What's the Busybox default shell?

Question

My guess is this defaults to Bash, but would like to know for sure.

Thanks.

score 33 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 22 '20 at 18:49

33

The default shell in BusyBox is ash.

edited Jul 22 '20 at 18:49

goetzc

answered Mar 01 '11 at 23:38

Steven

To be more precise, it is the `dash` derivative of `ash`as per busybox shell source code at https://web.archive.org/web/20210119235542/https://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/shell/ash.c – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers Apr 06 '21 at 10:55
1

@JeroenWiertPluimers That is misleading. Although `busybox ash` was originally based on an ancient (2001) version of `dash` (mostly, since historical `ash` was not portable and is not maintained), modern `dash` is significantly different than `busybox ash` (mostly: `dash` has removed a lot of features). Slackware also maintains a distant fork of `ash`. – o11c Jul 02 '22 at 18:35

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 23:19

It's not bash, is a one small file replacement for many small linux/unix utilities like sh and the files utilities

It's written with minimum size in mind and with embedded systems as target where space is a precious resource.

2 Answers2