Debian Package a Day ([info]debaday) wrote,
@ 2004-09-15 08:00:00
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sash - Stand-alone shell
sash serves as an interactive substitute for /bin/sh, for use when /bin/sh is unusable. It's statically linked, and includes many standard utilities as builtins (type "help" at the prompt for a reference list). If you've installed sash before rendering your system unbootable, and you have some knowledge of how your system is supposed to work, you might be able to repair your system using init=/bin/sash at the boot prompt.

Some people also prefer to have sash available as the shell for a root account (perhaps an under an alternate name such as sashroot) Configuration support is included for people who want this.

Note: sash is not intended to serve as /bin/sh, and has few of the interactive features present in bash or ksh. It's designed to be simple and robust, for people who need to do emergency repair work on a system.

Also note: sash doesn't include a built-in fsck -- fsck is too big and complicated. If you need fsck, you'll have to get at least one partition or disk working well enough to run fsck. More generally, sash is but one tool of many (backups, backup recovery tools, emergency boot disks or partitions, spare parts, testing of disaster plans, etc.) to help you recover a damaged system.

Another sage recommendation from Robert Waldner:
sash saved my a** more than times than I'll ever admit to publically. Sometimes for reasons of not-thinking, sometimes after, in the Chinese sense, "interesting" hardware trouble. If you've ever typoed `rm -f` in the wrong terminal you definitely want it.

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[info]arricc
2004-09-15 08:51 am UTC (link)
So how is this better than bash?

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[info]rbarclay
2004-09-15 09:40 am UTC (link)
Read the very first sentence of the description.
:) waldner@beren->~ $ ldd /bin/bash
        libncurses.so.5 => /lib/libncurses.so.5 (0x40025000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40064000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40067000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

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[info]miguelitof
2004-09-15 12:43 pm UTC (link)
It is not trying to be better than bash. It's not a replacement for bash. It's a utility to use in case bash won't work (say, you lose /etc or /lib). It is basically a stand-alone shell that can be used in case most everything goes a little caca.

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Error in text. Maybe in script?
(Anonymous)
2004-09-15 01:09 pm UTC (link)
Another sage recommendation from Robert Waldner:

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Re: Error in text. Maybe in script?
[info]ydna
2004-09-15 01:12 pm UTC (link)
Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the word sage?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
Re: Error in text. Maybe in script?
[info]rbarclay
2004-09-15 01:17 pm UTC (link)
Or he only thought of the more botanical meaning (like in "sage, rosemary and thyme").

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Re: Error in text. Maybe in script?
(Anonymous)
2004-09-18 12:50 am UTC (link)
Or perhaps he was thinking "sa(r)ge"

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mightyquinn
2004-09-15 11:27 pm UTC (link)
I wish I had known about this several years ago.

(Reply to this)
busybox
(Anonymous)
2004-09-21 08:18 am UTC (link)
get the busybox package, run 'make allyesconfig', and then run 'make menuconfig' to enable static linking, and maybe tweak the config a bit. Build it.

You get a shell with almost a complete system inside, and all in the size of 1.3MB or so (i386). "all" does not include strace and tcpdump, but almost everything else, including very simple rpm, dpkg, dhcp client, dhcp server, httpd, telnetd, telnet, strings, grep, awk, sed, top and vi. And many more.

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