The following page makes claims about other software and standards, these are based at .
This page exists to explain what is meant by POSIX specific tools and by kernel specific tools. When some of the packages on this website claim to depend on POSIX specific tools or kernel specific tools, the following is meant:
POSIX utilities are standardized and behave the same across different systems, e.g. Linux based systems or BSDs.
Kernel specific utilities are not standardized by POSIX and are thus implemented differently across Linux and the BSDs. Examples are: mount, ifconfig, hostname, etc.
There is an effort to standardize the Linux Kernel specific tools by the Linux Standard Base (LSB). Following is a list of the ready to use implementations:
BusyBox and toybox both provide all in one solutions and are not to mix with any of the other implementations. If neither BusyBox nor toybox are chosen, two of the others always have to be combined. Unfortunately, both the POSIX and the LSB standard are not closely followed. Sometimes a superset is implemented, sometimes a subset. That said, any of the following combinations should work: Chose one of:
A Linux distribution is a working combination of the Linux Kernel, the POSIX and Kernel specific tools and much more. If you are using an existing distribution like gentoo linux, alpine Linux or debian, you already have one of the proper combinations above, only lacking linux-supplements.
The BSD systems like FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD or OpenBSD are, unlike Linux, each a compination of a Kernel, POSIX and Kernel specific utilites (and much more). For that reason it is not necessary to decide which the implementation of these to use. All BSD's allready contain a suitable implementation of both types of utilities.