BusyBox

Alpine Linux is built around musl libc and busybox. To minimize footprint, Alpine Linux comes with BusyBox by default. BusyBox provides replacements for most of the utilities usually found in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. Built-in utility programs called as applets share code for many common operations. To list the applets that have been compiled into BusyBox binary, issue the command with no argument as follows: $ busybox

To view options supported by a specific BusyBox applet, say grep, issue the command $ busybox grep -h

Ash shell

Alpine Linux uses Busybox Ash shell for its default shell.

vi

Busybox uses tiny vi, a small 'vi' clone. Refer Busybox vi tutorial for an excellent introduction.

udhcpc

udhcpc is the default DHCP client that comes inbuilt with Busybox.

Cron

Busybox crond is the default cron implementation in Alpine Linux.

acpid

Alpine Linux comes inbuilt with a basic version of acpid as part of BusyBox.

Replacing BusyBox utilities

BusyBox is set up as an endpoint for numerous symlinks that substitute various utilities.The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU counterparts. If you find certain utilities in busybox lacking in features or options, it is easy to replace respective endpoints by their equivalent full-featured utilities.

Shutdown commands

The busybox command equivalent for traditional GNU/Linux systems shutdown commands are as follows:

# reboot # ⇔ shutdown now -r # halt # ⇔ shutdown now -H # poweroff # ⇔ shutdown now -P