what does the -s option in busybox --install [-s] [DIR] stand for?

Question

When typing busybox --help, one of the usages is: busybox --install [-s] [DIR]. What does the -s option stand for?

Answer 1

This is documented in the INSTALL file in the source code:

Installing busybox consists of creating symlinks (or hardlinks) to the busybox binary for each applet enabled in busybox, and making sure these symlinks are in the shell's command $PATH. [...] You can also configure a standalone install capability into the busybox base applet, and then install such links at runtime with one of "busybox --install" (for hardlinks) or "busybox --install -s" (for symlinks).

So the --install creates links for the applets supported by that build of buxybox in the target directory, and -s has it make symbolic links.

% busybox --install -s foo
% ll foo    
total 8.0K
lrwxrwxrwx 1 muru muru   16 Nov 30 13:19  acpid -> /usr/bin/busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 muru muru   16 Nov 30 13:19  addgroup -> /usr/bin/busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 muru muru   16 Nov 30 13:19  adduser -> /usr/bin/busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 muru muru   16 Nov 30 13:19  adjtimex -> /usr/bin/busybox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 muru muru   16 Nov 30 13:19  ar -> /usr/bin/busybox
...