A popular application used by nearly every embedded Linux developer and included in nearly every Linux-based device has achieved its first major release number. BusyBox 1.00 offers a new kernel-style configuration process with “make config” and “make menuconfig” options, support for 2.6 kernels, many new applets, and extensive testing, according to maintainer Erik Andersen.

In announcing the historic release, Andersen writes:

When you take a careful look at nearly every embedded Linux device or software distribution shipping today, you will find a copy of BusyBox. With countless routers, set top boxes, wireless access points, PDAs, and who knows what else, the future for Linux and BusyBox on embedded devices is looking very bright.

It is therefore with great satisfaction that I declare each and every device already shipping with BusyBox is now officially out of date. The highly anticipated release of BusyBox 1.00 has arrived!

Over three years in development, BusyBox 1.00 represents a tremendous improvement over the old 0.60.x stable series. Now featuring a Linux KernelConf based configuration system (as used by the Linux kernel), Linux 2.6 kernel support, many many new applets, and the development work and testing of thousands of people from around the world.

If you are already using BusyBox, you are strongly encouraged to upgrade to BusyBox 1.00. If you are considering developing an embedded Linux device or software distribution, you may wish to investigate if using BusyBox is right for your application.

Andersen invites interested parties to visit the BusyBox website, where they can download the Changelog, grab a copy of BusyBox, check the mailing list archives, or make a donation.

BusyBox is a single, small executable that provides minimalist versions of common UNIX utilities for resource-constrained systems. It works with the small-footprint uClib or with glibc, and will “build on any architecture supported by gcc.” Full functionality requires a 2.2 or better Linux kernel.

Andersen first announced the 1.0.0 release in July.

 
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