox bunzip2 applet is limited to de-compression only. On an
	x86 system, this applet adds about XXX bytes.

	Unless you have a specific application which requires bunzip2, you
	should probably say N here.

	# FIXME -- document the rest of the BusyBox config options....

	Enable the run-parts applet
	CONFIG_RUN_PARTS
	run-parts is an utility designed to run all the scripts in a directory.

	It is useful to set up a directory like cron.daily, where you need to
	execute all the scripts in that directory.

	This implementation of run-parts doesn't accept long options, and
	some features (like report mode) aren't implemented.

	Unless you know that run-parts is used in some of your scripts
	you can safely say N here.

	# The following sets edit modes for GNU EMACS
	# Local Variables:
	# case-fold-search:nil
	# fill-prefix:" "
	# adaptive-fill:nil
	# fill-column:70
	# End: