Read about the busybox here: http://www.busybox.net/about.html

Howto

By default you already have a working busybox 0.6, which is the default Linksys one. There is a newer version (1.0) available - however, there is no need to jump on the band wagon. In short: 1.0 brings some new utils. But clashes with other, better packages.

The reason is not that 1.0 is not great, but that there are better versions of the same utilities in packages like procps and coreutils, so unless you're really pressed for space, I suggest you go with them (e.g. top is way better in procps).

Take a look below, which lists all applets, and if there is a util or two in 1.0 you want, you have a second option: ipkg install busybox-base, which only installs busybox 1.0 without the conflicting links. Then you can manually add the link(s) you want. Note that the default busybox installation(0.60) is located in /bin/busybox and the new one is in /opt/bin/busybox.

You can test the available commands like this:
"/opt/bin/busybox the_command_you_want"
If your command is available, then you only have to make a symbolic link like this:
"ln -s /opt/bin/busybox /opt/sbin/the_command_you_want"
choosing /opt/bin or /opt/sbin in the second argument depending on the command.

Version history

Standard Linksys:
BusyBox v0.60.4 (2004.05.28-07:40+0000) multi-call binary
slingbox version (needed for unslung install):
BusyBox v1.00 (2005.09.04-09:26+0000) multi-call binary
IPKG package:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (2006.06.21-00:00+0000) multi-call binary

Todo: how does 1.00 differ from the original 0.60.4 ? Answer:

"...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."

"This is a list of the all the available commands in BusyBox (v1.00) with complete usage information and examples of how to use each app."

Files

The following 'files' are part of the busybox installation. They are spread across the folders /opt/bin and /opt/sbin. Actually, you'll find that those are all sym links. The file busybox is the only executable.

  [
  ash
  basename
  bunzip2
  busybox
  bzcat
  cat
  chgrp
  chmod
  chown
  chroot
  chvt
  clear
  cmp
  cp
  cut
  date
  dd
  deallocvt
  df
  dirname
  dmesg
  du
  echo
  egrep
  env
  expr
  false
  fgrep
  find
  free
  grep
  gunzip
  gzip
  head
  hexdump
  hostname
  id
  ifconfig
  insmod
  install
  kill
  killall
  klogd
  ln
  logger
  ls
  lsmod
  md5sum
  mkdir
  mknod
  mktemp
  modprobe
  more
  mount
  mv
  nc
  netstat
  openvt
  pidof
  ping
  pivot_root
  ps
  pwd
  readlink
  reboot
  reset
  rm
  rmdir
  rmmod
  route
  sed
  sh
  sleep
  sort
  strings
  swapoff
  swapon
  sync
  syslogd
  tail
  tar
  tee
  test
  time
  top
  touch
  tr
  true
  tty
  umount
  uname
  uniq
  unzip
  uptime
  usleep
  vi
  wc
  wget
  which
  whoami
  xargs
  yes
  zcat

Slingbox

The only reason for slingbox is the installation of unslung. It shouldn't be used for anything else.