BusyBox

BusyBox
Original authorBruce Perens
DevelopersErik Andersen, Rob Landley, Denys Vlasenko and others
Initial releaseNovember 4, 1999 (1999-11-04)
Stable release
1.36.1  / 19 May 2023
Written inC
Operating systemUnix-like
Size2.1 MB (compressed "tar.bz2")
Type
LicenseSince 1.3.0: GPL-2.0-only
Until 1.2.2.1: GPL-2.0-or-later
Websitebusybox.net
Repository

BusyBox is an implementation of many Unix commands in a single executable file. It runs in many POSIX environments including Linux, Android, and FreeBSD, although many of the tools it provides are designed to work with interfaces provided by the Linux kernel. It was specifically created for embedded operating systems with very limited resources. The authors dubbed it "The Swiss Army knife of Embedded Linux", as the single executable replaces basic functions of more than 300 common commands. It is released as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2, after controversially deciding not to move to version 3.