Future of busybox
We have a couple of issues that are about:
- symmetrically replace busybox mdev (#52 (closed))
- get rid of busybox ash (#39)
Both issues seems to have a long term goal of completely getting rid of busybox, or parts of it. I think it would be good if we could make a plan of what we really want to do with busybox, in the long term.
-
Do we want to get rid of it completely? (busybox+musl has sort of been the definition of Alpine since the early beginnings)We will keep busybox. -
Do we want split busybox into multiple pieces? Eg. have a separate package for busybox mdev, busybox ash? If so how? Do we build ash and mdev as separate binaries for separate packages? Do we build every applet as a separate binary in its own package? Or do we simply move some of the applets to busybox-extra? Do want to putting an axe to that blob to get a couple of nice and square goo cubes that stack more easily? -
Do we want remove parts of busybox? If so which parts? (For example, we could remove stuff that does not make sense in a container, like modprobe, mount etc) -
Do we want to manage all the symlinks in separate package (like having /bin/sh in its own package as provider for /bin/sh
)? -
Do we want make it possible to uninstall busybox? (I believe it is not possible currently due toWe don't mind people uninstalling busybox, but we will not support it if it takes too much work.provides=/bin/sh
) or are we happy to define busybox as an uninstallable dependency, saying alpine is busybox.
Do we have other options?
EDIT: make bullet list so we see what is handled