busybox current status

[Denis Vlasenko]

Done:

find: taking many more of standard options
ps: POSIX-compliant -o implemented
httpd: added -i (inetd), -f (foreground), fixed 2 bugs
cp: added -s, -l
grep: added -r, fixed -h
watch: make it exec child like standard one does
       (was totally incompatible)
runit: added applets: svlogd, runsv[dir], sv
       now it is usable
minor bugfixes to: login, dd, umount, chmod, chown, ln

RFC for deprecation:

* e2fsprogs are not maintained and generally shouldn't be
  in bbox in my opinion. Also they are very large:
  text+data text+rodata    rwdata       bss filename
      79939       79779       160       504 e2fsprogs/e2fsck.o
      10261       10245        16      1092 e2fsprogs/mke2fs.o
       7319        7319         0       348 e2fsprogs/fsck.o
       6226        6210        16       142 e2fsprogs/tune2fs.o
  (full bbox is ~900k. e2fsprogs are ~10% of that)
  Maybe lsattr/chattr can stay...
* Are we sure our hdparm doesn't suffer from the
  bugs? lack of new features?
  text+data text+rodata    rwdata       bss filename
      21744       21744         0       852 miscutils/hdparm.o

To do:

* httpd lacks indexing, this makes it sort of not very useful
  for "poor man's file server" role. I still use Apache...
* telnetd probably needs the same love as httpd (-i,-f)
* Examples for "life without /sbin/init". I keep
  saying that it is possible and even saner that with /sbin/init,
  but probably example would be more explanatory.
* Networking: ipv6-ization still isn't even started.
  Appalling number of "%u.%u.%u.%u" in the tree.
* Shell: we still BADLY need a decent, bash-like shell.
  NOFORK feature is dependent on this.
* NOMMU: need audit of unnecessary fork() calls.
* Desktop compatibility (what is missing):
  I fixed the most critical stuff by now, i think.
  I guess more bugs/incompats will be found
  by other people trying to use bbox on desktops.
* New applets: hose/faucet? ssh[d]? :)
--
vda